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Abstract
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The author would like to issue an additional statement on competing interest, to be read as an addendum to the above article.
The work presented in this paper was initiated after comments from external independent reviewers of the Slussen project published at the beginning of 2015. The review was conducted at the end of the schematic design phase for the CNG bus terminal discussed in the paper. The comments covered many areas, and one recommendation was that the City of Stockholm should be encouraged to derive a safety target to apply to the bus terminal to facilitate risk evaluation. The City of Stockholm awarded this assignment to technical experts already involved in the schematic design of the bus terminal, and asked them to conduct risk analysis as part of the planning process that was included in an environmental impact assessment. The author of the above paper was, at the time, an employee at the relevant technical consultancy. There was no explicit project-specific safety target derived in the project prior to the review. The requirements in the planning and building legislation were general in nature, stating that the built environment and construction works must be located on land that is suited for the purpose, regarding for example the health and safety of people. The responsibility to determine and assess this was borne by the municipality, with limited guidance, recommendations, or quantified criteria regarding risk.
To safeguard against competing interests compromising the work, analyses and/or interpretations presented in the proposal of a safety target, a comprehensive review process was initiated. In addition to internal review according to the consultant's quality control systems and experts within the Slussen project organisation and project stakeholders, careful scrutiny was undertaken by additional third-party reviewers and the authorities having jurisdiction, i.e. the City Planning Office of Stockholm, the Administrative County Board, and the Fire and Rescue Service. After the review was carried out the proposal was accepted by the responsible decision makers in terms of both the City Council of Stockholm and the Public Transport in Stockholm.
Finally, before gaining planning approval, the project plan was submitted to comprehensive public consultation, in which the safety target report was included.
Language: en |