Summary

In Switzerland, approximately 750,000 people are exposed to harmful or disruptive traffic noise – primarily road noise. Road noise generates annual external costs of around CHF 2 billion, resulting from adverse health effects and a decline in property values. To combat road noise, there is a legal obligation to rehabilitate roads. Road rehabilitation was supposed to have been completed by 2002 but was extended to 2015 (national roads) and 2018 (other roads). In 2021, the Federal Council extended financial support for the cantons indefinitely, thereby defining road rehabilitation as a permanent task. The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) examined whether the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) had implemented key recommendations from 2021 regarding the management, financing, and monitoring of noise abatement measures for roads. 1. Impact-based lump sums introduced The FOEN is providing financial assistance for noise reduction in a transparent and systematic manner as impact-based lump sums, in accordance with the current programme agreement. 2. Risk-based monitoring concept not yet implemented An office-wide risk-oriented supervision concept exists but the FOEN has not yet applied the risk-oriented approach. In particular, a clearly documented risk analysis is lacking. 3. Data collection not yet fully modernised The programme agreement application (PV-App) significantly improves how the programme agreement is created and managed. However, collecting data for cantonal road noise projects still involves a significant amount of manual work. 4. Lack of transparency regarding cantonal relief The process for the planned improvement in transparency regarding cantonal relief decisions is in its initial phase, meaning that at the time of the follow-up audit, no documentation or timetable was available.