Improving safety in Greek road tunnels

Tunnels are regarded as one of the most important infrastructures in Europe, as they may improve the connection of regions and aid economic development through facilitating the transportation of people and goods. In order to achieve a minimum acceptable level of safety, the EC issued Directive 2004/54/EC, which describes specific safety measures that have to be taken for all road tunnels in the trans-European road network. In parallel, there are several qualitative or quantitative methods for measuring road tunnel safety, while the method that seems to be the most accepted by administrative authorities for quantitative risk analysis is the OECD/PIARC QRA Model (QRAM), which has been developed by INERIS, WS-Atkins and the Institute for Risk Research. QRAM is based on engineering software that aids quantitatively assessment of the societal risk due to transporting goods and dangerous goods with Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) through road tunnels. The aim of this paper is to expose the effectiveness of the measures imposed by the EC in Greek road tunnels. A typical road tunnel, as designed and implemented after Directive 2004/54/EC, is compared to the same tunnel as if it was developed before the Directive was put into action. The comparison is made on the basis of the societal risk existing in the two cases. The conclusion of the paper, based on the outcome of the risk analysis with the QRAM method, is that the safety of Greek Tunnels is significantly improved due to the implementation of the measures imposed by the EC Directive 2004/54/EC

Quantitative operational risk analysis for dangerous goods transportation through cut and cover road tunnels

This paper deals with risk analysis in cut and cover road tunnels. The research question explored is whether dividing a long tunnel into shorter sections would affect the safety when dangerous goods are allowed through the tunnel. In order to conclude the OECD/PIARC QRA Model quantitative risk analysis tool was used. Initial findings reveal that there is no evidence of increase in safety from dividing a long urban cut and cover tunnel in smaller parts with open air areas in between. However, the overall safety depends to a great extend on the specific characteristics of each particular case, since there are many factors that influence the overall safety of road tunnels. Therefore it is concluded that risk analysis using systemic approach is crucial for any road tunnel