Quantitative Risk Assessment Approaches for New Vehicle Propulsion Energy Carriers in Road Tunnels

In the past 10-15 years comprehensive risk models have been established as a common and efficient tool to systematically investigate the influence of hazards on tunnel safety and to quantify and assess their effects in terms of risk. These models investigate the potentially hazardous phenomena and their complex interaction effects in a tunnel on a scientific basis. These proven methods are applicable to also investigate and quantify the influence of new hazards, if complemented by suitable additional [...]

Limiting Nuisance for Traffic during the Refurbishment of the Heinenoord Tunnel in the Netherlands - In Search of Resilience Possibilities

The Heinenoord Tunnel in The Netherlands crosses the Oude Maas River as part of the A29 highway, and connects the Hoeksche Waard Island with the city of Rotterdam. The tunnel has an average daily traffic load of 92,100 vehicles. It is very important for both local and national traffic, not least because of the Rotterdam Seaport. The tunnel was opened in 1969. After more than 50 years of operation, the structure is still sound, but a full refurbishment of the equipment is required, because it is [...]

Tunnel Design for Improving the Environmental Conditions in the Surrounding Area

Society has an ever-growing awareness of the environmental conditions that should be preserved during any actions and the need to establish measures aimed at reducing energy consumption and climate change during our various daily activities This means greater awareness of the design and operation of road tunnels. Despite a lack of awareness of this, most tunnels in themselves already actually enhance the sustainability of public transport. This presentation outlines several potential benefits of [...]

Towards more Sustainable Road Tunnels in Australia and New Zealand: Recommendations for Practitioners

Sustainability is important for many reasons, but fundamentally it is not about what we should do for the environment, it is something we must do to preserve our quality of life and of all life on the planet. It is particularly important for road tunnels because compared to a road at grade, a road tunnel has a substantially larger carbon footprint due to the significant efforts required to build a road tunnel, and the nonstop operation of its systems through its life cycle. In Australia and New [...]

Tunnels of the future. 2030 objective

A road tunnel project can be approached from a prescriptive point of view, i.e. a tunnel is safe if its design is based on valid regulations. This approach specifies certain safety features and actions that should be included in the projects and their different processes without considering the individual characteristics of each tunnel. However, it is also possible to take a risk-based approach, i.e. a tunnel is safe if it complies with predefined risk criteria.