{"id":4777,"date":"2021-08-26T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T13:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/?p=4777"},"modified":"2021-09-07T14:57:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T12:57:33","slug":"inspection-of-310-road-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/inspection-of-310-road-tunnels\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspection of 310 road tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 24 March 1999, at around 11 a.m., a refrigerated lorry carrying 9 tonnes of margarine and 12 tonnes of flour began to burn inside the Montblanc tunnel. About 2 kilometres from the Italian entrance, when the smoke was already thick, the driver stops the lorry in the central area of the tunnel, approximately 6 kilometres from the Italian entrance and 6 kilometres from the French entrance. Within seconds, the lorry explodes. Because it\u2019s a bi-directional tunnel, a queue of vehicles forms on both sides of the burning vehicle. Alarms are activated and the tunnel is closed to traffic in both directions, but 25 vehicles with 39 people inside are already stopped or driving towards the burning lorry from the French side. The smoke is heading towards the French entrance. In barely half an hour, the smoke travelled the 6 km distance and exited through the French entrance, partly aided by the mechanical ventilation that was activated by workers on the Italian side.<\/p>\n
Several rescue attempts are made, but all are unsuccessful. The fire lasts for 53 hours. Once the blaze had been put out, firefighters entered the tunnel and, sadly, found 39 victims. All had died in the first stages of the fire due to smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n
Two years later, on 24 October 2001, there was a collision between two lorries inside the Gotthard Tunnel, which links Italy and Switzerland beneath the Alps. A few minutes after the collision, a large fire breaks out and temperatures inside the tunnel exceed 1,000\u00b0C. The fire burns for 20 hours and causes part of the tunnel to collapse. When rescue services enter, they find 11 victims.<\/p>\n
The company has also carried out other work such as risk assessments for 42 tunnels located on the Trans-European Network<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Safety requirements in Spain<\/h4>\n
Following these accidents, the European Commission decided to draft legislation on safety measures in road tunnels for all its Member States. Therefore, on 29 April 2004, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive 2004\/54\/EC on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network.<\/i><\/p>\n
Although this directive applies only to tunnels located on the Trans-European road network, when transposed into Spanish law by Royal Decree 635\/2006, of 26 May, on minimum safety requirements in State road tunnels<\/i>, no distinction was made between tunnels located on the Trans-European Network and other tunnels, in the belief that they should all have a similar level of safety. The royal decree also increases European safety requirements, so that all tunnels currently operating on Spanish roads are affected by the regulation in one way or another.<\/p>\n
In 2016, the Directorate-General for Roads entrusted Ineco with the drafting of the first projects, which included the development of the Tunnel Adaptation Plan as the first assignment. There are a total of 354 tunnels on Spanish roads, of which 41 are on the toll road network and another three belong to the first-generation highways, all of which are managed under concession contracts. The remaining 310 belong to the network managed directly by the Directorate-General for Roads.<\/p>\n
Following an analysis of the equipment of these 310 underground tunnels, it was concluded that 118 already meet the minimum safety requirements set out in the Royal Decree, and therefore the remaining 192 tunnels require attention. Of these, 90 are located on the Trans-European Network and 102 on other state roads.<\/p>\n