Filtern
Dokumenttyp
Sprache
- Englisch (6) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Risikobewertung (3)
- Risk assessment (3)
- Tunnel (3)
- Bridge (2)
- Brücke (2)
- Condition survey (2)
- Deutschland (2)
- Europa (2)
- Europe (2)
- Germany (2)
Institut
The German highway network is facing new challenges in the near future. The structures have to deal with increasing traffic loads, climate change effects and new requirements regarding sustainability while they are getting older and budget cuts can be expected. To guarantee a reliable highway network, it will be vital to adapt and enhance innovative approaches. Current bridge management relies on the results of conventional bridge inspections and thus has certain limitations when it comes to insufficient load bearing capacity and other systematic weaknesses. Therefore, new approaches for real time condition assessment of critical road infrastructure elements are to be developed.
Efficient and widely available transport infrastructure is one of the most important prerequisites for sustainable economic development to meet the demand for mobility. In this context, being able to manage traffic growth forecasts is of particular importance. In Germany, current forecasts indicate a 40% increase in rail and road transport in the country. However, about 60% of bridges (as measured by bridge area) on the national German highway system that are suitable for freight transport were built before 1985. In other transport sectors as well, aging infrastructure is one of the key challenges for the availability and the resilience of European transport infrastructure. Many bridges in the national German highway system are already at their load-bearing limit. Furthermore, required maintenance measures have not been adequately carried out in the past due to limited budgets, leading to overall bridge deterioration. Further challenges for owners and operators of transport infrastructure result from the effects of climate change, associated climate extremes, natural catastrophes, and possible criminal and terrorist threats. To ensure that future infrastructure challenges can be successfully addressed, strategies and solutions must be developed and implemented in a timely manner to enable holistic and sustainable life-cycle management. The concepts of Resilience Management as well as Resilience Engineering are essential building blocks in this process. Resilience is the ability to survive in the face of a complex, uncertain, and ever-changing future. It is a way of thinking about both short-term cycles and long-term trends. Using this concept, owners and operators can reduce the risk of disruption in the face of shocks and stresses. Resilience requires cyclical, proactive, and holistic risk management practices.
Immediate user self-evacuation is crucial in case of fire in road tunnels. This study investigated the effects of information with or without additional virtual reality (VR) behavioural training on self-evacuation during a simulated emergency situation in a road tunnel. Forty-three participants were randomly assigned to three groups with accumulating preventive training: The control group only filled in questionnaires, the informed group additionally read an information brochure on tunnel safety, and the VR training group received an additional behavioural training in a VR tunnel scenario. One week later, during the test session, all participants conducted a drive through a real road tunnel in which they were confronted with a collision of two vehicles and intense smoke. The informed and the behaviourally trained participants evacuated themselves more reliably from the tunnel than participants of the control group. Trained participants showed better and faster behavioural responses than informed only participants. Interestingly, the few participants in the control group who reacted adequately to the scenario were all female. A 1 year follow-up online questionnaire showed a decrease of safety knowledge, but still the trained group had somewhat more safety relevant knowledge than the two other groups. Information and especially VR behavioural training both seem promising to foster adequate self-evacuation during crisis situations in tunnels, although long term beneficial behavioural effects have to be demonstrated. Measures aiming to improve users/ behaviour should take individual difference such as gender into account.
The Federal Highway Network of Germany represents considerable fixed assets. Construction and maintenance activities not only require a high budget, but also influence the traffic infrastructure and, thus, the economy and society as a whole. The present safety of the network has to be ensured under consideration of environmental aspects. At the same time the network owner has to make sure that the civil works are carried out in the most efficient way. Considering the fact that financial resources are restricted, the costs have to be spent in a way to obtain the greatest possible benefit. This task is supported by the application of a comprehensive Asset Management, which is subdivided into operational and controlling tasks respectively. The paper describes the current management procedures.
The field of safety in road tunnels has always been an important issue for operators, owners and the responsible authorities. After the tunnel accidents in 1999 the subject gained however in importance. On European level the Directive 2004/54 EC on "Minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans European Road network" has been published. This guideline has to be implemented into national law by all Member States. According to the guideline all Member States of the European Community shall develop a methodology for risk analyses to be applied in certain cases. For Germany, a standardized methodology for a probabilistic quantitative risk assessment has been worked out.
Improving the security of critical road infrastructure is a major task for owners and operators of tunnels and bridges in the European TEN-T Network (Trans-European Networks of Transport) (European Parliament and Council 1996). Up to now, there has not been a systematic procedure for identifying and assessing critical infrastructure objects and selecting appropriate protection measures. The EC FP7 project SeRoN for the first time presents an innovative methodology in order to support road owners and operators in handling this complex task. This paper describes the methodology and project results in detail by giving an introduction into its practical application.