Tunnel safety, risk assessment and decision-making

This article gives a brief account of a project which was commissioned by the European Parliament and which has resulted in a report which has been published and is available on the web-site of the European Parliament [Beard, A.N., Cope, D., 2008. Assessment of the Safety of Tunnels. Commissioned by the European Parliament; Report IP/A/STOA/FWC/2005-28/SC22/29. Published in February 2008 on the European Parliament web-site under the rubric ‘Science and Technology Options Assessment’ (STOA)]. The project was funded by a grant from the European Parliament. The author was requested to carry out a study of tunnel safety and make recommendations to be considered for possible application within the European Union. The background to the project was the large number of catastrophic tunnel fires which have taken place in Europe since 1995. Twenty five recommendations are made within the Report the purpose of which is to help to increase tunnel safety in the European Union and, primarily, to help to move towards a common system of tunnel safety decision-making and risk assessment. This article focuses on some aspects of the content. However, it should not be assumed that aspects which are not included here are of lesser importance.