ROAD TUNNELS MANUAL

4. OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

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4. Operation and maintenance

Operation and maintenance are clearly an important issue for a PIARC Committee that a few years ago changed its name to the Committee for "Road Tunnel Operations". Operation and maintenance activities can be considered as divided into three main streams of activity: 1. Daily management: this stream includes all activities to monitor the traffic and to cater for an efficient functioning of all equipment during normal operations and in the case of an emergency, to ensure the proper functioning of all structural and electro-mechanical installations. 2. Training of the staff: this is normally a multi-organisation task, considering that normally not only the operator, but also traffic police, fire brigade and other emergency services who cooperate to deliver an acceptable level of safety in road tunnels. It includes: the basic training of the staff, exercises, etc. 3. Continuous improvement of safety: this includes all actions of study and planning aiming at a continuous improvement of safety (emergency planning, feedback of experience from accidents, replacement of tunnel equipment, etc.). Efficient operations and a cooperative environment among different stakeholders in charge of tunnel and emergency management clearly underpin the safety and comfort of users and operators both in normal operations and in the event of an accident Considering the European context, the Directive 2004/54/CE on "Minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the trans-European road network" clearly states that safety is not only related to structures and equipment. In fact the directive identifies a special role for activities related to Operation and Maintenance. In order to successfully and efficiently operate and manage a road tunnel, operational tasks and the responsible body for carrying them out, need to be established in order to ensure that all actions required are handled in a consistent and safe way (Section 4.1). The level of safety provided for tunnel users is highly dependent upon the specific characteristics of the tunnel, but it also depends strongly on operational procedures and the people who are in charge of the tunnel. The people in charge do not necessarily need to belong to the same organisation: players and roles can be quite different. For example, the traffic police are normally in charge of traffic, but the task is sometimes carried out by a road administration, and in some cases several tasks are entrusted to a private company/operator. Moreover, the same task (for example: traffic management) can be performed by many different bodies (operating staff, police, subcontractor), so the relative roles and responsibilities have to be specified as well as recommendations to improve the behaviour of people involved in tunnel operation and their level of cooperation (Section 4.2). In each case the organisation of the operation and coordination with all the different bodies must be dened, by written procedures and protocols that are simple and straightforward, so that they are clearly understood by all parties and are robust under pressure in emergency situations. The organisation of the operation can be quite different from one tunnel to another; consequently it is difficult to define an overall common framework. However, it is convenient to assess for each tunnel or group of tunnels the best-fit organisation to be adopted both during the standard operation and in the event of an emergency situation (Section 4.3). Moreover it is essential to establish standard operating procedures as well as minimum operating conditions and emergency plans. This is in fact a key step in planning the operational response to possible tunnel emergencies for which there need to be appropriate specific responses to various types of incidents (Section 4.4).

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The management and day to day operation, as well as the maintenance of a tunnel, involve high operational costs and funding requirements. In fact tunnels are among the most costly parts of a road network to be operated (in terms of energy requirements, staffing and monitoring). The definition and optimisation of the different cost elements in a tunnel and appropriate recommendations to reduce them have been analysed by the PIARC tunnel committee. The efficient use of energy and the progressive reduction of energy consumption should be considered, with a view to delivering a sustainable operation of the road network (Section 4.5). The final objective is clearly to guarantee an appropriate level of service and quality to the users. The achievement of the objective obviously depends on the nature and overall performance of the facilities and equipment. The performance of the equipment often depends on how this equipment is operated by the tunnel staff in terms of timeliness and appropriateness. Therefore the staff called to perform operational tasks must be well selected when recruited, well trained before starting their tasks and continually throughout their careers (Section 4.6). The safety level or the traffic capacity in a tunnel are influenced by changes characterising the road network and the evolution of the traffic itself. The tunnel operator may occasionally need to make minor or major changes to the system or to the management criteria to cope with these changes. It is therefore necessary to monitor changes and accidents using information and feedback, to continuously and systematically improve tunnel operations. The operator needs to receive feedback from the experience of operation to be used to make choices for the improvements (Section 4.7). Structural elements and the technical equipment need regular maintenance whose goal is to ensure safe driving conditions for the public by keeping the tunnel at its designed safety standard (Section 4.8). General recommendations for maintenance in tunnels are defined as well as the specic features and their facilities. When the tunnel equipment no longer satisfies the needs of the operator, the requirements of legislation or when the nature or the level of traffic changes, it may be necessary to upgrade or refurbish the tunnel. For the refurbishment of an existing tunnel, recommendations mainly concerning measures to facilitate the management of trafc network, equipment reliability and durability and whole life costing are defined (Section 4.9). The present chapter 4 essentially concerns tunnels of medium to long lengths, with medium or heavy traffic volume, located in places where prompt external emergency interventions are possible.These tunnels are operated with a specific organisation, dedicated to one tunnel or a group of tunnels, which are part of the same road network. Section 4.10 presents the specific conditions concerning short tunnels, or very low trafficked tunnels, or scattered tunnels situated in areas with low population densities. Contributors This Chapter was written by Working Group 1 of the C4 committee (2008-2011) in which:
Roberto ARDITI (Italy) authored section 4.0 and coordinated the work; Jean-Claude MARTIN (France) authored sections 4.1 to 4.10; Fathi TARADA (UK) reviewed the full chapter.

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4.1. Operational tasks

Generally speaking tunnels are considered as parts of the road network able to ensure a suitable or even higher level of safety, nevertheless the potential consequences of specific incidents (breakdown, accident or fire) may be far more serious in tunnels than in the open air. Moreover, the tunnels being very often obligatory crossing points and maybe bottlenecks of the network, each total or partial closure can lead to major disturbances of traffic or can oblige users to travel long distances on alternative routes. Because of these reasons, operators and road authorities have to ensure the operational continuity and safety of road tunnels. Therefore, they must guarantee to the users crossing the tunnel a level of service quality and safety complying strictly with regulatory requirements in force. According to national regulations, tunnel operators and traffic police have to manage the traffic in the tunnels (and in the route where the tunnel is located). Specifically, they need to cater for the safety inside the tunnel for users and for people working inside the tunnel (operating staff, sub-contractors, etc.). In several countries, the traffic police are in overall charge of traffic management and traffic patrolling, while the operator is in charge of operational tasks such as maintenance, operation of tunnel equipment, traffic surveillance and traffic assistance. Generally speaking, typical tasks for the operators are:
Traffic surveillance and operation of tunnel equipment

Major tunnels (in terms of length, traffic density and complexity of the tunnel) are usually managed from a Traffic Control Centre. Very often, the Control Centre is equipped with remote surveillance systems (e.g. television closed circuits, automatic incident detection) and can remote control certain equipment (ventilation, signalling, closing the tunnel, etc.).
Technical Patrolling

In certain cases, the operator can also deploy patrols that can provide a direct surveillance of the users by patrolling in the tunnels. These patrols can intervene very rapidly in case of need.
Management of civil engineering works

This means a permanent surveillance of the civil engineering works of the tunnel by conducting regular surveying and inspections. It also means carrying out regular maintenance of facilities such as drainage systems, gutters and all secondary structures (premises inside the tunnel, technical rooms, etc.),
Management of equipment

In major tunnels, the operator deploys several types of equipment that in the operation phase are under his own control. To this purpose tunnels are also equipped with systemsthat allow the operator to monitor the status of equipment. The operator must also cater for the maintenance of equipment fitted in the tunnel. Here again, it is possible to have access to computerised tools for assisting him in performing this task.
Management of emergency situations

Whatever the nature of the accident, whether it is a problem related to traffic (accident, interlinked accidents, fire, etc.) or to equipment (loss of power supply, malfunctioning of data transmission network, etc.), to intervene or to inform/activate the pertinent service/authority is the standard duty of the operator in charge of the surveillance.
Technical and Administrative management

In addition to tasks directly related to the tunnel operation, the operator provides the technical and administrative services supporting the management of the infrastructure and, of course, the personnel. The operator caters for the design of any equipment upgrading, the direction of the works, the investment and operational budgets for the proper functioning of the tunnel. Lastly, the operator also develops statistics and monitors the achievement of its own objectives by preparing periodical reports on the operation of the tunnel/route (financial indicators, traffic indicators, etc.). http://tunnels.piarc.org/en/operation-maintenance/operational-tasks.htm 4 / 14

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The Technical report 05.13.B "Good Practice for the Operation and Maintenance of Road Tunnels" deals with this subject in parts 2 and 4.

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4.2. Players in tunnel operation and their co-operation

The management of the road transport process is a very complex task. It is even more complex if we consider the road transport into a tunnel environment. Part of the complexity is also related to the fact that skills and competencies required for the management of tunnels are scattered among different services. To this purpose, the cooperation of different stakeholders is clearly a vital pre-requisite for a fair and effective cooperation, in order to deliver good traffic and incident management. The coordination is normally performed under the umbrella of local or central authorities that coordinate the process and finally record the result of programmes as approved by inter-organizational committees. The main stakeholders that need to cooperate in this frame are:
The tunnel operator; The operators of different parts of road network who have to be notified in case of tunnel

closure or traffic restrictions, as part of a common traffic management on the route/network;

National and local administrative authorities to whom reports have to be submitted as required

under the regulations;

The owner of the tunnel (if it is not the same as the operator of the tunnel), who also has to be

kept informed;
The public services (fire and rescue services, traffic police, medical services...) with whom

coordinated intervention plans have to be prepared so that they can intervene in a coordinated and efficient manner in response to any types of incidents;
Other sub-contractors (cleaning, maintenance, breakdown services for users, etc.)

The Technical Report 2007R04 "Guide for organizing, recruiting and training road tunnel operating staff" defines the organisational tasks in a more precise manner.

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4.3. Organisation of operations

The operational tasks (operation, maintenance, etc.) can be considered as similar for a wide range of tunnels, even of the internal organisation of entities responsible may be very different depending on the country, and where different tasks can be either be performed by the operator or delivered by other bodies. In some cases, a single organisation can cater for all the personnel required. In other cases, the operational tasks may be shared by several public and private organisations. The tunnel owner or the road administration may for example entrust different public or private organizations to take charge of the tunnel construction and operation as a whole and/or specific operational tasks(e.g. the maintenance tasks can be handed out to contractors). The measures planned for managing incidents may be different, depending on national regulations and also according to local requirements specific to each tunnel. The organization of the operator and the traffic police can consequently be different, depending on the local context. Even though the context varies greatly from one country to another, very generally, the structure of the operation is organised into three principal groups:
The operating staff, in charge of operation management and traffic assistance; The technical staff in charge of the construction and management of the tunnel (civil

engineering and equipment);

Administrative personnel; Emergency rescue services (in a few cases, are also part of the operating staff).

The Technical Report 2007R04 defines in its chapter 4 "Operating staff: tasks and facilities" the organisation of operation in greater detail.

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4.4. Operating instructions, minimum operating conditions, emergency plans

Every tunnel operator produces and updates written procedures (sometimes called "operating instructions") which define the objectives and criteria of possible actions by different internal service providers, which can affect the tunnel or road. All types of operational events need be taken into consideration for the procedures, including routine incidents, serious accidents and emergencies. The'operating instructions' contains the basic actions to be carried out with associated procedures and existing constraints. The operator's staff also need an emergency plan for both intervention after a road accident and technical failure of equipment in the tunnel. This plan usually meets regulatory requirements and includes operational procedures and instructions involving, at minimum, the tunnel operators and the intervention personnel in case of incident or technical failure. The emergency intervention procedures should be coordinated with those applied by emergency and rescue services. The detailed content of this plan could be defined by national instructions or directives specific to each country and needs to be tailored to the technical and organizational framework of the tunnel. The Technical Report 2007R04 defines in its chapter 4 "Operating staff: tasks and facilities" the organisation of operation in greater detail.

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4.5. Operational costs

Experience shows that a kilometre in tunnel is always more costly than a kilometre of the same road outside. In the case of an underground structure, we can find several systems and equipment that are deployed either for ensuring a safe operation under standard operating conditions or for allowing the protection and the evacuation of users and the intervention of rescue services in case of incident, accident or fire. These measures not only represent considerable investment costs but also result in particularly high costs for operation and maintenance. Thereby the role of the operator is to ensure the continuity and the safety of the operation in a context of controlled costs. In all cases, even a high standard of tunnel operation may not allow an optimisation of operational costs, if the design and the construction of the tunnel have undertaken to a low quality level. The operational costs therefore need to be a major concern during the different phases of the project and the work execution, considering that the solution need to be found well before becoming an issue during the operational phase. The operation activity has to be designed at an adequate level in order to ensure that the expected lifecycle of the equipment does not decrease. The lifecycle of equipment in tunnels is normally shorter than in other environments, since the atmosphere in tunnels particularly corrosive. The Technical Report 05.06.B "Road Tunnels: reduction of Operating Costs" is entirely devoted to operating costs and in particular, to reducing them.

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4.6. Staff recruiting, training and exercise

Tasks entrusted to the operating staff are very important in the light of safety and efficiency of the operation. Moreover, the context is evolving, because on the one hand, the operational problems assume greater importance compared to purely technical problems and on the other hand, the operating systems are more and becoming complex. The staff in charge of the operation need therefore to satisfy the following requirements:

They should be well selected through a recruitment process They should be well trained before taking up their functions They need refresher courses throughout their career They should participate in exercises, possibly organised in cooperation with external services.

During recruitment phases, the qualifications required for the future operators must be defined according to the nature of operational tasks. It may be remembered that even if the tasks are similar in all countries, the people responsible for executing them do not necessarily belong to the same kind of organisation in each country. Nevertheless, the skills and aptitudes required should be similar. While designing the staff training (initial or permanent), the following two issues need to be addressed:
What kind of training need to be provided to the operating staff (or, what should be the

obligatory training)?
What criteria are to be applied by the operation manager for validating the quality of the training

and the results obtained? If there are no national rules on the content of training, the operator has to adapt his training programme to the specific characteristics and requirements of his tunnels. The Technical Report 2007R04 "Guide for organizing, recruiting and training road tunnel operating staff" specifies the recruitment and training of personnel in greater detail, chapters 7 "Recruitment of operation staff" and 8 "Training operating staff" . The operator needs to test regularly the efficiency of his personnel and the procedures he has set up. Thereby the operator needs to make sure that his staff are familiar with the different equipment installed in the tunnel and he can thus detect any possible deficiencies in the execution of specific tasks. In addition to internal exercises, the operator and emergency services need to organise jointrescue exercises with the participation of the traffic police, the operator, medical services and the fire and rescue services. The results of each exercise should be analysed. If lessons drawn from an exercise reveal lacunae, the intervention strategies should be reviewed. A new Technical Report on "Good practice for road tunnel Emergency exercises" will be available soon in the PIARC Virtual Library.

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4.7. Feedback from operation and incidents

The collection of data regarding incidents and accidents and their analysis is essential both for the evaluation of the operation criteria and for the assessment of risks in the tunnel. All of this is important with a view to a continuous improvement in tunnel safety. The collected data allow, in particular, the evaluating of the frequency of triggering events. Data also provide a feedback regarding the consequences of events and also the effective role and the effectiveness of safety measures and equipment. They also provide additional information on the real behaviour of tunnel users. The collection and analysis of data regarding incidents and accidents should allow the following two objectives to be achieved:
At a local level (i.e. at the level of each single tunnel): they form an important base for the

definition and evaluation of improvement to be decided by the owner of the tunnel. They are also a decision-making aid for the general improvement of safety in a given road network;
At a national and international level: they form a key basis for the reference framework allowing

authorities to formulate and adapt the general policies related to tunnel safety. In particular, they allow quantifying the magnitude (in terms of frequency and severity) of critical events that can cause a danger to the life of users. They also allow measuring the efficacy of safety installations and in certain cases, comparing the level of safety in a given tunnel with national or international safety data. Lastly, they provide information (national statistics according to the type of tunnel) useful for the analysis of risks relating tunnels in project stage or tunnels under operation that do not yet have an adequate database. The lessons drawn from the operation, particularly during incidents and accidents, should be analysed. In fact if the results of these analyses reveal deficiencies, there is an opportunity to intervene by improving strategies and/or operating instructions. The Technical Report 2009R08 "Tools for road tunnel safety management" defines in detail the conditions for analysing data from incidents and/or accidents in its chapter 3 "Collection and analysis of data on road tunnel incidents" .

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4.8. Maintenance of equipment

Throughout the life of the tunnel, the operator should carry out both the maintenance of civil engineering works and the tunnel equipment. The maintenance of civil engineering structures is not described in this paragraph. The maintenance operations on equipment can be classified into two groups:
The preventive measures that are carried out at fixed intervals with the objective of preserving

the equipment in a good operating condition. Preventive maintenance offers the advantage of preventing, as far as possible, unforeseeable failures and, by the way, it is easy to plan in advance. It can however lead to high costs if the interventions are too frequent: therefore, they need to be optimised suitably.
The corrective actions that are carried out when a system or a part of a system has failed or been

damaged. Corrective maintenance offers the advantage of using a system to the maximum extent of its service life. Its disadvantage however is that it cannot be planned and therefore emergency repairs are normally carried out with a significant surplus cost. It is recommended to use preventive maintenance where possible and for those systems that are not redundant and are related with safety. Preventive maintenance allows the joint planning of different maintenance tasks in the event of every closure of the tunnel to the traffic. Moreover it helps keep the equipment in a good operating condition. It may be noted however that even when preventive maintenance is carried out very well, the operator cannot avoid corrective interventions. Usually the operator's staff do not carry out all maintenance tasks; the operator normally entrusts contractors and several options are consequently available:
It is possible to contract only those maintenance tasks related to a specific technical level. The

operator can thus contract tasks that present no technical complexity (cleaning, washing, ...) or it can contract only very complex tasks (supervision system, radio retransmission equipment, ...)
It is possible to contract all tasks of one or more equipment groups (all ventilation systems, all

remote surveillance installations, etc.). The Technical Report 05.06.B in its chapter 7 "Cost of maintenance ", the Technical report 05.13.B in its chapter 4 "Maintenance and operation" and the Technical Report 2007R04 in its chapter 6 "Organising operating staff", give more complete information on the subject of maintenance.

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4.9. Operation during maintenance and refurbishment works

Maintenance tasks are not very different from one tunnel to another for similar equipment. However, some tunnels have specific features (dense and non-stop traffic, very long diversion route, etc.) that make total or even partial closures of the tunnel very difficult. In this case, the operator may have to maintain a certain operational level, while maintenance interventions are being carried out. This is possible only by deploying special measures that should take into account not only the safety offered to the user but also the safety of the maintenance staff. The Technical report 2008R15 in its chapter 2 "Operation of existing urban road tunnels" defines the conditions for carrying out maintenance when the tunnel is in operation. The same difficulties as those mentioned above are likely to be encountered during a refurbishment of equipment in a tunnel that cannot be closed down easily. With regard to maintenance interventions, this type of works may require several weeks, or even several months to be completed. Consequently, more elaborate (and often costlier) measures have to be planned. The Technical report 05.13.B discusses aspects relating to refurbishment in its chapter 6 "Renovation of tunnels" .

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4.10. Short tunnels and/or very low trafficked tunnels

The recommendations presented in sections 4.1 to 4.9 above are not always relevant (or even difficult to implement) for short tunnels, or very low trafficked tunnels, or scattered tunnels situated in areas with low population densities. For these particular tunnels, it is recommended to carry out for each tunnel (or group of tunnels located on the same road network) a detailed specific analysis taking into account:
geographical and climatic conditions, local or regional resources available in the neighbourhood: authorities, operator, emergency

services, etc.,
economic context, exposure to risk and level of risk.

This analysis will then make it possible to organise and to implement the most suitable operating system, according to the specific conditions of these tunnels.

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