COncrete Railtrack Panels for TUnnel Safety
Co-operative Research Project
Sixth Framework Programme
2-years-project
kickoff meeting
|
CORPTUS COncrete Railtrack Panels for TUnnel Safety Co-operative Research Project
|
|
|
project summary |
akaryon's contribution |
contractors |
kickoff meeting | |
SummaryAfter the European fire catastrophes in the tunnels of Tauern and Mont Blanc in 1999 and in Gotthard in 2001 increasing endeavours were set, to transfer transports of dangerous goods from road to rail. From this aspect new action plans are needed for a critical review of the safety of tunnels.Also for rail passengers it is high time to improve their safety in case of emergencies in tunnels. The public still remembers the catastrophe of 1999 near Salerno, when a train fire in a tunnel caused 4 deaths. In 2001, a derailment and the following fire of a freight train, which transported cars containing dangerous goods in the Howart Street Tunnel in Baltimore City, caused severe environmental damages. The impacts of such catastrophes become even more threatful, when they happen in urban areas, for instance in subway tunnels: 1995 in Baku Metro in Aserbadjan and 1999 in Minsk Metro, tunnel fires caused 289 and 52 fatalities, respectively. The CORPTUS project will focus on the development of a concrete rail track panel system, useable for rail and subway tunnels, which, for the first time, enables trafficable access of conventional road vehicles in emergency cases. Additionally this panel system will support the installation of cable systems for communication and safety and the integration of pressurized water pipelines for producing high pressure water fog for fire brigades. As a further well-targetted side-effect the system will cause significant noise reduction.  The panel system will be designed for broad and easy application: It will be fully compatible with all national European and even international track gauges. It will be easy to install and will be made available as an upgrading element for existing tunnels - according to the White Paper "European transport policy for 2010: time to decide"- as well as it can be installed in new tunnels, e.g. on high-speed rails, as the system will allow speeds up to 250 km/h. Openings in the panel elements will facilitate maintenance works on the track fastenings. For tamping or cleaning of the track basis, an easy straightforward temporary removal of the plates will also be possible.CORPTUS will improve the consortium's SMEs competitiveness by the strength of its transnational co-operation and the European- and even world-wide applicability of the resulting product. CORPTUS supports the recent agreement of the Council from March 28, 2003 for the implementation of the second railway package, including the regulation of safety and the reduction of impacts of accidents and incidents on the Community's railways |
 to website of CORPTUS to website of Risk Assessment Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Alexius Vogel GesmbH, the project coordinator
|
|