Safety in the III Valico tunnels

摘要

The Genoa-Milan High-Speed Railway Line (III Valico di Giovi) is characterized by the presence of several tunnel sections, including the double-barreled Valico tunnel with a length of 27 km (not including interconnections, making it one of the longest galleries in the national territory), and the Serravalle tunnel with a length of 7 km. In recent years the issue of tunnel safety has been the subject of specific laws, both at the national level, with Ministerial Decree 28.10.2005 on Safety of Railway Tunnels, and at the European level through Council Decision 2008/163/EC of 20 December 2007 on the technical specifications of interoperability relating to Safety of Railway Tunnels in the trans-European conventional rail system and to high-speed referred to as Technical Specifications for Interoperability or TSI. The III Valico di Giovi is part of the European Genoa-Rotterdam corridor and, therefore, falls within the before mentioned TSI introduced following the approval of the final design in 2005. The safety design, based on in-depth analyses carried out by means of fire and exodus models and probabilistic risk analysis, has led to the definition of the functional layout and performance specifications of safety systems, and the development of a final plan that is among the most advanced in Europe from an operational safety point of view.