ITA COSUF Working to Improve Tunnel Safety

May was a very busy and successful month for the ITA Committee on Operational Safety of Underground Facilities (COSUF). The new homepage was presented during the General Assembly in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the workshop “Aging Tunnels – Safety in Operation During Refurbishment” was held, and the winner of the COSUF Award 2015 was honored.

The new website – ita-cosuf.org – was developed by COSUF member Arild Petter Sovik and was presented at the beginning of the workshop on May 26. The online appearance of COSUF now is modern, attractive and full with valuable information. Members and visitors will find the site easy to navigate and find information about activities, news, resources and the committee.
    The workshop – held concurrently with the ITA-AITES World Tunnel Congress 2015 – showed case studies, new technologies and new approaches from lecturers all over the world. After a short welcome by the chairman Dr. Roland Leucker, the tunnel-in-tunnel method was presented, as well as tunnel inspection and assessment, the implementation of the EU directive 2004/54 and the Mont Blanc tunnel. The second session covered “Monitoring, Inspection and Assessment” and gave examples of interesting applications in a special field of safety for underground facilities. Research and new products were central topics of the presentations and discussions of the third session. Finally, refurbishment and risks were the main themes of the last session. Detailed information is available on the ITA COSUF homepage.

One of the highlights of the annual ITA COSUF meeting in Dubrovnik was the presentation of the ITA COSUF Award Winner 2015, Karl Fridolf from Sweden. As part of the awards ceremony, he presented his honored thesis on evacuation in rail tunnels. Fridolf explained the aspects of evacuation through smoke, the design of evacuation systems for rail tunnels and gave examples how to achieve this under the given circumstances.

The ITA COSUF Award is granted annually to a student, young professional or researcher less than 35 years old who has recently completed an outstanding research work in theory or practice in the field of operational safety or security of underground facilities. Candidates need not to be ITA COSUF member.