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14 reliability of tunnel technical systems meets the design crite- eight partners from five European countries (13, 14). It was ria. During the operation and maintenance of the tunnel it is coordinated by the Institute for Structural Analysis (Austria) important to use methods that assess if the actual safety per- and the goal was to develop a simulator that helps train fire formance of the tunnel meets the tunnel safety criteria. Also fighters in the efficient mitigation of tunnel fires, using a important are methods that monitor possible changes in the computer-generated virtual environment. This is a low-cost use of the tunnel, changes in technical tunnel systems, and and environmentally friendly alternative to real fire fighting changes in the tunnel operation. exercises that involve burning fuel in a disused tunnel. The sim- ulator can also be used to test the fire safety of a tunnel and the influence of mitigating measures (ventilation, fire suppression, SIRTAKI etc.) on its fire safety level. The end users will include tunnel operators, designers, and government regulatory authorities. SIRTAKI stands for Safety Improvement in Road & Rail Tunnels using an Advanced Intensive decision support sys- tem. The strategic goal of the project was the development SAFE TUNNEL and assessment of an advanced decision support system that specifically tackles safety issues in tunnel management, as The main objective of this project is to reduce the number of well as emergency handling and integration within the over- accidents inside road tunnels through "preventive" safety all network management. measures. The primary focus is to achieve a dramatic reduc- tion of "fire accidents," which, although rare, are the most SIRTAKI aims to improve mobility management by the serious safety risks inside tunnels. The primary goal is to development of advanced surveillance and control systems introduce measures capable of reducing the number of HGV focused on safety in road and railways tunnels that can be coor- incidents in the Frejus Tunnel by 40% within 10 years, with dinated within urban and interurban traffic management sys- the additional objective of cutting the frequency of fires in tems. This in turn can perform management of large-scale tunnels by 50% within 6 years. events and crises, which can be supported by Inference Module and Knowledge Basis tools based on advanced modeling and The basic ideas are: simulation of emergency situations. The introduction of this system can reduce risks and enable the management of emer- · To increase awareness of vehicle status to avoid tunnel gency situations in roads and railways, making the transport access to those vehicles with detected or imminent chain more efficient and safe for both passengers and freight. anomalies. · To achieve tele-control surveillance of vehicle speed SIRTAKI provides innovations in four main aspects of inside the tunnel. tunnel management and emergency situations: (1) prevention of conflicting situations and emergencies, (2) support for tun- Specific objectives are: nel managers, (3) integrated management within the transport network, and (4) improvements to sensors and surveillance · Development of two demonstrator trucks equipped with equipment. preventive diagnosis devices, tele-control, and human machine interface (HMI) facilities. The benefits from SIRTAKI project can be summarized as · Development of the control center to manage Safe follows (12): Tunnel applications. · Analysis of the needs of tunnel operators for managing · Improving safety in tunnels: reducing the risk of accidents safety-related operations. in tunnels and the severity of those that do take place. · Transmission of data by a public telecom network. · Reducing stress in operators and citizens who are on the · Demonstrations of the Safe Tunnel concepts through frontlines of an emergency situation. field tests in Frejus Tunnel. · Managing tunnels and the rest of the transport network · Evaluation includes technical and impact analysis, user in a coordinated way and, therefore, improving the per- acceptance estimation, socioeconomic impact estima- formance of the available transport infrastructures. tion, and cost­benefits analysis. · Using the integrated management of not only emergen- · Recommendations for standards. cies, but also other special situations such as congestion, maintenance works, and so forth. Methodology: · Reducing the total time of emergency analysis by 15%. · Develop or adapt existing on-board vehicle sensors to monitor primary vehicle functions to forecast and detect VIRTUAL FIRES anomalies in on-board devices. This information will be transmitted to the control center and managed by the Initiated in November 2001, the Virtual Real Time Emergency tunnel operator through a public telecommunications Simulator, or "Virtual Fires," was a three-year project with network.