Introducing a new framework as a response to the existing challenges on road tunnel fire risk assessment

Fire accidents constitute the biggest threats for road tunnels during their operation phase. Therefore, these types of accidents are of primary concern for both policy makers and road operators since tunnels are considered as critical infrastructure systems of the road networks. The main focus of each safety strategy adopted is on reaching an acceptable level of safety of the tunnel for the public. Despite the efforts that established a common framework for the risk analysis of fires involving vehicles carrying dangerous goods, issued with the QRAM software (INERIS, 2021), this is not the case with the risk analysis of fires without the involvement of these type of goods. However, this aspect causes a serious gap on the goal of securing the level of safety of tunnel systems since past accidents indicate that this type of fires can evolve in serious disasters (Kirytopoulos, Mourelatos, Chatzistelios, Ntzeremes and Konstantinidou, 2024). This presentation elaborates on the development of a new risk assessment framework, named “SIREN” in order to address the shortcomings of existing risk-based approaches concerning fire accidents in road tunnels without the involvement of vehicles carrying dangerous goods