Safety design of the long railway tunnels in mountainous Eastern Korea

Abstract

This operation of trains provides a key function for the air movement in an underground system, and heat dissipation from transit vehicles may account of the most heat release to the ventilation and emergency systems. This report describes the optimal fire services and safety provision for the long railway tunnels within the planned lines in eastern mountainous country of the South Korea. The recommendation of the emergency and fire-fighting systems were prepared by the operation of the long-railway tunnels as well as the lessons from the real fires in other countries, and the actual requirement are related to the local practices and overall cost for the project. However, the objective of the tunnel fire-fighting services is to suppress the fire and allow time for passenger evacuation and emergency response to minimize the damages. The optimal fire-extinguish facilities for long railway tunnels were presented for the better safety of the comfortable operations in this mountainous rock tunnels. Designers have to concentrate the optimal solution for tunnel emergency escape like tunnel fire, train accidents, derailment, and etc., and the method to pass through the geologically poor ground and better ventilation system for the convenient train operation have to be solved. Furthermore, in order to sustain the environment around the portal area, designers also try to minimize the excavation to keep the natural beautiful landscapes at the construction site. (A) This paper was presented at Safety in the underground space - Proceedings of the ITA-AITES 2006 World Tunnel Congress and the 32nd ITA General Assembly, Seoul, Korea, 22-27 April 2006. For the covering abstract see ITRD E129148. Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.