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Risk analysis of railway works
In pursuit of our safety goals, Italferr has developed a Risk analysis method, initially borrowed from the nuclear, then the chemical sectors, following the development of a careful benchmarking activity applied to the railway sector.
Risk Analysis, for a railway system, is a Safety Management activity, involving the design itself, aimed towards optimising safety levels for people (passengers, staff and third parties), the cost of implementing appropriate protective measures for reducing the occurrence of and associated damage from potential incident events on the railway system in question.
The entire risk analysis process is conducted by producing deterministic studies to define what phenomena are involved in preparing probabilistic models and assessing the effects of risk factors on exposed persons.
Particular attention is paid to Fire Engineering, undertaken via simulations with fluid-dynamic calculation codes (CFD) to resolve chemical and physical phenomena. The use of such codes aims at assessing risk factors, quantitatively and specifically (concentration of combustion products, thermal radiation, etc.), in order to investigate expected effects, in particular evacuating people in case rolling stock catches fire in a tunnel.
Producing cost-benefit analyses (CBA) is the defining step for assessing whether each additional protection measure identified can be implemented.
The experience gathered by Italferr in the risk analysis sector, in particular in railway tunnels, subsequently came together in the Ministerial Decree of the 28/10/2005 made with the aim of implementing this new methodological approach to the problem of safety in railway tunnels, going from a logic of rigidly predetermined planning standards to that of quantifiable system safety goals and identifying an ideal balance between safety goals to achieve and relevant technical and financial consequences associated with completion of the works involved.
To date, Italferr has prepared Risk Analysis for numerous tunnels on the national railway network, as well as for railway hubs and for certain specifically critical lines. Further innovative projects are currently being developed to assess risks to railway lines exposed to potential dangerous events generated by the surrounding environment (rock walls, water basins).
