Two thirds of European tunnels scrutinised in the latest round of tests by the Austrian motoring organisation AMTC with its German, Spanish, and Swiss counterparts and independent tunnel experts have been found to have safety deficiencies and inadequate safety standards.
16 European tunnels were examined against a checklist with objective valuation criteria covering the tunnel system, traffic control, opportunities for escape plus fire protection installations. The most important criteria were; no oncoming traffic in the tunnel, a continuous hard shoulder, breakdown bays (every 500m), a continuous footpath, the possibility to reverse and emergency call niches. Most heavily criticised was the Monrepos Tunnel near Saragossa in Spain. It was described as particularly unsatisfactory in the report, published in April. "This tunnel is really not much more than a dark tube," comments test leader Willy Matzke, he concluded, "At Monrepos there are no breakdown bays nor hard shoulders, no safety electronics and no real fire protection installation."
Safety conditions in the Guadarrama tunnel in Spain, the Ganzstein tunnel in south-east Austria and the Lärdal tunnel in Norway also achieved an unsatisfactory rating being described as ‘disquieting’. However safety in the Kaisermühlen tunnel in Austria was described as being very good, the first time in three years of these tests that a tunnel has achieved such a rating.
The safety tests were started after the accidents in the Mont Blanc tunnel in March 1999 which killed 39 people and the Tauern tunnel fire in May the same year in which 12 people died. Over the three years of tests a total of 70 tunnels in 10 countries have been surveyed.
The results of the tunnel tests have already led to a broad public discussion in Austria and a five year programme to improve tunnel safety with $39M being invested additionally in improved safety measures, lighting, ventilation etc. However, the AMTC is calling for more funds, in particular to enable second tubes to be constructed where the demand is greatest. The automobile clubs also want the European Union (EU) to issue a guideline for the safety of tunnels with high traffic volumes to be examined objectively and at regular intervals.
