Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development (2013) / Chapter Skim
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4 Health and Safety Underground
4 Health and Safety Underground
Pages 105-124
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, but an understanding by the people who design, operate, use, or benefit from underground infrastructure 105 Underground Engineering Camera-Ready.indd 105 2/6/2013 3:16:47 PM
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From page 106... ...
of the underground is the ability to regulate underground construction and activities to ensure minimum safety. Although various standards exist that govern, principally, fire safety for under ground transportation and building and industrial facilities, there is a need for a more comprehensive approach to safety against all hazards for all types of under ground facilities.
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From page 107... ...
All forms of underground engineering not only must consider what training and safety guidelines are necessary for the smooth functioning of infrastructure in the best of circumstances, but also must anticipate the behavior of underground occupants during both normal and worst-case operation sce narios. Design must be holistic and create an integrated environment that allows people to almost intuitively understand how to remain safe should adverse con ditions arise.
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From page 108... ...
However, although engineers have been suc cessful in reducing many types of risk associated with underground space use, risk in underground infrastructure has not received the same level of regulatory scrutiny as risk associated with surface infrastructure, and the levels of certain risks may not be well understood. Existing codes tend to be prescriptive in nature -- prescribing specific procedures or materials -- but underground space poses different safety challenges that codes intended for surface space were not designed to address.
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Each state in the United States has adopted fire and life safety codes to ensure safety in structures, but the codes do not fully address underground structures. Most states (45)
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Demand for underground space use is growing, and without carefully considered, research-based, national-level guidelines or effective safety standards that account for the underground as part of the larger integrated urban system, local jurisdictions are left to establish their own safety standards that may not be fully informed if appropriate resources and capacities are not available. HAZARDS TO HUMAN HEALTH The next sections discuss hazards to human health associated with occupy ing the underground, focusing on lack of adequate ventilation, smoke from fire, and hazardous materials.
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. Underground structures may Underground Engineering Camera-Ready.indd 111 2/6/2013 3:16:49 PM
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Few studies have documented underground use patterns following terrorist events, but Underground Engineering Camera-Ready.indd 112 2/6/2013 3:16:49 PM
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The physical design of and the number of people pres ent in an occupied space contribute to safety of individuals and the sense of personal safety. Certain types of underground structures, for example pedestrian underpasses, may have a poor reputation with respect to safety, perhaps due to poor lighting or limited occupation, as compared to metro systems where higher levels of security are in place to manage passenger organization (for example, through the use of shorter trains and platform use at night to increase the number of passengers in occupied areas)
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terrorist attacks on the United States, how ever, fundamentally changed the way safety and security are addressed in this country, including the design and operation of underground structures. Prior to 9/11, vandalism and criminal activity were the main concerns for underground security.
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Introduction of human factor engineering to prevent panic and errant behav ior and to guide threat recognition, decision making, and action under stress are called for. New materials and their behaviors for this application must be consid 8 See http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/dva/CRP-SecurityResearch.pdf (accessed June 15, 2011)
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From page 116... ...
9 All tunnels longer than 500 meters belonging to the road network are to meet minimum safety requirements related to organization, roles, and responsibilities of various administrative bodies in charge of tunnel safety, and related to technical standards for tunnel infrastructure, operation, traffic rules, and user information. Approximately 500 tunnels in Europe in operation, under construction, or at the design stage are affected.
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Emergency responders require specific training and practice to use the more complex fire and life safety systems that manage, for example, smoke, fire suppression, access, exiting, and fire notification in the underground. Response Times Fire and medical services are mandated to respond to calls as quickly and safely as possible.
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Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a study to explore practices in sev eral European countries related to tunnel safety, operations, and emergency response. The following are recommendations and some implementation strat egies excerpted from the resulting report (Ernst et al., 2006)
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8. Use Risk-Management Approach to Tunnel Safety Inspection and Maintenance.
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However, emergency responders critically rely on radio communication. When unable to use surface radio communications technology, responders rely on other technologies includ ing radio repeaters and leaky feeder coaxial cable that functions as extended antennae.
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Washington, DC: American Association of State Highway and Transporta tion Officials (AASHTO) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
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1998. Fire and life safety for underground facilities: Present status of fire and life safety principles related to underground facilities.
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2002. Applications of underground structures for the physi cal protection of critical infrastructure.
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In Estimating Behavioral Changes for Transportation Modes After Terrorist Attacks in London, Ma drid, and Tokyo, Final Report, D Von Winterfeldt and F
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