Comparision of road tunnels in Turkey and European Union in respect to tunnel safety

COMPARISION OF ROAD TUNNELS IN TURKEY AND EUROPEANUNION IN RESPECT TO TUNNEL SAFETY(M.Sc. Thesis)Murat Zafer SİNOPLUGAZİ UNIVERSITYINSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYJanuary 2007ABSTRACTTunnels have an important contribution in highways. Surpassing the badgeographical conditions by tunnels supply great advantages in national andinternational transportation. Less accidents happen in tunnels than the openportion of the highways but tunnel accidents can cause more dramaticalconsequences because of being a closed volume, especially in fire accidents.European Union prepared the minimum safety criteria directives in highwaytunnels and validate it in 2004 after the accidents happened in last few years.After validation of the directives among most countries its required that in tenyears the tunnels have to be adequate to the new standards. In the first six yearsthe fifty percent of the tunnels planned to be adequate to the new standards.Regarding to rough geographical structure of Turkey and the abundance ofroad tunnells, it is clear the importance of tunnel safety. The aim of this studyis to compare the safety conditions in tunnels in Europe and Turkey which isalready a member candidate for European Union. By this comparison theprecautions can be discussed for the tunnel safety. In this manner presentconditions of the Turkish highway tunnels are listed and things to are presentedfor supplying the tunnel safety in the Turkish tunnels by studying theappropriateness of Tunnels to the European Union directives.Science Code : 911.1.134Key Words : Tunnels, Safety, Accident, FirePage Number : 103Adviser : Asist. Prof. Dr. M. Kürşat ÇUBUK