INSIGHT | FIRE SAFETY


FAST HEAT SIGHT


Among the key capabilities needed to improve safe operations in transport tunnels is effective technologies to rapidly spot troublesome heat sources and the possibility of fires.


Speed and sight are vital aspects of fire safety for tunnels, which as long and confined environments can be highly hazardous if not designed for effectively. Key aspects of designing for such include heat and fire detection methods, means of alert to operators and users, evacuation methods and routes with supporting signage, and ready availability and effectiveness of smoke management and firefighting systems, and more. The whole field is vital to safety in underground


environments, perhaps especially so and informs the design and operations of major underground assets used by the public, such as for example transportation tunnels - for road, rail and metros. What is included in the initial construction and then operations for a transport tunnel will often see upgrades and improvements as the field of fire safety advances and technologies improve. Asset owners are seeking effective solutions. Tianjin metro, in China, for instance, was opened in 1984


and has an extension transport network, which since 2006 has seen a long-term programme of major expansion and renovation, including the operator, Tianjin Rail Transit Group, introducing new technologies. Part of the renovation included Integrated Supervisory Control System (ISCS) and fire detection system. The existing fire safety system on Line 1 was enhanced


with a sensor-based heat detection system that also uses laser fibre optics along the tunnel infrastructure to provide real-time continuous temperature monitoring.


The improved fire safety system can quickly spot and, to ‘metre-level’ resolution, spot the location of potential fire events, says the manufacturer Bandweaver, The detection system, it adds, has a smart zoning approach and also considers ‘rate-of-rise’ and ‘deviation’ detection. In system technology terms, it is called fibre optic Linear Heat Detection (LHD) and in this case was based on the company’s FireLaser DTS, employing a 4-channel system, each with a 10km range. Heat detection systems were also the prime focus for


Turin metro, where the technology was deployed across 15km, along multiple 100m-150m long trackways. Thermal challenges can come from the stop-go nature of the transport on the automated transit service, with braking and mechanical stresses, quite apart from power systems at track level. The solution in this case, placed by RAET Srl., involved separate monitoring of platforms, and alarm time was 25 seconds. Also on rail, but in Spain, there is a major link to the


large Madrid-Barajas airport. About a decade ago train operator RENFE had fibre optic LHD systems installed. Back in Italy, but for a major road tunnel - Autostrade


per L’Italia’s 7.8km-long Santa Lucia tunnel - a fibre optic LHD system installed by RAET. Farther north in Italy, in Lombardy, road tunnel upgrades


for Anas, and involving RAET and also SC Automazione, have employed the FireLaser Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) system. Tunnels involved include the Lezzeno, Sant’Antonio and Santo Stefano. The operator wanted improved fire safety closures for upgrades or requiring the costs and challenges of major civil engineering works. Still with roads, but in Turkey, the technological


approach has also served a multitude of longer and wider road tunnels as part of the Northern Marmara toll highway (Kuzey Marmara Otoyulu, or KMO), which bypasses Istanbul. It includes wide four-lane tunnels. In this case, Bandweaver’s FireLaser along with the FireFiber AT detection cable were deployed - installing two cables rather than a single cable due to the tunnel width, which totalled 76km of cable. On a shorter road tunnel, the 500m-long Fort Canning


uni-directional tunnel in Singapore was opened in 2017 and included a fibre optic LHD dual-channel configuration installed, supporting redundancy. The Bandweaver LHD detection system also has


been installed in Norway, in the Storvikskar road tunnel, supplied to the project by Elotec and installed by Mesta. As technology advances the options increase for


Storvikskar road tunnel, Norway.


34 | July 2026


improving fire safety systems in new and existing transport infrastructure, and without necessarily requiring much more, if any, underground civils works.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45