Holistic Asset Management and Life Cycle Costs of Road Tunnels

With the growth of urban regions, high property costs and increasing environmental concerns road tunnels have gained increased importance despite their high construction costs. Though relative accident risks in road tunnels per lane kilometre have been almost at the same level compared to plain open roads a small number of severe accidents have led to a general policy of separated tubes per direction for highway tunnels in Europe. As a result the length of tunnels on highways in Austria will almost double from the year 2000 to 2020 with around 7% of the 2.200 km network already being tunnels. The paper presents the findings regarding a standardized life cycle cost model of road tunnels with annual average costs exceeding costs of other road assets by far. Based on this LCC – model it is possible to estimate future costs of all tunnel assets for several decades even at a planning stage. However, the main emphasis of the paper is a new holistic road tunnel asset management approach on element level based on standardized failure type and measure catalogues. The failure type catalogue consists of sketches for an assessment of illustrated and described failure types for single elements (e.g. portal, niches, and drainage) and tunnel blocks with possible causes. Furthermore, approaches and dimensions for a quantitative description of failure extent and severity are provided as well. The standardized measure catalogues consists of representative pictures for all measures with a short description of necessary service items, expected costs per unit and average duration of impact. Measures and failure types are linked based on failure type vs measure matrices allowing fast selection, cost estimation and comparison of investment alternatives. The paper provides the results of standardized life cycle costs of entire tunnel assets as well as a short overview together with examples on developed failure type and measure catalogues. Providing decision makers with the necessary information on full life cycle costs of tunnels and the means for addressing all kinds of failure types in a systematic way may lead to more sustainable approaches in planning, maintenance and operation of road tunnels in the future.

• Record URL:
  • https://proceedings-seoul2015.piarc.org/ressources/files/6/IP0694-Hoffmann-E.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: https://www.piarc.org/en/order-library/25346-en-Proceedings%20of%20the%20XXVth%20World%20Road%20Congress%20-%20Seoul.htm
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of the World Road Association – PIARC.
• Corporate Authors:

  World Road Association (PIARC)

  La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord, Niveau 5
  F-92055 La Defense Cedex,   France 
• Authors:
  • Hoffmann, M
• Conference:
  • 25th World Road Congress
  • Location: Seoul , Korea, South
  • Date: 2015-11-3 to 2015-11-7
• Publication Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 25th World Road Congress - Seoul 2015: Roads and Mobility - Creating New Value from Transport

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asset management; Design; Failure analysis; Highway operations; Life cycle costing; Sustainable transportation; Tunnels; Vehicular tunnels
• Geographic Terms: Austria
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01714061
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9782840604235
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 20 2019 9:00AM