In Austria a large network of underground infrastructures such as road or rail tunnels, subway tunnels, cavern and tunnels for underground energy supply, underground mining, infrastructures for water supply, infrastructures for communication, underground garages, underground cable cars, etc. exist. Considering the road and railway infrastructure, there are about 164 road tunnels with about 383 km in length and 246 railway tunnels with in total 254 km in length in operation. The disasters in Kaprun, the Mont Blanc and the Tauern tunnel, as well as terrorist attacks such as those in the London and St. Petersburg underground, as well as the mining accident in Lassing gave rise to intensify security efforts in underground structures both during the construction and during the operation phase. The events also highlight the need for a cross-sectoral pooling and the development of skills to handle rescue operations in underground infrastructures.
For this reason, the consortium unites the most important emergency organisations and underground infrastructure operators with existing emergency organisation competences as well as infrastructure safety competencies. In a joint and unique approach, legal framework conditions, requirements and overlaps in underground works are analysed and implemented into a curriculum for a comprehensive education and training program organised by authorities, emergency organisations and operators of underground infrastructures. The curriculum will be developed based on legal frameworks, possible scenarios and affected and/or involved people, equipment and training implications. The training should be carried out by an interdisciplinary expert group and will include theoretical training elements as well as practical training sessions in the underground research center "Zentrum am Berg" run by Montanuniversität Leoben. Further training sequences are also foreseen to be carried out in the underground construction sites as well as in tunnels which will be in operation (for example in the railway tunnel having the cross section of the ÖBB).The interdisciplinary expert group shall support emergency organisations and underground infrastructure operators also in real events.
The curriculum is intended to address both the leadership level of the emergency organisations, the rescue teams themselves, their trainers as well as the staff of construction companies and operators from underground infrastructures. All these target groups have in common that they need experience under real conditions in order to be able to decide and act competently and efficiently. The study further includes the investigation of financing options, the incorporation of relevant stakeholders outside the consortium and the technical equipment for the training centre at “Zentrum am Berg” to prepare the implementation of the education and training program directly following the ETU-ZAB project.
ProjektleiterIn
Univ.-Prof. Dipl. Ing. Dr. Robert Galler
Lehrstuhl für Subsurface Engineering
Montanuniversität Leoben
Adresse Erzherzog-Johann-Straße 3/III, 8700 Leoben
Telefon +43 3842 402 3400
E-Mail robert.galler@unileoben.ac.at
Auflistung der weiteren Projekt- bzw. KooperationspartnerInnen
- Österreichischer Bundesfeuerwehrverband (ÖBFV)
- Bundesministerium für Inneres (BMI)
- Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung, Kommando Landstreitkräfte (BMLV)
- Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA)
- ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG