ABSTRACT
The serious accidents, which happened in the MontBlanc and Tauern tunnels in 1999 and more recently in the Gotthard Tunnel, have highlighted the intrinsic difficulties of road and goods traffic in tunnels. Most of the countries with tunnels as part of their national infrastructures have established special ‘Task Forces’which have decreed directives and instructions concerning traffic in road and rail tunnels. The safety aspects, particularly related to ventilation, of the Lötschberg rail tunnel project are analysed (35 km long) construction of which began in 1998 and will be completed in 2007.
