ABSTRACT
The Legislative Decree n.264/06 ‘Implementation of Directive 2004/54/EC on safety in tunnels of the trans-European road network’, defines a set of minimum safety requirements for tunnels and requires that a quantitative risk analysis is carried out according to the IRAM methodology (Italian Risk Analysis Method) defined by the same decree, when the transportation of dangerous goods through a tunnel is allowed, for tunnels with special characteristics or if compensative measures need to be adopted where certain structural requirements can only be satisfied through technical solutions which either cannot be achieved or can be achieved only at disproportionate cost. The legislator has in fact intended to overcome the DG-QRAM (Dangerous Goods – Quantitative Risk Analysis Method) method that, as declared by the PIARC, is applicable only when it is necessary to assess the level of risk in a tunnel determined by the transit of dangerous goods. The IRAM methodology, probabilistic in the formulation and quantitative in the determinations, has already been applied in the Safety documentation of more than 300 tunnels.
