COB Wat doet het COB? Vakgebieden Tunnels en veiligheid Tunnelprogramma Overkoepelende activiteiten tunnelprogramma International tunnel activities

Time to maintain

De kortste link is gekopieerd naar uw klembord

Partnering for the preservation of tunnels in Europe

Key issues

For the majority of European countries, the Refurbishment and Renewal of Critical Objects (tunnels and bridges) is high on the political and implementation agenda. In April 2024 the Declaration of Dublin was signed by the GB members to encourage a process of collaboration and common research on these two critical nodes. What are the key issues? 

  • The task is huge and acute. If these critical nodes fail, entire regions and corridors will fail, with major economic and social damage.
  • The available resources are insufficient. Not only in terms of finances, but also available capacities at both clients and contractors. The feasibility of the task must be more effective and smarter.
  • The costs for management and maintenance are significantly higher after renovation and existing budgets and organizations are not set up for this.
  • Actual residual life is unknown in many aspects; unexpected failure is lurking.
  • The social requirements (cyber security, sustainability, new fuels) make the manager uncertain: is my infrastructure object future proof after renovation?

Steps towards a transnational tunnel programme

Based on the key issues as indicated above, a document is currently under review with CEDR members. This document presents the practical translation of the Declaration of Dublin (for tunnels, not yet for bridges although many of the aspects are applicable for bridges). It has been built from input from national and local tunnel owners/managers from Austria, Belgium-Flanders, CERN (Europe), Denmark, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom in both national workshops and meetings, further detailed in the Invited sessions on the 16th of October 2024 in Antwerp, following the Beyond a tunnel vision conference.

As such, this document represents the third step in a process of building a transnational program for effective knowledge exchange and knowledge development on the challenges of refurbishment and renewal of ageing tunnels in Europe. This process supports the implementation of the Dublin Declaration that was signed on April 16th, 2024 by the CEDR-president on behalf of its members. 

This document will be distributed among the CEDR members in December 2024, discussed in online sessions in February/March 2025, and serve as a basis for a DoRN (Description of Research Needs) development afterwards. Post CEDR MC approval in May 2025, CEDR GB members will be requested to commit the funding to this research programme within CEDR Call 2025 (planned Call launch in September 2025).