Skip to main content

Improving safety at Mersey Tunnel

Consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff will upgrade the fire fighting systems in the Mersey Tunnel in the UK. This move will improve the tunnel’s safety measures and bring it into line with stringent new requirements being introduced right across Europe. Under the terms of the deal international consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff has a contract to help Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority upgrade and modernise fire fighting systems in the Kingsway tunnels, which are two of the longest road tunnels in the UK. The
April 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Consultant 4983 Parsons Brinckerhoff will upgrade the fire fighting systems in the Mersey Tunnel in the UK. This move will improve the tunnel’s safety measures and bring it into line with stringent new requirements being introduced right across Europe. Under the terms of the deal international consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff has a contract to help Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority upgrade and modernise fire fighting systems in the Kingsway tunnels, which are two of the longest road tunnels in the UK. The twin bore tunnels run 2.25km between Liverpool and Wallasey under the River Mersey and were originally built in the 1970s. The fire fighting infrastructure is now in need of upgrade to meet European regulations, which were introduced following fatalities in serious tunnel fires in Austria and Switzerland. Parsons Brinckerhoff is evaluating the existing fire fighting facilities in the twin tunnels and will design new systems along with nearly 100 fire hydrant points along the routes. The company has assisted the client in its selection of a main contractor and will now provide management and inspection services throughout the contractor’s installation contract. The demanding programme has seen Parsons Brinckerhoff leading feasibility, detailed design and programme management in close coordination with the client and other stakeholders including the emergency services. Final design proposals cover the tunnels and approach highways and include an installation approach to minimise disruption. Maintaining the integrity of the fire fighting protection on this busy commuter route during the works is essential and passenger safety has been a major priority

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Washington metro gets Cubic ticketing
    July 29, 2014
    Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded a contract for more than US$8 million to convert existing paper magnetic fare card vending machines to sales and reload devices for SmarTrip, the contactless smart card for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The project is part of the agency’s plan to eliminate paper ticketing from its fare system to all contactless media by spring 2016. Cubic will upgrade more than 500 machines with hardware kits including smart card readers and re
  • German authorities use CB-radio message to reduce accidents in roadworks
    April 8, 2014
    Citizen Band radio is proving useful to prevent accidents in Germany’s roadworks. In common with other German Länder (federal regions) with large volumes of commercial vehicles using their trunk road networks, Bavaria had been experiencing high levels of road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving heavy trucks in the vicinity of minor motorway maintenance sites. This was despite the extensive visual warning regulations published in the German federal road safety audit (RSA) guidelines for the protection of site
  • Taking the long view of ITS
    March 24, 2015
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of
  • Transit takes on demanding role
    April 2, 2021
    Community transport - or paratransit - has historically formed the basis of demand-responsive operations. But with new routing technologies, David Crawford sees wider potential