Regulatory technical provisions

Technical standards

For State-owned tunnels longer than 300 m, the French Technical Directive(published in 2000) specifies, topic by topic, the technical provisions to be taken into account (civil engineering provisions, safety equipment, fire behaviour of specific elements, operation, etc.)

It only applies to new structures and there is no mandatory text for existing structures. Furthermore, there is no mandatory technical directive for tunnels longer than 300 m that are managed by local authorities.

In practice however, the 2000 Technical Directive remains the technical reference for defining the level of safety in all cases.

For new or existing structures longer than 500 m on the Trans-European transport network (TEN-T), the minimum requirements of the European Directive are also applicable, although they are for the most part less restrictive than the French regulations in force. The main difference between the European and French directives lies in the installation of emergency call stations every 150 m in new structures, instead of every 200 m as specified in the French Technical Directive published in 2000.

Risk analyses

Like previous French legislation, the European Directive requires a specific hazard investigation to be carried out when compiling the safety documentation. The directive requires a detailed and well-defined risk analysis methodology to be used at national level. In France, the methodology applied prior to the European Directive has been retained and consists of:

• Risk analysis related to the transport of dangerous goods, following the methodology described in booklet 3 of CETU’s Guide on Safety Documentation. This is based on the quantitative risk assessment model developed jointly by the OECD and PIARC.

• Specific hazard investigations for all other aspects (see section 4 of the same guide).