Our design culture encompasses the risks and hazards during construction and operational phases. Our expertise includes preparing and independently assessing safety cases and evaluating risks using proven analytical techniques as well as practical experience. We carry out assessments to identify operator training needs, to define the core competence requirements of safety-critical activities, and to understand staffing requirements. We draw on our worldwide knowledge in operational rail and transport projects to deliver a reliable product of maximum value for our customers.
Tunnel ventilation and fire safety
Mott MacDonald has been a leader in the fields of tunnel ventilation and fire safety since the 1920’s. Our leading edge skills in aerodynamic and thermodynamic analysis address the issues not only relevant to new systems, but to the refurbishment and regeneration of existing systems in the normal, congested and emergency operations modes.
Of course it is essential to reduce the incidence of fire and its associated life and property damage. The complex geometry of metro stations and tunnels demands rigorous evaluation of safety factors. We've pioneered computer technology to provide state-of-the-art simulation, animation and virtual reality of metro-related safety issues. Through the use of computational fluid dynamics we simulate fire and smoke movements and the interface between tunnels, stations and terminal facilities leading to emergency egress analysis. We've undertaken many safety and evacuation studies and our capability has been enhanced by our in-house advanced animation program, STEPS, which simulates the movement of during emergency and and normal scenarios.
Risk and safety management
We specialise in assessing and managing risk and safety in a broad range of engineering fields. We fully endorse the underlying philosophy of risk management by identifying, assessing, planning for and managing potential risk areas within projects.
From the outset we seek to identify potential risks as well as opportunities that could occur on a metro throughout its life, from the initial concept and planning stages, through to design, construction and operation. The costs associated with eliminating hazards and threats at source are trivial compared with those necessary to resolve a major incident; our team’s intimate knowledge of how metros are constructed and how they operate will be invaluable in ensuring the optimum solutions are developed.
We maintain expertise in the use of analytical and computer based tools for risk assessment which has been applied over a large range of studies. Projects to date have included hazard identification and assessment, HAZOPs, fault and event tree analyses, risk studies, safety cases, and reliability and consequence evaluations.