Fintraffic road traffic centres operate 26 road and urban tunnels throughout Finland. The safety-critical nature of tunnels differs from that of the rest of the traffic environment, which is why ensuring uniform and safe operating methods is particularly important when working with tunnels. This has been addressed in the development of Fintraffic's road traffic management, and in recent years, for the first time ever a new training and testing method has been developed in Finland for the qualification of professionals working with tunnels. What is tunnel competence? How has the tunnel competence pilot progressed and what are the next steps?
In Finland, the operation of road and urban tunnels and the management of disruptions are of world-class quality thanks to competent personnel, joint operating models covering the whole country and close cooperation between the authorities. The Fintraffic Road Traffic Centre plays a key role in accidents and disruptions, as it assumes command of measures before the authorities arrive. The traffic operators at the Road Traffic Centre carry out tasks such as issuing warnings on traffic disruptions, closing lanes or a tunnel completely from traffic and ensuring that the rescue department can access the accident site smoothly and safely.
- In the future, the operation of main road and urban tunnels will require a separate tunnel competence, which will need to be renewed after a certain amount of years. This ensures the continuity of competence and uniform operating practices. The operating practices apply to the whole of Finland: In addition to the Fintraffic Road Traffic Centres, the Emergency Response Centre and Rescue Department and the police operate in accordance with these. We regularly practice disruption situations together, and educational institutions in the field have also participated in the exercises,” says Mika Jaatinen, Head of Unit, Road Traffic Management at Fintraffic.
Pilot to ensure uniform and high-quality operation in tunnels
Fintraffic's Road Traffic Management focuses on the continuous development of operations, which also includes the tunnel competence testing pilot, which has been worked on over recent years. The pilot launched in 2021 has created an operating model suitable for ensuring the competence of traffic operators using methods modelling the tunnel environment and exercises based on concrete examples of situations.
“The aim of the pilot has been to ensure that the operation of road traffic centres is consistent, complies with instructions and is of high quality at different tunnel sites. The actual competence testing situation has been traffic operator-specific, interactive and educational. This gives us a good idea of how effective the instructions are, the competence of the traffic operator and the individual need for additional and development training,” Jaatinen continues.
Testing of tunnel competence will be introduced at the end of the year
The objectives of the pilot concerning safe operation and uniform guidance were achieved. In the future, the aim is to develop the technical training environment so that operating situations encountered in tunnels could even more seamlessly simulate real situations. Opportunities for this are created, for example, by camera recordings of accidents and dangerous situations, which can be utilised in training situations in the future.
The aim is to introduce tunnel competence testing by the end of 2023. In addition, annual tactical tunnel training will continue to be organised for transport operators to promote the operator's readiness to act in different situations and to help them anticipate events. The operating methods and tools created during the pilot can also be utilised in Fintraffic's other modes of transport in the future, as the operative work has the same elements, whether on the road, in the air, at sea or on rails.
