Brisbane’s Busway Network – Twelve Years of Designing and Operating Safe Tunnels

With a population of just over two million people, the city of Brisbane, Queensland, is one of Australia’s fastest growing cities. Brisbane’s world class Busway (or Bus Rapid Transit) network has become an example of best practice for public transport since the South East Busway opened in 2001. Buses travel in dedicated and congestion-free corridors separated from general traffic to provide a fast, frequent and reliable public transport system. The current operating Busway network includes two underground bus stations, a number of trenched stations, and 16 bi-directional tunnels, with the longest currently operating tunnel being 630 m in length. The system also includes a number of underground bus turn-arounds. More Busway tunnels in the order of several kilometers are planned for Brisbane’s immediate future.
Much of the underground Busway infrastructure includes systems and facilities that would be considered to be best-practice for major urban road tunnels, such as pollution monitoring, longitudinal and semi-transverse ventilation, vehicle and thermal incident detection, protected egress paths, passive fire protection, and fixed fire suppression. Tunnel security, fire safety and air quality along the Busway has been continuously evolving with respect to:
• Design approach.
• Underground infrastructure and systems.
• Busway operations and control.
• Emergency response, fire brigade intervention, and planning.
This paper discusses the evolution of Brisbane’s Busways over a 12 year period, with a focus on tunnel fire safety