Title
Incident sensing and fire safety in Heysen Tunnels
Date
21st August 2025, 5 pm AEST
Organiser
ATS https://www.ats.org.au/
URL
https://www.australiantunnellingsociety.org/incident-sensing-and-fire-safety-in-heysen-tunnels
Description
Join Matthew Taylor and Conrad Stacey as they address questions from the ATS Tunnel Systems, Operations, and Maintenance Group, focusing on the surety of Fixed Fire-Fighting System (FFFS) activation in the Heysen Tunnels.
Given that the Heysen Tunnels Safety Upgrade and Refurbishment Project was brownfield exercise with unique challenges, South Australia's DIT recognised that a bespoke engineering approach was required rather than recycling a prior tunnel design.
This presentation will offer insights into their philosophical approach for brownfield tunnel refurbishment, specifically detailing the innovative design of the flame-sensing camera supervision and explaining the absence of (traditional) linear heat detectors in the Heysen Tunnels.
While the misting system installation was a significant undertaking in the Heysen Tunnels, that topic was comprehensively covered in the previous ATS seminar in Adelaide back in February 2025 and will not be treated in detail here. This presentation focuses on topics distinct from the paper planned for the Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2025 (ATC2025) in Perth this November.
