New Zealand road tunnels will be made safer following inspections prompted by fatal tunnel fires in Europe.
"All our significant tunnels were investigated at the same time and similar-type improvements were found to be appropriate in all of the tunnels," Transit New Zealand spokesman David Bates said yesterday.
Tunnels earmarked for
improvement include the Mt Victoria and motorway tunnels in Wellington, the Homer tunnel at Milford and the Lyttelton tunnel.
Mr Bates said the upgrades would be limited to tunnels over a certain length and traffic volume.
The safety improvements, costing between $500,000 and $3 million a tunnel, would be carried out over two years.
Better safety features would include video surveillance, firefighting facilities, communications cables and emergency lighting.
"The key thing is that the tunnels at the present time are quite safe," said Mr Bates.
"They stand up well against international practice.
"What we're doing is saying, 'what can we actually improve based on overseas experience'."
Up to 160 people were killed last weekend when fire swept through a cable car in a tunnel at an Austrian ski resort near Salzburg.
Experts think the fire broke out on the funicular train before it entered the tunnel.
In March last year, 42 people were killed in a fire in the 11km road tunnel linking Italy and France.
Two months later, a fire in a 6.4km tunnel near Salzburg killed one person and injured 49.
- NZPA
