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Markets
Transportation
Martin Stone
Project Director, Tampa, Florida, USA contact form+1 813 335 4495
Identifying, preventing and responding to severe weather events is common practice for transportation planners, engineers and infrastructure operators. Hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes and floods can cause millions of dollars’ worth of damages to roadway and bridge infrastructure, but dealing with fire has often been an afterthought. That needs to change.
In 2017, a small fire next to a roadway in Atlanta ignited materials stored below I-85 and caused multiple sections to fail, requiring more than $17 million in repairs. Likewise, a fire below the I-80 interchange in San Francisco resulted in over $100 million in damages. If effective risk management strategies had been developed and implemented, response plans could have been created and ready to be activated once the fire-related incident began.
Creating effective risk management strategies involves using a systematic approach for identifying, analyzing and responding to risks that may affect project objectives and outcomes. While there are many different risk management models, they all generally include the following steps:
- Understanding unpredictable risks to assets
- Understanding the reality of the situation
- Incident prevention and response planning
- Rehearsing an incident response
- Post-incident analysis and evaluation
- Periodic reviews of existing strategies
The first two steps are critical in the process. Understanding risks and realities of the consequences caused by fire-related incidents before they occur is key to preventing or mitigating potential damage to public transportation infrastructure assets.
For years, gasoline fires involving large quantities of fuel have represented the most common risk to transportation infrastructure. Despite the melting point of steel being significantly higher than gasoline, prolonged exposure to fire can drastically reduce its strength, stiffness and load-bearing capacity to a point where supporting pillars, pre-cast concrete or steel girders and bridge decks cannot support the weight of the structure, resulting in a catastrophic collapse.
Today, a fire hazard related to a spontaneous chain reaction occurring in electric vehicle (EV) batteries presents a new, complex challenge. This spontaneous chain reaction can cause fires generating heat up to 5,000°F – temperature levels capable of melting structural steel much faster than any gasoline fire. In addition, because EVs are commonly parked in garages or shared-use surface lots beneath roadway structures, these fires can easily spread to nearby vehicles, increasing the risk of potential damages.
Not only do EV battery fires burn hotter than gasoline fires, but they are also more difficult to extinguish with traditional water-based, fire-fighting techniques. If a fire department does not have the necessary special fire extinguishing agents and equipment including Class D powders, F-500 encapsulators or EV fire blankets, it can take 10 times more water to put out an EV fire than one caused by gasoline. An EV battery fire can also reignite hours after it appears to be extinguished.
Our team is using crush-zone technology, fire-retardant materials and rules related to shared uses underneath elevated roadways and bridges to help transportation agencies prevent or minimize the incidence and severity of fires. In addition, we are helping them prepare for fire-related incidents by properly identifying and coordinating firefighting resources to significantly reduce their impact.
By understanding potential fire hazards when it comes to risk management, we can better prepare for fires affecting transportation infrastructure and mitigate the damage they cause by taking their potential impact into account during design and facility operations.
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