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Infrastructure Fire Protection with Water Mist
February 13 @ 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm ACDT
Overview
The first road tunnel misting fire suppression system in Australia has now been commissioned in the Heysen Tunnels, outside Adelaide.
In this hybrid event, the ATS presents an afternoon of talks celebrating the Heysen Tunnel Refit & Safety Upgrade Project holistically and canvases some:
- Technical details of the water mist installed for fire suppression,
- The context of road tunnels within the different applications of mist in other infrastructure and spaces, and
- An international picture of road tunnel safety governance.
Timing (NOTE CHANGE IN TIMING)
- 2:00 to 2:30 pm, arrival and refreshments
- 2:30 to 5:00 pm, presentations
- 5:00 to 7:00 pm, refreshments and networking, possibly visit the mist demonstration downstairs.
Speakers
Alex Palle
Alex Palle is the owner and CEO of VID FIREKILL, the leader in low pressure mist, and the renowned test institute Danish Fire Laboratories. He will fly into Adelaide to support his local distributor LPG Fire Australia who supplied and supported the Heysen mist system. With a BSc and an MBA, growing up in a nozzle-designing household, working all roles through the businesses at various stages, and now owning the companies, Alex has unique understanding of how to break up water. His life vision is to change the “conventional” fixed firefighting industry by bringing innovative, value adding and sustainable firefighting technologies to the market. He will describe the science behind misting nozzles, and road tunnel misting technology within the broad spectrum of mist applications.
Dr Conrad Stacey
Dr Conrad Stacey is a Director of leading underground ventilation and fire safety consultants Stacey Agnew, and Vice President of Delve Stacey Agnew in the US. Conrad’s credits include seminal reports on livestock shipping heat stress risk, and co-authorship of a paper on the gravitational energy drivers for the geodynamo. He has worked on hypersonic upper atmospheric flight and river and flood plain hydraulics. A common thread through Conrad’s work in varied areas is a core focus on the fundamental physics and the engineering thought involved, all within the big picture of the community interest. He will talk about the design of the Heysen suppression system, operating policy on fire suppression, and organisational barriers to adoption of road tunnel misting.
Shane Faulkhead
Shane Faulkhead of M&E Solutions, for this purpose also representing McConnell Dowell as Managing Contractor for the Heysen Tunnels Refit & Safety Upgrade Project. Besides his tunnel experience, Shane has global experience in a very diverse range of engineering fields, making him a polymath of engineering and site installation. He was intimately involved with the equipment installation and problem solving in the Heysen project. His talk will focus on construction of the fire suppression systems in Heysen and in other forms of tunnel.
Rahul Gupta
Rahul Gupta is a civil engineering professional with three decades in all aspects of highway infrastructure development, from strategic planning & engineering to cost control and environmental management. He is currently Chief Engineer (Tunnels) in the Indian Ministry of Road Transport & Highways and Secretary General of the Indian Road Congress. Previously, he served as Technical Secretary to the Director General (Road Development) and Special Secretary to the Government of India, providing advice on all road and highway development issues in the country. He is a member of Technical Committee on Tunnels of the World Road Association (PIARC) and the Governing Council of the Tunnelling Association of India (TAI). He also served as Technical Advisor to PIARC’s Strategic Theme (Resilient Infrastructure).
Rahul has implemented major bridge and tunnel projects in the Himalayan region, successfully supervising the construction of India’s two longest highway tunnels, the Chenani-Nashiri (9 km) and Banihal-Qazigund (8 km). Over the past five years, he has overseen highway development projects in the strategically critical North-Western Himalayan region.
Rahul gets actively involved in disaster rescue operations. He ensured swift relief to flood victims by promptly restoring highway communication in close coordination with the army during the worst-recorded floods in the Kashmir Valley in September 2014. He also successfully coordinated the rescue operation of stranded workers in the collapsed Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarakhand, with part of that coordination being calling on our own Arnold Dix to assist.
Rahul offers a high-level expert overview of safety issues on Indian roads and in tunnels, and will give us the benefit of a different perspective to the paradigms we follow in Australia, including on adoption of water based suppression.
Session Chair
Mr Phil Cornish
Engineering Director from Bell Rock Engineering. Phil has more than 35 years’ experience in infrastructure design and delivery, including road and rail tunnels. Phil was involved with the Westconnex Tunnel Project in Sydney between 2014 and late 2017, as the M4 East Construction Manager for Sydney Motorway Corporation. Phil was also involved with the delivery of the Adelaide Crafers Highway Project between 1997 and 2000, including a role as the Heysen Tunnel Construction Manager for the completion of tunnel fitout, testing and commissioning activities.
Question and answer sessions after each presentation will include all speakers plus Mr Mark Martini of Shield Fire, installers of the Heysen Tunnels mist system.
Costings
Thanks to our sponsors, there is no cost for attending in person at the National Wine Centre, or online. A link, but no refreshments, will be sent to those who register to join online.
Sponsors
The event, and the networking refreshments, are proudly sponsored by: