Routing of hazardous material carrying vehicles

A number of accidents in the last two decades have increased public awareness of potential risks associated with hazardous material transport. Consequently, the safety management of this activity has become an issue of major importance. This paper presents a methodology and case study of Rourkela, which is to contribute a national action plan for hazardous material transport for Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) .The main objective, is to develop a planning system for hazardous material transport. The planning system considers both economic and risk values. Risk assessment for the route system is discussed. Firstly, hazardous material identification and classification is studied and international norms for accidents of hazardous material carrying vehicle and their influence on routing decision are briefly described. . The consequences of the hazardous material accident are explosion, heat radiation, and toxicity. Secondly, intelligence phase is mainly used to understand the problem. GIS played an important role in risk assessment. The elements at risk include population, buildings and economic activitiesThirdly, Buffer analysis is done to identify the potentially hazardous road locations and necessary preventive measures are suggested for this. Accident rate is calculated from Crossthwaite, Fitzpatrick, TNO, and Gaussian equation considering the preventive measures for hazardous material carrying vehicles. The new accident rate calculated by using the above mentioned formula was compared with the previous 7 years data sets obtained from different police stations. The results obtained from the present method are promising. The buffer analysis will be helpful for traffic planners to take decisions correctly in case of any future research in that area.