Education, Training and Practice at de Koningstunnel

A standard part of the construction and renovation of tunnels is the training of the tunnel operators via the so-called RTD process: Education, Training, Practice.

Sister organization NedMobiel has asked Improve to support this, for 2 reasons:

• Extensive experience with tunnels (audits, advice and consultancy for Rijkswaterstaat and municipal tunnels);
• More than extensive experience in developing and executing training courses.

 number of Improve consultants then put together a training course for operation by the tunnel operators based on limited information and a short time in a simulation environment. This 2-day training is in line with a 2-day introduction to the tunnel and renewed incident and calamity processes. On days 3 and 4 Improve consultants provide the operator training. On day 3 new screens and the system behavior were explained. After this, the operators perform the first exercises on the simulation environment. On day 4 there was further practice and training with incident scenarios to be prepared for the formal review that follows on day 5.

The formal assessment has a twofold purpose:

• on the one hand, a snapshot of the candidates about their acquired knowledge of the new functionalities and processes;
• on the other hand to demonstrate that employees have been sufficiently trained prior to opening.

The test consists of a theoretical and a practical part of together approximately 2 hours per candidate. The theory test consists of a set of multiple choice and open questions. The practical test consists of a number of operating exercises and 2 extensive scenarios in which an incident and a calamity are reenacted. During the test, Improve’s consultants fulfill the role of examiner and observer. On the basis of the combined results and observations from the tests, it was determined together with a representative of the municipality whether the tunnel operator had passed the test. Given the diversity of candidates (in age, experience in tunnels and computer operation), the trainers and assessors prepared and supervised the candidates as well as possible, which is appreciated in the final interviews.