Tunnelling is an activity that creates tonnes of spoil that need to be disposed of in a safe and efficient manner. This is usually done with trucks and dog trailers removing the spoil from the site and taking it to a suitable place for disposal. As it is nearly impossible to provide these trucks with dedicated infrastructure, they must share the road space with other road users. By sharing the road space, these trucks must interact with other road traffic, including Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), defined as cyclists and pedestrians. With the increase of interaction between trucks and VRUs, there is an increase in the risk of collision between the two types of road users. Due to the sheer difference of momentum between the two, collisions often result in serious injury or fatality for the VRU. When planning routes for spoil removal from a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) site, route planners often overlook the interaction trucks may have with VRUs. This results in avoidable, unnecessary risk to VRUs that can be mitigated with planning and consideration during the route selection process. This paper investigates current practice of route selection, and how it can be improved to include VRUs in the route selection process.
