Academic Journal of Science and Technology 
ISSN: 2771-3032 | Vol. 5, No. 3, 2023 

 

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Research	on	Maintenance	and	Management	
Optimization	of	Electromechanical	Facilities	in	
Highway	Tunnel	
Qingguo Chang1, Xiang Chen1, Qinyu Kuang2, Ziyan Chen3 

1Guizhou Qianchenghuitong Technology Development Co., Ltd., Guiyang 550081, China 
2Guizhou Hengda Highway Asset Operation and Management Co., Ltd., Guiyang 550081, China 
3Guizhou Transportation Planning Survey and Design Academe Co., Ltd., Guiyang 550081, China 

 

Abstract: The implementation of maintenance and management of electromechanical facilities can ensure the operation 
quality of equipment, prolong the service life of equipment, and meanwhile effectively reduce the probability of accidents and 
risk loss. The targeted optimization methods are formulated to make the maintenance and management of electromechanical 
facilities of highway tunnel develop in a systematic, scientific and refined direction. 

Keywords: Highway, Electromechanical Facilities, Maintenance and Management Optimization. 
 

1. The Importance of Maintenance and 
Management Optimization 

A lot of accidents happened in highway tunnels are caused 
by problems of electromechanical facilities, such as system 
function missing of ventilation facilities, environmental 
detection equipment, fire control and rescue facilities, or 
deficiency of illuminance in tunnel. Even the leakage of 
electricity of electric accessory can cause a severe accident. 
Considering the professionalism and subjectivity of the 
detection technology in maintenance company, such 
problems are hard to be figured out immediately. And these 
problems can be solved out by the maintenance and 
management optimization combined with specific 
maintenance plan of each tunnel, after which the 
electromechanical facilities in highway tunnel keep healthy 
and the loss of casualties and properties can be reduced. 

2. Deficiency of Maintenance Work in 
Highway Tunnel 

After checking the reason of accidents in highway tunnel, 
we investigate the systematic problems of 5 main aspects of 
electromechanical facilities in highway tunnel, such as 
environmental detection equipment, illuminance equipment 
and fire control facilities.  

1) Environmental detection equipment 
The ordinary problems of environmental detection 

equipment can be summarized as aging and efficacy loss of 
communication module and components. Besides, most of the 
environmental detection equipment have an accuracy 
deviation problem, which is as common as other ones 
mentioned above. And the chief causes are unreliable PE lines, 
dirt, unpunctual standardization, etc. 

2) Low-voltage distribution facilities 
Low-voltage distribution facilities are formed by several 

low-voltage switches and auxiliary components, such as 
measuring, controlling, protecting and signaling. The 
common problems of low-voltage distribution facilities are 
unable to close and trip fault of circuit breaker, abnormal 
changes of the value of capacitor, abnormal sound of 

contactor, wrong action of air switches in fan soft starter and 
so on.  

3) Fire control and rescue facilities 
The main facilities of fire control and rescue are fire 

controllers, fire detectors, manual fire alarm buttons, etc. And 
the major faults are made of manual alarm buttons hitch, 
communication hitch, abnormal alarming and short circuit of 
wires. 

4) Illuminance facilities 
Circuit fault and the deficiency of illuminance are the 

major problems of illuminance facilities. Besides, short 
circuit, broken circuit and leakage of electricity are the 
troubles for the illuminating circuit.  

5) Other potential risks 
Other kinds of potential risks in tunnel are included as 

listed below: 
1. Distribution box not plugging, breakdown of outside the 

distribution box, ponding and dirt of inside the distribution 
box lead to the short circuit, broken circuit and breakdown of 
facilities. Rustiness and damage of outside the box, which 
dissatisfy protection standards can have a great effect on the 
whole electromechanical system. 

2. Rusted connection piece and fastening piece in jet fans, 
severe vibration of fans, overtop temperature ascending, too 
big of the current, insufficient of wind pressure, high 
possibility of fans dropping, unable to discharge harmful 
gases are the main risks of jet fans. 

3. The grounding resistance-from the joint grounding of 
tunnel and substation to the grounding of facilities outside the 
tunnel, which exists in all scenarios of electromechanical 
facilities in highway tunnels, is one of the most important part 
of electromechanical system in highway tunnel. Excessive 
resistance value of some grounding resistances, which is 
found in daily maintenance work, is very likely to cause the 
potential safety hazard. And it leads to incapable of protecting 
the facilities. 

Since we have not found any significant safety accident in 
highway tunnel in China, we can get the analysis and 
conclusion that the maintenance work needs to be 
strengthened of the existed troubles in environmental 
detection facilities, low-voltage distribution facilities, fire 
control and rescue facilities, illuminance facilities, etc. And 



 

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the optimization of management pattern and elimination of 
faults and problems are the important prerequisite to make 
sure that the facilities run healthy. 

3. Optimization Methods 
After analyzing and summarizing, the electromechanical 

facilities in highway tunnel have 5 main characteristics: 
1) Since the facilities cover a relatively broad, the variety 

of electromechanical facilities in highway tunnels makes the 
management and maintenance work of facilities difficult if we 
need to keep the electromechanical facilities run safely. 

2) The cost of equipment running is really high, which 
leads to a large number of human and financial resources of 
daily management and maintenance work of 
electromechanical facilities in highway tunnel. 

3) It takes enormous requirements on the installation and 
operation of equipment. 

4) The constitution of the electromechanical facilities 
system in highway tunnels is very complex. 

5) The technical requirements of electromechanical 
facilities system in highway tunnels are really high comparing 
to that in ordinary tunnels. 

Being direct against the problems and characteristics in the 
maintenance work in highway tunnels, we can improve the 
level of management and maintenance by optimizing the 
management and maintenance, changing the traditional 
methods, assembling excellent resources and implementing 
dynamic follow-up management. And we can deploy 
effective preventing methods by regular and high frequency 
of detection results of professional testing agency, combining 
with the principle of prevention first. Implementing the 
maintenance work of electromechanical facilities in highway 
tunnels can make sure that the operational quality of 
equipment is good and it can lengthen the life of the 
equipment. At the same time, the probability of safety 
accidents happening can be reduced effectively and the risk 
loss decreases. Therefore, we can optimize the management 
and maintenance and customize the maintenance project, 
which makes the management and maintenance work of 
electromechanical facilities in highway tunnels more 
intelligent, scientific and precise. The major methods include 
as listed below: 

1) Follow the 3-detection rule 
Firstly, 3-detection rule means there are three ways of 

detection: the self-detection, mutual detection and specialized 
detection. And these rules involve highway operation 
management units, detection units and maintenance units, 
which get in touch with each other by multi-media. Only in 
this way, the hitches and problems can be settled immediately. 
Then, these units report the rectification results in time to 
avoid severe accidents happening. It takes responsibility from 
staff to the leaders, which will optimize the maintenance work 
from the management system and organizational structure. 

2) Strengthen the professionalism of maintenance team 
Secondly, the maintenance team should strengthen the 

professionalism and follow the 3-detection rule. To achieve 
this goal, management is the first key point, which requires 
regularly file updating and internal standards of companies 
establishing. Meanwhile, the second key point is organization, 
which focus on the personnel selection. Staff who is in charge 
of management or technology requires both rich work 
experience and relative practicing qualification certificate. 
The third key point is technology, which means that we can 
learn from the excellent detection companies and keep in 

touch with them. Besides, the implementation of the 3-
detection rule can be strengthened. 

3) Record the operating status of facilities and strengthen 
daily management 

The work of recording the operating status of facilities can 
be done by the technology of information input of QR code. 
Specifically, the regular daily maintenance and examination 
work should combine with professional maintenance work. 
And we can customize the maintenance project through 
searching the usage record of equipment. As for the old, faulty 
or major facilities, we can increase the frequency of 
maintenance and examination. While the frequency of routing 
inspection of new and good running status facilities can be 
decreased appropriately. Last but not least, the human 
resources and material resources can be deployed, and that the 
problems will be solved quickly and efficiently by 
implementing differentiation management of maintenance 
inventory and developing maintenance work purposefully.  

4) Fulfill the record of facilities running and push the policy 
of scientific maintenance 

The policy and distribution of scientific maintenance can 
be driven through completing basic database adopted in daily 
maintenance work. Then, the construction of data analysis 
mechanism contributes to the operation and management. 
Next, the parameters such as life lengths, economic benefits, 
performance and safety can be estimated using mathematical 
modeling and statistics. And it takes two policies and three 
steps to achieve this goal. 

Two policies: The first policy means facilities operating 
status can be analyzed through actual detecting data; second 
policy is to do quantitative analysis of entire operation 
condition by using data analysis with statistics and 
mathematical modeling. For example, if the facilities 
operating status will be indicated quantitatively, then, P is the 
value of assessment results, which stands for a better 
condition with a higher score of P value. Meanwhile, P value 
will be influenced by various factors like life length, cost, 
security and detection, which can be marked as a, b, c and d. 
Different factors have its own weight to the final score of P 
value, which can be coded as α, β, γ and δ. So, the 
mathematical model can be represented as:  𝑃 𝑎 𝛼
𝑏 𝛽 𝑐 𝛾 𝑑 𝛿  , in which the values of weight are 
decided by highway operation companies. And the specialty 
of technical personnel in maintenance companies, quality of 
staff, infrastructure and the leadership of administrator will be 
the major factor to the weight. 

Three steps: The first step is to rank the maintenance object 
according to importance of equipment operation, significance 
of economy and security; second step is to analyze and 
examine whether the existed control plan of equipment 
operation is scientific and reasonable; and the third step is to 
provide the optimal solution using the conclusion and results 
given in two policies.  

4. Summary 
The safety operation of highway tunnels is the most 

important insurance which protect the lives and properties of 
people. While it’s a tough problem of predicting potential 
risks and completing maintenance management work for the 
companies, to whom it is also the social responsibility. To 
solve this problem, it needs companies to learn from each 
other and accumulate step by step. Only in this way, the 
optimal maintenance project can be carried out successfully.  



 

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