Comprehensive risk management in horizontal directional drilling projects

Nowadays, horizontal directional drilling (HDD) technology is one of the most popular trenchless construction methods for installing pipelines under obstacles. Both risk analysis and risk management are key tools helping to meet today's challenging trenchless construction project demands connected with quality, deadlines, costs, and legal issues. In this paper, a new model based on proactive and holistic approaches is presented, which is an extension from traditional risk analysis toward complex risk management in HDD projects. Fuzzy fault tree analysis, fuzzy weighted index, and a risk response matrix supported the risk management process. Overall, 147 risk remediation strategies for all the identified HDD risks were proposed. The following types of risk response strategies were applied: passive and active risk retention, risk transfer, risk elimination, and risk cause or effect reduction. The practical application of the proposed risk management model for HDD projects was shown in an example. The application of the proposed risk management model allows one to effectively reduce the risk of basic events occurrence and provides a remarkable reduction of the risk of the top event's occurrence.