M ARCH 2009 tunnelling

MARCH 2009

tunnelstunnellingI N T E R N A T I O N A L&

FOCUS ON DRILL & BLASTHow the drill & blast sector is dealing

with the global economic downturn

SHOTCRETE TECHNOLOGYThe latest offerings from the huge

shotcrete market are reviewed

0

H E R R E N K N E C H T A G | U T I L I T Y T U N N E L L I N G | T R A F F I C T U N N E L L I N G S PA I N

Herrenknecht AG D-77963 SchwanauPhone + 49 7824 302-0Fax + 49 7824 [email protected]

www.herrenknecht.com

CONTRACTOR

U.T.E. GORG (NECSO Entrecanales Cubiertas S.A., Dragados S.A., Sorigue Acsa Obras e Infraestructuras S.A., COMSA - Constructora de Obras Municipales S.A.)

U.T.E. GORG(NECSO EntrecanalesCubiertas S.A., Dragados S.A., Sorigue Acsa Obras e Infraestructuras S.A., COMSA - Constructora de Obras Municipales S.A.)

U.T.E. Tuneles Aeropuerto(FCC Construccion S.A., Ferrovial-Agroman S.A. Obrascon Huarte Lain S.A.)

U.T.E. Tuneladora Metro(FCC Construccion S.A., Ferrovial-Agroman S.A., Obrascon Huarte Lain S.A., Copisa, Scrinser S.A.)

B A R C E L O N A | S PA I N

PROJECT DATA

S-221, EPB ShieldDiameter: 12,060mmDriving power: 4,000kWTunnel length: 1x 3,860m, 1x 1,520m, 1x 3,140mGeology: granodiorite,sand, loam, gravel

S-442, EPB ShieldDiameter: 12,060mmDriving power: 4,000kWTunnel length: 3,600mGeology: siltstone, gravel, limestone

S-279, EPB ShieldDiameter: 9,370mmDriving power: 3,600kWTunnel length:1x 1,350m, 1x 8,200mGeology: clay, sand, loam

S-461, EPB ShieldDiameter: 9,370mmDriving power: 3,600kWTunnel length: 4,107mGeology: sand, clay, silt layers

Herrenknecht Ibérica S.A.Paseo de la Castellana 192–14DE-28046 MadridPhone + 34 91 359 8008Fax + 34 91 359 2032

BARCELONA: HERRENKNECHT EPB QUARTET FORTHE LONGEST METRO LINE IN EUROPE.

Barcelona is rapidly extending its metro network. Four Earth Pressure Balance Shields made by Herrenknecht are working to extend line 9 alone, two in the northern and two in the southern section achieving this with excellent top daily performances of up to 60 meters in 24 hours or 1,000 meters in 30 days.

The S-221 (Ø 12,060mm), beginning of tunnelling the largest EPB Shield in the world, has been excavating the northern part of the stretch since 2003. From February 2009 onward, it has been backed up by the S-442 of identical size, which is currently being assembled on the construction site – in a shaft of only 27 meters in diameter. Due to the space constraints, the machine is made up of modules so that the shield can already start tunnelling while the gantries are being assembled gradually.

Following completion of the construction work, line 9 will connect the airport in the south of Barcelona with the northern city district of Santa Coloma de Gramenet. With a total length of 43 kilometers and 49 stations, it will then be the longest metro line in Europe.

IFCtun0309 16/3/09 11:48 Page IFC1

5 COMMENT

6 WORLD NEWS

11 BUSINESS & FINANCE

15 ITA PREVIEW

17 MODERN DRILL & BLASTSteady future for Drill & BlastWith the economic downturn in full swing,T&TI looks at its effect on the drill & blastsector and finds it in robust state

20 ENVIRONMENTAL TUNNELLINGProject Hobson TBM offers green optionNew Zealand’s Hobson Bay Tunnelmade significant environmental andcost savings when employing a TBMover a roadheader

24 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

27 BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETYBTS annual debate“Tunnelling contracts are bestimplemented based on a detaileddesign procured by the client beforetendering the construction contract”

31 OBITUARY

35 ADVANCES IN SHOTCRETEShotcrete - innovation and investmentNew approaches for the applicationof sprayed concrete linings are onthe up. T&TI checks up on thelatest developments

41 PRODUCTS & SERVICES

43 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS

45 DATES & EVENTS

ContentsWEB ADDRESSwww.tunnelsonline.info

CONVERSIONS

US$1.00

!0.73

£0.67

FRONT COVER:Atlas Copco’s XE3 C rig is

among the raft oftechnological advanceskeeping the Drill & Blastsector buoyant amidst

the global financialdownturn (p17).

SHOTCRETE TECHNOLOGY

6The aftermath of the

Cologne Light RailMetro collapse

17Boomers still provethe tool of choice forDrill & Blast

FOCUS ON DRILL &BLAST

004tun0309 16/3/09 11:50

COMMENT

MARCH 2009 Tunnels & Tunnelling International 5

T here’s bad news for the tunnelling industrythis month on p6 - another major collapseon an urban metro scheme resulting in

fatalities. This time it’s in Cologne with the loss oftwo lives. Early explanations rely on professionalspeculation and expert opinion, as it’s too early forthe official line from the project investigators.Basically, Cologne’s city archive building hascompletely collapsed into a void created next tothe site of a nearly completed approximate 30mlong x 25m deep open cut box that was to housethe Light Metro scheme’s track crossover.

The 4km long, north to south metro’s twin borerunning tunnels were completed over a year and ahalf ago, at a similar time to the installation of thereportedly 37m deep diaphragm walls, created tosupport the crossover box excavation. At the timeof collapse it’s believed that excavation of the boxhad reached invert level and the base slab wasbeing cast. Currently high on the blame stakes arefailure of the diaphragm wall, due to possibleground anchor failure, that was supporting thearea in front of the now collapsed building, orinvert failure before casting of the base slab wasfinished. There is also early speculation about therates of groundwater extraction in the area.

Whatever the reason, it seems a sudden in-rush of heavily water laden, highly variable fluvialground into the excavated box and runningtunnels displaced the ground supporting theadjacent buildings resulting in the total collapse ofthe archive building.

Already the ramifications are being seen,reports say that the Amsterdam Metro has beenput on hold pending further investigations, and

more worrying still, Cologne’s Mayor FritzSchramma has all but said that building metrosunder densely populated areas is ‘irresponsible’.

It’s unfair to lay blame so early, we must wait forthe official investigation, and then we MUST makethe results public if we are to learn to avoid thesetragedies in the future.

But here’s something to think about in themeantime, as there’s a pattern emerging. Let’slook at a few recent metro collapses. The NicollHighway collapse in Singapore, 20th April 2004,four fatalities, caused by the failure of thesupports for the diaphragm walls on the open cutstation approach. The Hangzhou Metro collapsein China, 15th November, 21 fatalities, caused bythe failure of the concrete walls and steel pipebracing on the open cut approach to the XianghuStation. The Cologne Metro collapse in Germany,3rd March, 2 fatalities, allegedly caused by thefailure of the diaphragm walls supporting the opencut excavation for the crossovers.

The hotspots are all large open cut excavationswith wall failure - not tunnel collapses. If we canpinpoint the exact reasons for these incidents weare half way to eliminating them. If, as Singaporehas done, it requires a radical re-think oftemporary works, or even a compulsory overengineered design of such high-risk areas, thenso be it. It’s time to study all of these disasterstogether, not separately; the similarities are justtoo glaring, and iron them out. Then we can gosomeway to fixing the damage done, not to theworks, but to the minds of those that arebeginning to see our industry as ‘irresponsible’.

Tris Thomas

COMPANIES IN THIS ISSUEAecom 11Aedas Group 11Affholder 8ALS (Freight Management Group)Limited 41Alstrom Brazil 35Arup 25Atkins 11Atlas Copco 17, 18, 19, 41Balfour Beatty Management 11Balfour Beatty 38BASF 35, 37, 39, 41Bauer 41BDP 11Bechtel 11Bekaert 39Belsaco 12Capita Symonds 11, 29CH2M Hill 11Continental Conveyor 10Cross London Rail Links 11CSC Impresa Construzioni 12

CVA consortium 24, 25CVC Capital Partners 11Davis Langdon ProgrammeManagement 11Dragados 12DSI 11E Pihl & Søn 35, 37ElastoPlastic Concrete 37Eurotunnel 11, 28FCC 11Galere 10Gardiner and Theobald 29Halcrow 11Herrenknecht 10, 41Hyder Consulting 11Ingersoll Rand IndustrialTechnologies 42J H Fletcher & Co 42Jacobs Engineering 11Jacobs 27Kolin Construction 8Laing O’Rourke Holdings 11

Länsimetro Oy 12Lombardi 10London Underground 31, 32Lovat 8, 20, 23Luxconsult 10M T Højgaard 35M y J Gruas 37Maire Engineering 10Max Bogl 10McConnell Dowell 8, 20, 23Metronet 29Monti 12Mott MacDonald 11, 27, 29, 31, 3239National Grid 28Nichols Group 11Normet 35, 38Northcroft 11NTF Construction 10Ocean Infrastructures 37OHL 12Ove Arup 11

Parsons Brinckerhoff 11Poyry 12Propex Concrete Systems 37Robbins 8, 10Salini 10Sandvik Mining and Construction 1718, 19, 42Scott Wilson Railways 11Seli 10Semmco Group 35Sika 38Sir William Halcrow & Partners31,32Systra 11Todini 12Toneldorstroy 12Tralux 10TR-Engineering 10Veidekke 17, 37Wayss & Freytag 10Wirth 12WSP UK 11YIT Construction 38

Open wound...

6 Tunnels & Tunnelling International MARCH 2009

WORLD NEWS

Latest news & archive - www.tunnelsonline.info

I nvestigations are ongoing intothe fatal building collapse nextto a deep, cut-and-cover box

excavation below a road atWaidmarkt in Cologne, Germany,for the new North-South lightmetro line.

Debris collapsed into two holes:where the city’s archive buildingand adjacent structures had stooduntil 3 March, behind a diaphragmwall of the box structure; and, intopart of the box, which at deeplevels the rescue services said soiland water had entered, and at thetop was partly piled with rubblefrom the upper levels of thebuildings.

Two bodies were recovered

from the building collapse.Initial reports indicate that the

twin bore running tunnels at eachside of the box structure - which isto be a cross-over junction, forwhich excavation was nearingcompletion for the final slab pour -are partly flooded and filled instretches with washout soil, butappear to be intact and stable. Theground is being checked betweenthe parallel 7.3m i.d. tunnels.

Concrete was pumped into theWaidmarkt box to help stabilisethe site. Dewatering has beenunderway at 160m3/hr for work toproceed. The geology is gravel,sand and silt, and being not farfrom the river Rhine the

groundwater level is relatively high.The North-South line is being

developed by Kolner Verkehrs-Betriebe (KVB). The South Lotcontractor is a JV of BilfingerBerger, Wayss & Freytag and EdZublin (T&TI, June 2007, p7).

Bilfinger, leading the JV,declined to comment while theinvestigations proceed.

Details have not been releasedyet on any initial conclusions aboutthe collapse mechanism that felledthe buildings, and any relationshipto the box excavation. No party isofficially commenting on thoseaspects, and responsibility has notbeen assigned.

Neither was there comment onthe failure sequence. However,unconfirmed local media reportssay some construction workersfrom the box excavation, but whodeclined to be identified, saw waterand soil coming in and fled, raisingthe alarm. Warnings did stop trafficand evacuate the buildings.

Many areas of the visible upperportions of the diaphragm wallsappear untouched by the collapse.At one end of the box, just beyondthe crater where the buildingstood, they support steelwork andpanels for the roadway, which hasalso been used by emergencyservices and construction plant toclearing debris.

Site clearance may take months

with much effort also being spenton retrieving historical records.

The metro line runs fromMarktstrasse via six undergroundstation to the main train station.The box is between Severinstrasseand Heumarkt stations.

The main works with thestations and bored tunnels,previously completed, in the SouthLot called for two 8.39m diameterMixshield TBM drives, which hadcover of 5m-19m along the route.

A variety of constructiontechniques has been used fordifferent station excavations,including compressed air forbreakout of the tubes to reachdiaphragm walls.

At Waidmarkt, the diaphragmwalls, understood to be 37m-45mdeep, were built prior to thepassage of the TBMs. Floor slabsand anchors helped support thewalls, and the base slab was to beplaced at a depth of 28m. Earlycomments by uninvolvedgeotechnical experts have focusedon possibilities of hydraulic failurebelow or at the diaphragm wall,though this is speculation, as is thepossibility of structural failure.

There was no compensationgrouting below buildings in theimmediate vicinity, which were notdirectly over the TBM route.

The City of Cologne said therewas unauthorised overpumping inrelation to permitted environmentallimits. It said the limits were not setin relation to construction safety.

Collapse in Cologne

Left: Building collapse next to ametro excavation in Cologne

The 13m diameter Mixshielddriving most of the 5,835m

long single bore rail tube for theLot 3-4 (Munster-Wiesing) sectionof the Lower Inn Valley, in Austria,holed through last month afterapproximately 19 months ofexcavation – and six months fasterthan first programmed.

Tunnelling with the HerrenknechtTBM (S-352) began at the end ofMay 2007, just after a year the JVcontractor of Porr and Max Boglbegan work on the project, whichpart of the northern rail access tothe future Brenner base tunnel.

Geology along the alignmentcomprises pebble, sand, coarse-grained clay, broken rock andgravel. The drive is almost

completely below groundwater,and cover ranges from 14m to44m. The TBM has been designedwith cutterhead power of 3200kW,torque of 23,230 kNm, and totalthrust of 90,515 kN, and forpressures up to 3.6 bar.

In total, the 5,768m longexcavation was completed in 585days. Advances on the best day,week and month were 32.07m,163.65m and 532.68m,respectively. The 11.63m i.d.segmental rings (7+1) are 500mmthick and 2m long.

The tunnel bore was expectedto take about two years, noted the

client, Brenner Eisenbahn GmbHwhich is part of the Austrian railcompany OBB.

The Lot 3-4 section of theLower Inn Valley is programmed tobe completed late next year (T&TI,

March 2007, p10).On Lot H8 (Jenbach), the JV of

Strabag, Hochtief and Ed Zublinhas bored approx 80% of a3,470m long tunnel with anotherMixshield (S-381).

TBM breakthrough at Lower Inn Valley

Right: TBM breakthrough onLot 3-4, Lower Inn Valley

MARCH 2009 Tunnels & Tunnelling International 7Latest news & archive - www.tunnelsonline.info

T he accelerated progress insprayed concrete lining(SCL) excavation of the twin

bore headings of the A3 Hindheadroad tunnels in southern Englandresulted last month in doublebreakthroughs well ahead ofschedule.

Peak combined progress on allfaces – primarily the two SCLdrives southwards from the NorthPortal – was more than 100m perweek, said Paul Hoyland, projectdirector. The project has seen themost extensive and complete useof permanent SCL in the UK, themethod avoiding the need forlattice arches and steel mesh.

The tube that will takenorthbound traffic in future had itsheading completed three weeksahead of schedule, and in thesouthbound bore the breakthroughwas 11 weeks early. Good geology

was given as the prime reason forthe speed of advance.

In approximately one year,contractor Balfour Beatty hascompleted the 1,750m and 1,780mlong top headings through relativelyweak sandstone (2MPa-4MPa)where the profile is just above thehistorical level of groundwater – akey advantage to the success ofthe permanent SCL method.

The headings are nominally11.6m wide and the faces wereadvanced by Liebherr 944machines. Cover varies significantlyover the alignment, the changebeing sharpest at 16m-58m over adistance of only 130m. Probingahead of the main faces and alsoinstallation of 4m long self-drilling,glass reinforced plastic (GRP)dowels were done with SandvikTamrock Axera 8 rigs. Profilecontrol was supported by VMT.

Balfour Beatty now plans tocomplete the remaining bench andcross passage excavations by lateApril, before Easter, said Hoyland –well ahead of the plan for a mid-year finish for boring that was inplace in the third quarter last year.Tunnel manager on the project isRoger Bridge.

Once the bench dig in thenorthbound tunnel is completedand the cross-section fully open,as previously planned the tubewill keep its wall-mountedconveyor intact for a short time.The equipment will be used tosupport a major cut and filloperation that will see spoiltransferred from outside theSouth Portal to be deposited outof the North Portal.

A spray-on waterproofmembrane and final, non-structural lining will be applied toform a bonded sandwich with thepermanent SCL and complete thebored tunnel structure. Concrete

box portals at the ends willcomplete the twin tubes.

The speed of success of thetunnelling works was not obvious inthe early days of the drives from theNorth Portal when weak, verticalstrata was encountered that hadeluded the site investigation stage.A contingency had the possibility ofmore work being done from theSouth Portal but after a few monthsthe geology improved and gotbetter as the works progressed, inthe end giving an oppositeexperience to the grimmer outlookat the very outset (T&TI, October2008, p16-18).

The project is being built on aTarget Cost basis and theprogramme has been to have thenew route operational for traffic byAugust 2011.

The two-lane tubes (10.6m widefinish by 5.28m clearance) havebeen bored below through aprotected area of natural beauty aspart of a congestion relief scheme.

P lans to install a new firesuppression system for freight

trains inside the two runningtunnels of the Channel Tunnel havebeen proposed by Eurotunnel tothe controlling authority of theAnglo-French fixed ink, theIntergovernmental Commission(IGC).

Eurotunnel has not yet finalisedits choice of option or where in thetunnels the system would belocated, and said the alternativeswere being discussed with the IGC.Neither was the owner andoperator able to say at this stagewhat might be the potential costsor works schedule for the firesafety upgrade works in the 50kmlong tubes. It added, though, thatthe works should be able to bephased with ongoing maintenanceactivities.

Systems being examinedinclude possibilities for usingsprinkler, gas or foam, which arealready part of the fire safetyinfrastructure outside of the 7.6m

i.d. running tunnels. Alternativelocations for such systems are alsobeing examined, and it has notbeen determined if they will bespread extensively along thetunnels, placed at intervals or atlimited, strategic sites.

At present, emergency safetyprocedures have freight trainsstopping in a tunnel as soon aspossible except if in a fire incident.If a blaze is detected, the freighttrain makes a controlled stop at aspecified cross passage location toevacuate passengers and crew tothe service tunnel, which runsbetween the main tubes.

The review of fire safetymeasures and subsequentimprovement plan follows themajor fire on a freight train lastSeptember, which resulted insignificant damage to thesegmental concrete lining and fixedequipment in the North runningtunnel. It also put one of thecrossing’s six “Interval” stretches –the 17km long “Interval 6” – out of

action while repairs wereundertaken, leaving the ChannelTunnel operating at restrictedcapacity until it fully re-opened lastmonth (T&TI, February, p21-23).

Four separate inquiries into thefire are underway, includingEurotunnel’s own probe, and nointerim formal findings on thecause and propagation of the blazehave been issued. The IGC reportis due this September. However,Eurotunnel said some things wereevident early on and it decided toact upon the main areas, such asenhancing the system of checkingfor fires before a freight train entersthe tunnel.

A key problem to address ishow to improve protection of thetunnel infrastructure and this is afocus of the proposal to IGC. Theaim is to contain any freight trainfire in a smaller location, lower theintensity and temperature tominimise structural damage, andalso enable faster intervention byfire and rescue services.

In the fire last year, the trainstopped 11km from the FrenchPortal and it took 75 minutes forthe main group firefighters to arrivevia the service tunnel. Thecontinued operation of theSupplementary Ventilation System(SVS) after the evacuation madethe fire worse and also pushedsmoke farther into the tunnels.

Eurotunnel said it wanted the firesafety improvement works done assoon as possible, followingsatisfactory completion of allnecessary tests and approvalprocesses for equipment andprocedures.

While changes to the SVSoperations will be procedural, andso can be implemented quickly, thephysical works will take time. But,should downtime for tunnel repairsbe needed it would be muchshorter than required for majorrepairs, such as after the recentincident, and the longer works afterthe first major blaze, in 1996, in theSouth Tunnel.

Eurotunnel adds to fire safety plan

WORLD NEWS

Hindheaddouble top


WORLD NEWS


Excavation is set to resume onthe first run of a triple bore

workload set for a Robbins mainbeam TBM on the Akkoy II hydroscheme in Turkey.

The shield is to bore asuccession of headrace tunnels,and the total distance to be

excavated is 15.5km over abouttwo years.

Robbins has supplied the TBMand back-up to local contractorKolin Construction, and saidsevere weather had stoppedexcavation in late January.

Beginning with a 6.7km long

drive to enable water transferfrom the Gokcebel reservoir tothe Yasmakli reservoir, the TBMwill commence operations with adiameter of 4.8m to construct atunnel that will have a finisheddiameter of 4.0m.

The drive started in mid-December 2008 and uponcompletion the shield is to bestepped down in size.

The following two boresrequire the shield to be 4.0mdiameter and the finisheddiameter of the tubes will be3.2m. The lengths of the twotunnels will be 4.8km and 4.0km,respectively.

One bore will tap water fromseveral catchment sources tofeed the Gokcebel reservoir, andthe other narrower bore willsupply the power plant from theYasmakli reservoir.

Geology along the tunnelalignments comprises andesite,basalt, orthoclase granite,rhyolite, dacite and agglomerate,tuff and breccia.

Rock strengths range from

100MPa-230MPa and tensilestrengths 10MPa-23MPa with anaverage abrasivity index of 4.8,said Robbins.

The shield is fitted with 19”disc cutters. The manufacturersaid the change of diameter willsee removal and changeover ofthe outer cutterhead sections ofthe shield removed as well asbottom and side supports, roofshield, dust shield and grippershoes. The adaptations are to bemade prior to transport of theTBM to the second drive.

Robbins’ shield is arefurbished TBM that waspreviously used, at a largerdiameter - 4.8m - by UScontractor Affholder whenworking on the 73rd Street Tunnelin Chicago, in 2002.

Akkoy II is being developed onthe Harsit river, in Anatolia innorth east Turkey, by AkkoyEnergy A.S, which was awardedthe development licence by theGovernment.

Akkoy Energy is part of theKolin Group, based in Turkey.

A box tunnel isbeingconstructed

at Donington Park, innorth England, aspart of the US$141Mupgrade of the trackfacilities to takeFormula One racingwhen the BritishGrand Prix relocatesfrom Silverstone tothe site from nextyear. The reinforcedconcrete tunnel isbeing cast and afterinfill of the trench theracetrack will berestored to traversethe roof ofthe structure.

Hobson hole through

Robbins TBM in Akkoy IItriple bore

Down for F1at Donington

SUTT

ON

MOTO

RSPORTS

/PA

The Lovat EPBM driving theHobson diversion of the Orakei

sewer in New Zealand has holedthrough after averaging 114m ofbored and lined tunnel per week.

Contractor McConnell-Dowellcompleted the 2,900m long tunnelin Auckland using a 4.35mdiameter mixed face shield(RME170SE Series 23700).

The TBM had a maximumcutterhead speed of 6.4 rpm,maximum torque output of2,460kNm and tools wereinterchangeable 15.5” disc cuttersand rippers. The shield wasdesigned to work in pressures upto 3 bar.

Geology along the alignmentthough Orakei Ridge and HobsonBay comprised mainly clay-richweak sandstone and siltstonewith occasional alluvium andvolcanic materials. Cover abovethe crown was approximately70m deep, and while thebeginning of the drive was under

a residential area the end wasclose to a live sewer.

Progress rates reached wereup to 157m in a week, said Lovat.Tunnelling started in June lastyear and the contractor worked112 per week over fiveproduction days, which includedfour 12 hour shifts and one daywith 16 hours (two shifts of eighthours). There was no weekendworking apart from plannedmaintenance on Saturdays.

The 3.7m i.d. tunnel is beingdeveloped by Watercare, a NewZealand water and wastewaterutility, as part of Project Hobsonwhich has a budget of US$59.6M.Construction of the sewerreplacement scheme began inmid-2007.

The project also involvesexcavation of a 22m diameter by36m deep shaft for a pumpingstation, which is due to be finishedlater this year. The entire scheme isto be completed by mid-2010.

On the fast track to the perfect destinationThe Sandvik DTi series tunneling jumbos are born to be fast and furious. Their intelligent but simple-to-use operation system, high frequency HFX5T rock drills, and new type of advanced drill string guides make them the leaders of the !eld in time and in quality. Whenever a challenging tunneling job is at hand,turn to the Sandvik i-series jumbos. They guarantee that you will be on the fast track to a perfect excavation result. With happy operators. Ahead of time.

www.sandv ik .com

Fast forward

State-of-the-art technology

009tun0309 23/3/09 10:13


WORLD NEWS


A switch in spoil removalfrom wagons toContinental conveyors for

TBM drives at Line B1 of Romemetro is due early next month, butdelays at a station ahead has ledsubcontractor Seli to manage thepace of progress with the shieldsalternating their advances.

Launched in the middle of lastyear at Conca D’Oro station, the6.77m diameter HerrenknechtEPBMs (S-387, S-388) areexpected to reach Gondar stationby July and August, respectively,but will be stopped outside thebulkhead of the box cutexcavation.

Seli is building the 5.8m i.d. twintunnels, for the main contractor, aJV of Salini and Maire Engineering,

under an approx US$53.3Mcontract. The subcontractor is alsosupplying the TBM back-up, rollingstock and auxiliary equipment(T&TI, January 2008, p5).

The TBMs will each driveapproximately 3km in total, splitinto three sections, and be pulledthrough two stations – Gondarand Annibaliano. The shields willterminate at Bologna stationwhere B1 will interchange withLine B.

Geology comprises recentalluvial strata (compressible claysand silty sands). The depth ofgroundwater over the tunnels is7m-18m, and approximately 500minto the excavation they will startto bore below the river Aniene.Pressures expected on drives are

1.2 bar-4.8 bar. The tunnel lining(6+1) has 350mm thick segments.

Seli is working on one TBM at atime and has with only two teamson site. The job has seven-dayworking, four days with a single10-hour shift, three says with twoeight-hour shifts.

The S-387 shield was first to belaunched on the southbounddrives and is due to the Gondarschedule was stopped after 110m,having made space behind forassembly of its sister machine.Keeping a step ahead of S-388,the lead TBM resumed its drive inJanuary. By early this month S-388 had advanced almost 610mand then was stopped.

Currently, spoil removal by locoand wagons, and crane. Shortly,upon the completion of the nextshort leg by S-387, conveyors areto be installed in both tunnels anda vertical conveyor. The lead TBMis to resume its drive in late endApril towards Gondar, and oncestopped the focus will shift to S-388 to close the gap.

Line B1 is to be extended intunnel north to Jonio, which will bean interchange with Line D.Preliminary works for theextension are underway by thedeveloper and operator, RomaMetropolitane. A extension furthernorth is planned. The Governmenthas already provided US$311Mfor the entire proposed length ofB1, which is about half of thebudget of the section currentlybeing built.

Tunnel excavation was launchedlast month at the Stafelter road

tunnel, part of the final section ofthe A7 North Motorway underconstruction in the Grand-Duchede Luxembourg.

The Stafelter tunnels will be1,850m long twin tubes ofhorseshoe-shaped profile. To bedriven through sedimentary stratadominated by sandstone,approximately 1,650m of eachtunnel will be bored and the

remainder built by cut-and-cover.The tunnels will each carry two

lanes of traffic and be linked by sixcross passages at spacings ofapproximately 260m from thefinished portals as well as internally.

Construction is being undertakenby a JV comprising Wayss &Freytag, Max Bogl, Galere, FelixGiorgetti and Tralux. Design studieswere undertaken by Luxconsult incollaboration with Lombardi, andthe former firm is supervising the

works with TR-Engineering.Work on the 48-month contract

to build the tunnel and associatedsection of road on the A7 beganlast September, and tunnelexcavation starts this month. Thecontract value is approximatelyUS$111M, excl. VAT.

Stafelter is the neighbouring andshallower tunnel to the Grouftbores, which passed through morecomplicated geology and atsteeper slopes. The Grouft tubes

are almost 3km long with 10 crosspassages and breakthroughs wereachieved in mid-2007. Civilengineering work on the bores androad section are to be completedthis year (T&TI, August 2007, p11).

The Grouft tunnel is being builtby the same JV, the design teamalso worked on the section. Thecontract value is approximatelyUS$223M. The entire new sectionof A7 is scheduled to be open totraffic in 2011.

Start made for Stafelter road tubes

Seli paces B1for Rome metro

Above: Steady steps taken by Seli on twin TBM drives for Line B1 ofRome metro, and conveyor installation is planned for next month

The second of the two sewertunnels in Istanbul has been

completed by contractor NTFConstruction Co using aRobbins hybrid EPBM.

Excavation of the 3km longKavacik tunnel wasundertaken by the 3.1mdiameter TBM which wasdesigned to switch from EPBmode to hard rock tunnelling.

Along the sewer alignmentsthe geology comprises siltyclay to shale and limestonewith some karstic features,and rock strength ranges from75MPa-100MPa.

Completion of the seconddrive, in December, follows ayear on from the successfulbore of the first, 4.1km longBeykoz tunnel, whichcommenced in early 2007. TheTBM was relaunched to drivethe Kavacik sewer tunnel inearly 2008.

The shield was fitted with14” disc cutters and spoilremoval is by conveyor inhard rock operations, andtungsten carbide drag bitswere for use in EPB modewhen non-slurry operationused a screw conveyor tosupply muck cars.

Tunnel lining has beenplaced in two stages – 200mthick segmental concretelining (5+1) and the 2.2m i.d.after placement on thesecondary concrete layer.

Wrap forIstanbulsewerbores

C ross London Rail Links Ltd(CLRL) has named

Transcend, the joint venture ofAecom, CH2M Hill and NicholsGroup, to be its ProgrammePartner for the Crossrail scheme.

CLRL said the ProgrammePartner contract was worthapproximately US$139M. Thedeveloper said the overall cost ofthe East-West rail scheme,involving excavation of a total of41.5km of 6m i.d. twin tubetunnels by TBM, was US$22bn.

Announcement of the awardnotification was followed by a 10-day standstill before the contractcould be confirmed.

The Programme Partner is astrategic-level role to help deliverthe timely completion of theschedule to satisfactorystandards and within budget.Crossrail is due to bring first trainservices into operation in 2017.

Transcend beat two rivalshortlisted JVs to secure the

contract: Bechtel, supported byHalcrow and Systra as supplychain partners; and, Legacy 3, aconsortium of ParsonsBrinckerhoff, Balfour BeattyManagement and Davis LangdonProgramme Management.

Separately, the losing groupshave been independentlyshortlisted for the Project DeliveryPartner contract, along with twoothers - Laing O’Rourke Holdingsand a JV of Capita Symonds andNorthcroft.

The Project Delivery Partnerrole is to help the client meetstandards, time and budget, andprovide extra key staff to supportthe core CLRL team, and bidssubmitted in January arecurrently being assessed.

CLRL executive chairman,Douglas Oakervee, called theproposed award of theProgramme Partner contract toTranscend ‘another landmarkmoment’, and praised the quality,expertise and enthusiasm of thebidders in the two-stageprocurement process.

Oakervee steered thedevelopment of the project to winRoyal Assent for legal authority tobuild the link as well as the

procurementphase andrecruitment ofleading seniorexecutives. He becomesinterim non-executive chairmanfrom next month when the newchief executive joins - RobHolden, the chief executive ofLondon and Continental Railways(LCR), which built High SpeedOne.

Also in recent months, thedeveloper – now part of Transportfor London (TfL) – appointed TerryMorgan, chief executive of TubeLines, to be non-executivechairman. He takes on theresponsibility from November.

Preparatory site works forCrossrail commenced in January,at Tottenham Court Road tubestation in the West End ofLondon. Main constructionactivities are programmed to start

next year.On the procurement of design

services, Framework Agreementswere awarded at the end of 2008and gives the winners the right tobid for work packages. A dozenparties were notified: AedasGroup; Atkins; BDP; CapitaSymonds; Halcrow; HyderConsulting (UK); JacobsEngineering UK; MottMacDonald; Ove Arup; ParsonsBrinckerhoff; Scott WilsonRailways; and, WSP UK.

Procurement is also underwayfor project oversight services tobe provided to the Departmentfor Transport given the largepublic funds that are being givento the scheme.

AJV of FCC and Sando haswon a contract to build a

section of high-speed rail link inAlmeria province, Spain, thatcalls for 14.6km of tunnelling.

The twin tubes will be boredmostly by EPBM over distancesof 5.8km and 5.9km, respectively.The excavation diameter is 10.5mand segmental lining is 500mmthick with PP fibres.

At the southern end the boresare to be advanced by NATMover distances of 1.5km and1.4km, respectively. Excavation isto be drill and blast as well asconventional mechanicalmethods. Lining thickness will be350mm of shotcrete or 500mm ofreinforced concrete.

The twin tubes will be linkedby 15 cross passages.

The US$321M contract wasawarded by the rail networkcompany (ADIF). The tunnelsdominate the Sorbas-Barrancode los Gafarillos section of thehigh-speed line.

FCC winsrail job

Channel Tunnel owner and operator GroupeEurotunnel SA has reported improved

operational results for 2008 after entering into theblack for the first time the previous year, anddespite the revenue impact of the major fire in theNorth running tunnel in September.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation andamortisation (Ebitda) was US$536M, which is up5% at constant currencies. Revenues and otherincome improved 4% on the same basis toUS$953M, which is 16% more than the minimumtarget in the 2007 recovery plan. The company haspaid its first dividend to shareholders.

Eurotunnel has proposed that a new firesuppression system for any future freight trainincident is fitted in the twin tube running tunnels.Discussions are underway with the controllingauthority of the bi-national undersea link, theIntergovernmental Commission (IGC), with variousalternatives under discussion.

The new fire-fighting zones may be located atstrategic cross passages, as the tunnels are usedfor evacuation (see p7).

After insurance payments to cover theoperational and damage costs of the fire,Eurotunnel said the net impact of the incident onits results for the 12 months was a cost ofUS$12.8M. The figure is the level of excess it hasto pay against insurance cover of up toUS$1,146M.

The budget for the repair programme, whichsuccessfully brought the affected stretch of tunnelback into service last month, was given asapproximately US$76.4M. Late last year thecompany also gave an estimate of the revenueimpact during the last half of September alone asUS$28M. No further figure for the subsequentimpact on revenues has been given.

However, in its results, Eurotunnel noted againstits revenues that insurance payouts to 31December 2008, in relation to operating lossesonly, totalled US$56M after deducting the excess.

Chairman and chief executive, JacquesGounon, said in a statement: ‘Despite the incidentin September, the year 2008 clearly marks the endof financial uncertainty for Eurotunnel.’

Eurotunnel ’08 result up despite fire

BUSINESS & FINANCE

11MARCH 2009 Tunnels & Tunnelling International

Crossrail namesProg Partner The Peru-based underground support systems company

Agrhimerc has been acquired by Dywidag-Systems International(DSI), which also launched a local subsidiary DSI Peru to hold thebusiness.

DSI bought the 12-year old business last month and all employeesof the Lima-headquartered firm have been transferred to DSI Peru. Thegeneral manager of the new unit is Rafael Vizquerra Bellido, who wasa co-owner of Agrhimerc.

The business brings newly developed forepoling system to theunderground excavation market.

The purchase is the latest acquisition for the expandinggroup, which is owned by venture company CVC Capital

Partners. Recently, DSI bought the Brazilian undergroundsupport systems company Fosminas Ancoragens.

In neither case was the price paid for thepurchase disclosed.

DSI acquiresPeru’s Agrhimerc

BUSINESS NEWS

Engineering design work forthe Western Metro extension

in Helsinki, involving significanttunnel and underground stationconstruction, has been let inpackages to a numbers ofcompanies.

Last month the developer andoperator, Länsimetro Oy, awarded14 consultancy contracts for theproject to twin tube link betweenthe Finnish cities of Helsinki andEspoo. The contracts rangedfrom rock engineering and tunnel

design to architecture and M&E.The entirely underground

13.9km long link will extend westfrom the present terminus atRuoholahti to Matinkyla with sevenintermediate stations - Lauttasaari,Koivusaari, Keilaniemi, Otaniemi,Tapiola, Niittymaa ad Niittykumpu.Each tunnel has nominalexcavated dimensions of 6m wideby 4.9m high.

Two rock engineeringcontracts were awarded. FromRuoholahti to Keilaniemi (the first

station in Espoo) the studies willbe undertaken by FKW. Over theremander of the line, fromKeilaniemi to Matinkyla, the workwill be done by Poyry inconjunction with Sito andFundatec.

FKW is also to undertakegeotechnical design work for theWestern Metro extension.

The Poyry team will be lookingat tunnel engineering, accesstunnels and five undergroundstations, plus HVAC and electrical

engineering for the entireextension. Poyry said the value ofits services in the detailed designphase is US$1.7M.

Last year, Sweco was awardedthe approximately US$12.9Mcontract for the projectmanagement of Helsinki’sWestern Metro extension (T&TI,November 2008, p14).

The project budget isapproximately US$904M and thescheme is due for completion bylate 2013.

12

Anumber of roadheadercontracts in Russia, Algeria

and Italy, plus a TBM for Sardiniaand one despatched for Brazil,have helped the tunnellingactivities of the Wirth group tostart the year well, it reports.

The tunnelling activities wererecently merged with the miningand foundation units to form themining and constructionbusiness. Wirth said the orderswere a positive start to 2009.

Wirth received an order for aT3.20 roadheader fromToneldorstroy for excavation workin Sochi, Russia, part of the hostcity development work for the2014 Winter Olympics.

Two of the same models wereordered for a rail tunnel project inAlgeria. OHL has ordered themachines to help excavate theRas el Ma and Guessaba tunnelson the Ramdane Djamel toAnnaba link.

The T3.20 was also requestedby Oberosler for a road tunnel in

Italy. The contractor is buildingthe Val Badia tunnel taking theE66 below Sonnenburg Castle inthe southern Tirol and wanted theroadheader with a short lead-time, said Wirth.

An order for a hard rock TBMwas place by Todini to bore arescue tunnel in road tunnelproject on Sardinia. The 3.9mdiameter gripper is to start boringin October at the Marapintau andMatineddu tunnels on the SS125between Capo Boi and Terra Mala.

The company has supplied a6.19m diameter TBM to bore atunnel for a gap pipeline projectin Brazil. The shield will drive a6km long tunnel through graniteand gneiss in the highlands areaof Sao Paulo state. The hard rockstretch is part of a 98km longpipeline project.

Excavation with the TBM isscheduled to start in May. Theshield was previously used tobore a water supply tunnel inNavarra, in northern Spain.

Wirth M&C unitstrides ahead

Design moves for Helsinki metro

The contract to build the SanFedele road tunnel at

Roveredo, in Switzerland, hasbeen awarded to a joint ventureled by local firm CSC ImpresaCostruzioni.

A 2.4km long, single boretunnel is being built to enable theN13 national highway to bypassRoveredo, in the canton of

Graubunden.CSC is a subsidiary of Italy-

based construction groupImpregilo. Its JV partners in thecontract are local firms Frutigerand PraderLosinger.

The JV was awarded theUS$100M contract by the federalroads authority, Ufficio federaledelle Strade (Ustra).

Swiss road tunnel jobawarded to CSC JV

Your reliable partner for tunnelling personnel - www.tunnelcrew.nl

Seli’s second Compact DSUis to be despatched this

month to Chile to be preparedto help a mining companyundertake exploratory drilling forcopper ore later this year.

The 4.5m diameter CompactDSU is to be used by theDragados-Belsaco JV to drive a8,125m long tunnel at the LosBronces mine for the site owner,and TBM customer, AngloAmerican Chile.

Last month the shield wasofficially inaugurated with boththe customer and contractor,and the TBM is expected to startexcavation in June. Thetunnelling work at the mine isdue to be completed after a year.

The value of the contract toSeli to design and supply theCompact DSU plus backup andequipment, and providespecialised workers andtechnical assistance duringexcavation, is approximatelyUS$12.9M.

The Compact DSU is alsoequipped to install rock bolts,steel set and wire mesh from

below the shield fingers.Seli developed the tunnelling

system to give double shieldadvantages while being simpler,less expensive, shorter andeasy to be dismantled by beingbolted, it said. The companymade it to work with both NATMand steel segmental linings, bean alternative to the general useof open shields, and becomemore competitive with headingand bench drives.

The system does not workwith concrete segmental lining.

Anglo American Chileannounced two years ago that itplanned to invest approximatelyUS$1.7bn to double copperproduction by 2016.

The Compact DSU systemwas first used on Italian energyutility Enel’s Crevola Toce IIIhydropower project. Seli hassupplied a 4.2m diameter shieldfor the tunnelling work.

The contractor on thetunnelling project is a Seli-ledjoint venture with Monti andGiacomini (T&TI, November2008, p6).

Seli’s Compactready for Chile

013tun0309 17/3/09 10:20

014tun0309 16/3/09 11:57

15

W ith an exceptional responseto its calls for papers and asold out exhibition, theHungarian organisers of this

year’s ITA-AITES World Tunnel Congresshave worked very hard to bring together allthe ingredients for a very successful event inthe beautiful and historic city of Budapest.

Following the traditional ITA WelcomeReception on Sunday 24 May, the Congressbegins with an Opening Ceremony at9.00am on Monday, in the newly refurbishedBudapest Congress & World Trade Center.Keynote lectures follow, with presentationson European transport policy from EUDeputy Director-General for Transport,Zoltán Kazatsay, risk management by ITAPresident, Martin Knights, and soft groundtunnelling methods by General Manager ofWBI Engineering, Walter Wittke. ParallelTechnical Sessions begin on Mondayafternoon, and the ITA Secretariat, in co-operation with Piergiorgio Grasso and Eivind

Grøv, have also organised an interestingOpen Session for Tuesday morning. Avariety of social events and tours have alsobeen arranged, including technical tours tothe Budapest Metro construction works(see box).

“We are expecting to attract a largeaudience for the event, with over 1000delegates,” says Pál Kocsonya, CongressChair and President of the HungarianTunnelling Association. “A total of 180papers will be presented during theTechnical Sessions and we are alsoexpecting about 250 poster presentations.”The organisers are also expecting a lot ofprofessionals to attend from Asia,particularly as China and Thailand will bothbe bidding to host the WTC2012.

T&TI will of course be in attendance and,co-incidentally, this May will be celebratingits 40th Anniversary. So we look forward toseeing you, and celebrating with you, at theWTC 2009 in Budapest! T&T

MARCH 2009 Tunnels & Tunnelling International

Budapest hosts WTC 2009On 23-28 May, the international tunnelling industry will assemble inHungary’s capital for what is set to be one of the most successfulITA-AITESWorld Tunnel Congresses in recent years

ITA PREVIEW

AFTES Plant &Equipment BranchAmberg GroupARCADISAtlas CopcoBabendererdeEngineersBASF ConstructionChemicalsCeresola TLSConsorzio TreEsse/RocksoilDenka ChemicalsDMTDSIEDILMAC dei F.LLIMACCABELLIEncardio-riteElectronicsErkatFiReP InternationalFömtervGeoconsultGeodata GroupGeodata SpAGeokonGerman Belt SystemsGoeckeGünther SpelsbergHerrenknechtHídépítINECO TIFSAITECHKrampeHarex FIBRINLanxess DeutschlandLovatMapeiMarioff Corporation

Matrics ConsultMining EquipmentMinova CarboTechNFM TechnologiesNormet InternationalNorwegian TunnellingSocietyOfficine MaccaferriRascor InternationalS&B IndustrialMineralsSchauenburg MABSchauenburg Tunnel-VentilationHerco KühltechnikSELISIKASociedade Portuguesade GeotecniaSoldataSolexpertsStrabagSwietelskyMagyarországSwiss TunnellingSocietySystemairThe RobbinsCompanyTIWOTNO DianaTunnels & TunnellingUVATERV EngineeringConsultantsVMTWBIXella Trockenbau-Systeme

EXHIBITORS LIST

The troubled 37-year history ofBudapest’s Metro Line 4 is well-known,but at long last, in 2007 the constructionworks finally began. The new line willconnect the southwest of the city to thenortheast.

The first 7.5km section, betweenKelenföldi Railway Station and EasternRailway Station, is due to be completedin late 2011, comprising 10 stations. Thesecond 3km section (with four stations),between Eastern Railway Station andBosnyák Square, is to be completed in2013. With further extensions planned atboth ends of the line, its total length willbe 15km. The project is co-financed bythe Hungarian State and the BudapestMunicipality, with supplementary fundsfrom the European Union.

The single-track twin running tunnelsare being excavated using two 6mdiameter closed-face EPBMs. Themachines were launched in the spring of2007 and an average progress rate ofabout 15m per day, depending upon soil

conditions, is currently being achieved.Concurrent to TBM excavation, a300mm thick reinforced concretesegmental lining is being installed.

Due to the relatively shallow depth ofthe running tunnels, most of the stationsare open cut box structures constructedfrom the surface using diaphragm orpiled walls with horizontal steel andconcrete structure supports.

Construction works for all 10 stationson Stage 1 are progressing well, with themajority of stations about 40-50%complete. Tunnelling works are currently50% complete, and the shields havenow reached the Danube, whichrepresents the end of tunnellingoperations in Buda side of the city.

More information about Budapest’sLine 4 Metro construction, includingtechnical tours, will be available at the2009 ITA World Tunnel Congress, inBudapest this May. For more informationor to register on-line visithttp://www.wtc2009.org.

METRO CONSTRUCTION IN BUDAPEST

Above: Budapest’s Line 4 Metro works

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016tun0309 16/3/09 11:58

17

C onsidering how the globaleconomic recession hasimpacted drill and blasttunnelling, it might be

appropriate to dub the sector ‘EvenSteven’. A downturn in demand due to theeconomic conditions is being countered bya boost in activity thanks to governmentfunded infrastructure projects. Along withtunnelling in general, it has emerged one ofthe few industries resistant to the currentglobal economic turmoil. Leading industryfigures say what they expect they are losingout in private investment is being made upfor by major project investments bygovernments which are trying to spendtheir way out of trouble. Instead of bracingthemselves for a downturn in trade, themajor equipment manufacturers arepositioning themselves to take advantageof a burgeoning trade.

Industry experts say the demand for drilland blast tunnelling continues to be drivenby its traditional markets, with the biggestappetites for equipment coming fromNordic countries, the European Alps andEast Asia. A steady stream of business willflow from projects that are approved oralready underway in China, Taiwan, HongKong, Spain, Norway and Sweden.Sweden, for example, will continue torequire equipment for massive projects likethe Northern Link highway project and the6km rail tunnel (the Citybanan) that will runthrough the centre of Stockholm. HongKong’s ongoing Harbour Area TreatmentScheme (HATS) is another of the majornational infrastructure projects demandingdrill and blast services.

In all, business was good for theindustry’s two major suppliers, Sandvikand Atlas Copco, last year. Sandvik said

“2008 was a record year once again”,while activity levels for Atlas Copco’s drilland blast in 2008 were reportedly as goodas in 2007, with 2009 predicted tocontinue the trend.

This activity is fuelling the competitionbetween the major players to provideadvances in drill and blast technology,equipment and solutions. The challenge

now is to hone the efficiency of hardwareand software tools; 2008 saw strongadvances in both.

Atlas Copco outlookMikael Ramström, product line manager forunderground drilling rigs at Atlas Copco’sUnderground Rock Excavation Division,said their most popular rigs in 2008 were

MARCH 2009 Tunnels & Tunnelling International

Steady future forDrill & BlastDavid Wheeldon talks to top Drill& Blast manufacturers AtlasCopco and Sandvik to find outhow the international financialcrisis is effecting the discipline

FOCUS ON DRILL & BLAST

Top: The Atlas Copco XE3 C rig being used by Veidekke at the Northern Link projectin Stockholm, Sweden.Bottom: The Atlas Copco E2 C two boom hydraulic tunnelling and mining rig

the Boomer E-series - more specifically theBoomer XE3 C and Boomer E2 C models.

The Boomer XE3 C is a three-boomhydraulic tunnelling rig with high reachconsole. Its other features include a fourthgeneration Rig Control System (RCS) withinteractive operators panel and full-colourdisplay; BUT 45 heavy-duty hydraulicbooms; COP 1838ME, COP 2238 or COP3038 rock drills for high-speed drilling;BMH 6800 heavy-duty aluminium feedswith double bottom for high-speedtorsional resistance; housed in a sturdycarrier with all-wheel drive. It has acoverage area of up to 198 square metres.

The Boomer E2 C is a two-boomhydraulic tunnelling and mining rig withcomputer controlled drilling system, whichincorporates the BUT 45, with doublerotation units for ± 135 degrees feedrotation and ±190 degrees roll-over; andCOP 1838ME COP 2238 or COP 3038 rockdrills with modern dual-damping system. Italso comprises fourth generation RCS, andan ergonomic cabin for the operator’scomfort and safety. It has a coverage areaup to 137 square metres.

A new development incorporated into theBoomer E-series in 2008 was RHS E RodHandling System, which Mr Ramström saidhad proven a highly popular safetyenhancement in Nordic countries: “Whenyou use this equipment you can connect anumber of drill rods to make longer strings,sometimes up to 25m in length, in order todrill longer holes. Handling these manually isvery heavy work, so we introduced asystem that makes this processmechanised, so drilling operators don’t haveto manually handle the heavy drill tools.”

An advance in automation technologythat the company delivered to the market in

2008 was the Atlas Copco Tunnel Profiler -a fully integrated tunnel profiler for laserscanning of the tunnel profile. This optionfor the machines allows the operator to seehow the actual drill and blast of the tunnelis taking place in relation to themeasurements designed. “There are similarsystems already on the market, but thegood thing about this is that it is fullyintegrated into with the drilling rig and it’snot an add-on system. This is important forimproving quality assurance,” MrRamström said

In 2009 the company has continued topush advances in drill and blastapproaches with upgraded versions of theAtlas Copco Tunnel Manager computerprograms, which are used for making drillplans and analysing logfiles. Three versionswere revised and updated, including thestandard Tunnel Manager, the Pro versionand MWD - a specialized version used formaking deep analysis of rockcharacteristics in a tunnel.

A component of the software welcomedby engineers is the Drill Plan Generator,which as the name suggests, canautomatically generate drill plans based ofa set of defined rules. Mr Ramström said:“Some of these plans mean placing morethan 100 holes on a drawing; it is verytedious work to sit there and do this. Withthis tool you can input that you want acertain pattern and it is automaticallygenerated.”

According to Atlas Copco the chief areasof interest, as customer demand dictates,remain safety and ergonomics, highprecision tunnelling and quality assurance.

The Sandvik viewSandvik’s major advances in 2008 camethrough its DTi series of tunnelling jumboswhich, Pekka Nieminen, Vice PresidentTunneling and Underground CivilEngineering at Sandvik Mining andConstruction said were the company’s mostpopular units in 2008 in terms of sales.

The series includes four different modelsfor excavation of 16–203m2 cross sections,including face drilling, bolt hole drilling, andmechanized long-hole drilling. Thesemodels were designed for automatic use,and the auto mode works as per thedesigned drill plan and drilling sequence toadd to the predictability of the tunnellingprocess. For added flexibility in special rockconditions it also includes features allowingthe operator to fine-tune the process online. Lock-to-Target helps the operator torapidly find the correct hole position,QuickStep allows the operator to affect theoperation steps, and Dynamic Correctcontinuously redirects drilling when thebooms are moving, keeping the hole



Above: Atlas Copco’s Tunnel ProfilerBelow: Atlas Copco’s Tunnel ManagerMWD in use

Sandvik’s DTi series drill rig

bottom as planned. The operator can alsoadjust drilling power level, feed and rotationspeed on line when appropriate.

A feature used to add to the accuracy ofthe DTi series is the boom control. It isbased on proven and widely testeddeflection compensation but improvedfurther with new features: Roll-over jointand boom location compensation model.The rig’s accuracy features also include anew type of front centralizers that offer drillsteel guidance in the collaring phase. Inaddition, the drill bit remains inside the frontguide in the collaring; this allows the bit toget as close to the rock as possible.

Another feature added to increaseaccuracy was the option of advancedfactory calibration meant for customer usein job site conditions.

Working conditions and safety were alsopriorities in the design of the DTi series.The modern, FOPS-certified safety cabinwas designed with a 20% larger windowsurface to give the operators a feeling ofspace and provide better visibility in alldrilling applications, also when the cabin isnot elevated. Adding to the visibility is anoperator seat placed as close to thewindshield as possible, and high powerxenon lights for drilling and tramming.Features include an ergonomicallydesigned workstation with armrestintegrated controls, efficient air filtrationand optimized flow, and noise andvibration suppression.

The components are damage-protected,and to improve ergonomics all daily servicepoints and most of the components weremade accessible from the ground level.

The jumbo’s “intelligence” features nowinclude condition monitoring and a built-inself-diagnostics system. It comprisesonboard diagnostics on screen, graphicalrepresentation of component andsubsystem statuses, and clear and simpleerror messages. All events in the controlsystem are recorded for later analysis tohelp service personnel identify problemsand save time. The company says this allleads to significant cost-savings.

With the DTi series in late 2008, thecompany simultaneously released its ownnew tunnel planning software, SandvikiSure, which offers a new way of workingwith blasting and drilling patternssimultaneously. According to the company,the major benefit of the new software lieson the utilization of the level of hole ends -where the excavation is at its mostdemanding and where more energy isneeded to break and loosen rock - forcalculating the hole spacing and burden.The iSure ensures optimized blasting as perplan and supplies better pull-out,decreased need for scaling, increased rock

loadability and smoother collaring in thefollowing round. Sandvik says theeconomical benefits to users can rise toimpressive amounts, thanks to fasteradvance of tunnel and reduction ofoverbreak and consequently savings oflining concrete.

One of the new advanced features in theiSure is that it uses explosive power andthe specific charging requirements of thedifferent parts of the tunnel cross section,weight and power of explosive charges inholes as well as the depth of the fracturezones as the basis for the drilling andblasting pattern design. Additionally, thefracture zone can be visualised during thepreparation of the pattern.

The iSURE produces a review of thedrilling process as it offers a possibility toreport round, user, service as well as overallperformance. The reports offer both anumeric and a graphical display of theresults. The program generates visual 3Dand diagram presentations of severalessential parameters of drilling, offering anMWD tool for excavation processdevelopment and rock monitoringdevelopment.

Together, Sandvik says its new softwareand rigs offer the possibility to defineseparate drilling parameters for differentkinds of holes. This feature allows lowpower and longer collaring phase forcontour holes where accuracy plays a keyrole and high power for field holes to cutdown the round time without sacrificing theprofile quality.

Promising outlookWith such new hardware and softwarebeing eagerly snapped up off the assemblyline, there is strong incentive for the majorplayers to redirect funds into research anddevelopment. As is the case withgeographical market trends, a fewtraditional areas demand much of the focus.According to Atlas Copco the chief areas ofinterest, as customer demand dictates,remain safety and ergonomics, highprecision tunnelling and quality assurance.

For Sandvik, Mr Nieminen said safety willremain, “high in the agenda”, while “factorssuch as drilling accuracy, overallperformance and user friendliness shouldnot be forgotten”.

Both companies emphasised theimportance client input plays in developingdrill and blast equipment. As Mr Nieminensaid: “Various customers participate in thedevelopment process before, during andafter a development project. In otherwords, we are in co-operation whenmapping the needs and, having launchedthe product, we naturally collect feedbackfrom the customers.”

As might be expected, both companiesremained tight-lipped about potential newdevelopments in 2009. However, MrRamström confirmed Atlas Copco was“working on things” and was on track torelease new products in spring. At Sandvik,Mr Nieminen said work remained focusedon the Sandvik DTi jumbo family and theiSure tunnel planning managementsoftware, with new releases coming, but hedid not express a timeframe.

In the meantime, the future looks brightfor the industry. As Mr Nieminen said fromsandvik’s perspective: “The tunnellingbusiness is strongly related to infrastructureconstruction. Therefore, the outlook for usis good as long as the governments andstates have money to invest ininfrastructure projects.”

However the company plans to stayvigilant in mind of the global economicconditions, “we, like everyone else, have topay attention to our costs and improveefficiency in order to remain competitive inthe coming years,” Mr Nieminen said.

For Atlas Copco, Mr Ramström agreedthe next five years would herald a boom, aslong as the plans made by governments“materialised”. On the global economicdownturn, he said there had been no effect“on the tunnelling sector so far and we donot expect a drop in the near future”. T&T



Above: Sandvik’s iSure system offerssimultaneous drilling and blasting patterns

SITE REPORT - NEW ZEALAND


P roject Hobson involves thereplacement of a 90-year-oldabove ground sewer that crossesHobson Bay in Auckland, New

Zealand, and which is nearing the end of itseconomic life, with a 3km long, 3.7m I.dsegmentally lined bored tunnel.

The US$60M project will offer severalenvironmental benefits to the Owner,Watercare Services Ltd and the localcommunity by providing capacity to meetprojected growth in the region, whilst virtuallyeliminating wastewater overflows intoHobson Bay and the Waitemata Harbour. Italso removes an obtrusive visual feature andopens up the bay for recreational purposes.

When the project was initially conceivedduring the environmental consentingprocess, conventional tunnel excavationtechniques were envisaged using aroadheader. Due to the presence of twopalaeovalleys, which have been infilled witha combination of marine alluvium andvolcanic deposits, a deep alignment wasrequired to allow for a conventionallysupported tunnel in the siltstones andsandstones of the East Coast Bay Formation(Waitemata Group). This approach resulted

in a pump station over 50m deep andcommitted Watercare to high operatingcosts throughout the life of the facility.

During the detailed design phase thedecision was made to utilise an EPBM to liftthe alignment as high as possible whilstremaining below the most adverse groundconditions - a basalt flow from LittleRangitoto on the eastern side of HobsonBay. An EPBM was specified to deal withthe variable ground conditions, andincludes various features to mitigate therisks associated with the higher alignment.

The utilisation of latest TBM technologyallowed the alignment to be lifted by around20m resulting in a significant power savingover the life cycle, and reducing the carbonfootprint of the project.

The projectThe Hobson Bay sewer services all of thewastewater and part of the stormwaterrequirements for central Auckland, which isan area estimated to be 3000ha. At presentHobson Bay receives an average of 23storm-related overflows from the Orakeisewer and branch 1, 2 and 3 sewers a yearwith an estimated total volume of

16,600m3. Overflows from the existingPump Station 16 contribute another30,500m3, making a total of 47,100m3 perannum of overflows to the harbour that areeliminated by the new tunnel.

This new tunnel will receive flows fromthe Orakei Main Sewer and branch sewersand convey the flows to a new pumpstation, PS64, which will pump to theEastern Interceptor. The bored tunnel isapproximately 3km long and has an i.d, of3.7m and o.d, of 4.2m. The tunnel is beingconstructed using an EPBM capable ofoperating in open and closed modes. Theground support will be provided using asingle pass, precast concrete, bolted andgasketted precast concrete segmentallining. Two (8m and 5m diameter) inletvortex drop shafts together with a new 22mdiameter pumping station will also beconstructed as part of the project.

The horizontal alignment commences onthe west shoreline of Hobson Bay adjacentto Logan Terrace. Logan Terrace Drop Shaftprovides the upstream connection to theexisting network. The tunnel crosses thewestern side of Hobson Bay to the VictoriaAvenue Peninsula and then close to theexisting foreshore, to connect with VictoriaAvenue Drop Shaft. The tunnel continuesacross the eastern side of Hobson Bay,below the Orakei ridgeline to a new pumpstation (PS64) within the Orakei Domainadjacent to PS16 (figure 1).

Initial ConceptThe project was developed by preparing theAssessment of Environmental Effects (AEE)based on a concept design, prior to thecommencement of detailed design. The AEEwas lodged in March 2004, and consentswere issued in November 2006 following ahearing at the Environmental Court.

As stated, the initial concept used in theAEE was for a deep tunnel constructed byconventional tunnelling i.e, a roadheader, inthe East Coast Bays Formation therebyavoiding the two infilled alluvial channelsthat overlie the ECBF in the east and thewest of the alignment. At this stage only

Left: Fig 1 - Project Hobson alignment

Tom Ireland, Watercare Services Ltd, Rory Bishop, McConnell DowellConstructors Ltd, and Craig Bournes of Lovat, describe how a TBMoption made the Hobson water tunnel a more environmental solution

Project Hobson TBMoffers greener option

Waitemata Harbour

Hobson Bay

Orakei Basin

Orakei

Parnell

OrakeiDomain

construction site

Victoria Avenueconstruction site

Shore Rdreserve

constructionsite

Logan Terraceconstruction

site

Vict

oria

Aven

ue

ParnellPa ellExisting Hobson BaySewer

Tunnel

Temporary accesscauseway

preliminary geotechnical investigations hadbeen completed.

The detailed design of the projectcommenced during 2005. Key to the projectwas the depth of the tunnel that would berequired to allow conventional excavation,and the incurred high costs associated withthe 50m depth of the pumping station.

The decision was then made to utiliseTBM technology to lift the alignment ashigh as possible, whilst remaining belowthe troublesome basalt flow from LittleRangitoto on the eastern side of HobsonBay. The strength and consistency of thisbasalt flow is variable and there is potentialfor the rock to be water charged. Thereforethe risks and TBMperformance/configuration requirements tobore through the basalt were notconsidered acceptable. A tunnel elevationwas therefore established to pass belowthe underside of the basalt. The finalalignment was approximately 14m higherthan the corresponding roadheaderalignment (figure 2).

With the decision to utilise a higheralignment, the geological risk profile for theproject increased. The roadheader tunnel(figure 3) would pass through one relativelyconsistent, and tunnel friendly material, theEast Coast Bays formation, whereas theTBM alignment would need to negotiateECBF, Ash/Tuff, Recent (Holocene)

Alluvium, and Older (Pleistocene andPliocene) Alluvium.

There was also still an overriding risk of apotential intersection with the LittleRangitoto basalt lava flow even with thehigher alignment. Whilst significantgeotechnical investigations wereundertaken to define the underside of thebasalt flow, this is a complex task, assignificant variations in basalt depth arepossible as the flows fills the erosionalsurface at the time of the eruption.

The other risks associated with thehigher alignment were:• Tunnelling through mixed face conditions

at the unit boundaries• Tunnel face stability in alluvial units• Significant water inflows within the

ash/tuff units• Risk of volcanic ejecta (called “bombs”),

which can be made from hard material.These risks were primarily managedthrough the specification of an EPBMdescribed further below.

Watercare Services Limited also electedto manage and share tunnelling riskthrough, among other key measures, theimplementation of a Geotechnical BaselineReport (GBR) - one of the first uses of thistype of document in Australasia[1].

Baselines for material properties were set



Project Hobson geologyThe basement rocks in the Auckland region comprise greywackeand argillite. These are overlain by the Waitemata Group that isdivided into a number of distinct subgroups and formations. TheEast Coast Bays Formation (ECBF) occurs throughout the HobsonBay area and comprises shallow dipping alternating beds ofextremely weak to weak sandstone and siltstone. There areoccasional interbedded lenses of Parnell Grit, a weak tomoderately strong sandstone. These sediments were depositedapproximately 15M years ago in shallow seas and have beensubsequently uplifted and eroded to form the foundation of themodern landscape. Intermittent volcanic activity has occurredthroughout the region resulting in basalt cones and flows and anumber of explosion craters that give rise to local depressions

and tuff deposits. Two main volcanic centres have affected theHobson Bay area; the Orakei Basin, which has formed as a resultof an explosive eruption and coinciding ash and tuff deposits;and the basalt lava flow from the eruption of Little Rangitotovolcano. The ash and lapilli deposits consist of unconsolidatedbeds of angular to rounded, well sorted, dense to vesicularbasalt fragments. When weathered the ash deposits behave likesoft to firm, silt and clay. The Tuff consists of very thin gradedbeds of angular to rounded, well sorted, clay and sand sizedejecta comprising pre-volcanic material as well as basaltfragments. The tuff may be very soft, compacted or welded.When weathered, it can exhibit behavioural characteristicssimilar to loose to dense sandy or silty gravels.

The basalt lava flow from the eruption of Little Rangitoto,comprises very strong rock, with a fine grained crystalline

texture. The top and bottom surfaces ofthe lava are highly fractured, behavingas a vesicular gravel and cobbles withsoft clay and silt infilling. Recentalluvium comprising loose silty sand tovery soft silty clay to silty sand, and olderalluvium comprising firm to stiff silts andclays of medium to high plasticity and/ordense sands and gravels, has beendeposited in the low lying areas.

Pumiceous deposits of Puketoka formation Alluvium encountered ECBF

Drilled depth25m

Drilled depth19.8m

Drilled depth22.4m

Drilled depth16.5m

CP

T353

CP

T354

CP

T355

CP

T344

CP

T343

CP

T352

CP

T351

Pleistocene Allvium ECBF Weathered ECBF

Rohana Street Railway embankment Line of ground surface LoganTerrace

connections96m

41m

Waitemata sandstone Marine muds

Above: Fig 2 - Longsection included inthe AEE showing depth to invertRight: Fig 3 - Roadheader tunnel crosssection envisaged in AEE

Top: Eastern Paleovalley detailBottom: Western Paleovalley detail

in terms of the average of a statisticallyrelevant sample. For the driven tunnelling,the drive is broken into geographical unitsof similar conditions (called “reaches”), asshown in Table 1.

Risk management was undertakenthrough the specification of mandatoryclosed mode operation and probe drilling.For example within Reach 3, the tunnelpassed through the East Paleovalley, whichformed part of Hobson Bay. It wasexpected that mixed face conditions wouldbe present comprising weathered ECBF,volcanic deposits such ash and scoria andthe older (Pleistocene deposits) muds. Itwas specified that the TBM should beoperated in closed mode within this reach.

Also the geotechnical risks taken by thetenderers was limited where it was felt thatbetter project value was achieved throughWatercare taking certain risks. The primeexample related to the depth of basalt flow,and this key baseline was set in Reach 3i.e, the basalt will not be encountered withinthe tunnel horizon. Forward pricedvariations were provided to addressencountering the basalt (Table 1).

One of the geological units expected tobe encountered in Reach 3 is known tocontain volcanic ejecta (called “bombs”),which can be made from hard material. Abaseline was set to limit the number andsize of bombs to be priced. Forward priced

variations were included for encounteringmore than the baseline number.

For the more consistent Reaches, wherethe tunnelling face was expected to consistof entirely ECBF, the Contractor was giventhe option of open or closed mode.

Green benefits of the higheralignmentThere are various environmental benefitsassociated with a higher alignment. Theheadline environmental benefit is the powersavings and the associated savings incarbon emissions. It is estimated that theannual pump power savings is around3000Mwh which is equivalent to saving of690t (based on 0.23tCO2 per Mwh[2]) ofCO2 per annum[2] - or removing 150 carsfrom the road. Thermal ElectricityGeneration currently represents only one-third of electricity generated in NewZealand[3] and therefore electricity CO2emission rates are low by world standards.If this rate of CO2 emissions continuesthrough the life of the project, then 69,000tof CO2 emissions will be saved, although itis worth noting that current governmentpolicy is to reduce carbon emissions fromelectricity generation to nil by 2025.

Other environmental benefits associatedwith the higher alignment include lesswaterpressure on the tunnel, and thereforelower leakage rates, leading to savings intreatment costs, and reduced settlementpotential. Also the higher alignment requiresless use of finite resources such as steel,cement and concrete aggregates requiredfor a deeper pump station and drop shafts.

TBM specificationAs part of the risk managementundertaken by Watercare for this project,a detailed TBM specification wasprepared so that the machines offered by

each of the tenderers adequatelyaddressed the geological risks presentedby the higher alignment.

As noted above an EPBM is being usedon the project, although the specificationalso allowed the use of slurry machines.The main potential benefit offered by aslurry machine was the improvedperformance tunnelling though basalt.Whilst the TBM needed to be designed totunnel though the basalt, this risk wasconsidered unlikely, and even if required itwould be for a short distance.

The requirement for tunnelling throughthe alluvium in the paleovalleys beneathHobson Bay meant a closed face machinewas required, although the opportunity forboth open-mode and closed-modeoperation existed on the project.

The fundamental requirements of theTBM to address the geological risks were:• Face pressure controlled to match the in-

situ ground and groundwater pressures• Means to measure volumes of excavated

material to match advance• Continuous grouting of the annular void• Minimising of overcutting and loss of

ground resulting from steering anddirectional control

• Automatic controls to achieve facepressure control, control of excavatedvolumes, and tail void grouting

• Tools and cutting head configurations tocover both the expected groundconditions, and the basalt lava flow

Other specified requirements included:• Cutting tools shall be replaceable from

the rear of the cutterhead• Soil conditioning system designed to

inject water, foam or another lubricantsuch as a polymer to the face

• Computerised laser guided guidancesystem

• Guillotine doors to seal within 20seconds the excavation bulkheadwhen encountering running ground orflowing water

• Compressed air system to allow toolchanges within soft ground areas

• Variable drive system for the cutterhead• Screw conveyor design to accommodate

volcanic block/bombs of 180mm diameter• Probe drill to allow 20m to be drilled

ahead of the face• TBM data collection system

The key to managing the risks presentedby the higher alignment related to thepossibility of intersecting the basalt lavaflow. The team’s approach was to specify aTBM that could tunnel through the basaltusing disc cutters if it was encountered.The other key risk was to confirm the depthof the basalt prior to reaching it so that the



Reach

Chainage (m)

Length (m)

Land/marine

Cover (m)

Recent alluvium

Older alluvium

Volcanic deposits

Basalt

Soft rock

TBM mode

2958 2810

148

Land

28

2810 1700

1110

Land

21 - 78

1700 1300

400

Marine

21

1300 410

890

Marine

21

410 240

170

Marine

21

240 5

235

Marine

21

Startup & trials(closedprobing)

Option(open/closed)

Closed Option(open/closed

Closed Option(open/closed)

OrakeiDomain

OrakeiRidgeline

EastPalaeovalley

Southernsection(VictoriaAvenue

Headland)

WestPalaeovalley

(CentralSection)

WestPalaeovalley

(CentralSection todrop shaft)

Table 1

Total drive length

Weekly average since commissioning

Top shift performance

Top daily performance

Top weekly performance

Top monthly performance

2417

90

16

31

127

500

2900

108

19.2

37.2

152.4

600

Numberof rings

(1.2m long) m

Table 2

tools could be changed from rippers todiscs in free air. It was proposed to confirmthe depth of the basalt using probe drilling.Although there are forward price variationswithin the contract for head interventionsunder compressed air, from a time, costand safety perspective this was to beavoided if at all possible.

Contractor, McConnell DowellConstructors supplied a new LovatRME170SE 23700 TBM with a cut diameterof 4.353m nominal. The TBM length is 8mand the total length is 70m. The TBMweight is 175t and the total weight is 250t.

Progress to dateTBM tunnelling commenced onprogramme on 11 June 2008. Tunnelling isundertaken in 8x12hr shifts and 2x8hrshifts per week with a maintenance shift onSaturdays. At the time of writing themachine had 200m to go with completionby the end of January, two weeks ahead ofprogram.

The machine has performed very well,with an availability of over 90% (Table 2),

and has lived up to the reputation of Lovatmachines for robustness and reliability.

ConclusionProject Hobson brings significantenvironmental benefits to Hobson Bay andWaitamata Harbour. In particular, in theregion of 50M litres per annum ofwastewater that currently overflows intoeither Hobson Bay or the harbour will becaptured and the recurrence interval foroverflows into Hobson Bay increased to 1in 10 years.

There are also social and culturalbenefits associated with removing theexisting sewer that that is constructedabove the high water level, is visuallyintrusive and severs the bay.

The application of the latest TBMtechnology to the project meant thealignment could be raised resulting in anestimated saving of 690t of CO2 emissionsevery year which is equivalent to removing150 cars from the road.

This project is also the first use of anEPBM in New Zealand. T&T



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1. H Asche, M Sheffield. 2008. Creating a GeotechnicalBaseline Report for Project Hobson, Auckland. InProceedings of the 13th Australian TunnellingConference, Melbourne, VIC, 4-7 May 2008, pp387-392.The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy,Publication Series No. 3/2008.2. Ministry of Economic Development. New ZealandEnergy Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-2006. June2007. ISSN: 1177-9764 (on-line).3. Ministry of Economic Development. New ZealandEnergy Data File. June 2008. ISSN: 1177-6684 (on-line).

REFERENCES

Above: The Lovat EPBM


Letters

Dear SirI write to T&TI on behalf of the CVAconsortium, which is composed of the fiveprincipal Brazilian contractors and twoconsulting companies. CVA were recentlyblamed by the Brazilian TechnologicalResearch Institute (IPT) team working forthe prosecuting authorities, for causingthe tragic metro station collapse in SãoPaulo, which took the lives of sevenpeople in early January, 2007. Theauthorities nominated IPT and somenational and international consultants toperform the 18 months investigations (seeresumé in the recent Barros et al., Nov. 08,T&TI report “Lessons from Brazil:Pinheiros examined”). IPT’s official reportruns to 3,000 pages and 46 volumes.

I would first like to address T&TIEditorials of May, 2008 (“Let’s get (geo-)physical” by Tris Thomas) and November,2008 (“Risky business?” by Amanda Foley).T&TI has understandably tied significantparts of both editorials directly to the two‘opposing-parties’ articles, now printed inT&TI. (The first, by the undersigned, wastitled ‘A unique metro accident in Brazil”,T&TI, May, 08).

As an international tunnelling consultanthaving practiced in more than 30 countries,in a wide variety of tropical and undesirablyexotic geological conditions, I would haveliked to be able to share T&TI implied beliefthat ‘unforeseen ground conditions’ couldbe virtually removed from the vocabulary oftunnellers. With sufficient access, sufficient(geo)physical techniques, and sufficient timeand budget, this ideal could no doubt beapproached. Deeper construction of metrostations from underground, would of coursebe safer in tropical terrains, but clearly notmore expensive, as T&TI suggested in thefirst editorial. Cities without suitable geologyalways have to go deeper. Only theescalators and their shafts are moreexpensive. Stations and metro tunnels aremuch cheaper, and faster driven when atgreater depth, in more uniform geology. One

needs to look no further than London,Prague, Moscow etc. Large-diameter shaftconcepts should cease to be a validconstruction option, when majorconstruction can be from the underground.Longer escalators are a small price to pay.

As editors of any published material, it islogical that one must believe in materialthat is submitted for publication. Theeditorial of November 08, in which T&TIsuggest, based on a synthesis of the IPT-and-consultants article, that “the groundconditions were found to be more or lessexactly as predicted at the time of bidding”is understandable in the circumstances inwhich it was written, taking in good faiththe veracity of the submitted article. In viewof the fact that painstaking excavationthrough 16,000m3 of collapsed soil, sand,saprolite, gneiss and mylonite, actuallyrevealed the presence of an undiscoveredridge-of-rock, with top elevations mostly 9to 11m higher than the evidence of theeleven nearest boreholes, one of themdrilled almost in the cavern centre, thisconclusion by both IPT and the T&TI editorhas to be challenged. Besides the centre-line hole, the four closest boreholes weredrilled immediately around the cavernwalls. The real situation was illustrated, in asimplified diagrammatic manner, in theMay, 08 T&TI article referred above.

The above rock-head elevationdiscrepancy, clearly not as predicted atthe time of bidding, is miraculouslypassed over in the IPT article, and in their3000 pages report, perhaps because theirpainstaking drawings of collapsed rockhave erroneous (-5m) elevations in relationto the contrary evidence of thousands ofphotographs, relatively few of which theyreproduced. Even after falling 9 to 10m,rock levels were still as high as presumedfrom borehole evidence. In other locationsin the 46 volumes, their dip-and-strikerecords of jointing show the correct high,central ridge elevations. IPT geologistsperhaps did not notice, nor do theycomment this discrepancy.

Their report, reflected in the Nov 08 T&TIresumé, bears witness to many

misunderstandings of rock mechanicsprinciples and tunnel stability concepts,including the idea that the adjacent shaftexcavation would reduce, rather thanincrease the tangential stress acting abovethe cavern arch. The IPT-and-consultantshave also assumed that Ko of 1.5 is moreconservative for cavern stability analysesthan the designer’s choice of Ko of 0.33.Their team of geologists, engineers andeven professors, also draw incorrectconclusions from some of their own 3Dcontinuum analyses concerning direction-of-excavation effects.

Rock cover was expected to be a mean 3to 4m above the cavern arch, based on themean of the five nearest boreholes referredto above. The reality: an inverted wedge orridge of higher quality rock up to 11m higher,surrounded by weak, weathered material,may have weighed as much as 15,000 tons,taken together with the loading from relic-jointed saprolite. Collectively, this providedthe adverse loading in the arch, sufficientboth to fail some of the elephant footings atthe base of the lattice-girder reinforced40cm thick S(fr), or to cause yielding andplastic-hinge development of this load-bearing structure, where footings were moreresistant. In places, the lattice-girder steelbars of 30mm and 25mm diameter wereseen to have been plastically stretched andfailed in tension. This matches post collapsemodelling with UDEC and structural elementforce-moment N-M analyses.

Some points in the IPT-and-consultantT&TI article of November 2008 needparticular comment. It is not correct thatthe rate of excavation accelerated duringthe excavation of the first bench. It is notcorrect, due in fact to the number of dayslost in the Christmas recess. However, it isnormal that bench excavation goes fasterthan tunnel-front excavation: that is why itis performed throughout the world. It isalso normal and expected that increaseddeformation results. The acceleratingdeformation shown in the last three to fivedays prompted additional stabilizingmeasures by CVA, but even if there hadbeen time to carry these out, failure, withthe benefit of post-collapse analysis,would have been inevitable, due to theunprecedented loading.

The Pinheirosdisagreement

Left: The Pinheiros station collapses inJanuary 2007, killing seven


Dear SirWe write with regard to the recent article inthe December 2008 Issue of T&TI, reportingon the British Tunnelling Society Meeting onthe Dubai Metro. We found it both interestingand informative.

We are also familiar with the stratareported in the article and have had theopportunity to describe and test thesematerials on a number of projects inDubai in recent years. We would like tocomment on the “typical engineeringproperties” listed for the principal strataencountered on the project in Table 1 ofthe article.

With regard to the shear strengthproperties, most soils and rocks have acurved failure envelope at low stressesand a cohesion value can be derived froma linear approximation to the curved failureenvelope, dependent on the normal stressrange selected by the designer. As suchthe cohesion quoted to 4 decimal placeswould seem overly precise. The frictionangle value quoted for the sandstonestrata (18o) is also very low and we wouldhave expected much higher values for arock made up of cemented carbonate orquartz particles.

With regard to the stiffness properties itwould appear that there is some confusionin the units for the properties listed. Whilst

the E’ values for the Marine Deposits (inMPa) confirm our expectations, theremaining values of 0.0514MPa to0.0707MPa do not. Even if the units werein GPa (i.e. 51.4MPa to 70.7MPa) thereported values are considerably lowerthan we would expect for these strata. Byway of illustration we include a plot (ourfigure 1) of some recent data we haveobtained in the sandstone.

Figure 1 shows the results of a numberof tests for Young’s modulus, derived fromcorrelations with Pundit P-wave velocity(blue diamonds), borehole dilatometertests (green triangles) and uniaxialcompression tests (orange squares). Thestrain levels for each test have beenconverted to an equivalent totalengineering shear strain to facilitate direct

comparison between methods. It can beseen that, in common with many othernatural soils and rocks, there is a trend ofdecreasing modulus with increasing strain.

The technical literature suggests thatwe typically consider modulus values at astrain range of 0.1 to 1.0% for routinetunnel design. From Figure 1 this wouldsuggest that Young’s Modulus values inthe range of 200MPa to 350MPa could beconsidered for the sandstone strata.Lower values might be appropriate wherethe sandstone is poorly cemented andmore like a dense sand.

We hope that our comments will befound helpful.

Steve Macklin, Sara Anderson, and JackYiu (Arup Geotechnics)

In view of the eleven nearest boreholes,far exceeding international norms ofL(borehole)/L(tunnel) for a 40 x 19m spancavern, both the adjectives ‘unpredicted’and ’unpredictable in the circumstances’ areprobably valid. However, prompted by therelevant (geo)physical observation of T&TIeditor Tris Thomas (May, 2008), we mayobserve that seismic refraction had beenattempted by an IPT team 10 years earlier,on behalf of São Paulo Metrô, in a fewlocations along quieter (back-street) parts ofthe line, nevertheless without managing toprovide P-wave velocity estimates.

At Pinheiros, the station is immediatelyadjacent to seven lanes of 24 hours trafficand two rail lines, both key arteries in this17-million metropolis. Their presenceprevented IPT from performing refractionseismic successfully, even after theaccident. (Traffic chaos spread out toseveral kilometres radius, when one ofthese two parallel arteries was temporarily

closed following the accident).Road closure was not an optionfor such investigations, andeleven boreholes had notsuggested any necessity forsuch. ‘Unpredictable in thecircumstances’ is probablydefensible.

The evidence of elevenboreholes had also not given causefor performing ‘noise-protected’(down-hole) cross-hole seismic, ameasure that had in fact been used at onelocation by IPT 10 years earlier. Theirnearby (river-margin) boreholes, also usedfor 3D cross-hole hydro-tomography, hadshown a similarly consistent rock head, 14to 18m below the surface, and aremarkable 20s-1 (km/s/km) P-wavevelocity-depth gradient, from 2.2 to4.2km/s in the depth increment 14 to 24m,with Q-values also increasing from about0.1 to 4 in the space of the same 10m. On

thebasis of this,

potentially favourable footings for theelephant-feet could have been predicted,though the CVA designer chose to beconservative, and not take credit for such.

SincerelyDr. Nick Barton, Oslo, Norway

Dubai’s ‘typical engineering properties’?

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

E(M

Pa)

1.E-05 1.E-04 1.E-03 1.E-02Shear strain,Y (%)

1.E-01 1.E-00 1.E-01

Pundit P-wave velocity

Borehole diaometer

UCS with global strainmeasurement

ANYCOMMENTS?

If you have a comment oranything you’d like to put to the

industry we’d like to hear from you.Please contact the editor by post, email,

fax or through our web site:

Tris Thomas, ‘Tunnels & TunnellingInternational’, Progressive House,

2 Maidstone Road, Sidcup,Kent DA14 5HZ, United Kingdom.

Fax: +44 208 269 7840Email: [email protected]

Web: www.tunnelsonline.info

Right: Fig 1 - The author’s recent Young’sModulus test results for sandstone

Bombela Civil Joints Venture consortium, that consists out of Bouygues Civil Works, Murray & Roberts and SPG is currently busy with site demobilization and the following equipment / plant is available:

- COGEMACOUSTIC Tunnel ventilation fan: 30 to250 kW

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For more information contact:[email protected] Telephone: 0027 (0)11 997 8141 Mobile: 0027 (0) 83 632 9116 Address: 22 Milky Way Avenue

Linbro Business Park Johannesburg P.O. Box 1177South Africa

GAUTRAIN SITE DEMOBILIZATION

026tun0309 17/3/09 10:22

D avid Gutteridge opened thedebate in support of the motion,by asking the question “So whatis a successful tunnelling

contract?” David suggested that is whereyou have a satisfied client and all partieshave made a profit (with the exception oflawyers!). This could be achieved byensuring that everybody had the sameobjectives and that there was a goodtechnical solution before tunnelconstruction.

Co-ordinated planning, investigation anddesign was required, which is about theright people doing the right things at theright time including; reviewing alternativesand options early in the project and notwhen you have a construction contract inplace; establishing a likely constructionmethod; cost and time estimates in placeand scheme approvals in place, which if leftuntil award of construction contract coulddelay the whole scheme.

David suggested that contractors are goodat construction and should be left toconstruct and not design. Clients want toavoid unquantifiable risk, but with design andconstruct contracts (D&C) the original priceoften bears no resemblance to the probableoutturn price, as the contractor has to includemoney for this risk. The Client cannot passon all risk which needs to be considered earlyin the project by undertaking design beforeconstruction. This also leads to the mostefficient use of resources. In D&C there maybe four or more tenderers all doing the samedesign which costs money and it is ultimatelythe Client that will pay for this.

David argued, “All of these objectives arebest achieved through assessment ofuncertainties through Client design prior tothe tender as part of this co-ordinated riskstrategy”. This then allows all organisationsto be appointed on merit for both designand construction rather than solely on cost.Mr Gutteridge suggested that in D&Ccontracts there was often moreconcentration on cost perhaps and notreally assessing the risk in the cost.

David stated that detailed design wasnot necessarily the detailing of every

reinforcing bar but it was the whole projectbeing detailed in a sufficient manner toenable it to be built; perhaps 70% designallowing the contractor to adjust the designto suit the method of construction. “This isall part of a continuous project strategy thatwill lead to a successful outcome, but italso means that ownership of designcontinues throughout construction andthere will be no break in that process”.

David concluded that D&C:• lacks provision of available data to the

client to enable him to assess a fair costand the contractor has to price forunquantified risk

• makes poor use of combined skills of thewhole team and the objectives aren’talways the same

• involved more change leading to thedesign becoming subservient tocommercial interests

“If we get it wrong it is good for the lawyersand that is bad for our business.”

“It does not mean that ECI is wrong”David went on to say, “but that there is aright time to bring contractors in at say70% design. Nor does it mean thatPartnering is wrong as design can still beundertaken in advance of construction. It isbringing people into the partnershiparrangement at the right times”

David Fawcett led in oppositionto the motionMr Fawcett started by saying that MrGutteridge had suggested earlier that wewould, “Probably be using the samearguments tonight”. Having listened to MrGutteridge Mr Fawcett felt, “He was right”but “I have logic on my side”.

We are all well aware that tunnelling is an

art and you never know what you are goingto meet which makes it the fun andchallenge that we all enjoy. The designmust be appropriate for the constructionmethod and only the constructor knowsexactly how he his going to build it. Forexample tunnel lining design where thecontractor has redesigned (the originaldesign by a consultant) as it did not fit theirTBM or productivity rates. Also withSprayed Concrete Lining (SCL) “until youare in there and know what the ground islike how on earth can you design it?” Thedesign needs to be coincident and a fullyintegrated part of the construction process.

“It is sad to say that many designershave never worked at the tunnel face, andtherefore it is difficult for many of them tosee and fully understand how the designwill affect construction.’ Over the past 30years contractors had moved on and nowunderstand design. David believes that thecommon outcome of a fully engineereddesign was a large claim which is acompletely opposite view to that of theproposer.

Mr Fawcett then went on to describe theprocess by which a fully engineered designis achieved:• Brief for designer from Client• Undertake a Site Investigation, “which is

only 0.1% of ground that will be tunnelledthrough if you are lucky.”

• Create a design based on thisinvestigation

• Job Tendered on basis of this design• Construction commences and then

ground is often not as expected• Often the specification is not practicable

in reality, which leads to a dispute, whichis not good for the industry

BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY


The motion was presented at the annual BTS debate, and wassupported by David Gutteridge, Director Mott MacDonald, andseconded by Sir Alan Muir Wood. The opposition was lead by DavidFawcett, independent consultant, and seconded by David Hobson,Jacobs Director of Operations for Ground Engineering and Technology

“Tunnelling contracts are bestimplemented based on a DetailedDesign procured by the client beforetendering the construction contract.”

Mr Fawcett then described the processfor Design and Construct:• Brief for designer• Site Investigation follows• Designer then specifies an outline design

(10%)• Contractor is then appointed on a D&C

contractAlthough Mr Gutteridge said that this D&Ctender process was very wasteful, in theexperience of Mr Fawcett only about 10%of total design cost is expended at tenderstage. There are lots of different ideas thatarise and a lot of innovative designs areproduced. Contractors and designers worktogether to develop these innovativesolutions. Mr Gutteridge contended this isrisky to the Client as the cost is not knownbut very often these are fixed pricecontracts and with regard to claims, if thecontractor and designer have workedtogether and done their own investigationsthere is very little basis for a claim.Therefore, “the Client can know theoutcome as he knows someone hasspecified for him what he wants, and you, toend up with an optimum solution”.Designers and contractors working togetheras professionals to achieve an optimumsolution was a very satisfying process forboth parties leading to a satisfied Client.

Mr Fawcett listed several major projectsover the last 20 years that used some form ofprocurement where the design was carriedout after the construction contract wasawarded and these included The ChannelTunnel; National Grid cable tunnels; DTSStunnels in Singapore; 2nd Phase SSDS inHong Kong; Glendoe Hydroelectric Scheme;Oresund Link; A3 Hindhead (ECI); Brightonand Hove; Tyne Tunnel; Lee Tunnel;Docklands Light Railway. This demonstratesthat many of the major clients such asEurotunnel, National Grid, Danish, Singaporeand Hong Kong governments, SSE,Highways Agency, Southern Water andThames Water all use design and constructcontracts (or a form of them). “Are all of theseclients wrong? Are they all dissatisfied?”David was convinced they were not.

Some examples of the use of a fullyengineered design in advance werepresented including the Jubilee LineExtension where the outturn cost wasseveral orders of magnitude greater thanthe original estimates; the first stage of theSSDS in Hong Kong where there waslengthy and costly arbitration.

Sir Alan Muir Wood secondedthe motionThe main thrust of his support was that theClient needs to have sufficient design to

enable him to understand the project, butnot necessarily have all of the detaileddesign completed. Sir Alan picked up onthe Oresund crossing where one of themajor successes of this was the initialinvestigation design undertaken before thecontractor became involved so the clientunderstood the fundamental problems andcould therefore deal with the risk.

Sir Alan stated that over the last 40years there had been great strides made indesign and construction. He felt it wasessential that a designer shouldunderstand the essential constructionissues of what is being built and in thesame way the contractor must be able toengage with the designer so that they canunderstand the common features of whatthey are trying to achieve.

The common failings of the last 20 yearshave been the appointment of engineersadvising the Client being made on costrather than merit. For the success of aproject it is essential that, “All parties to acontract have to be treated asprofessionals.”

Sir Alan chose to use the Control of Riskto support the motion. “Tunnelling projectsare not inherently risky but they are allaccompanied by uncertainties at birth andthese have to be perceived as potentialrisks to be allocated and banished.” TheClient has to own part of the risk and needsto be involved in the early stages of thisprocess so that they can understand theirliability. Clients therefore need to be wellinformed and in the view of Sir Alan this canonly be achieved by them being involved inthe design.

Sir Alan described the evolution of thestrategy of dealing with employers riskpointing out that there were essentially 3options:• Prior to engaging other parties and

allocating risk the issues are resolved, eg,ground uncertainties that need additionalinvestigation and dealing with externalparties. Sir Alan used the example of theOresund crossing where one of thebenefits of the Client design was that thescheme was agreed with all externalparties prior to contractor involvement

• Another option is that the resolution of theuncertainty is delayed until the contractorbecomes involved. Design, investigationand treatment are all undertaken at a singlestage, which would be associated with thetiming of early contractor involvement

• Some risks cannot be expressed suchthat they can be priced by a contractorand therefore specific provisions need tobe made for resolving these, such as theuse of reference conditions, defining

special payment terms etc for dealingwith these risks. This allows all parties togo into the contract each concerned withbenefits of the project and not about howto deal with unquantifiable risk, whichwould not be the case if the client was notinvolved in the designSir Alan used an example of US

procurement models where both thetraditional method of procurement was usedi.e. client design prior to tender process anda modified approach where the contractorassumes design responsibility. Whilstacknowledging that the client design maybe conservative in some cases, with themodified approach there were often a lot ofhidden costs included within changes to thedesign by the Contractor that the Client didnot have control over.

David Hobson seconded theoppositionDavid felt he needed to remind the houseof the motion, “Tunnelling contracts arebest implemented based on a DetailedDesign procured by the client beforetendering the construction contract” asthe three previous speakers all appeared tobe arguing against. This is what oftenhappens when a motion, or indeed aspecification clause, is not drafted correctlyas you need to redefine it once you start.There has been a redefinition by theprevious speakers with Mr Gutteridgedefining detailed design as 70% andSir Alan as “sufficient!” The word “best”was a superlative and on its own wasrather arrogant.

He considered the motion was poorlyworded and like a poorly wordedspecification clause was open tointerpretation; “This could be aspecification clause drawn up by adesigner,” which had to be reworded byprocurement in case it implied a method ofconstruction!

Design means planning, specifying,making sure that it is feasible, viable, costeffective, safe and which is accepted bythe client. This needs to be demonstratedbefore a contract is awarded. “Howeverdetailed design means that we have gotto physically implement it and producedetails that can demonstrate that it canbuilt safely, cost effectively and isconstructable. Who is the best personthe deal with when you want to seeif something can be constructed?The contractor. Therefore he needs to befully engaged in the detailed design andthis ensures that it is designed only once,as you are designing what the contractorwants to build”.



“The motion is not only poorly wordedbut also insulting to contractors as itassumes that the contractor does not bringany value to the detailed design as it is alldone before he gets involved”. Contractorsdo know about design and consultantsdon’t know it all before tender. Manydesigners do not get onto site oftenenough to understand all of the detail ofconstruction. David suggested that wecannot get all of the detailed design rightprior to tender so how can it be the “best”thing to do? This is recognised by ourinsurance colleagues in the codes of riskmanagement which acknowledges that youneed to do detailed design during theconstruction process.

“One of the things that many Clients donot want is a tunnel; they want what goesinside it e.g. railway, cables, anunderground store etc.” David agreed thata detailed design could be undertaken forwhat goes inside the tunnel prior to thetender as what is needed will not change.The one thing that is likely to changethough is the design of the tunnel as this isso method and ground dependent.

David concluded , saying the motion is:• too sweeping,• poorly constructed and ambiguous like

many of our specification clauses;• Arrogant for designers to say, and says

that we have been doing things wrong forthe last 20 years and the motion shouldbe rejected.

David Gutteridge summing up insupportDissection of the motion shows a sign ofweakness in the opposers argument as ittries to divert attention of the audience.“The argument put forward by theproposers is really all about riskmanagement, risk identification anduncovering the problems before acontractor comes on board so that there isa fair playing field and a fair result for all,which is often forgotten by those arguingfor a D&C process.”

Mr Fawcett presented a long list of D&Cprojects, but neglected to mention thosewhere the contractor may not have had asimilar view to him e.g. Dublin Port Tunnel.Mr Fawcett also mentioned SCL being“designed as it goes.” Whist MrGutteridge had no particular objection tothe use of the Observational Method, notto have an idea of what you may do if theground conditions changed by at leasthaving undertaken some design seemed avery risky approach.

“Nothing in the motion actually preventsconstruction expertise being involved

during the preparation of the design as itrefers to the construction contract.” TheHindhead tunnel has been discussed andthe design and construction expertise wasappointed very early in a combined teamand much of this design was completebefore the construction commencedwhich in Mr Gutteridge’s view supports themotion as it is just a different method ofprocurement.

Mr Gutteridge’s final point was thatwhether it was design or construction itwas about appointing the right people andno matter which method was adopted ifthe right people were not in place then thejob would not be successful.“Appointment on merit, not on cost”. MrGutteridge therefore commended themotion to the House.

David Fawcett summing up foroppositionPicking up on contributions from the floorDavid stated, “risk is not a problem if it ismanaged.” He also agreed that D&C hadput up costs as there was more cost to bebuilt into the tender, however he felt that

cost certainty was more of a priority formany Clients.

It was suggested that contractors donot like D&C and there may be some truthin this due to the increased tenderingcosts and indeed Mr Fawcett evensuggested that many consultants do notlike D&C because their costs are oftensqueezed. However, “it does not meanthat it is not the best way of procuringthese projects just because thecontractors and consultants do not likethem – for society it is still the best”.

In response to Mr Gutteridge on theObservational Method, David said that it isnot about just going in there and doing it,but is about managing risk.

Getting back to the motion Mr Fawcettfelt that supporters of the motion were outof date. He felt that completing the designbefore tendering the construction contract“was just not how we did it anymore”.With that Mr Fawcett asked the House tooppose the motion.

A vote was carried out by a show ofhands and the motion was narrowlydefeated. T&T



Phillip Wilson, Metronet suggested themotion was presented as black and white butnone of the speakers really believed this. Hecompared two M25 widening contractswhere the D&C contract came in on time andon budget whereas the detailed design onewas 30% over budget.

Mike McConnell, Retired, opposed themotion. He had concerns about the CDMRegulations and how the effect of these canbe incorporated at such a late stage.Tunnelling is about practical issues andgetting buildability and safety right; how canthese be done after 70% of the design iscomplete. Also getting accurate costestimates to assist in the selection of theoption to construct is not possible withoutcontractor being involved.

Tim Healy, Capita Symonds fullysupported the use of early contractorinvolvement, but this is not much good if thecontractor you are talking too does notactually build the scheme. Tim stated that theA3 Hindhead Tunnel was a good modelwhere following a fair tender the contractorhas then been involved in detailed design.Worst of both worlds is detailed design by aconsultant and then this is handed over to thecontractor who has to take responsibility forthe design.

Neville Harrison, Consultant MottMacDonald, stated that Crossrail consulted in

the early days with the leading contractorswho indicated that they did not want designand build, so there must be a feeling in thecontracting industry that this was not the bestway to go.

Tony Walters, Crossrail followed up bystating that in the early days it was Crossrail’sintention to procure as design and constructand indeed through the planning process,before the bill went into the House, this wasundertaken by both designers andconstruction practitioners. Crossrail askedthe market and they said they wanted a clientdesign on which they could tender. Tonysupported the motion.

Stewart Whittle, Gardiner and Theobaldwas concerned that there would beinsufficient design available prior to tender toallow a client designed scheme to becompleted without exposing the client to therisk of large claims.

David Beadman, said CopenhagenMetro was let as a D&C with only a singlerequirement to deliver a certain number ofpassengers between these squares perhour which was a very bold specification.The motion is too black and white and hetherefore opposed it. However he wouldsupport some definition of the tunnel suchas diameter, depth etc, and then allowdetailed design to be done by a contractor,but not the detailed design of everything.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

London –– Cannock –– Dinnington –– Golborne –– Paisley –– DublinHiview House, Highgate Road, London NW5 1TN. Tel: 020 7267 4366 Fax: 020 7482 3107 Email: [email protected] Website: www.murphygroup.co.uk

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030tun0309 16/3/09 12:03


ObituarySir Alan Muir WoodIn the February issue, on page 7,

we announced that Sir Alan MuirWood had died on 1st February2009, at the age of 87. His funeralwas held on 20th February, at asmall church at Ashampstead nearPangbourne and was attended byrepresentatives of the BritishTunnelling Society, the Institutionof Civil Engineers and theInternational TunnellingAssociation. A Memorial Servicewill be held on Thursday June 4th2009 at 1pm at St Margaret’sChurch, Westminster Abbey,followed by a reception at theInstitution. Further details will beannounced later.

Sir Alan was not only the mostwell known tunneller in Britain, butprobably in the world. It wasexcellent that he was at the BTSdebate in December last year whenhe was seconding the motion thatwas close to ‘his heart’ (p27).

Early careerSir Alan was born in 1921 and aftera degree from CambridgeUniversity joined the Royal Navy in1942. After the war he joinedSouthern Region of BritishRailways on permanent way,bridge and maintenance works. Heinvestigated the landslips atFolkestone Warren and wasresponsible for the remedial works.

He joined the Docks and InlandWaterways Executive in 1950,before joining Sir William Halcrow& Partners in 1952, where heworked initially on the design ofsmall diameter rock and softground tunnels, particularly GPOcable tunnels, and therehabilitation of old tunnels inStockport.

Alan will be especiallyremembered for his associationwith the “recent” history of theChannel Tunnel. Between 1958and 1960 he was the leader of ateam that carried out a technicalstudy on the Tunnel, whichincluded the interpretation ofavailable data about the groundand the seabed. He was ProjectDirector for the investigationscarried out by Franco – Britishconsultants from 1964 to 1965.

In 1973 to 1975 he was theHalcrow Partner responsible forthe joint consultancy team withMott Hay and Anderson (MottMacDonald) for the design andconstruction of the first stage ofthe Channel Tunnel Service Tunnelbefore its cancellation in 1975.

In 1981 the House of CommonsTransport Select Committee called

upon Sir Alan to be their SpecialistAdviser on the Channel Tunnel.

After he retired in 1984 Sir Alancontinued to advise Halcrow onthe Channel Tunnel beforebecoming a member of the 5-manDisputes Panel for the ChannelTunnel from 1988 to 1998, thuscompleting forty years on and offthe project.

He was also the SpecialistAdvisor to the House of CommonsSelect Committee on the ChannelTunnel Rail Link in 1985 to 1986.

Senior engineer topartnerSir Alan was appointed a HalcrowSenior Engineer in 1956 and wasProject Engineer on two majortunnelling projects:• The Potters Bar railway tunnels in

London Clay where theexpanded concrete lining wasused for the first time for a large(8.1m) diameter tunnel (1955 to1959)

• The twin road tunnels under theRiver Clyde in Glasgow 1955 to1964

During the downturn in tunnellingSir Alan was responsible forcoastal protection and cliffstabilisation works on the southcoast including works atFolkestone Warren where hestarted his career with BritishRailways.

He also advised the CEGB onthe cooling water tunnels forDungeness Power Station.

Alan was made a partner of SirWilliam Halcrow & Partners in

1964. During the next 15 years SirAlan continued his tunnellingcareer. He was responsible for theHeathrow Cargo Tunnel (1966 to1968) the largest expandedconcrete lined tunnel, which savedthe client 40% of the costcompared to a cast iron liningwhich would have been used withconventional methods.

This tunnel was 10.3m ininternal diameter. Sir Alan hadlearnt from the Potters Bar tunnelsand reduced the thickness of thelining from 0.68m to 0.3m for themuch larger diameter tunnel. Thetunnel was only 7m below the No.5 runway which was not closedduring the construction. Byspecifying strict control methodsthe settlement on the runway wasminimised to a face loss of only0.4% with the maximumsettlement of 11mm. There weresceptics who said that the tunnelwould collapse and pop out of theground. It is still there 40 yearslater and was a project that wascompleted on time and withinbudget which a proud Alan alwaysremembered and mentioned atappropriate times.

He was responsible for reportsand designs for the BritishRailways rail link to HeathrowAirport (which was never built) andthe early stages of the LondonUnderground Piccadilly Lineextension to Heathrow Airport.

Other tunnel projects during thisperiod included studies for roadtunnels under Bath to reducecongestion and studies of the

Glasgow Underground. He was aDirector of the Orange Fish TunnelConsultants (South Africa)responsible for the design andconstruction of the then longesttunnel in the world, 80km, whichincluded sprayed concrete linings.

His other activities included:• The investigation of the collapse

of the 2,000 tonne steel coalbunker at Sharlston, Yorkshire,and the design and supervisionof many reinforced concrete coalbunkers of up to 3,000 tonnecapacity

• Responsibility for design andsupervision of works to stabiliseNational Coal Board spoil heapsin South Wales and in NorthDerbyshire and elsewhere,following the disaster at Aberfanin Wales

• Studies and expert witness forcoastal problems and the expertwitness for the Government onreinforced earth

• Marine coastal works in the UK,in Greece and the DominicanRepublic of Honduras

• Sir Alan was also President of theInstitution of Civil Engineers 1977to 1978

BTS and ITAIn 1970 Alan was Chairman of theOECD Conference in Washington,on tunnelling. He called theconference “this uniqueconference” as it was the first timethat an international conference hadbeen held to advise governmentson the policy which they shouldadopt for tunnelling. The

conference led to nations formingtheir own tunnelling societies.• The inaugural meeting of the

British Tunnelling Society (BTS)was in March 1971 which wasattended by 300 people. The lateSir Harold Harding was electedthe first Chairman and Alan MuirWood was elected the secondChairman 1973 – 1974 and is theonly person to be elected twiceas Chairman (also 1975 – 1976).

Sir Alan was awarded the JamesClark Medal jointly with JohnBartlett, of Mott MacDonald in1994 for their services to theindustry and gave the Sir HaroldHarding Lecture in 2004.

The International TunnellingAssociation (ITA) was formed,following the Washington meeting,in 1974 and Sir Alan was electedthe first President and in 1977 hewas elected Honorary LifePresident, a post that he held untilhis death.

The ITA is the family ofinternational tunnellers which meetonce a year somewhere around theworld. He attended the 25thanniversary in Oslo in 1999 and wasat the meeting in Sydney in 2002.He kept in the background andadvised the Executive Committeewhen requested and when carryingout reviews of their structure.

Senior partner toconsultantAlan was appointed Senior Partnerof Sir William Halcrow & PartnersLtd in 1979 a position which heheld for 5 years until 1984.

He was appointed KnightBachelor in 1982, for services toengineering.

Sir Alan was responsible for:• Comparative studies between

immersed and bored road

tunnels across the River Thamesand the River Orwell at Ipswich

• The Cuilfail Road Tunnel inLewes

• Power stations and desalinationplants in the Middle East

• Studies for the World Bank ofsolar energy for small irrigationprojects

• Chairman of the ConsultantsBoard for a water interceptortunnel in Sao Paulo

• Member of the ManagementGroup for British MetroConsultants Group for theBaghdad Metro Project (1981 –1988)

When Sir Alan completed his termas Senior Partner in 1984 hedecided to retire early at the age of63. He became a consultant to thefirm so that he would be able tocontinue his civil engineeringcareer. He was still activelyworking until his death. One of hislast projects was an adviser on theGerrards Cross tunnel collapse.

Sir Alan worked for Halcrow for32 years, 20 of which as apartner. He worked as aconsultant for 25 years.

His world wide reputation meantthat Sir Alan was asked to work onmany projects as an adviser, onReview Boards, as an expertwitness and on Disputes Boardsincluding:• The Singapore North East MRT• The Sydney Ocean Outfalls• The ODA Mass Rapid Transit in

Developing Countries• The Health & Safety Executive

Enquiry into the HeathrowCollapse

• The Great Belt crossing inDenmark

• He advised the House ofCommons on the alignment ofthe Jubilee Line and a number of

developers which lead to thererouting of the alignmentthrough Greenwich

• The Heathrow Express cut andcover section throughcontaminated land

• The management of theMelbourne City Link, and later asan expert witness

• LUL and English Heritage on thetreatment of the Brunel ThamesTunnel

• He acted as an expert witnessfor North West Water Authorityduring the Abbeystead courtcase

• The Strategic Sewage Disposalscheme in Hong Kong

• Dredging for the Corio BayChannel in Victoria in Australia,and

• On the risk sharing and disputesresolution panel for the OresundCrossing between Denmark andSweden

Sir Alan somehow also found timeto write well over 100 articles,papers, books and lectures. Hewrote a number of books orchapters on tunnelling. This yearhe went to press only a weekbefore he died with the article inCivil Engineering on ThomasYoung and the Brunels.

There have been many articleson the Channel Tunnel, but theone paper that all tunnellersremember is the March 1975paper in Geotechnique on “TheCircular Tunnel in Elastic Ground”which is the bible for tunneldesign. He was the Chairmanresponsible for the CIRIA Report79 – Improved ContractualPractices in Tunnelling.

Sir AlanSir Alan has made a majorcontribution to the Civil

Engineering industry. We knowhim as a tunneller but his othercontributions to the industry havebeen immense. He was one ofthose rare people who had athorough grasp of the subjectthat he could combine both theart and the science of tunnelling.No job was too much and he tookon work as he enjoyed it, andwas enthusiastic, in solvingproblems and getting to thebottom of incidents.

He was a “a good Engineer” ofthe old school. People knew thatthey would be given a fair hearingin any dispute which would be fair,reasoned and not biased.

Sir Alan had somecontroversial views and thereforehis critics and not everyoneagreed with him, but he wassincere and gave a goodargument and discussion on anytopic he believed in.

He had firm views on The NewAustrian Tunnelling Method(NATM). As far as he wasconcerned it was not “new”, not“Austrian” and not really a“method”. He dedicated muchtime to the advancement of civilengineering and research.

He had very high standardswhich he expected you also toachieve and was critical, in a kindway, when you did not achievewhat he expected you to do. Buthe always remembered it!

He loved his garden withWinifred, his family, their careersand children. They both love operaand sat through The Ring on anumber of occasions.

He received Honorary degreesfrom four universities and said witha smile that “he was the onlyamateur doctor in the family.” LadyWinifred and their three sons hadearned their doctorates.• He was a Fellow of the Institution

of Civil Engineers• of the Royal Society• of the Royal Academy of

Engineering• of Imperial College• an Honorary Fellow of

Peterhouse College, Cambridgeand Portsmouth Polytechnic andvisiting professor of BristolUniversity

• He received the Institution of CivilEngineers Gold Medal in 1998

Sir Alan was a friend whom wewill all miss, but we willremember him as an inspirationand roll model to us all. Hisdedication to the CivilEngineering Industry and toHalcrow was exemplary. We giveour sincere condolences to LadyWinifred, their three sons and 8grand children in their great loss.


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1969…a year to rememberJanuary 3rd . . . . . . . .Michael Schumacher the German race car driver is born today

January 12th . . . . . . .The New York Jets defeat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7 in SuperBowl III.

January 20th . . . . . . .Richard Milhous Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United Statesof America.

January 30th . . . . . . .The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records.

February 9th . . . . . . .The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight.

March 2nd . . . . . . . . .In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted.

March 28th . . . . . . . .Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies aftera long illness.

May 20th . . . . . . . . . .The first issue Tunnels & Tunnelling International is mailed to industry professionals around the world and continues today to provide unparallelededitorial integrity and credibility.

July 20th . . . . . . . . . .Apollo 11 lands on the lunar surface. Neil Armstrong takes his historic firststeps on the moon.

October 1st . . . . . . . .The Beijing Subway begins operation.

October 16th . . . . . . .New York Mets win the World Series, beating the heavily favored BaltimoreOrioles 4 to 1.

October 21st . . . . . . .Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany.

October 29th . . . . . . .The first message was sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet.

November 15th . . . . .Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in theBarents Sea.

November 15th . . . . .Regular colour television broadcasts begin on BBC1 and ITV in UK.

November 19th . . . . .Soccer great Pelé scores his 1,000th goal.

December 15th . . . . .Tris Thomas, future editor of Tunnels & Tunnelling celebrates his 1st birthdaytoday!

3,000 additional copies of this issue will be distributed (8,000 in total) and also made freely available from our stand at following events:

ITA – World tunnel Congress, Budapest, Hungary 23rd – 28th May

RETC, Las Vegas, USA 14th – 17th June

Join us in the May 2009 issue to celebrate

Tunnels & Tunnelling’s 40th Anniversaryand advertise your company in this landmark issue!

034tun0309 24/3/09 09:57 Page 1

T he wet-mix shotcreting process iswell established as the leadingmethod of shotcrete lininginstallation underground due to

the large volumes involved, easiertransport of materials over long distancesand less dust emission for an improvedenvironment for the operators. Use ofcompact dry-mix equipment can still befound for small tasks including localisedrepair. Skilled operators can also adjust thewater flow for optimum concrete curingand ‘slump’ without the use ofaccelerators. However, most recentinnovation for underground use has beenaimed at large volume wet-mix work.

One supplier that has been investing isNormet with the establishment last year ofits Front Line international operation forsales, marketing and customer service inSwitzerland with Tom Melbye, formerly ofBASF UGC, as chief operating officer.Other current results of Normet’sinvestment include a new technologycentre being built in Finland to enable full-scale prototype manufacture and largerR&D facilities. The Company aims tomaintain R&D expenditure at 4% ofcompany turnover. Production capacity isalso being increased by two-thirds, andparts storage and control automated,making total investments worth US$8.8M.The project at Iisalmi, Finland is due forcompletion in March 2010 afterdeployment of the machining centre, withassembly of products in the new facilitiesby August this year.

Recent product developments includethe Spraymec 6050 W diesel-hydraulicmobile concrete sprayer within the 6050series. Aimed mainly at mining, the modelcan also be used in small tunnel sections. Ithas maximum coverage of 8m laterally and9.3m vertically.

With the acquisition in October of theChile-based Semmco Group, Normet hasadded that company’s range of robotisedwet sprayed concrete that Semmcopioneered in Latin America. The rangeincludes the best-selling Alpha 20 miningshotcrete robot. Normet has also set upnew regional offices in Australia, Miami -USA and Santiago de Chile as well as theEuropean regional office based with thefront line headquarters in Switzerland.

As part of the BASF ConstructionChemicals group, BASF UGC’s unusual inbeing able to offer both shotcretingmaterials and application plant. This ‘fullservice’ approach, together with a regionaloffice and production facility in nearby SanJose, Costa Rica, was a major factor inwinning the supply contract for theChanguinola 75 hydroelectric power plantproject in Panama. A civils contracting jointventure of E Pihl & Søn and M T Højgaard is

carrying out the construction for AES asowner, with Alstom Brazil as maincontractor. The 150MW plant, located in theChanguinola River Basin 345km northwestof Panama City, is due for completion bythe end of 2010.

Being an international operation,including having the San Jose base, aidedthe operation, explained Yves Girard,BASF UGC Manager Caribbean Cluster,based in Puerto Rico. “Being active

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worldwide had helped us,” he said, “asfirst contact was in 2006 and theequipment discussion started in 2007, notjust in Panama on the job site, but also inDenmark between our local undergroundspecialist and the Pihl company.”

The order features two BASF UGCMeyco Potenza Maxima remote-controlledmobile spray units to apply approximately20,000m3 of shotcrete to stabilise surfaceslopes as well as support the 4.3km longheadrace tunnel of horseshoe section.Depending on the ground conditions thesupport design ranges from class 1 with a35mm thick layer of fibre-reinforcedshotcrete to class 5 with a total of 200mmthick shotcrete placed with lattice girderarches. Ease of operation with minimalmovements and maximum coverage arefeatures of the Meyco Maxima Potenza putto great use at Changuinola. The two unitswere commissioned in June andSeptember 2008 including comprehensivetraining of mechanical and electricaltechnicians as well as operators, coveringmaterials as well as use and maintenanceof the machines. The Maxima sprayingequipment can be used in any tunnel profilethat the Potenza carrier can fit into, whilst along reach permits a large spraying areafrom a single location, aided by log ‘virtual’parallel movement of the spraying head.

Despite sophisticated control features,the ‘learning curve’ for the Maxima is saidto be short. The remote control has a fullgraphics interface with only two joysticksand a speed control. Computer-managedcontrol facilitates the axis-parallel lance

movement and nozzle positioningcompensation. There is also an ability tomark a spraying area and then, in semi-automatic mode, the operator can applyshotcrete along several paths parallel to apredefined axis.

ReinforcementMore efficient reinforcement of shotcretelinings continues to develop, especially withregard to various forms of fibrereinforcement in the concrete mix. Agrowing and now substantial history oftesting and site experience has proven theefficacy of fibre reinforcement made both ofsteel and polymers. Howeverunderstandable conservatism amongstmany designers may account for somedelay in the adoption in fibres, at least ofpolymer types.

Tests and experience have shown thatnot only is shotcrete fibre-reinforcementeasy to handle and install that steel meshsheets and similar materials, but theresultant strength of test panels is better orequal than that of shotcrete with meshreinforcement. The use of suitable polymerfibres has also been shown to deter spallingof tunnel linings under test fire conditions.

Synthetic or polymer fibres are availablein micro or macro forms. The first areintended mainly to address early agecracking problems but also offer damage-control advantages under fire conditions.Types are available that allow for anaesthetic surface finish to the concretewithout being able to see the fibresthemselves in the finished lining.

Polymer macrofibres on the other handare designed to compete with steelstructural fibres but at a lower dosage rate.The latest from Propex Concrete Systemsis Fibermesh 650 featuring Propex’s e3technology. The blend of alloy

polypropylene fibres is fixed in length,thickness and mix ration for knownengineering properties, and allowing forquick dispersal in the concrete mix. Thefibres are claimed to give greater surfacearea contact with the concrete forincreased interfacial bonding and efficientflexural toughness. A wavelike shape of theFibermesh fibres allows for betteranchoring whilst the higher possibledosage rate per volume gives added levelsof toughness, energy absorption anddurability. In application it is claimed thatmacro-synthetic fibres give less shotcreterebound and hence less waste, with thickerone-pass layers being possible.

For example, Andrew Ridout ofElastoPlastic Concrete (EPC) is now able toreport several new undergroundapplications of BarChip synthetic fibres inshotcrete mixes. These include the Oliolawater tunnel, which is part of the Segarra-Garrigues water transfer canal in northeastSpain. The primary ground support,installed by a joint-venture of OceanInfrastructures and M y J Gruas, consists offive 2m long rockbolts at one-metre centres,and a 50mm thick lining of shotcretereinforced with 48mm diameter BarChipShogun synthetic fibres. The fibres werealso used for reinforcing a pre-cast invertand cast in situ secondary lining. Theground supported comprised limestone andgreystones with some bands of gypsum.

In Norway 48mm diameter BarChipKyodo was used in a short but complexupgrade project for the Kykkelsrud-Fossumfoss (FKF) hydroelectric facility onthe Glomma River, 13km below ØyerenLake. Last year contractor VeidekkeEntreprenor AS used the reinforcedshotcrete plus rockbolts where required tosupport solid gneiss after drill-and-blastexcavation. The shotcrete was produced toperformance specification set out byNorwegian Publication No.7 that nominates

SHOTCRETE


Above and left: Stabilising slopes on theChanguinola 75 hydroelectric projectwith a MEYCO Potenza Maximaconcrete spraying rig

Below: At the shotcreted face of theChanguinola 75 HEP headrace tunnel

strength classes of 700 and 1000 Joulestotal energy absorption in tests. Theconstruction included a 120m long accesstunnel constructed on the route of an oldaqueduct, and a 70m long tailrace tunnelunder the river. The latter has a 110m2

section to connect incoming water from a34m deep shaft to the river, from the turbinegallery. EPC points out that this project isone of those that utilises the non-rustingproperties of BarChip fibre since thereinforced shotcrete will be exposed topotentially corrosive water over many years.

A notable project in terms of the modernuse of shotcrete technology is theHindhead Tunnel on the A3 highway inEngland, which, at the time of going topress, had just broken through. Not onlyhas this project, carried out by BalfourBeatty Major Civil Engineering for the UKHighways Agency, employed various typesof synthetic fibre reinforcement in theshotcrete mix, but it also features closelymonitored profiling both for roadheaderexcavation and the shotcreted lining. Thetwin-bored, 1.9km long tunnel passesunder the Devil’s Punch Bowl Site ofSpecial Scientific Interest at a maximumdepth of 65m. The portals are alsosupported by shotcrete.

Other additivesIn addition to accelerators to promote earlycuring with secure layer build-up, otheradmixtures that may be included inshotcrete include thixotropic materials,hydration controllers and bond improvingadmixtures. Accelerators are available indifferent chemical compositions but thepreference must be against alkali/causticforms that can be hazardous to the healthof operators.

The properties required of shotcretemixes can sometimes be complex,demanding an expert knowledge on thepart of designers and suppliers on thedesired and possible undesirableinteraction of admixtures. The schedulingdemands of the Gotthard Base Tunnelconstruction, for example, require theshotcrete mix to be as workable as long aspossible, due to the delivery distances, butalso to cure when required for early supportof the newly exposed rock and for ease ofapplication. Sika’s special admixtureSikaTard is used to stabilise the concretemix to ensure that it is workable for up to8h, whilst Sigunit AF accelerator ensuresthat strength development of the shotcretestarts on time. The high temperatures andhumidity in the long, deep excavations alsoplace extra demands on concreteproperties associated with the seemingopposite requirements for long-termworkability and early strengthcharacteristics. Sika says that the discoveryof high-range water reducers based onpolycarbonate ethers (PCE), as used in SikaViscoCrete, has made concrete moreworkable and stronger than was possible afew years ago.

DosingAccurate measurement, or dosing, ofadditives to the concrete mix is vital forachieving the required performance ofconcrete both during application and curingin situ. Chief amongst the materials beingdosed in are fibres and accelerators. Notonly is measurement important butengineers are requiring proof that thecorrect proportions have been dosed ratherthan just waiting for cured concrete testresults alone.

Normet’s Nordoser 900 H acceleratordosing system can be programmedaccording to the mix design aided by a 2-colour display and control modules with thelatter adjacent to the concrete pumpcontrols. An optional feature on the 900 EH4G model is a multiple data storage systemand a USB data transfer facility forcapturing cumulative concrete andaccelerator values at a given time.

Standards & EducationEFNARC, the UK-based EuropeanFederation of Producers and Applicatorsof Specialist products for Structures, hasbeen very active in developing standardsfor the shotcreting industries. At present itis aiming at getting the Europeancertification programme for nozzlemenstarted this year. To this end the EFNARCGeneral Assembly appointed Janne Lehto,Normet’s business line manager forsprayed concrete, as chairman of theNozzleman Certification Scheme. Lehtowas previously a project director withcontractor YIT Construction. The aim ofthe Nozzleman Certification Scheme is toimprove the overall quality of sprayedconcrete by raising the knowledge andstandard of sprayed concrete operators.Candidates are tested in theory andpractice at the workplace by an examinerwho has a wide experience ofunderground construction and sprayedconcrete and who has been independentlyaccredited by EFNARC. The schemeconcentrates on wet-mix, remote controlsprayed application and can be adaptedto other market sectors where the ‘humanelement’ in the installation process is asignificant factor.

EFNARC has also recently published anew specification and guidelines for thinsprayed linings for tunnelling and mining.However, this covers non-structural rocksupport and seals against gas, moisturetransfer and weathering, but the thin layermay provide temporary stabilisation andcontribute to the overall support such asfrom reinforced concrete, rockbolts andarches. EFNARC has previously publishedtechnical reports and guidelines onsprayed concrete, fire protection intunnels and viscosity modifyingadmixtures for concrete.

The American Shotcrete Association(ASA) is also active in practical educationto improve standards of shotcreting,having established specific shotcretenozzleman’s training with certification bythe American Concrete Institute since alaunch in 2001. Requirements include 500hof work experience, pass in a 90min,written examination, and completion of a2-part performance evaluation includingchecklist knowledge and creation of anacceptable test panel. The ASA now has afull Underground Shotcrete EducationProgram led by six approved educatorswho are all well-known leaders in theindustry. The programme covers the basicsof the shotcrete process includingmaterials selection and testing, basicequipment requirement, skill requirements

SHOTCRETE


Below: The portals of the new HindheadTunnel on England’s A3 highway – theentrance to several innovations inshotcreting and close profile control

for the nozzlemen and crew, propershotcreting techniques and safetyconsiderations underground.

Monitoring & observationWhile is completely possible to design ashotcreted tunnel lining from numerical andempirical data (as in the SCL or SprayedConcrete Lining Method), the lining methodis most often associated with observationalmethods such as the NATM. In these thedesign of the lining (probably selected froma range of thicknesses and degrees ofreinforcement) is determined according tothe ground conditions encountered and thereaction of the ground to excavation andprimary support measures. Within thisprocess monitoring throughinstrumentation is vital.

It is also important to check theperformance of shotcreted linings in otherdisciplines such as the SCL method toensure that lining performance is withindesign criteria. Engineering practice MottMacDonald has designed completemonitoring systems and developed

software to generate graphical output forready understanding of liningperformance. The practice has alsoworked with both Surrey andSouthampton Universities on a research

project using pressure cells and relatedinstrumentation to monitor shotcrete linedtunnels. It is also part of the Brite-EURAMIII project research into fibre-reinforcedshotcrete. T&T

SHOTCRETE


Some sources of further information related to the above:1. EFNARC (European Federation for Specialist Construction Chemicals) web-site -www.efnarc.org or e-mail [email protected]. New address:2. EFNARC, Association House, 235 Ash Road, Aldershot, Hampshire GU12 4DD,England; tel.: +44 (0)1252 342072, fax: +3339013. EFNARC European Specifications for Sprayed Concrete - Checklist for specifiers andcontractors - and Guidelines for specifiers and contractors4. Melbye, T. ‘Sprayed concrete for rock support’ - published by BASF UGCSprayed Concrete Association (UK) web-site www.sca.org.uk5. SCA; Introductions to Spayed Concrete’ with SCA Code of Good Practice -available from SCA (above)6. American Concrete Institute web-site www.aci-int.org - publishes ‘Certificationpolicies for shotcrete nozzlemen - ACI C 660’7. American Shotcrete Association web-site www.shotcrete.org8. ACI Committee 506 ‘Guide to qualification of shotcrete nozzlemen for specificproject’ revised9. Vandewalle, ir. Marc. ‘Tunnelling is an Art’. Bekaert

FURTHER INFORMATION

Tell us your needs!Normet International Ltd Neuhofstrasse 3D CH-6340 Baar Switzerland T +41 (0)41 768 52 00 F +41 (0)41 768 52 11

Normet Asia Pacific Pty Ltd 16D Ashwin Parade Torrensville (PO Box 772, Torrensville Plaza) SA 5031 Australia T +61 8 8152 77 00 F +61 8 8152 06 67Normet (Shanghai) Trading Ltd RM 17E Hua Du Building No. 838 Zhang Yang Road Pudong New District Shanghai China T + 86 21 6876 95 01 F +86 21 6876 95 03

Normet Americas, Inc. 5775 Waterford, Suite 110, Blue Lagoon Drive Miami, Florida 33126 USA T +1 786 433 11 04 F +1 786 433 11 08Normet Chile Ltda. Av. Chena 11.000, Industrial park South Door, San Bernardo, Santiago Chile T (56+2) 854 1955 F (56+2) 854 1711

Norservice LLP 37, Gagarina str., office 22 100604 Zhezkazgan Kazakhstan T +7 7102 761 391 F +7 7102 764 922Normet Group Ahmolantie 6 FI-74510 Iisalmi Finland T +358 (0)17 83241 F +358 (0)17 823 606

[email protected] www.normet.fi

> Safety and productivity> Reliability > Cost-effectiveness> Spraying quality

> CONCRETE

SPRAYING IN TUNNELLING

Outstanding spraying quality with 40 years experience.

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WTCBUDAPEST

Budapest, Hungary • May 23–28, 2009

th35 ITA–AITES General Assembly

and the

ITA–AITES

2009WORLD TUNNEL CONGRESS

"Safe Tunnelling For The Cityand For The Environment"

www.wtc2009.org

For the list of accepted abstracts,list of sponsors and exhibitors,

registration details and 3rd bulletinplease visit

DYWIDAG-SYSTEMSINTERNATIONAL

...for the latest jobs, visit the new tunnelsonline recruitment section

www.herrenknecht.de

www.vmt-gmbh.de

www.dywidag-systems.com www.helogistik.de

...the ultimate tunnelling resource


040tun0309 23/3/09 14:37

AHerrenknecht tunnel boringmachine and ancilliaries

totalling an enormous 6,000m3 forBarcelona’s metro expansion wastransported from Germany toSpain using the expertise ofproject management freightspecialists ALS (FreightManagement Group) Limited.

The heaviest and one of thehighest pieces in the consignmentwas a shield segment whichmeasured over 7m long, 7.5mwide, almost 4m in height andmore than 130 tonnes in weight. Inaddition a screw conveyor totalling19m in length, 2m wide, almost 3mhigh and weighing 84 tonnes wasthe longest piece transported.

The movement involved localroad transportation fromHerrenknecht’s factory to a

German river port andtranshipment to a barge usingHerrenknecht’s preferred localpartner and supervised by ALS’project team from Hull, UK &Moerdijk, Netherlands.

At Barcelona port the TBM andancilliary equipment was offloadedto waiting vehicles and quaysidestorage area by shore-basedcranes, using registeredstevedoring personnel andfacilities. ALS supervised reloadingto trucks from Barcelona Port andtransportation to jobsite.

Gary Boden (ALS OperationsManager) and Richard Vellekoop(ALS Branch Manager) have beenresponsible for the whole project,which has involved: undertakingroad surveys, arranging permits,removal of street furniture, barge

movements, sea freight, handlingand craneage.

“In view of ALS’ experience insimilar projects for Herrenknechtwhich includes the Channel TunnelRail Link (CTRL) ALS wereappointed to manage the completeTBM movement,” Mr Boden said.Abnormal LoadsWeb: www.abnormal-loads.com


ProductsAbnormal Load Movement

Tunnel boring machines areconsistently getting bigger and

quicker and consequently must besealed efficiently.

BASF Construction Chemicalshas entered into the main bearingsealing greases market withimmediate effect with the creationof a dedicated production plant.The new product line of MEYCOBSG excluder greases for tunnelboring machines have alreadybeen used in significant quantitieson selected machines made by theleading manufacturers – with

excellent results. Recently though,Merkel Freudenberg (Germany)and James Walker (UK), said to bethe industry’s leading main bearingsealing manufacturers, havequalified the MEYCO BSGexcluder greases making themappropriate internationally for alloperating tunnel boring machines.

The MEYCO BSG excludergreases completes the portfolio ofBASF speciality chemicalsdesigned for use with tunnelboring machines which includes:• MEYCO SLF and Rheosoil soil

conditioning agents• MEYCO ABR anti-dust and anti-

abrasion agents• MEYCO TSG tail sealants• MEYCO GA admixtures for

annulus groutsFurthermore, for this market BASFConstruction Chemicals offersMEYCO MP injection products,Rheocem microcements, as wellas concrete admixtures forsegmental lining.

With this BASF ConstructionChemicals believes it has the mostcomplete range of chemical

systems for TBM’s. In combinationwith the technical support of localtunnelling specialists, BASFConstruction Chemicals says it isable to offer a fast and all-inclusiveservice to the tunnelling industry.BASF Construction ChemicalsWeb: www.basf.comEmail: Lars [email protected]

TBM Excluder Grease

An Atlas Copco XAS186portable compressor is being

employed in vital structuralreinforcement work currentlyunderway at the Uskudarunderground station of the newtunnel linking Asia and Europeunder the Marmara Sea in Istanbul.

Work on the Metro started in1992 and a short line wasoperational by 2000, whichalthough just 7km long istransporting up to 70,000passengers per hour; indicatingthe urgent need for the extension.

The entirely upgraded and newrailway system will beapproximately 76km long, withmain structures including animmersed tube tunnel, boredtunnels, and cut-and-cover tunnels.

The diaphragm wall at Uskudar,on the Asian side of the tunnel, waserected in 2007 by contractorBauer as a temporary reinforcedconcrete structure to allowexcavation work. Two Atlas CopcoXAS 186 compressors supply airpower for the initial bentonite plant.

In addition, Bauer improved the

subsoil below the foundation levelof the underground station with awater-cement mix injected at highpressure through a small-borehole. This high pressure jetgrouting was supported by anAtlas Copco XRVS 476 portable aircompressor working at 25 bar anddelivering 27.7m3/min.

The north and south diaphragmwalls are now 280m long and thewest and east sides are each 35m.However, due to the punishingMarmara currents, and poor natureof the sub-soil below thediaphragm, the structure was stilldeemed unsafe enough to allowthe TBM into it to beginexcavation.

As a result, sub-contractorGulsoy Construction Company is

carrying out more reinforcementfor the JV main contractors Gamaand Nurol. This involves drillingsome 125,000 x 40mm diameterholes into the diaphragm structurein order to reinforce it with steelstruts and further concrete. AnAtlas Copco XAS 186 operating ata pressure of 7 bars and delivering11.1m3/min is supplying the powerfor the handheld drilling work nowunderway.

Once this work is completed,the contractors will have to wait afurther year to make certain thestructure is totally sound beforecontinuing.Atlas CopcoWeb: www.atlascopco.comEmail:[email protected]

Compressed workings

Anew Graphic Operator AngleDisplay (GOAD) system,

available on drill jumbos designedby J. H. Fletcher & Co. ofHuntington, WV, provides

operators with information thatimproves accuracy andproductivity of drilling. The systemuses sensors located on the drillbooms and feed mechanisms to

display the angle of drilling andhole depth. When the proper depthis reached, the systemautomatically retracts the drill.

“By monitoring the angle ofdrilling, the operator can moreaccurately align booms foraccurate hole placement anddirection,” explained Gene Wilson,manager of product development.

“Drill depth and flushingpressure are also monitored. Whenthe proper depth has beenreached, or if flushing pressuredrops, drilling stops and the drillsteel is removed.”

Fletcher is a leading designerand manufacturer of drill jumbos,roof bolters, mobile roof supports,scaling machines, tractors andpowder loaders used inunderground metal and industrialminerals mines.J. H. Fletcher & CoEmail: [email protected].


ProductsGOAD it on

Chosen by drilling contractorsworldwide for proven

reliability and economicaloperation in underground andsurface drilling applications, theSandvik DE100 range is beingexpanded. The new SandvikDE150 is Sandvik’s mostpowerful exploration drill rig forunderground exploration. Asurface version is underdevelopment and will be readyfor market Q4 2009.

The DE150 is powered by ahydraulic motor producing classleading torque of 2000Nm at485rpm. A hydraulic feed cylinderdesign gives a push and pullcapacity of 15 tonnes (147kN).Depth capacity is up to 2000m(NQ rods). In undergroundapplications the DE150 ispowered by a 110kW (150hp)electric power unit giving amaximum working pressure of250bar (3645psi) and oil flow of300l/min (79USG/min). For surfaceapplication the DE150 can bepowered by a diesel engine.

The Sandvik DE150 shares manyof the well proven componentsused by other drill rigs in theDE100-series. The drill unitfeatures a stiff and torsionresistant steel profile feed boomand a direct coupled feed cylinderwith a feed length of 1700mm andfeed speed of max 0.63m/s. Thefeed boom is mounted on a framewith tilt cylinder and mechanicalsupports. The mounting framehas been specifically designed forquick and easy set-up when fandrilling with a full range ofadjustment from vertical down tovertical up. The Sandvik DE150offers exceptional push and pullcapacity relative to its weight andsize and is also available in steelfor environments requiringexplosion proof drill units.

Sandvik’s DE150 Torquecontrol enables optimal balancefor torque and rotation speed.The control panel is a pilotoperated hydraulic system whichgives the operator central controlof all drilling operations includingflush pumps, wireline hoist andboom tilt. The system alsocontrols hydraulic systempressure, feeding force, holdback pressure, water pressureand water flow.Sandvik Mining and ConstructionWeb: www.sandvik.comEmail: [email protected]

New drill,new power

The ARO Fluid Technologiesdivision of Ingersoll Rand

Industrial Technologies has releaseda new line of portable air-operateddiaphragm pumps speciallydeveloped for mining, construction,sump and other operations where areliable, dewatering and solidshandling pump is an every dayrequirement. Pit Boss pumps arebuilt to handle the toughestapplications while ensuring highflow rates of up to 821L/min.Notably, they are equipped with adiaphragm that the company claims

lasts up to four times longer thancompetitive models and with apatented air motor that guaranteesworry-free operation without iceover or stall out.

Pit BossTM pumps deliverindustry-leading performance withpowerful suction lift andimpressive flow rates to cover themost demanding operations. Ifsemi-solids and solids are anissue, optimized flow passagesenable transfer of fluids withparticles up to 25.4mm indiameter. Pit BossTM pumps also

have one-way exhaust checkvalves, enabling submersion ifthere is a need to place a pumpdeep in a sump or hole.

Pit BossTM pumps are built towithstand extreme conditions andprovide the highest levels ofreliability. While other pumpsfrequently ice over or stall out, thePit Boss pumps patented airmotor designs ensure worry-freeoperation. A removable screenedinlet, furthermore, keeps foreignparticles out of the pumps in orderto eliminate failure related topumping debris.

The pumps also featurecollapsible comfort-grip handles forconvenient portability. They areavailable in three discreet port sizes.An integrated base plate distributesweight and ensures operation onsoggy and unstable terrain.

Air-operated Pit BossTM pumpsare intrinsically safe and can be usedin hazardous areas and explosiveenvironments without fear ofignition-related sparking.

Pit BossTM pumps are builtwith serviceability in mind.Bolted construction allows forfaster and easier maintenance,especially compared tocompetitive models featuringband clamps. Readily availableservice kits are also provided.Ingersoll RandWeb: www.fluids.ingersollrand.comEmail: [email protected]

Pit Boss Pumps

T: +44 (0)20 7336 5283 E: [email protected]

tunnels & tunneling classified advertising

Ref: PN3835 TBM Shift Boss, North America

Ref: PN3828 Tunnelling Director, India

Ref: PN3827 Tunnel Engineer, Hong Kong

Ref: PN3822 Tunnel Engineer - TBM, India

Ref: PN3816 M&E Engineer, London, UK

RECRUITMENT

do you have a vacancy to fill or some equipment to sell?in print | and | on-line - contact Frank Bloomfield

International Tunnelling Services BVRivium 2e straat 41b, 2909 LG Capelle aan den IJssel,

The Netherlands Phone: +31 10 266 94 44 Fax: +31 10 266 94 45

With teamwork tothe breakthrough.With teamwork tothe breakthrough.

Experienced personnel of different nationalities.

www.tunnelcrew.nlwww.tunnelcrew.nl

Are you looking for experienced personnelto work on your tunnelling projects?

We are specialised in tunnelling recruitment solu-

all levels, from back-up labour to project manager.

solution to your recruitment need?Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

E-mail: [email protected]

Engineering RecruitmentUK & OVERSEAS OPPORTUNITIES

• Tunnel Project Manager – Dublin – Attractive salary & BenefitsThis rail project includes twin TBM bored tunnels & excavated underground stations. Similar project experience required.

• Senior Tunnel Design Engineers – Hong Kong - Attractive salary & BenefitsExperience in design and construction of tunnels and corresponding geotecnical works (TBM tunnels, Soft Groundtunnelling, NATM tunnel and Rock Caverns).

• Tunnel Design Engineers – UK & OverseasExperience of Immersed, TBM, NATM, SCL & Cut & Cover Tunnels.

• Tunnel Site Engineers – UKExperience of Pipejacked, TBM, SCL & Cut & Cover tunnel projects.

For further information on these & other opportunities, please contact Daniel Lee-Billinghurst.Tel: + 44 (0) 207 754 5999 Email: [email protected]

Web: www.v-engineeringrecruitment.com

Specialist Recruitment hays.com/internationalAustralia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada China Czech Republic Denmark FranceGermany Hong Kong Hungary India Ireland Italy Japan Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Poland Portugal Singapore Slovakia Spain Sweden Switzerland UAE UK

International Tunnelling Opportunities Hays International is part of Hays plc, the FTSE 250 specialistrecruitment company. With offices in 28 countries worldwide andan unrivalled database of job opportunities, we provide high qualitymatch-making, connecting the right people with the right jobs.

Senior Engineering Manager & Commercial Manager • USAYou will work on a joint venture project which has a shaft 90’diameter x 220’ deep with 18,000’ of 32.5’ in diameter rock tunnel.You will have contractor side experience and a proven record ofdelivery on similar projects.

Tunnel Design Engineers • Hong KongWorking on the MTR Tunnel Project, you will join the tenderevaluation team for all sub-surface works. You will have a record of tunnelling and sub-surface projects, with experience in metro design and construction. A BSc Civil Engineering or MSc Geotechnical Engineering is preferred, as is Charteredengineer status.

Project Managers & Commercial Staff • Hong Kong & USA Leading contractors and specialist sub-contractors are seekingexperienced professionals. You will be degree qualified and beable to demonstrate successful major project delivery.

For more information on these and other tunnellingopportunities, contact Kevin Flynn at Hays International.

E [email protected] + 44 (0) 207 929 2260

WEBSITE DIRECTORY

CAVIDRAINGroundwater Drainage for

Tunnel Walls & InvertT: +44(0) 1484 852250F: +44(0) 1484 354825E: [email protected]

www.abgltd.com

Flexible Ventilation Ducting

www.tunnel-ventilation.dePhone: +49 208 8827610

Fax: +49 208 8827615

You could advertise on this pageand target 14,000+ tunnelling professionals every single month - including the 900+ BTS members

No other tunnelling magazine delivers a readership of this quality

Tunnels & Tunnelling International - the only dedicated monthly international tunnelling magazine

Contact Frank on Tel: +44 (0)20 7336 5283Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44(0) 1234 781 882Email: [email protected]

TUNNELLING EQUIPMENTHIRE & SUPPLY

Specialist Plant Associates Ltd

Agents for

www.helogistik.de

Your partner for special solutionsin the tunnelling sector.Phone: +49 (351) 42 34-0Fax: +49 (351) 42 34-103E-Mail: [email protected]

TUNNEL AND SHAFTSPECIALISTS

Telephone +44(0) 1302 329911Fax +44(0) 1302 329922Email [email protected] www.alanauld.co.uk

‘Experience in depth’

Tel: +44 (0)1303 894141Email: [email protected] www.herrenknecht.com

• Leak Sealing • Soil Stabilisation• Structural Reinforcing • GroundWater Control • Disaster Recovery

OXFORD HYDROTECHNICSTel: +44(0) 1869 346 001

[email protected]

www.mergor.com

hoelscherdewatering

· dewatering · groundwater control· water treatment

www.hw-dewatering.com

Special fittings, hoses and tunneling equipment for:! Erection plant! Machine requirements! Microtunneling! Drill&Blast tunneling! Air pressure supply! Concrete formwork

engineering! Special civil engineering

! Shot concreteengineering

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engineering! Wearing

protection! Draining

Tel. +49 (0)234 / 5 99 63 10 · Fax +49 (0)234 / 5 99 63 20www.astbochum.de

E.P.B. Foam Specialist

E.P.B. foams & AdditivesYour partner in TBM tunnelling

MATOMA BVTel: [email protected]

CUSTOM-MADE CUTTERHEADS FOR TBMsMICROTUNNELLING AND VERTICAL ORDIRECTIONAL DRILLING MACHINES.BACK UP AND MUCK HAULAGE SYSTEMS.ROLLING STOCK AND SPECIAL TUNNELLINGRELATED EQUIPMENT.

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11-12 MARCHMulti-System Utility Tunnels (MUT)Haifa, IsraelThe first international conference in thedeveloping field of design and construction ofunderground multi-system utility tunnels(MUTs) will present existing experienceregarding planning and construction in Haifaand other towns worldwide. Contact:Diesenhaus Unitours; tel: +972 3 5651324;email: [email protected]; web:http://www.multiutilitytunnels.com/

26-27 MARCHChina Tunnel Summit 2009Beijing, ChinaThe China Tunnel Summit aims to provide aplatform for discussion of new tunnelingtechnologies and challenges in a warm andprofessional atmosphere. This year’s Summitwill focus on Safety in Construction andSustainable Development. Contact: Merisis;tel: +86 21 6247 8608; email:[email protected]; web:http://www.merisis-asia.com/tunnel/

18-20 MAY8th Iranian Conference on Tunnelingand Underground SpacesTehran, Iran“Underground Spaces for Safety, BetterEnvironment and Energy” is the theme for thisyear’s conference, which aims to offer aplatform for exchange of knowledge andinformation on state of the art tunnellingdevelopment and practices. Contact: IRTA; tel:+98 21 886 304 95; email: [email protected]; web:http://www.irta.ir/conference2009/

23-28 MAY2009 ITA World Tunnel CongressBudapest, HungaryThe 35th ITA General Assembly and Congresswill be held in Budapest. With a large amountof tunnelling underway and in planning, theorganisers are confident it will be a successfulevent. Contact: Diamond Congress; email:[email protected]; web:http://www.wtc2009.org

07-10 JUNEShotcrete for underground support XIDavos, SwitzerlandEngineering Conferences International, inconjunction with the ITA, the Swiss TunnellingSociety and several other EuropeanAssociations is sponsoring the Shotcrete forUnderground Support XI. Bringing togetherspecialists from around the world, state-of-the-art of shotcrete methods will be discussed.Contact: ECI; email: [email protected]; web:http://www.engconfintl.org/9as.html

14-17 JUNERETC 2009Las Vegas, Nevada, USARETC is recognised as a leadinginternational tunnelling event for contractorsand engineers. Last year, conferenceattendance exceeded 1500 professionalsfrom more than 30 countries and theexhibition sold out in record time. With avenue of Las Vegas, 2009 is sure to beeven more of a success. Contact: SME;web: http://www.retc.org

17-19 JUNESwiss Tunnel Congress ’09Lucern, SwitzerlandHeld in Lucern, the event spans two days at thecity’s Culture and Congress Centre and a finalday of field excursions. Day 1 features a trainingconference with TBM tunnelling in soft groundas the topic. Day 2 sees presentations givenfrom local and international tunnelling projects.Contact: Thomi Btäm; email:[email protected]; web:http://www.swisstunnel.ch

22-25 JUNE5th Symposium of Strait CrossingsTrondheim, NorwayOrganised by SINTEF and the NorwegianUniversity of Science and Technology, thismajor symposium aims to act as a forum for theexchange of information, research, newtechnology and recent experience. The eventwill also include an exhibition. Contact: NTNU;email: [email protected]; web:http://www.straitcrossings.com

09-11 SEPTEMBERIBTTA 77th Annual MeetingChicago, USAThe International Bridge, Tunnel andTurnpike Association’s (IBTTA) 77th AnnualMeeting and Exhibition will bring together morethan 1000 toll agency professionals for 3 daysof networking and innovations in toll industry.Contact: IBTTA: Tel: +1 202 659 4620; web:http://www.ibtta.org

13-16 SEPTEMBEREURO:TUN 2009Bochum, GermanyThe 2nd International Conference onComputational Methods in Tunnelling isorganised by the Institute for StructuralMechanics. Contact: Conference Secretariat:Tel: +49 234 32 29051; web:http://www.eurotun.rub.de

16-18 SEPTEMBERTunnel Construction and UndergroundStructures, Ljubljana, SloveniaWith an upturn in tunnelling in this region,Slovenia’s 9th International Conference onTunnel Construction and UndergroundStructures is sponsored by the SlovenianSociety for Underground Structures. Contact:SSUS: tel: +386 1470 4617; email: [email protected]; web: www.drustvo-dpgk.si

08-09 OCTOBER58th Geomechanics Colloquy 2009Salzburg, AustriaThe popular annual two day event will be heldin the Salzburg Congress Centre with sessiontopics including Projects in Austria, Grouting inRock, Deep Tunnels, and Reuse of tunnelexcavated material. Contact: OeGG: email:[email protected]: Web:http://www.oegg.at/events/geomechanics-colloquy

01-03 DECEMBERSTUVA TAGUNG'09Hamburg, GermanyEvery two years the STUVA conference takesplace with various topics from the fields oftunnelling and underground construction. Theconferences are attended by approximately1,500 tunnelling experts from more than 30different countries. An exhibition accompaniesthe event. Contact: STUVA: email:[email protected] web: http://www.stuva.de/

17-19 MARCH 2010ISTSS 2010Frankfurt, GermanyThe 4th International Symposium on TunnelSafety and Security. Manuscript abstractsshould be submitted to the Secretariat by 01June 2009, poster abstracts by the 01 October2009. Contact: Anders Lönnermark, SPTechnical Research Insitute of Sweden; tel:+46 10 516 56 91; email: [email protected]; web: http://www.sp.se/en/units/fire/news/ISTSS2010/

14-20 MAY2010 ITA World Tunnel Congress,Vancouver, CanadaPrior to the 2010 Winter Olympics, theInternational Tunnelling Association (ITA) visits

the spectacular city of Vancouver, BritishColumbia, for its yearly conference and

exhibition. Contact: web:http://www.wtc2010.org

8-10 JUNEInterTunnel 2010Turin, ItalyTunnelling exhibition aimed atthose involved in building andequipping tunnels. Contact: MackBrooks Exhibitions; web:http://www.intertunnel.com

Dates & Events

BRITISH TUNNELLING SOCIETY16 APRIL: Harding Prize 2009Presentations will be given by the three finalists in thebiennial competition open to engineers under the ageof 33. The winner will be awarded the Harding Prizeafter the presentations. 6pm start at the ICE

21 MAY: AGM and A3 Hindhead TunnelFollowing the Annual General Meeting of the BTS, apresentation will be given by contractor Balfour Beattyon the construction of the UK’s longest road tunnel.6pm start at the ICE

A DATETO REMEMBER...

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