Today on Tunnels & Tunnelling International

LATEST NEWS

• SR 99 tunnel’s launch pit complete in Seattle
  Crews have finished building the 80ft deep (24m) launch pit for the world's largest tunnelling machine, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced. It has taken nearly a year to build its underground walls, remove soil and build the infrastructure needed to support the nearly 7,000t machine.
  

• Work starts on tunnels in Thua Thien-Hue province
  Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued an order on 18 May to kick off construction of two tunnels in Phu Loc district, central Thua Thien-Hue province.
  

• Preferred bidders unveiled for the first three Jakarta Metro tunnel contracts
  Three of five tunneling contracts for the 9.2km underground section of Jakarta's 15.2km first phase of the North-South metro line have been awarded. A JV of Shimizu, Obayashi, Wijaya Karya and Jaya Construction has won two of the contracts and the third contract goes to Sumitomo-Mitsui Construction JV.
  

• Oslo subway contract awarded
  Skanska has won a NOK 357M (USD 61M) subway contract in Oslo, Norway.
  

• An open letter to the U.S. Congress
  Dear elected officials, or the interns who open their mail, while I have no direct affiliation with the organisers, I’m going to go out on a limb, here, and invite you to RETC, the Rapid Excavation Technology Conference, which is being held in your neighbourhood this June. I’m sure they won’t mind.

• A cost of price
  The UK has been hit by a supply chain scandal in the past month that seems unrivalled in recent years. One of the most regulated industries has spectacularly failed. British and European consumers have been eating horsemeat disguised as beef. This scandal offers a warning on price driven markets. The introduction of horsemeat into beef products has affected the lowest price readymade meals. Opportunists in the supply chain delivered cheap ‘beef’ to undercut competition.

• Rock Me Amadeus
  NATM is a frequently misunderstood approach to tunnelling. Its de¬ nition, its use and its advantages are often the subject of debate. In this issue of Tunnels, Austrian Society for Geomechanics (OeGG) president Wulf Schubert attempts to tackle the issue.

• Show, don't tell
  The National Center for Education Statistics recently released results for US students on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a program testing maths and science every couple years at grades four and eight over the past decade and a half.