Today on Tunnels & Tunnelling International

LATEST NEWS

• Fourteen rescued after 131 hours underground
  Fourteen workers were rescued from a railway tunnel collapse in southwest China's Yunnan Province in the early hours of Sunday 20 July after more than five days trapped underground, Xinhua News Agency reported.
  

• French firm wins contract to design Jeddah Metro
  The Saudi government has signed a SAR 276 million project with a French firm to provide preliminary engineering designs for its public transport metro project in Jeddah.
  

• Tunnel highway project in quandary
  The Nepali government on 12 July asked Nepal Purwadhar Bikas Company Limited (NPBCL), the developer of Kathmandu-Hetauda Tunnel Highway, to provide the details of latter’s funding plan within two weeks.
  

• Underground passage considered for Kano to ease traffic congestion
  For long, Kano residents and motorists have been suffering due to traffic chaos. Now it appears the gridlock nightmare will end.
  

• ITA turns 40
  WHEN CONSIDERING an anniversary it is always fun to delve into the archives and see what the past can reveal. The International Tunnelling Association's 40th birthday is no exception and when routing through the early editions of Tunnels we happened across an interview with Alan Muir Wood ahead of the first ITA meeting in Oslo, 1974.

• Spending Spree
  This month marks the fifth anniversary of the Recovery Act, the government’s attempt to create new jobs and spur economic growth at a time when the economy seemed very bleak. Congress and President Obama issued USD 787bn in tax cuts, funding for entitlement programs (such as unemployment benefits and funding for federal contracts), grants and loans, which was later upped to USD 840bn.

• In with the new
  In a Finnish conference hall in 2011, Sao Paulo hammered both Singapore and Sydney, and was selected to host the World Tunnel Congress in 2014.

• Public opinion
  Almost four years ago Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) dubbed "Obamacare" by detractors. As this new year begins most aspects of the ACA that haven't already started are now effective-such as the health care exchanges for people buying their own plans, and making it illegal for insurers to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions.