Turkish mine disaster and Rio sinkhole shadow WTC 2014
22 May 2014Two disasters shook the World Tunnel Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil last week. A sinkhole appeared on the Rio de Janeiro Metro Project, while in Europe, more than 300 coal miners were killed in an explosion and fire in western Turkey. A minute of silence was held prior to the second session of the ITA General Assembly on 14 May. The catastrophe was felt keenly, given the 2014 Congress’s major focus on future tunnelling opportunities in the mining sector.
The Soma Mine Disaster as it is now known struck on 13 May, with an underground explosion, which caused a fire to burn until 15 May. Nearly 800 miners were underground at the time.
According to the Turkish statistical institute's 2013 report on workplace safety, some 2.3 per cent of all workers in the country had been injured at work that year, with 10 per cent of accidents occurring in the mining sector. Over 13,000 miners had some sort of reportable accident in 2013 in Turkey, and until the Soma disaster, there had been 1,308 fatalities in the industry since 2000.
Protesters were on the streets, and the town in 'lockdown' as Tunnels went to press following the end of search and rescue operations.
In Rio de Janeiro, on 11 May at 3am two sinkholes appeared in Barao de Torre Street, Ipanema during excavation work on Line Four. Nobody was injured, material damages were minor and announced to be solved on 12 May. Tarcisio Celestino, chair of WTC 2014's organising committee, told the gathered press that 100cu.m of concrete fill had been sufficient to halt the problem, which had apparently been caused as the EPBM was entering sand. The precise details were being analysed by specialists as Tunnels went to press.
