Blogs Archive

Bringing all together
25 March 2024 With so much tunnelling work in China, recent issues of T&TI have carried major articles ahead of the country hosting the World Tunnel Congress (WTC 2024), in April. The articles have given a sense of the scale and variety of major project activity across the nation – and an idea of the strategic vision for rail/metro transport and use of tunnelling technology in rapidly expanding Shenzhen, the host city of WTC 2024.

All that is below
26 February 2024 Underground space can be discussed in many ways – broadly, on the possibilities for and uses of the below surface asset; and, specifically, looking at precisely and measurably what can be done. Both are discussed in this issue of T&TI.

Pushing on ahead
22 January 2024 A new year brings a sense of revitalised or even new energy. So much to get moving on, to refresh or renew, to drive ahead with, hopefully.

Great tasks beckon
29 December 2023 Scale brings judgment. Bigger is better, more challenging. Difficult undertakings, possibly. Exciting, most likely. Such as with singular, eye-catching, large-scale infrastructure projects in the midst of society.

Back and forth
29 December 2023 Let’s look back and then, considering lessons, information and data available, take some view on stepping forward, onward into further developments of underground space.

Choices for the long run
27 November 2023 On the surface, what happens below may seem much of a muchness. Underground works – mining, tunnelling, all pretty much the same kind of thing? No.

Shifting seasons, and sands
30 October 2023 Shifting seasons in nature don’t disappoint; they enliven, ultimately.

Underground Activities, Thoroughly International
26 September 2023 Sometimes, it is just amazing to get a glimpse of just how much is happening on tunnel projects, and the many discussions and activities about underground space, in so many places across the world. Kinda stops you, on occasion. Stuns even, then you smile. What a great industry. A calling, even.

Preparing for what may be ahead
21 August 2023 Over recent weeks and months, instances of extreme weather in some places call to mind – not that such should ever really be absent – that problems can and do occur.

Counting carbon, and more
24 July 2023 What gets locked into plans comes from the early thinking gone into the endeavour. Same for projects, such as underground infrastructure. Or anything.

Get together, again
28 June 2023 Summer is for gatherings and celebrations – getting together to share experience and lessons learned, such as at RETC 2023, in Boston in June, and also to celebrate successes and knowledge gained to be of benefit to the future.

Greetings, anew
28 June 2023 With the covid pandemic still on the minds on many, and the economic impacts being felt still and set to continue, and with financial wobbles in the markets yet infrastructure investment sorely needed, there is a lot to come together to discuss in the forthcoming large gatherings of the industry.

Challenges, opportunities
26 June 2023 Groundwater is never an insignificant part of the challenge of determining what is below the ground surface. It can be present in so many, often puzzling, ways and brings potential for difficulties. Consequently, examinations and what information can be obtained from such investigations carried out, ideally early on, will help to inform approaches for dewatering to counter – or might be needed to solve – construction challenges.

Weighty works
15 May 2023 In this issue, the challenge of gauging what ground conditions most likely exist is examined in a paper based on research, tested in the field, that combines employs geostatistics to sampled borehole data to generate probabilities, especially of transitions in soil profiles.

A sense of time
24 April 2023 Athens greets the international tunnelling industry in May, and with its long history of sharing knowledge and tunnels from ancient periods it also offers some appreciation of time.

With sight to see
27 March 2023 In this issue it gives us pleasure to present and consider research and thoughts around ways of seeing what is and what might be.

What may come
16 January 2023 In the infrastructure and energy sectors, and the financing and fulfilment of the same, that takes a mighty amount of planning. Consideration. Studies. In depth. Based on experience.

Paths from the present
09 January 2023 Tunnel projects are everywhere in the Americas and internationally, and the need for infrastructure investment in building new and upgrading existing underground space assets is even more pronounced.

Everything between
27 December 2022 The early days of December see attention turn more to the tunnellers’ patron, St Barbara. This annual day of celebration brings further focus to the eternal desire that projects, whether new or underway, will go well. Success and safety are wished by all.

Equipping for the future
24 November 2022 A fresh array of tools for designers and constructors is coming into play with the rising wave of digitalization. Tools are adding to the potential ways of developing and operating all types of infrastructure and energy assets, including those with tunnels.