Pushing on ahead

Opportunities beckon for engagement on many fronts and places.

Courtesy of T&TI’s sister information service GlobalData, we are pleased to offer from across the world a summarised sector breakdown of tunnel project activities and pipelines in a top transport sub-sector – rail & metro. The topline breakdown data are given by region, their leading countries and the various volumes of activities in different stages, from pre-planning through to procurement and execution.

By far, the transport leads the demand for underground construction infrastructure.

One of the leading regions for transport tunnel demand is Northeast Asia, notably China. Ahead of the country hosting the next World Tunnel Congress, in Shenzhen – only a few months from now, we put a tight spotlight on those tunnel projects being lined up by the WTC 2024 organiser for delegates to visit, in and near Shenzhen, in mid-April.

In the article we also re-cap the some of the tunnel projects and technologies in China that took quite a number of the plaudits given in the last two editions of the ITA Awards.

Projects from Asia – in India and Nepal – also start off the Technical Focus for this issue, on Mechanised Tunnelling. The focus also looks at trends and technologies for small diameter slurry TBMs in rock tunnelling, and discusses a new low carbon backfill grout coming onto the global market.

In our Insight section, on Safety and Risk, the key findings are shared from a rail crash by a tunnel portal in the UK; from the last ISTSS symposium comes a review of research and recommendations from one of its key themes – Active Management in Tunnel Safety.

On other events, we look back to the awards celebrations at the last TAC gathering, in Canada, and ahead to a major look at trenchless tunnelling at No-Dig Show 2024.