Features Archive
Archive of features from the global tunnels industryFeatures By Date
January 2020
Top
Alan Thomas Winter (1952-2019)
It is almost a year since Alan died unexpectedly in January 2019. Those who worked with Alan respected his immense knowledge and vast practical experience that he brought to bear for the benefit of numerous projects and clients. In addition, Alan was also well known and admired for his sense of humour and quick ability to add wit to alleviate the stress of crisis.
Long-term effectiveness of PVC Geomembranes
Tests detailed in this paper verified the effectiveness of geomembranes up to 100 years. The authors are Andrea Luciani, Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino; Daniele Peila, same; Enrico Dal Negro, Underground Technology Team Director, Mapei; Maurizio Leotta, Synthetic Waterproofing Division Director, Mapei; Enrico Pavese, Underground Technology Team Waterproofing Specialist, MAPEI; and Sara Cadamuro, Synthetic Waterproofing Membranes R&D, Mapei
Abu Dhabi Gyroscope
A case study from Abu Dhabi of the NAV24 gyroscope system
The Valley of Toluca
A new rail line will connect the Valley of Toluca Metropolitan Area with the west of Mexico City. TBM tunnelling had to deal with a heterogeneous massif, adverse terrain, and an alignment characterised by the presence of faults and zones with elevated hydraulic loads of up to 7 bar over the tunnel keystone. The authors of this paper are geotechnical tunnels head José Ramos Gómez, tunnel section director Rubén Díez de la Fuente, and TBM expert advisor Ignasi Castellvi Moyes, all from Sener
City & Southwest
Alex Conacher visits the Sydney Metro’s second phase to speak with Terry Sleiman, project director for the contractor John Holland CPB Ghella, Hugh Lawson, project director for the client, and Kate Cole, occupational health and hygiene manager for Transport for NSW
Better than ever
Planners are capitalising on modern improvements to tunnelling technology in a boost to the Australian industry. Alex Conacher reports
December 2019
Top
Credit check
Greg Norris of B2W Software explains how software can help track employee licenses, certifications and training
TAC Awards 2019
From rising starts to nationally acclaimed projects, the Tunnelling Association of Canada presents its annual awards each fall to recognize the deserving individuals and engineering accomplishments in the Canadian tunnelling sector. The 2019 awards were presented in Winnipeg on October 21.
To boldly go underground
Paola De Pascali speaks with Jamal Rostami, head of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, who has been looking at the challenges of tunnelling on the moon
Augmented underground
Phil Evans, a section planner, Jose Goncalves, a tunnel sub-agent and Sean Melody, works superintendent explains how digital transformation can reshape tunnelling, showing the latest digital technologies being used by the Morgan Sindall, BAM Nuttall, Balfour Beatty joint venture delivering the west section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel
Momentum
The City of Los Angeles has seen several milestones this summer for its Purple Line extension, Nicole Robinson reports on the progress for each phase
Hull Flood Alleviation
Paola De Pascali visited the site of the Anlaby and East Ella Flood Alleviation Scheme (AEFAS) in Hull to explore the challenges of excavating a culvert through Chalk and within a Source Protection Zone
Make the case
Chris Sivesind, Akkerman, discusses guided auger boring pipeline installations and its use in recent projects from around the world
Limiting Carbon
New technologies for reducing CO2 are available to the construction industry, says the German Engineering Federation, the VDMA
Fire performance of Tunnel linings
Octavian Lalu and Tom Lennon of BRE Global review a number of experimental programmes undertaken at BRE on the performance in fire of tunnel linings, with a particular focus on concrete mix design to alleviate the effects of spalling
November 2019
Top
Fire safety
This article is a reprint of the paper first published in the Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Tunnel Safety and Security, Borås, Sweden, 14-16 March, 2018, and presented as a keynote address there. The article has been abridged from the original paper
Keeping Pace
Frank Grundholm, vice president for global HVACR sales at ABB Motion, explains how variable frequency drives (VFDs) are used together with electric motors for the effective control of rail and road tunnel ventilation fans
Forum Tunnel incident
A tunnel fire is never a positive event, but when there is no loss of life there is good reason to be thankful. Fläkt Woods issued this account of a recent incident
Keeping up the Pressure
A cut-and-cover tunnel in Italy will make use of high pressure compressed air in what engineers are claiming is a first for the Mediterranean country. Paola De Pascali spoke with Andrea Pigorini, the head of infrastructure engineering at Italferr, and a spokesperson for Salini Impregilo, to find out more
Adverse conditions
Tunneling at Vietnam’s arduous Thuong Kon Tum HEPP draws to a close.
