Living and breathing tunnels at WTC

International Tunnelling Association (ITA) president In-Mo Lee kicked off proceedings at the press conference at World Tunnel Congress (WTC) Helsinki last month by looking at a new worldwide trend, to ‘breathe’ and ‘live life’.

“Greenfield sites on the surface can only be maintained by putting structures and infrastructure underground,” said Lee. “In Seoul, we are putting as much infrastructure underground as possible to keep the surface greenfield and improve quality of life.”

Finnish Tunnelling Association (FTA) president, and chair of the WTC 2011 steering committee Pekka Sarkka said that it is necessary to change this perception of dark and dusty underground environments to make them more desirable, though he and J B M (Han) Admiraal, chair of the ITA steering group of the Committee on Underground Space (ITACUS), both agreed that the public is generally enthusiastic and interested in underground development. In Britain, the popularity of the recent tours of the A3 Hindhead tunnel shows this.

Sarkka and Admiraal also spoke about the need to end a ‘2D mentality’ to city planning.

“China thinks four stories down as well as however high they go,” said Admiraal. “This is a lesson to be learned. It is unique to be in Helsinki, the only city in the world to have actually thought about, reserved and planned the use of its underground space. Helsinki is to be congratulated.

“According to UN-HABITAT, some 70 per cent of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. This means the equivalent of everyone alive on the planet today, living in cities. We have an obligation to contribute with our knowledge to help the growing problems of cities.

Aside from the problems of an increased population density, Admiraal highlighted the need for enhanced disaster protection, including flood defenses in the form of underground sewer works, to enable people to continue enjoying life in the cities.

Admiraal gave special mention to Madrid. The city diverted part of its M30 motorway underground and freed around one million square metres of land that was given back to the city as green space to improve quality of life.