Blogs Archive
Archive of blogs from the global tunnels industryBlogs By Date
March 2024
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Bringing all together
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.
February 2024
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All that is below
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.
January 2024
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Pushing on ahead
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.
December 2023
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Great tasks beckon
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
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.
November 2023
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Choices for the long run
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.
October 2023
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Shifting seasons, and sands
Shifting seasons in nature don’t disappoint; they enliven, ultimately.
September 2023
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Underground Activities, Thoroughly International
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.
August 2023
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Preparing for what may be ahead
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.
July 2023
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Counting carbon, and more
What gets locked into plans comes from the early thinking gone into the endeavour. Same for projects, such as underground infrastructure. Or anything.
June 2023
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Get together, again
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
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
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.
May 2023
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Weighty works
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.
April 2023
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A sense of time
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.
March 2023
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With sight to see
In this issue it gives us pleasure to present and consider research and thoughts around ways of seeing what is and what might be.
January 2023
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What may come
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
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.
December 2022
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Everything between
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.
November 2022
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Equipping for the future
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.