Features
Our editorial board comprises a specialist group of leading industry figures who, in conjunction with the TUNNELS editorial team, identify the main drivers of the industry helping to produce regular, thought provoking opinion pieces on the latest issues, challenges and developments.Latest Tunnels Feature
Band of brothers or distant cousins?
Martin Knights FREng, former ITA President, compares the functions and fortunes over the past 50-odd years of the British Tunnelling Society and the International Tunnelling Association
> read more
Martin Knights FREng, former ITA President, compares the functions and fortunes over the past 50-odd years of the British Tunnelling Society and the International Tunnelling Association
> read more
By Category
By Region
Tunnel vision or visual twins
Barry Bassnett, founder of Astrea and Richpix, describes a new, relatively straightforward method of capturing asset condition using photographs without the need to resort to point clouds
A most ambitious conservation project
Detractors of the Stonehenge Tunnel might be surprised to see it defended by a pillar of the conservation community. But Prof Tim Darvill argues that the tunnel is a well-researched tool of conservation using state-of-the-art approaches
Valley Vision
Bernice Alaniz, Gretchen Baisa and Ronak Naik of VTA and John Caulfield VTA consultant discuss the proposed extension to California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) regional rail system
AI and Machine Learning
Best use of artificial intelligence in tunnels will need data strategies plus experienced oversight, writes Patrick Reynolds
Microtunnelling in the desert
Estelle Claeys and Thomas Blanchard of Toulouse-based contractor Bessac describe a challenging pipejack in Chile which involved size and location constraints within a full-blown public health emergency
Immersed tunnels
In 1854, Charles Dickens wrote in his weekly journal Household Words: “...Of all bores, one of the strangest, if it ever come to anything, will be the purposed tunnel or tube to be laid along the bed of a river or sea, or at any rate to be immersed in the water of the river or sea – not like the Thames Tunnel”
Pipejacking on the rise
Pipejacking is typically a horizontal technique. But attempting it vertically from inside a tunnel below the widest river in the world is an altogether new technology that is delivering environmental and economic benefits to Argentina. Julian Champkin reports
Construction claims and dispute resolution
Every time the conditions of a construction project change – whether new ideas develop for implementation, or some unanticipated circumstances occur – the project’s cost and schedule will be affected. These changes and their cause could be interpreted by different stakeholders in various ways. So, there could be conflicts, disagreements and disputes on what portion of the cost and project schedule the contractor needs to be compensated for.
RETC RAISES THE CONFERENCE BANNER
Following the interruption to the tunnel conference scene caused by the pandemic, the RETC Conference is back and – Covid allowing – looks set to take place in Las Vegas on 13-16 June 2021
Robbins reborn
After a brief period involving Chinese part-ownership, veteran TBM pioneer Lok Home has bought back his company to set the revived Robbins on a new course of growth. Julian Champkin spoke to him
Race to repair
Numerous hydroelectric plants include headrace tunnels that are getting old and operate beyond their originally-envisaged design life. Canada-based Dean Brox of Dean Brox Consulting discusses the importance of inspections and maintenance for hydroelectric tunnels
Collaboration, communication and competence updated
The following article by Bob Ibell, founder and director of London Bridge Associates, is based on a past Harding Lecture and has been updated by the author in celebration of the BTS 50th Anniversary
