BTS - Page 3
Stay up to date with the latest bts features from the global tunnelling industryTunnelling 50 years ago At the December 2006 BTS meeting, speakers Oliver Bevan and Douglas Parkes discussed the view of a contractor, with his ‘low cunning and guile’, and that of the design-oriented man with the mechanical brain - 50 years ago
The Harding Prize: Legacy of a legend The deadline for the British Tunnelling Society’s Harding Prize Competition is fast approaching. T&TI looks at the history of this most valued prize for the young tunneller
Issues for operators At the British Tunnelling Society presentation on 21 September, John Gillard, manager of the Mersey Tunnels and Chairman of the Tunnel Operators Association described some of the modern issues facing Tunnel Operators
Safety across the Mersey The June 2004 meeting of the British Tunnelling Society was an account of the safety upgrade of the Mersey Tunnels in Merseyside, in the UK's north west, and was presented by Peter Arch of Mersey Tunnels, Mark Leggett of Mott MacDonald and Frank Rogers of AMCO Donelon
A Swiss tunnelling experience The March 2004 meeting of the British Tunnelling Society provided an update on the Steg-Raron contract for the Lötschberg Tunnel in Switzerland, presented by David Darcy of Balfour Beatty and Willi Gmür of Gmür Baumanagement, Balfour Beatty's representative in Switzerland
Forming the French connection - A86 Arnaud Verdier, Pierre Boutigny and Bill Welburn of Vinci Construction and Dr Martin Herrenknecht of Herrenknecht AG gave a presentation to the British Tunnelling Society this January on the A86 tunnel, focusing on TBM selection, the tunnel fire in March 2002 and the TBM drive under a busy railway
Sinkholes in Singapore The December 2003 meeting of the British Tunnelling Society, at the Institute of Civil Engineers, London, hosted an interesting discussion entitled "Settlements and Sinkholes in Singapore", presented by Nick Shirlaw, technical advisor to the Land Transport Authority of Singapore
Complex redesign for London link A packed audience at the BTS meeting this February, saw a most interesting presentation on the tunnelling work currently in hand at King's Cross St Pancras Station, London, UK. The presenters were Mike Crabtree of London Underground Ltd, Roger Cox of Infraco SSL (Sub-Surface Ltd), Chris Dulake of Arup and Colin Eddie of Morgan Tunnelling
Norwegian Sub Sea Tunnels Jan Bergh-Christensen chief engineering geologist and Morten Knudsmoen senior civil engineer both of Norconsult, Consulting Engineers, Norway, gave this presentation on Norwegian Sub Sea tunnels at the BTS on 23 January 2003
Competence in the tunnelling industry Prior to their forthcoming lecture, which will be presented to British Tunnelling Society members on 21 November, Douglas Allenby of Edmund Nuttall, Bob Ibell of London Bridge Associates and Peter Jewell of Halliburton KBR, explain the need for an independent assessment of competence within the British tunnelling industry, and discuss current training initiatives
Insuring an industry As a result of some recent high-profile incidents within the industry, insurers have been increasingly concerned that tunnelling was becoming uninsurable in the market. A joint working party, between the British Tunnelling Society (BTS) and the Association of British Insurers (ABI), has since produced a draft Code of Practice that would allow insurers to continue to offer cover. Presentation of the draft Joint Code of Practice to BTS members took place on 4 July 2002, followed by an in-depth discussion
Dedication to detail in Denmark On 16 May 2002, members of the British Tunnelling Society welcomed representatives of Copenhagen Metro's design and construction team, who gave an informative lecture on the key aspects of this complex project
Box Jacking - the road to Histadrut Danny Sherban and Rania Gideon of Yodfat Engineers were joined by Jack Knight of Charles Haswell and John Belton of British Drilling and Freezing to give a presentation on a recent box-jacking project in Israel to the British Tunnelling Society on 18 April 2002. Ground freezing was an important element of the temporary works
Ultra-deep shaft construction On 21st February the British Tunnelling Society and the Southern Counties Branch of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy held a joint meeting. Mark Kirkbride and Nigel Stringer of Cementation Skanska presented a paper about the factors governing design and construction of shafts for mine development over 3000m deep.
Contributions from the floor Opposing the motion, Dave Hindle said the mining industry uses self-certification with a workforce on bonus and has an accident record per kilometre of tunnel that is insignificant. He saw the...
BTS debate - Certifiably argumentative On the 21st March 2002, The British Tunnelling Society held it's annual debate. The motion proposed to the house, "Self-Certification is Dangerous for Tunnelling", produced a strongly argued discussion, which generated a very close result
Policies and projects - Swiss style Informative presentations on two quite different tunnelling projects in Switzerland demonstrate the differences in approach between the contracting arrangements and construction of tunnels in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. The presenters were Martin Knights, director of Infrastructure, Halliburton KBR and Paul Hoyland, Technical Manager for Balfour Beatty Major Projects
Using hindsight at Hull Shortly before completing the tunnelling works for the UK's Hull wastewater scheme, a collapse occurred near one of the shafts. In their presentation to the British Tunnelling Society on 22 November 2001, Steve Tindall of Yorkshire Water, Peter Chamley and Bill Grose of Arup and Colin Eddie of Morgan Est, presented the lessons learned from the investigation
Updating the legacy 21st Century transport engages 19th Century architecture at Antwerp Central station in Belgium. Dirk van Ooteghem of TUC Rail, Belgian Railways, illustrated the painstaking lengths taken to preserve the original structure of the station in his presentation to the British Tunnelling Society on the 18 October 2001
The Italian way – the ADECO method for tunnel design and construction At the 17 May meeting of the British Tunnelling Society, Dott Ing Giovanna Cassani, director of design standards of Rocksoil SpA, Milan, spoke about the company's approach to the classification of tunnel rock and stress conditions and the construction solutions generated by this philosophy.
