The shortlist for this year’s ITA Awards includes 33 entries across nine award categories, from a record 98 entries.

KVMRT Line 1 nominated for Major Project of the Year

The annual ITA Awards Conference and Banquet Dinner will this year be held on November 11 in Singapore, the day after a one-day symposium on underground development and technology organised by the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Society of Singapore.

Projects and individuals from 25 different countries are among the final nominations. These are:

Major Project of the Year (€500m+)

Klang Valley MRT tunnelling works (Malaysia)
The new Guanjiao Tunnel of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway (China)
Singapore Cross-Island Cable Tunnel Project (Singapore)
Central–Wan Chai Bypass–Causeway Bay (Hong Kong/China)

Online registration and bookings

Tunnelling Project of the Year (€50–500m)

Downtown Line 3 Contract 937, Fort Canning Station and Tunnels (Singapore)
Venda Nova III Repowering Project (Portugal)
Shenzhen Urban Rail Transit Line 9 Tunnel and Underground Engineering (China)

Outstanding Project of the Year (upto €50m)

Xinzhuang Station–Jimingsi Station Tunnel of Nanjing Metro Line 3 (China)
The Stiberg Garage (Sweden)
Shenzhen Urban Rail Transit Line 9 Tunnel (China)

ITA Awards 2015 ceremony

Renovation/Upgrade Project of the Year

Vauxhall Station Upgrade (UK)
ECOMINT/Tectoproof CA–Rive de Gier Tunnel (France)
ION Orchard Link, upgrade of Orchard MRT and Tang Plaza (Singapore)

Technical Innovation of the Year

SCL waterproofed with bonded membranes (Norway)
Large diameter shield tunnelling in pure sands with hybrid EPB (Brazil)
Uphill excavator (UK)
Auto Inspection Vehicle for NSEW Cable Tunnel (Singapore)
Sandvik GeoSure on-board rock mass analysis system (Finland)

2015 a year of tunnelling in action

Environmental Initiative of the Year

The Emscher Project (Germany)
Underground Waste Deposit Concept, Boliden Odda (Norway)
Stendafjellet Rock Quarry and Underground Waste Disposal Site (Norway)

Safety Initiative of the Year

TunnelSAFE Multi Service Vehicle Refuge Chamber (Australia)
Total Safety Management Framework (Singapore)
Activity-Based Safety Improvement Initiative (Singapore)

Innovative Use of Underground Space

Jurong Rock caverns (Singapore)
Underground Waste Depositing at Boliden Odda (Norway)
Stendafjellet Rock Quarry and Underground Waste Disposal Site (Norway)

Brunel Trophy for the winners

Young Tunneller of the Year

Marlisio Oliveira Cecilio Junior (Brazil)
Mehdi Bakhshi (USA)
Derek Eng (Malaysia)
Oh Jinnie (Singapore)
Jiang Chao (China)
G.T. Senthilnath (Singapore)

The symposium, conference and Awards ceremony banquet will take place on November 10–11 at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Conference Centre. The symposium on November 10 will focus on reinventing urban planning, anticipating urban expansion and building the cities of the future by combining both mechanisation and renewable resources,

Booking is now open at www.awards.ita-aites.org

Following the success of last year’s ITA Awards at the Hagerbach underground test facility in Switzerland, nominations are now being sought for the 2016 event to be held in Singapore.

Profiling particularly outstanding achievements of underground infrastructure across the world through these Awards, the ITA intends to identify and support a wide and diverse range of tunnelling projects, from large-scale and large-budget infrastructure projects to more specific groundbreaking technical innovations.

Last year the judging panel of 17 experts considered 110 entries, with the top award – Major Tunnelling Project of the Year – going to the Eurasia Project in Turkey. Once again, entries can be submitted in nine categories:

For the three Tunnelling Project of the Year Awards the judges will consider project implementation and features that demonstrate design and construction innovations developed for and during the project; verall approach to management of construction (methods and schedule) to successfully complete the excavation(s) within plan; development of cost saving solutions; overall Owner satisfaction with completed work, including safety and quality performance; public/community relations programs to bring public support to the project and mitigation of construction impacts in urban areas; evidence of “value added” and other interesting features. Winning projects will be able to demonstrate successful completion of projects that inspire future underground work.

For full details of all the qualifying criteria for all Awards categories visit the ITA website at https://awards.ita-aites.org. Applications can be made up to 30 May, and a selection panel will announce the finalists by mid-July 2016. The ceremony will take place at the end of a two-day conference in Singapore on 10-11 November.