Reflecting on 2014 22 Dec 2014

As 2014 draws to a close it is time to reflect on yet another hectic year for the international underground construction industry as the pace and scale of project development shows no sign of slowing. Significant progress on Crossrail in London has seen tunnelling activity reach 90% completion, with only the last two of eight TBMs yet to finish their drives; in New Zealand mega-TBM Alice has completed turnaround following successful completion of the first tube of the Waterview highway tunnel and has relaunched recently into the second parallel drive; the third phase of Delhi’s metro expansion continues at pace; rollout is completed of the last underground contracts for the 30km all-underground Thomson Line in Singapore; while in the USA breakthrough earlier this month (December) at Lake Mead Intake No. 3 in Nevada completes excavation of one of the most technically challenging drives ever attempted in the history of tunnelling.

TunnelTalk special project reports

Mega-dimensions of Waterview highway tunnel

• Ramping up TBM progress in Auckland (Feb 2014)
• Soft ground challenge for Doha TBMs (Feb 2014)
• Hard rock beaten on Bangalore slurry drives (March 2014)
• Flexibility key to battling poor geology in Turkey (July 2014)
• Pushing TBM design limits under Lake Mead (Sep 2014)
• Tail seal issues fail to slow Auckland mega-TBM (Oct 2014)
• Adapting TBMs to the Singapore environment (Oct 2014)
• Sinking the concrete elements at Midtown, USA (Nov 2014)

As usual, TunnelTalk has provided the industry with in-depth project reports, the latest research papers, details of the most important technological advances, and news of projects as they emerge from design through to prequalification, tendering and construction award; as well as reporting on the latest market consolidations, mergers, takeovers and acquisitions that have shaped the design, supplier, manufacturing and construction sectors that together comprise the underground construction industry.

Once again, reshaping of the industry has been a significant feature of 2014 as market consolidations and new partnerships continued to be forged. Chinese companies continued to look for opportunities to gain footholds in established manufacturing and construction businesses, with two of the most significant deals being takeover by Liaoning Censcience Industry Co (LNSS) of all the assets of Caterpillar Tunneling in Canada (formerly Lovat), and at the end of 2014 acquisition of Australia-based John Holland by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC).

This added to the takeover at the very end of 2013 by the China Railway Tunnelling Equipment (CRTE) of all the TBM and shaft boring intellectual property rights of the Wirth business, an acquisition that adds further to a Chinese portfolio of well-established names and brands that already includes CIFA and Putzmeister.

Company News: Industry consolidation

2014 a busy year for industry consolidation

• Balfour Beatty sells Parsons Brinckerhoff (Sep 2014)
• Caterpillar sells all Lovat assets to China (Feb 2014)
• Hochtief seizes control of troubled Leighton (March 2014)
• AECOM acquires URS in US$6 billion deal (July 2014)
• Balfour Beatty sells Parson Brinckerhoff (Sep 2014)
• Parson seals Delcan acquisition (April 2014)
• Bekaert Maccaferri launches Underground Solutions (Nov 2014)

The sale of John Holland into Chinese ownership comes in spite of that company’s strong involvement in the growing number of road and rail infrastructure developments that went into construction in Australia in 2014 (Sydney North West Rail Link), or are scheduled to move into construction in the coming 12 months (Melbourne East-West Link). December’s Aust$1.15 billion sale of John Holland represents an attempt by its parent company, the Hochtief-owned Leighton Group, to stabilise the Group’s financial position going forward into 2015.

On the consultancy and design side, two mega-deals dominated 2014. In July AECOM, already the world’s largest engineering design consultancy, took over rival URS, the third largest, in a deal valued at approximately US$6 billion. Two months later Parsons Brinckerhoff was sold by its owner, Balfour Beatty of the UK, to Montreal-based WSP, in a deal worth US$1.25 billion.

Smaller, but nonetheless significant, deals included global engineering and infrastructure design consultant Parsons’ acquisition of Canada-based multidisciplinary engineering, planning, management and technology firm Delcan; a merger between Jacobs Associates and McMillen in November; and the creation in June of a joint venture sales and distribution partnership between tunnel lining reinforcement specialists Bekaert and Maccaferri.

TBM manufacturing

17.6m mega-TBM for 4.2km undersea Hong Kong subsea link

Robbins 8m TBM for coal mine drift

• Four more breakthroughs for Terretec in Delhi (Nov 2014)
• Double TBM order success for Terratec (July 2014)
• Herrenknecht sweeps Doha Metro (Feb 2014)
• TBM success signals coal access opportunity (Sep 2014)
• Developing a blueprint for TBM mine access (Oct 2014)
• Robbins TBM sets records in Indianapolis (Aug 2014)
• Hong Kong mega-machine explanations (Sep 2014)
• Proving the new-design VD-TBM in Kuala Lumpur (Oct 2014)

For the TBM manufacturers 2014 was a busy year. Herrenknecht of Germany completed a clean sweep of all 15 machines for the now-in-construction Doha Metro mega-project in Qatar; NFM of France launched the first of its clean sweep of four machines for Sydney’s North West Rail Link; and Terratec of Australia made significant inroads into Indian and southeast Asian markets by recording a series of successful breakthroughs for Delhi Metro Phase III, a machine order for Istanbul Metro, and another order for a hydro project in Laos.

Meanwhile Robbins made significant inroads into the potentially lucrative mining market in Australia with successful completion of the first of two steep inclination coal drifts in Queensland – the first example of a TBM being used on this sort of project. With Chinese demand for coal fuelling an export boom from Australia, this is potentially a huge growth market for the TBM manufacturing industry. Mindful of the potential, Australian contractor McConnell Dowell revealed to TunnelTalk details of its development of a “one-size-fits-all” TBM solution for mining companies interested in benefiting from the longer design life and lower maintenance costs offered by mechanised excavation of drift access tunnels – as well as development in collaboration with Herrenknecht of a flat-invert TBM for in-seam excavation.

New world records were set in the 6-7m diameter category by Robbins as its refurbished machine completed 12.2km Indianapolis Deep Tunnel Connector in July, and the American company continued to secure orders for its machines from all corners of the world.

On the technical side, Herrenknecht announced production of what will be the world’s largest diameter TBM for the ambitious 4.2km-long Tuen Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link (TM-CLK) subsea highway project in Hong Kong. With an o.d of 17.6m the Mixshield will be 12cm larger than the current world record Hitachi Zosen machine that spent most of 2014 stuck in the ground in Seattle after suffering bearing seal failure barely 1,000m into its Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement drive.

Herrenknecht also successfully proved its innovative Variable Density TBM (VD-TBM) concept in 2014. At the British Tunnelling Society Conference in London in October, Satpal Bhogal, Project Director for Underground Works for Line 1 of the Klang Valley MRT reported that the six of the new machines had successfully negotiated the significant karstic limestone geology along almost half of the 9.5km underground alignment. The VD-TBM incorporates a design that enables it to alter the density and viscosity of slurry according to geological conditions, reducing the possibility of slurry loss into voids, subsequent loss of face pressure, and, ultimately, surface ground movement and blowouts through fissures.

Planned projects moving forward

Groundbreaking for Purple Line Extension Phase I

• Financing the Thames Tideway supersewer (June 2014)
• Thames Tideway Tunnels gets planning approval (Sep 2014)
• HS2 announces procurement strategy (Oct 2014)
• LA breaks ground on Purple Line extension (Nov 2014)
• London Underground Northern Line design (July 2014)

A number of long-running mega-projects moved closer to construction in 2014. In the UK the 26km Thames Tideway CSO project achieved planning permission, with owner Thames Water also launching a competitive tender for an Infrastructure Partner to fund the construction costs. UK High Speed 2 also advanced towards construction procurement, with an outline civils strategy put into place for Phase I London-Birmingham ahead of the final planning approval that will be required before the project is secured. As evidence of the UK’s continuing investment in underground rail infrastructure, longer term plans for Crossrail 2 and High Speed 3 continued to be developed throughout 2014, while construction of the long-awaited 3.2km Northern Line extension was awarded to a JV of Laing O’Rourke/Ferrovial Agroman.

In the USA, Los Angeles Metro broke ground on the 6.25km of running tunnels for the Purple Line Westside extension Phase I, adding to underground construction that continued throughout 2014 on the 1.9km Regional Connector project to connect the Blue, Gold and Expo Lines under Downtown LA; and the 13.5km Crenshaw/LAX light rail line that will run between the Expo Blue Line and the Metro Green Line with a link to the LAX international airport. Progress was also made on the many CSO and storage tunnels that are under construction as part of Federally mandated schemes for compliance with the provisions of the Clean Water Act.

Australia, meanwhile, progressed the first two of three phases of the WestConnex highway project around western Sydney; awarded construction of Melbourne’s East-West highway link mega-project; launched the first of four TBMs for the Sydney North West Rail Link (NWRL); and unveiled plans for two more Sydney harbour crossings, more surface level and underground extensions to link the NWRL with the southern area of the city under the harbour, and numerous other underground projects.

Throughout the year Tunneltalk continued to attend the major conferences and exhibitions, with the highlight of the calendar year being the annual gathering of the WTC, this year held in Iguassu Falls, Brazil.

• Final breakthroughs

  

  Lake Mead breakthrough

  TBM victory at Lake Mead (Dec 2014) Kargli complete in Turkey (July 2014) Indianapolis Connector (Aug 2014) Central Subway breakthrough (June 2014)

• Conferences

  

  WTC 2014, Iguassu Falls, Brazil

  WTC2014 Iguassu Falls, Brazil (May 2014) Mega projects in focus at BTS Conference (Oct 2014) Salzburg Geocolloquium (Oct 2014) AFTES holds court in Lyon (Oct 2014) Arabia Tunnelling Conference (Dec 2014)

• TunnelTECH: Research and Development

  In support of steel fiber reinforced concrete (Sep 2014) In support of macro-synthetic reinforced concrete (Oct 2014) Geopolymer concrete for durable linings (Jan 2014) Repairing damaged hydropower pressure tunnels (March 2014) Effective water-based fire suppression systems (Nov 2014)

Of course all of the above is only a selection of the many, many projects – large and small – that are ongoing or in planning across the globe. For a broader reference of the year’s activities look out for the 2014 TunnelTalk Annual Review which is currently in production and will be published in time for next year’s WTC event in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In the meantime we wish a Happy Christmas and a joyous and prosperous New Year to all our readers, advertisers, supporters and the many friends and colleagues we have within the industry.