Nomination open for ITA 2020 Awards 09 Apr 2020

Despite strange times across the globe due to the coronavirus pandemic, series six of the ITA Awards for 2020 will progress and begins with the call for nominations.

For 2020 there are seven categories two of which are new. The categories are:

• Major Project of the Year of more than €500 million
• Project of the Year of between €50 million and €500 million
• Project of the Year including Renovation of up to €50 million
• Technical Innovation of the Year
• Young Tunneller of the Year

The two new categories are:

• Overcoming the challenge
  For projects that overcame either foreseen or unforeseen extreme challenges during excavation and construction, and
• Oddities of the Underground
  Celebrating the creativity, ingenuity, and imagination of the human spirit in its endeavours underground.

Nominations must be related to projects for which major civil engineering works were completed between 1 January 2019 and 1 April 2020 and the Young Tunneller of the Year rewards an individual born after 1 January 1986 and who has brought an outstanding contribution to tunnelling.

Nominations are welcomed via the online entry portal and by the closing date of 30 June 2020.

Celebrate the 2019 winners

All qualifying entries will be reviewed by a panel of industry recognised Judges with the shortlist of each category being further reviewed to the finalists. These finalists are invited to present their projects to the delegates and participants of the ITA Awards conference day. This is followed in the evening with the gala presentation dinner when the winner of each category is announced, and the certificate and Brunel Trophy is presented.

After the successes of the first five editions of the Awards and their finalists conference days and gala dinners for presentation of the Brunel Trophy and certificates to the best in category in Switzerland 2015, Singapore 2016, France 2017, China 2018 and USA 2019, the 2020 conference and celebrations will take place at the end of the year on a date and exact place to be confirmed.

Throughout the world, innovative projects and technologies are emerging to take up the challenge of creating the vital underground infrastructure on which modern society depends.

The ITA Awards are promoted to celebrate the achievements by the engineers, owners, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, workers, educators and all involved in the industry. As part of its mission, the ITA, International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association – as a non-profit, non-governmental organisation – was founded in 1974 and operates from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It has 78 Member Nations, 300 affiliate members, 18 prime sponsors, 60 supporters and many individual supporters. The World Tunnel Congress, WTC 2020, that was to be held in May 2020 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and also to host the 46th General Assembly of the ITA Member Nations has been postponed to 11-17 September, also in Kuala Lumpur and in the same venue.