Excellence in the 2018 ITA Awards shortlist 30 Aug 2018

Since the first in 2015, the international ITA Tunnelling Awards competition has received more than 240 entries, 110 nominations, rewarded 30 projects and personalities and gathered more than 750 attendees to each of the three award and trophy presentation gala evenings. For this year, 68 entries were received for the eight Awards categories, the ninth category for the Lifetime Achievement Award being nominated by the ITA Executive Council.

Promoting ITA Awards participation

The 68 entries received for the 2018 fourth series of the Awards competition, at least half of them represent the two major trends in the global tunnelling industry to meet increasing demand for public railways and the drive to plan more sustainable cities. According to ITA research, the global underground construction sector grossed US$100 billion in 2016 with global demand growing by 7% annually. The Association’s international awards competition seeks to reward the most ground-breaking innovation and outstanding projects in tunnelling and underground space development and illustrates the truly global nature of the industry with the 68 entries for 2018 representing projects in Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, China and Hong Kong, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, and the UK.

The entries for 2018 highlight a dominance of Asia, and especially China, in the use, development and investment in tunnelling and underground space projects. The region is currently recording an output of approximately $43 billion in underground development. China, including Hong Kong, is represented by 37 of the 68 2018 award entries and is currently recognised as representing nearly half the output of the global tunnelling industry.

Winners of the 2017 ITA Awards

This concentration of tunnelling in China is also recognised in 2018 by its hosting of the ITA Awards conference day and its evening presentation to the winners of each category. The event will be held on 8 November in the city of Chuzhou near Nanjing and in conjunction with the 20th Chinese Tunnel and Underground Works Conference (CTUC) on 5-6 November. A technical tour of tunnelling projects in Nanjing, Chuzhou and Shanghai will follow on 8 November.

With 68 entries received by the closing date in June, the panel of 17 judges, representing leaders within the industry in all parts of the industry and all regions of the world, including USA, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, UK and USA, and lead by ITA President Tarcisio Celestino of Brazil, has identified the following shortlist of finalists for each category. The projects represented in the shortlists will be described and presented during the ITA Awards Conference programme and the winners, which remain unknown through the proceedings, will be announced and presented with the Brunel Trophy at the Awards presentation ceremony during the gala dinner at the end of the conference day.

The shortlisted finalists represent a total of 35 outstanding projects in their field:

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao immersed tube sea link highway is among the mega-projects shortlist

innovative horseshoe shaped TBM is a finalist

2017 Awards winners in Paris

Major Project of the Year of more than €500 million

• West Qinling Tunnel on Lanzhou-Chongqing Railway (China)
• Liantang / Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point site formation and infrastructure works (Hong Kong, China)
• Immersed tunnel of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Link (China)
• China's Mega Water Project: Jilin Yinsong Water Supply (China)

Project of the Year of between €50 million and €500 million

• Queershan Tunnel on National Road 317 (China)
• Gongbei tunnel of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge (China)
• Foshan Dongping Tunnel (China)
• Vamma 12 hydropower project (Norway)

Project of the Year including Renovation of up to €50 million

• Zarbalizadeh shallow tunnel construction underneath operating railways (Iran)
• Kaikoura earthquake recovery main north line tunnels (New Zealand)
• Trenchless tunnel construction of Bukit Panjang MRT entrance and underpass (Singapore)
• Maroggia railway tunnel enlargement project (Switzerland)

Technical Innovation Project of the year

• TBM entry works under sea level near the Bosphorus (Istanbul, Turkey)
• A mechanized method with large section horseshoe shape EPB-TBM first applied in loess mountain tunnel (China)
• Velstertunnel Project; Integrated BIM for failure free retrofitting of a motorway tunnel: innovation creates a fixed link between contractor and stakeholders (Netherlands)

Technical Innovation Product or Equipment of the Year

• FlatMesh wireless system (UK)
• Multifunctional energy-storage and luminescent material for sustainable and energy-saving lighting for tunnels (China)
• Innovative backfill grout for dilative soils (Germany)
• An innovative hard-rock TBM-mounted system for geological forward- prospecting (China)

Safety Initiative of the Year

• MineARC’s Aura-FX digital gas monitoring technology (Australia)
• Site formation and infrastructure works for development of Anderson Road Quarry (Hong-Kong, China)
• ROBY 850 semi-automatic drilling robot (Hong Kong,China)
• Excavation of a tunnel with traditional methods, through rocks containing natural asbestos, safeguarding the health and safety of workers and preserving the external environment (Italy)

Innovative Underground Space Concept of the year

• Underground pedestrian passage under Heiniucheng Road in the New Badali area in Tianjin (China)
• Norwegian Rock Blasting Museum (Norway)
• Ecological civilization construction and intensive land use of metro project (China)

Young Tunneller of the Year

• He YingDao, China
• Jack Muir, New Zealand
• Senthilnath G T, India
• Giuseppe M Gaspari, Italy
• Fredrikke S G Syversen, Norway
• Mandy Ang, Malaysia
• Morteza Javadi, Iran

The industry media chair on the judging panel for this year is filled by TunnelTalk Editor, Shani Wallis, who said during her first time in the seat for the 2015 Awards series: “These Awards are a significant process for the international tunnelling industry each year. They provide the opportunity for the effort and endeavour, the expertise and the construction control and management of important projects from across the world to be recognised and rewarded and for the industry at large to understand and appreciate the activities of fellow engineers and projects that would otherwise go unnoticed. They are a chance to share knowledge and learn from the experiences of others for the betterment and advance of the industry at large.”

TunnelTalk will be at the ITA Awards Conference in Chuzhou in November and Wallis will take part in the Awards presentation ceremony along with other panel judges and ITA event organisers. Registration to attend the conference and the Awards banquet is now open and available on the ITA Awards website. It will be a special day raising the profile of the international and regional tunnelling industries and will follow the successes of the ITA Awards Conference and Presentation Banquet in Paris last year, in Singapore in 2016 and the first in Switzerland in 2015. All are invited to participate in the sharing of knowledge and attend and celebrations.