ITA Awards hail international achievements Dec 2020

The most ground-breaking innovation, achievements and outstanding projects in the international tunnelling and underground space industry are celebrated each year by the ITA Awards of the the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association. After a challenging year, especially on safety issues, the 2020 ITA Awards conference event and announcement of the winners of the eight categories took place online.

Answering the call for nominations, 52 entries from 23 countries were received and the virtual event in early December gathered more than 700 attendees during the first days, proving that, even through a digital platform, the industry is still powerful. Recorded presentations by the category finalists and other event presentations will be available for free registration access on the ITA Awards virtual link until December 18^th.

The winners and finalists for each of the eight categories are as follows:

Sydney Metro City & Southwest Line Project, Australia

Major Project of the Year with a budget of more than €500 million

Presented to the John Holland CPB Ghella JV for the TBM tunnelling and station excavation works for the Sydney Metro City & Southwest Line Project in Australia. Extension of the Metro North West Line from Chatswood through to the Sydney CBD to Sydenham and Bankstown included TBM drives under Sydney Harbour and roadheader excavation for large station caverns. Five TBMs completed 15.5km of twin segmentally lined running tunnels with 57 cross passages.

Fellow finalists:
Ryfast, construction of the longest sub-sea road tunnel in the world, Norway
Yanqing to Chongli expressway Jinjiazhuang spiral tunnel project, China

Chinatown Subway Station, San Francisco, USA

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

Presented to the Chinatown Station of the Central Subway Program, USA, excavated beneath the narrow streets, historic buildings, numerous utilities and poor ground conditions of central San Francisco. The main station cavern is 192m long x 16.7m wide x 13m high with an excavated cross section of 202m², making it one of the largest excavations in poor ground and soil-like materials in the USA. The main station entrance and service facility are located off street and connected to the platform cavern via a cross-cut cavern. This enabled the construction of the station cavern in two directions, running as many as four operations. Due to ground variability, a pre-support system comprising grouted steel pipe arch canopies were provided and face bolts were used in the center drift. To protect adjoining buildings an instrumentation and monitoring plan was developed using multi-point extensometers, inclinometers, and total stationing with compensation grouting implemented to maintain settlement to less than 12mm.

Fellow finalists:
Uma Oya multipurpose hydro development project, Sri Lanka
Large scale underpass using multiple construction methods at Banxuegang hightech-city, China
Micangshan Tunnel on G85 Expressway, China

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

Presented to two finalists, the FEDRO renovation method in Switzerland that cast a new non-reinforced primary lining in an operating road tunnel using night shifts and while keeping all traffic lanes open during the day and the Lower Otta hydropower project in Norway.

FEDRO renovation method

Otta hydropower project

In Switzerland, part of the primary lining of the road tunnel was removed and new drainage and sealing systems were installed behind the final self-compacting concrete lining and M&E refits. To secure the availability and usability of the motorway network, the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) developed the new solution to renovation of road tunnels while keeping them open to traffic. To maintain two-lane traffic during the day, a special tunnel formwork was conceived and applied.

The Nedre Otta hydropower project included excavation and construction of an intake structure with a 200m² trash rack area and two intake gates, 10km of 90m² unlined headrace and tailrace tunnel, surge shafts upstream and downstream, and a 65,000m³ powerhouse with15,000m³ of concrete works. The project was based on a virtual design and construction (VDC) process where a digital twin was established with input from all disciplines and suppliers. The construction was performed directly based on BIM without production of 2D drawing. Drill+blast excavation of the tunnel heading progress at slightly better than planned and at an average production rate of 55m/week with production of up to 68m/week in some weeks for the headrace and tailrace tunnels.

Fellow finalists
Nord Stream 2 trenchless microtunnelling shore crossing by Züblin, Germany
The integration of subway station construction and ecological environment protection in a complex environment, China

forward-prospecting technique mounted on hard rock TBM in China

Technical Innovation of the Year

Presented to developers of an automated geological forward-prospecting technique mounted on hard rock TBM in China. Without identification of unknown geology in advance of TBMs, the excavation may suffer geo-hazards including water in rushes, face collapses and large deformations. For adverse geological features including faults, the developed system is an active-source seismic prospecting system coupled with a real-time forward- prospecting technique using TBM drilling noise to realize accurate 3D imaging of faults and fractured zones within 120m ahead. Specifically, the detection system of the proposed IP and seismic methods are all mounted on the TBM. Through remote control, automatic data acquisition can be realized within 10 minutes and TBM construction activities will not be influenced. This prospecting technique has been applied on 21 engineering projects of a total 67.42km without missing any major disaster sources, playing an important role in TBM efficiency, optimization and safety assurance.

Fellow finalists
Digital condition assessment of Brunel brick tunnels, UK
GB-InSAR system for real-time face safety monitoring, Italy
Laser-guided system for conventional tunnelling, Spain

Chengdu-Guiyang high-speed railway project in China where the Yujingshan mountain crossing encountered a giant karst cave and an underground river

Overcoming the challenge

Presented to the Chengdu-Guiyang high-speed railway project in China where the Yujingshan mountain crossing encountered a giant karst cave and an underground river. The 50m-120m high x 95m long x 230m wide karst feature at 60m below the ground surface was 1.08 million m3 with the 18km long underground river flowing through it.

With the risk of cave collapse, the first challenge was to ensure the safety of construction personnel and equipment in the cave. The second challenge was to determine what kind of engineering structure should be adopted to cross the cave hall safely and economically to support excavation in the first instance and the permanent highspeed rail guideway and train services in the long term. The third challenge is to complete the project on time. With the need for protecting environment and drinking water resources from polluting, the fourth challenge is to maintain the balance of the existing underground water network and the original ecosystem.

Several solutions were set up and an integrated tunnel + bridge structure was selected. A groundwater system was constructed to discharge the underground river, seepage through fissures, and rainy-season floods via a spillway.

Fellow finalists
Working under 89.3°C ultra-high ground temperature in the Sangzhuling tunnel on the Nyingchi-Lhasa section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway, China
High performance EPB excavation in mixed face and variable ground with up to 7 bar groundwater pressure, Mexico

In the service of archaeology in Israel

Oddities of the underground

Presented to tunnelling in the service of archaeology in Israel. Hidden beneath historical Jerusalem are archaeological sites of more than 3,000 years old. The entire extent of sites has not yet been fully explored. Tunnel design and building expertise in soft ground and archaeological fill is required to proceed with the excavations and make the site accessible to the public. Excavation is carried out using custom-made drill machines adapted to small spaces and steel ribs and steel plates as temporary and permanent support. Unexpected finds can lead to sudden changes in the direction of excavation, often accompanied by low overburden and difficult ground conditions. Unlike conventional excavation in which the muck is removed, the nature of this project is to keep the muck for further research by scientists.

Fellow finalist
The Drammen spiral tunnel – Norway

Battered drilled shafts as permanent ground support in San Francisco

Innovative and Contributing Underground Spaces

Presented to the open-cut Union Square/Market Street Station in San Francisco, USA, where battered drilled shafts were constructed as permanent ground and excavation support. These drilled shafts support the structures of the station that include a 400ft long concourse and platform box at about 100ft below the street with the battered piles at about 140ft deep. The station also included a 250ft long south concourse under Stockton Street and another 100ft passageway under Ellis Street. The ingenuity was installing the battered shafts in the limited space between the segmentally lined TBM tunnel, that was pre-excavated through the station zone, and the property line either side of the Market Street.

Fellow finalists
Indian strategic petroleum reserves caverns, Padur, India
Shenzhen Chegongmiao integrated traffic hub project, China

Young Tunneller of the Year

Awarded to Josh Barry of Australia from among his fellow candidates who are all congratulated for the careers they are establishing in their particular specialities and home countries Laurence Delplace, Belgium; Dimitrios Litsas, Greece; Sandeep Singh Nirmal, India; Qingfang Liu, China.

Josh Barry

Josh started his career at Aurecon as a student engineer in Melbourne in 2007 after returning from an exchange programme in geotechnical engineering in Canada at the University of Waterloo. This interest was furthered through a 12-week work experience placement at Aurecon and a move to Hong Kong in 2011 where he took on challenges on the South Island Line. These experiences formed the base of his career. In 2016, he moved to Bangkok where he has gone on to create and lead the first Aurecon tunnel team in Thailand.

In congratulating all those honoured and recognised in the 2020 series of the ITA Awards we look forward to the 2021 series when we all hope we will be able to gather together in person in Mumbai, India, in November 2021 for the celebrations.