ACCOLADES & AWARDS Achievement accolades for Richard Lovat
Dec 2012
Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk
- Two associations of tunneling professionals recognized the life-time career achievements of Richard Lovat at a gala dinner and awards night last Thursday (November 29) in Toronto. The first organization to present the award was the Tunneling Association of Richard's adopted home country Canada, TAC; and the second from the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA).
- In presenting the awards, Rick Staples, current President of TAC, described how, through the activity and business of the company, Richard placed Canada on the international stage as a principal designer, developer, manufacturer and suppler of modern TBM systems and technology, spearheading an early development of earth pressure balance excavation of soft ground and exporting the Lovat brand of mechanical tunnel excavation worldwide, from Canada to the USA, Russia, South America, Australia, across Europe and into China.
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TAC recognition for Richard Lovat
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Richard receives award from Rick Staples
- For his second award of the evening, Richard's son Rick, a member of the ITA Executive Committee and President-elect of TAC, recounted a history of the company he helped build with his father when he joined the team in 1986. Rick presented a personal account of his father's life from a childhood in Italy to his emigration first to Switzerland and then to Canada, and to the start and development of not only the Lovat company but also the Lovat family in Canada. The presentation guided the audience of Richard's friends, colleagues, customers and fellow tunnelers through the development of the range of iconic Lovat TBMs, highlighting the milestone achievements and contracts including the groundbreaking introduction of early EPB technology to the UK, an association that Richard remembers with respect and satisfaction, and the always close connection to the Canadian and US tunneling industry until sale of the company to Caterpillar in April 2008.
- In accepting both awards Richard received a standing ovation and the congratulations of everyone in the room.
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Gala dinner for awards celebrations in Toronto
- Other recipients of the annual tunneling awards, as sponsored by the ITA and hosted this year by TAC, represented projects and individuals from across the globe. Now in its third year, the awards event is organized by NCE, a UK-based civil engineering magazine, and is designed to identify and celebrate excellence across all aspects of the international tunneling industry.
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The award categories and their winners are:
• Young Tunneller of the Year - Ko Kwang Yu (Kenneth) of Hyder Consulting in Hong Kong
• Tunneling Advisor / Programme Manager of the Year - HNTB for the Devil's Slide twin-tube highway tunnel in
California
• Environmental Initiative of the Year - Mott MacDonald for the Western Regional Conveyance Tunnel in Northern
Kentucky, USA
• Safety Initiative of the Year - London Power Tunnels Joint Venture: National Grid, Mott MacDonald, Costain,
Skanska, Halcrow and VVB
• Technical Innovation of the Year - SWS Engineering SpA for using expanded clay as a back-fill material in
Trento, Italy
• Product/ Equipment Innovation of the Year - Halcrow Group for the Bond Street Station Upgrade - Senceive
Running Tunnel Monitoring System, London, UK
• Tunneling Contractor of the Year - John Holland for the Main Sewer Replacement in Melbourne, Australia
• Tunnel Design Firm of the Year - Arup
• Tunneling Project of the Year (less than $100 million) - Taylor Woodrow BAM Nuttall JV for the Tottenham
Court Road Station Upgrade in London
• Tunneling Project of the Year (between $100 million and $1 billion) - Traylor Bros for the Queens Bored
Tunnels for the East Side Access Project in New York
• Major Tunneling Project of the Year (over $1 billion) - Shanghai Tunnel Engineering & Rail Transit Design and
Research Institute for the Yangtze River Twin Tube TBM Bored Highway Tunnel in Shanghai, China. - The awards are to be conducted again next year and nominations are being received for adjudication and presentation to the winners at a gala dinner being organized for Doha in the Middle East.
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Richard Lovat celebrates a life time in the tunnelling industry
Lovat rolls out TBM 250! - TunnelTalk, March 2009
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