Page 5 - TunnelTalk Annual Review 2017

2P 017 Concentrating industry efforts going forward
roductivity, sustainability, smart technologies, cost control, value for money and resilient cities are some of
the principal catch-alls that will concentrate the mind and influence the industry direction from 2017 and into 2018. Far from being new ideas or recent focuses of attention, the uptake of proposed technological advances in actuality is being slow and in some cases stubbornly or unjustifiably rejected.
This may not be surprising for the construction industry, which is not known for its agility and readiness for change and innovation, but indications are that time is now for radical and rapid change to update design and construction practices, to improve machinery and materials performance, and to thoroughly and transparently review budgets and project costs.
Productivity
A renewed focus on productivity began in mid-2016 with publication of an article in the Economist magazine reporting on a study by the McKinsey Global Institute that productivity gains per hour worked are lowest, and actually falling, in the construction industry (Fig 1).
Key drivers of this embarrassing trend, it reports, include:
• Workers replacing machinery in countries where importing or using plentiful cheap labour is less expensive than investing in machinery;
• Volatility in demand that deters upfront fixed-cost investment in equipment that cannot be easily cut in a downturn where workers can be laid off;
• Failure to consolidate, with differing practices and codes within and between countries and the customised nature of projects, blocking the advantages of scale; • Fierce competition for slim margins among many small companies and subcontractors, rather than collaborating to contain costs;
• Failure to adopt smart technologies with little changed on construction sites compared to decades ago - except for much better safety standards; and
• Slowness to adopt new practices and innovations with aversion to taking on risk being a major barrier.
Anexampleofadvancedpracticesand technologies beginning to be adopted into the construction industry is BIM (building information modeling). Be it considered a brilliant development or an overblown marketing exercise, BIM is here to stay and is being applied with the expectation of avoiding ambiguities in contact documents, reducing the need for design revisions and construction rebuilds, assisting more accurate estimating of quantities and costs,
Fig 1. Construction productivity going backwards
Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk
their increasing density of cities, is raising the awareness of the underground as a valuable resource of real estate.
Spearheading the efforts of the underground industry to be heard and integrated into global infrastructure planning is ITACUS, the Committee on Underground Space of the ITA, International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association. Established formerly by the ITA in 2011, ITACUS has made substantial progress in its goals. It has increased collaboration with other international associations of urban development, has staged several conference sessions, workshops and seminars and has published several white
and supporting time programming in order to schedule more efficiently, finish earlier and save costs.
BIM is now adopted or is mandatory on most projects in design and planning around the world and this is a relatively rapid development. For example, in the UKBIMiscentraltothedesign,planning, construction and future maintenance, operation and upgrading of the new HS2 high speed railway project between London and Birmingham whereas it was underused a few years earlier on the Crossrail project.
High upfront costs to establish and manage BIM systems are expected to be offset by realized savings over the lifetime of infrastructure projects from planning to refurbishment. Such is the excitement of BIM within the industry, it has conference sessions and industry award categories dedicated to its application, knowledge sharing and case study reviews.
Sustainability
Sustainability, as another aspiration for the future, is in focus and pulling or dragging industry forward or apart.
Few now refute the phenomena of climate change and while many argue the actual courses, a consensus of opinion is that carbon emissions must be reduced. As an objective in the construction and tunnelling industry that covers almost all processes from excavated material transportation and disposal to concrete production and recycling of construction wastewater and excavated rock.
Rapid expansion of the world’s mega cities is driving the need for more integrated and sustainable approaches to urban planning. The vulnerability of urban developments to events of natural disaster (storms, earthquakes, fires, floods) and
papers and documents and in early 2018 published a book by its Chair and Vice Chair Han Admiraal and Antonia Cornaro, titled Underground Spaces Unveiled, Planning and creating the cities of the future.
ITACUS and ITA are also supporting the development of regional Think Deep groups to facilitate integration of the underground dimension into urban planning. As an example, the Think Deep group in the UK (TDUK) completed a workshop project with the Glasgow City Council of Scotland to rethink and expand plans to redevelop the Clyde River Waterfront. The group of 10 young urban designers/planners/architects and 10 civil engineers/underground space specialists, discussed the topic and presented the Council with a report on their findings and recommendations. Similar workshops are planned and have been undertaken for projects in other cities with the influence of the groups growing and being appreciated.
Cost control and project size
Another trend into 2018 will be development of infrastructure as mega construction projects. Rather than developing projects in smaller minimum operating phases, and the need will require construction of mega projects in single programmes of vast investments, consuming vast amounts of resources and involving construction contracts of billions in capital investments.
Implementation of the Doha Metro in Qatar set the standard with a network of 111km of metro tunneling and underground station excavation completed in 26 months, using 21 TBMs across four contracts.
Other mega-project investments in metro infrastructure include:
• the €25.9 billion 75km orbital
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