Articles By Subject: Drill & Blast Tunnels
Your ITA needs you
The recent WT Roundtable raised serious questions about the function of the International Tunnelling Association (ITA). Here is an edited transcript of the debate
The big fair with the best ware
With Bauma just around the corner on April 19-25 at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre in Munich, Germany, we take a look at selected exhibitors from the tunnelling sector
Free as a bird
A geologist and civil engineer by training, Boston area-based geoconsultant Dr Peter J Tarkoy is a controversial and self-styled visionary in the tunnelling industry. He talks to George DemetriPositive start for Normet
Normet has announced a promising start to 2010 with a capacity expansion in Finland, a new spare-parts centre in Holland and a big order from Hong Kong
New appointment at Normet
Normet International has appointed Odd-Bjørn Kleven as director of tunnelling and special projects, a position which he has already taken up.UK tunnel/shaft lining spec nears
British Precast, the trade body for the UK concrete products industry, has started preparing a new specification for precast tunnel and shaft linings.New blood needed
WT's roundtable event held in Hamburg in November threw up some interesting questions, one of which was how to attract young new recruits into the industry.
Water caverns a first for Hong Kong
Providing underground salt-water caverns for the University of Hong Kong proved an environmental and engineering challenge. TH Chan, Derek Arnold, Edwin KF Chung and Chris CW Chan report
Poor rock is tough luck at Dakmi 4
Drill and blast tunnelling on Vietnam’s Dakmi 4 hydropower station is well under way, despite the difficult rock conditions being experienced
Talking jumbos
Carly Lovejoy spoke to Pekka Nieminen of Sandvik Mining and Construction, Mathias Edhammer of Atlas Copco, and Witold Hnat of MineMaster
World Tunnelling Industry Leaders' Round Table
Welcome to the second World Tunnelling roundtable. We invited some of the top minds in international tunnelling from engineering consultancy, contractors and equipment manufacturers to meet last year in Hamburg on November 30 – the eve of STUVA – to discuss some of the most talked about issues in tunnelling. It turned out to be a memorable discussion.Cavico announces breakthroughs
Vietnam-based infrastructure development firm Cavico has announced that its subsidiaries, Cavico Mining and Cavico Power and Resource Construction (CPRC), have broken through at two major tunnel projects.Skanska to build Kvis Tunnel
Scandinavia-based construction group Skanska has been awarded a US$60 million contract by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen) for the construction of an 8km stretch of road and tunnel in the country’s central regionNew CEO at Parsons Brinckerhoff
Parsons Brinckerhoff has appointed George J Pierson as chief executive officer, effective on January 1, 2010. He is currently president and COO of the firm’s Americas division, and succeeds Keith J Hawksworth, who becomes chairmanA man for all seasons
San Francisco-based Dr Glenn Boyce, senior associate at Jacobs Associates, is one of few engineers to specialise in tunnelling and trenchlesss. By George DemetriSTUVA bangs the drum for safe tunnelling
STUVA organisers have expressed satisfaction at the success of their recent tunnelling event in Hamburg, Germany, on 1-3 DecemberLaserShell paper wins engineer award
A UK-based engineering manager working for infrastructure provider Morgan Est has won a prestigious prize for a paper he wrote on LaserShell, the sprayed-concrete lining methodPEAB scoops yet another Swedish railway project
Leading Scandinavian contractor Peab is to build a 1.8km-long tunnel as part of a newly won US$78 million contract involving the construction of a section of the Hede-Älvängen railway between Gothenburg and Trollhättan in SwedenBrisbane looks down under for transport improvements
Proposals for an underground rail network to be built in Brisbane, Australia, form part of sweeping plans to modernise public transport in the city, which were unveiled recently by the Queensland State Government.Normet establishes Canadian base
Normet, the Finland-based manufacturer of underground construction and mining equipment, has announced the formation of Normet Canada, the 15th country in which the company has gained a permanent presenceSandvik-BASF tie-up gets off the starting blocks
Further progress has been made on the recently-announced co-operation between Sandvik and BASF-Meyco
Good progress on Indian underground caverns
Excavation is progressing well on India’s first underground crude oil-storage caverns at Visakhapatnam in the south of the country.
Between a rock and a hard place
The Halcrow-designed Shis-Diftah road tunnel, currently on site in Sharjah and being drilled and blasted through the UAE’s highest mountain range, faces an array of challenges. George Demetri reportsInnoTrans organiser claims healthy bookings for 2010 exhibition
Display space at the rail-transport-technology fair InnoTrans 2010 is almost all booked up, according to organizer Berlin-based Messe BerlinNCC wins road and tunnel construction deal
NCC Construction Norway has won a US$93.6 million road contract in Norway that includes the construction of a 300m tunnel
Sandvik opens largest production facility
Sandvik Mining and Construction has opened a new 24,000m2 plant in Shanghai, China, which it says is the largest production facility it has opened to dateKoralm phase two bids invited
Austrian Federal Railways is expected this month to invite bids for the construction of Phase 2 of the US$3.5 billion Koralm tunnelBouygues triumphs in Miami
France’s Bouygues Travaux Publics has won a US$656 million contract to build the long-awaited Port of Miami tunnel in Florida, USStrabag bags US$222 million Indian tunnel contract
One of Europe’s largest construction companies, Strabag AG Austria, has been awarded the tender for the construction of the 8.8km Rohtang Pass Highway Tunnel in the western Himalaya region of northern IndiaBlast off with Orica eDevTM
Orica, one of the world’s leading developers of electronic blasting systems, recently launched its newest – eDevTMLiebherr crane conveyor handles hoisting
Liebherr has developed the KFA Crane Conveying System for the Machine Technology Service Centre in Germany, operated by Bilfinger Berger, to handle hoisting during tunnel projectsSpray-applied membranes
Dr Wolfgang Aldrian of BASF Construction Chemicals and Robert Giefing of IAT, Vienna, discuss some recent spray-applied waterproof membrane projects
Carry on tunnelling
Scandinavia is one of the world’s busiest tunnelling regions. George Demetri takes a look at some of the work in progress
Atlas Copco rolls out ROC T35M
The new ROC T35M surface-crawler drill rig is equipped with a highly productive, well-proven COP 1840 rock drill with 18kW drilling power for a high penetration rate
NATM flies to Delhi airport
Johann Brandl of Salzburg-based Geoconsult ZT in Austria checks the progress of NATM tunnelling works to Delhi Airport – only the second time it has been used in India
World's biggest tunnel project ends
Imagine cities without cars, where carcinogenic dust and noise are confined to below ground and city parks form the refreshing, clean oases that they are meant to beCivils 2009 ready to roll
On November 25-26, Earls Court 2 in London, UK, opens its doors for the Civils show, hailed as the UK’s definitive civil engineering showcase comprising manufacturers, suppliers, contractors and consultants from all areas of the industry.More education please - CSM-style
Three days at the Colorado School of Mines have impressed George Demetri.UAE's longest road tunnel emerges
The first of two tunnel breakthroughs has been hailed as a milestone as Sharjah’s – and the UAE’s - longest rock tunnel, located on the Diftah-Shis highway.Rock-solid proposition for high-stress environments
Erich Neugebauer outlines the principles behind Atlas Copco’s Roofex – a flexible, supporting and yielding rockbolt aimed at high stress conditionsVeidekke wins Norwegian tunnels and motorway contract
Scandinavian contractor Veidekke is to build a stretch of motorway in Norway that includes an assortment of road tunnelsAre you ready for 2010?
Starting in January 2010, World Tunnelling will be giving its readers the chance to promote their tunnel projects in our ‘Project 2010’ feature. Projects can be recently completed or near completionRapid drill and blast with fast muck
Stig Eriksson, of Skanska Infrastructure Development, describes a high-speed drill and blast project in Switzerland and details the innovative mucking system usedDeadline extended for Prague 2010
The deadline for receipt of abstracts for the Underground Constructions Prague 2010 conference has been extended to September 15.Golden short course ready for take-off at CSM
‘Breakthroughs in Tunnelling’ is a three-day short course (September 23-25 2009) to be held at the Colorado School of Mines, US.
Bibra forms key high-speed rail link
Drill and blast from both ends is driving Germany’s horseshoe-shaped, twin-tube Bibra tunnel as part of German and European high speed rail networks. Former World Tunnelling editor Lawrence Williams reports.Staffing in difficult times
A tunnel engineer for over 40 years, Barrie Willis has worked mainly on major international projects, including the UK’s twin Mersey tunnels, before taking up his post managing the tunnel department at Netherlands-based personnel supplier IPS Group."Avant-garde" proposal
Chilean architects have proposed the construction of a 150km tunnel from landlocked Bolivia to an artificial island in the Pacific Ocean.Minova expands resin production
Mining and construction consumables producer Minova has expanded its Minetek plant in Hyderabad, India.CzTA calls for papers on transport and city tunnels
The Czech Tunnelling Association (CzTA) has announced a call for papers for the 11th International Conference of Underground Construction, held in Prague, Czech Republic, on June 14-16, 2010.Hindhead A3 tunnels update
Early contractor involvement and leading edge design and construction thinking have delivered flexibility and programme wins, says Tony Rock of consulting engineer Mott MacDonald.Leading on risk
Professor Arnold Dix of Queensland University of Technology and an independent consultant, is a technical/legal expert advisor and world authority on managing the risks associated with tunnels and underground infrastructures. He also specialises in operational safety, as well as in contractual, political and insurance issues for complex tunnel projects.Classy tunnel offering
Mining engineer Pekka Nieminen is global product line manager of tunnelling and underground civil engineering at Sandvik, Finland. He joined Tampella Tamrock, now Sandvik, in 1987 and has been with the company ever since. With ten years’ tunnelling experience, Pekka has headed Sandvik’s tunnel division since 2006Saudi tunnel will boost tourism
Saudi Arabia is looking into the possibility of constructing an 11km tunnel that would drastically reduce the travel time between the cities of Mecca and Taif in the western part of the Saudi kingdom, reports Syed Rashid Ali.Tunnel or bridge?
Linking Denmark and Germany, the Fehmarnbelt marine crossing will, when complete, be the world’s longest combined road and railway tunnels.
Paving the way for a talc mine
MAIN contractor Skanska BS is using drill and blast to excavate a 4.2km access tunnel for the development of a talc mine in Slovakia.The art of drill plan design
DRILL plan design and drilling equipment accuracy play a significant role in the overall control and productiveness of a tunnelling construction site.Indian infrastructure wheels start to turn slowly
Infrastructure spending may be starting to have a beneficial effect on the Indian economy, given the recent flurry of activity on the hydro-electric front.Putzmeister's wet spray
Two of Putzmeister’s SPM 500 PC wet-spray concrete machines are being used to apply shotcrete on the B29 Schwäbisch Gmünd by-pass road tunnel in GermanyBrookville advances
Brookville Equipment Corporation (BEC), manufacturer of custom underground haulage locomotives and personnel carriers, has announced it continues to make improvements to the efficiency, safety and comfort of its rail-mounted units.
Budapest opens its doors to WTC
Budapest, Hungary, will be hosting the 2009 World Tunnel Congress and 35th ITA-AITES General Assembly between May 23 and 28.Dix optimistic on stimulus packages
Despite the global economy almost going into free fall, opportunities for tunnelling consultants are better than ever, according to Professor Arnold Dix, chairman of the Contractual Practices Group at the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.Norwegian tunnel scholar dies
Tor Brekke, viewed by many as a leading light in the US tunnelling firmament, died recently, aged 75.'Imitate or Innovate' theme for tunnel symposium
Anyone involved in tunnel ventilation may be interested to know that BHR Group is inviting registrations for its 13th International Symposium on tunnel aerodynamics & ventilation, to be held in New Brunswick, US, on May 13-15.Wayss & Freytag share Silbertunnel contract win
German tunnel specialist Wayss and Freytag Ingenierbau, owned by the Dutch Royal BAM Group, is part of a JV awarded the contract to build the 7.4km-long Silberberg rail tunnel near Grossbreitenbach, Germany.In Charge and Upbeat
Marek Grocholewski trained as a civil engineer in his native Poland and now heads Minova’s tunnelling division. Based in Germany, he has experience of both the tunnelling and mining sectors. Here, he speaks to George Demetri about his current role and some of the issues facing the industry.Immersed in discussion
You may notice that a substantial part of this magazine (pp21-31) is taken up by the World Tunnelling round table, held in Sargans, Switzerland on September 16.NEWS BY SUBJECT
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