ITA announces Tunneling Awards nominees

Lausanne, Switzerland — Thirty-two nominees will be running for the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) Awards 2015, Nov. 19, at the Hagerbach Underground Conference and Exhibition Gallery in Switzerland. The best projects and engineering profiles will be presented to the jury of 18 experts during a one-day conference. They will compete in the framework of nine prize categories, from the major project of the year to the innovation of the year.

The nominee selection process was tight, with 110 applicants; 105 projects were finally recorded by the ITA. Three to eight nominees were selected in each of the nine ITA Awards categories.

Major Project of the Year (more than 500 million euros)

• Eurasia Tunnel Project – Turkey
• Futian Station of Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong King – China
• New York City’s Second Avenue Subway Project – USA

Tunneling Project of the Year (from 50 to 500 million euros)

• 1st Phase of Low and Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility Construction – South Korea
• Indianapolis Deep Rock Conveyance and Storage Tunnel Project – USA
• Lake Mead intake N°3 – USA

Outstanding Project of the Year (up to 50 million euros)

• Grosvenor Decline Tunnels – Australia
• Norsbork Metro Depot – Sweden
• North Strathfield Rail Underpass – Australia

Technical Innovation of the Year

• An Innovative Vehicle – mounted GPR Technique for Fast and Efficient Monitoring of Tunnel Lining Structure Conditions
• Combination of techniques for immersed tunnel
• Development of the New Joint (SB Joint) for Shield Tunnels
• Monitoring tunneling induced ground displacements using distributed fibre optic sensing
• New innovative system for layer thickness control on spray mobiles
• The evolution of the “Nazzano” method to widen tunnel without interrupting traffic flow

Environmental Initiative of the Year

• Brenner Base Tunnel / Isarco Undercrossing Lot – Italy
• Innovative Overhead Conveyor Belt for Urban Environmental Benefit – Qatar
• The Corribtunnel Project – tunneling in environmentally sensitive area – Ireland

Safety Initiative of the Year

• MineARC Systems Compressed Air Management Solution
• Safety cabin of tunneling drill
• Semi-Automatic Tubular Steel Arch : an innovation on safety

Innovative Use of Underground Space

• Reviving burial in tunnel – Israel
• Sydney Opera House Vehicle Access and Pedestrian Safety (VAPS) project – Australia
• Toledo Metro Station on Line 1 in Naples – Italy

Young Tunneler of the Year

• Philip Duarte
• Petros Fortsakis
• Jurij Karlovsek
• Liu Hao
• Sindre Log
• Ryan McCarron
• Angelo Palma Filho Eloi
• Ponciano Perez Lupi

“The jury had to select the most innovative candidates in each categories. Regarding the success of the ITA Tunnelling Awards and the quality of the entries, it was quite a difficult task to achieve, yet very stimulating and challenging,” said ITA’s President Soren Degn Eskesen. “The field of tunnels and underground spaces is in constant evolution; technical innovations are numerous. The ITA Tunnelling Awards are to detect such ‘treasures,’ in a context of climate and demographic emergency. With more than 66 percent of the global population living in cities in 2050, and regular floods caused by the global warming, the tunnels’ engineering has got a strategic role to play in the construction of sustainable urban areas.”  

To attend to the one-day conference and participate in the banquet, register at https://awards.ita-aites.org/book-conference-and-dinner.html.