AGREEMENT WITH POLITECNICO DI TORINO

Last September 8th, I had the pleasure to sign with the president of CONFINDUSTRIA, Mr Giorgio Squinzi, the agreement between the Foundation and ANCE, the Associazione Nazionale Costruttori Editi, for the development of the relationship between the Foundation and the Politecnico di Torino.

Among its scopes, ANCE considered strategic to reinforce the training in the field of Tunnelling and Underground space, particularly the Postgraduate Master Course on Tunnelling and Tunnel Boring Machines at the Politecnico. 

ANCE believes that it is of common interest to support the creation in Italy of an operational office of the Foundation at Politecnico.

Through this agreement ANCE will now provide offices and facilities to the Foundation.

The implementation of a joint program of work will start immediately, including:

• A Foundation sponsorship to a student for the next promotion of the Postgraduate master course
• The organization of a “Foundation week” during the 2015 – 2016 promotion of the Master
• The organization of a Training Session on Conventional Tunnelling on 15-16 January 2015
• The Development of programs of new Training Sessions such as Numerical Simulation

I am very pleased about the new development of the activity of the Foundation and I hope such agreements will be signed in the near future with organizers of the other Master Courses endorsed by ITA and supported by the Foundation.

Eng. Abdullah A. Almogbel
President of ITACET Foundation

Tunnels are the Future

At the General Assembly in Iguassu of May this year, ITA decided on its strategic plan for the period of 2014 to 2016.
The plan contains seven strategic goals on how to further develop ITA and how to support our member nations in their development.

Knowledge sharing remains a key objective for ITA, and one of the seven strategic goals is “Encourage further knowledge sharing through Education and Training”. The ITACET Foundation together with the ITACET Committee are key players in obtaining the strategic goal, and with the creation of activity groups on Education and Training for Member Nations, Education and Training for Professionals, and University Networks in the ITACET Committee, we have already taken the first steps toward implementing the strategic goal.

The need for education and training remains on a high level and is recognised in the increasing number of request for organising training sessions within our member nations. The ITACET Foundation has successfully completed training sessions at the WTC2014 in Iguassu in Brazil in May, in Mexico City in June, and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Sao Paulo, Brazil of November 2014.

In Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, a training session took place in September on the subject “Conventional Tunnelling”. Bhutan joined ITA as a new member nation in Geneva in June 2013, and I am particularly pleased to see that already by now the ITACET Foundation has managed to complete the 1st training session.
In the opening speech of the training session, the Honourable Minister for Economic and Finance Mr Norbu Wangchuk highlighted the need for tunnels and underground structures to support the country's economic development.
His final statement “Tunnels are the future” highlights the importance of our industry and the importance of what we do for our societies; in this respect further education and training plays a key factor.
Further training sessions in Bhutan and many other countries is in the foreseeable future. You will be able to read more from the training sessions in this Newsletter.

As previously reported in the Editorial of the Newsletter (latest in April 2014), the industry represented by the ITA Committee on Technology, ITAtech, are collaborating actively with the ITACET Committee. Industry members are participating in training sessions by providing high level quality lecturers and also providing a significant financial contribution. The corporation is further strengthened by organising joint meetings and having correspondent members reporting to both committees. These initiatives ensure the high level quality of the training courses and are reflected in the high number of attendees and the positive feedback we get from the participants.   

The ITACET Foundation and the ITACET Committee are on the right track to achieve the ITA strategic goal to “Encourage further knowledge sharing through Education and Training” and the ITA Executive Council is pleased to see the high activity level and will encourage and support the continued development. 

Søren Degn Eskesen
ITA President

We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Dr. Koichi Ono.

Dr. Koichi Ono was a highly regarded member of the tunnelling community and esteemed surveyor of the ITACET foundation.

We wish Koichi Ono's family much strength and fortitude.

CONVENTIONAL TUNNELLING AND GROUND REINFORCING TECHNIQUE. 15-16 January 2015. Torino, Italy.

SIG (Italian Tunnelling Association) and the ITACET Foundation co-organized a training session on Conventional Tunnelling and Ground Reinforcing Technique, at the Politecnico de Torino.

CONVENTIONAL TUNNELLING 
Thimphu , Bhutan - September 12-13 2014 

Press release. 
On 12th and 13th of September, the ITACET Foundation, on behalf of ITA-AITES member Nation of Bhutan represented by the Druk Green Power Corporation, organized a two-day training session in Thimphu (Bhutan) on the topic of “Conventional Tunnelling”.

The training session in Bhutan was a real success with an active audience initiating good discussions. The Bhutanese engineers who presented the training session have knowledge on tunnelling from their hydro power projects and are also keen to learn more. 

This was the first Training session organized in Bhutan by the Foundation. The program covered the main aspects of conventional Tunnelling, and was divided into four sessions: Introduction and Site investigation; Design aspects; Construction and Monitoring and Management and Examples. 

The training session opened with an address from His Excellency Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk, Minister of Economic Affairs of Bhutan, who highlighted the need for tunnels to further develop the infrastructure and to support the development of the country. 

57 officials from Ministry of Works & Human Settlement, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Construction Development Corporation, DHI Infra, Bhutan Electricity Authority, Dagachhu Hydro Power Corporation and Druk Green Power Corporation attended the training.

Four lecturers were delegated by the ITA-AITES ITACET committee, namely Messrs Søren Degn Eskesen (DK)  Cowi AS - ITA-AITES President, Harald Wagner – (A) Consulting Engineer, expert member of ITA-AITES's Executive Council, Robert Galler (A) Professor Leoben MontanUniversity and ITACET committee chairman and Alain Poloni (F) Senior manager Eiffage .

Manufacturer’s delegates Messrs Nitin Garg (IND) Senior manager at Sandvik Mining and Construction and Milon Mukhopadhyay (IND) Managing director of Normet India Pvt intervened during the “construction & Monitoring” session to comment practical examples.

Jaiprakash Associates, Hindustan Construction company, Ugen Earthmovers and Atlas Copco financially participated to the organization of the training session.

We heartily thank our lecturers and the manufacturers’ delegates for their time and dedication to pass along their knowledge and experience, and all the participants of the training session for their interest.

The program of the event is available here >>

Kuensel Online, Bhutan daily news site, wrote an article about the training session, it is available here >>

RECENT DEVELOPPEMENT IN ROCK TUNNELLING
Risk management and design, construction methods, maintenance and rehabilitation
November 16-18 2014, Riyadh, KSA.

The ITACET Foundation together with the Municipality of Riyadh organized a three-day training session on "Recent developpement in rock tunnelling. Risk management and design, construction methods, maintenance and rehabilitation." held in Riyadh, KSA, 16 to 18 November 2014.

Press release.  (Edited by the Municipality of Riyadh)

The closing Ceremony of "The Recent developments in Rock tunneling Seminar" concluded Tuesday 18/11/2014. “The Recent developments in Rock tunneling Seminar" was organized by the Foundation of the Education and Training on Tunnelling and underground Space Use (ITACET), under the auspices of the Riyadh Municipality over three days in Riyadh, KSA.

Tunneling Experts from France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom, Egypt and Saudi Arabia lectured in the seminar, which was attended by 250 engineers and specialists in the manufacturing and maintenance of tunnels and infrastructure services, from more than 36 government agencies as well as from contracting companies and Engineering consultancy offices.

This session is part of a series of courses and workshops sponsored by the Riyadh Municipality to enhance the knowledge of the municipality staff and others involved from Government and private sectors, and to take advantage of the global developments in various fields of engineering from the lecturers and speakers who came from the different institutions and from the best firms with global experience.

International experts praised the tunnels projects in the holy City of Makkah from the design point of view, Execution, operation & maintenance (both pedestrian and roads tunnels).
Emphasis was placed on the best international standards for the planning and design of the tunnels for road projects, public transport, infrastructure services and methods of execution, and also the advanced drilling equipment, which contributed to the expansion of the execution of the tunnels projects on a global level (especially in cities with high traffic and those with big differences in elevations presence of mountains- rough topography), as well operation & maintenance and rehabilitation of existing tunnels.

At the concluding discussion, it became clear that the design and implementation of tunnels projects is progressing and growing rapidly on both the local and global level and it is worth mentioning the public transport project in the city of Riyadh, which includes approximately 90 km of tunnels works for metro lines.

The conclusion expressed deepest thanks to HE Eng. Abdullah Al Mogbel - Mayor of Riyadh region, for sponsoring this important event. Sponsors and lecturers have been honored by memorial trophies, and all the participants were thanked and awarded certificates of participation.

Pict. (ITACET Foundation) T. to B.
Delegate of the mayor, Mr. Eng. KHALAF Al DALBAHY Director General for Studies and Design.
Mr. eng. Mustafa ZAKI, general Consultant and project Manager of Makkah Tunnels

Mr. Annick Ettien was awarded in 2013 a grant from the ITACET Foundation to follow the Master’s Program “Tunnels and underground structures “ at INSA Lyon/ENTPE. 

Here is a short personal introduction and some comments on his experience in Lyon.

“I am a Geotechnical Engineer and my training was largely focused on methods of soil’s investigations, geology, geophysics and hydrogeology. After a first job, the scholarship of ITACET Foundation have given me the opportunity to enroll myself in the "Tunnels and underground structures" Master’s program at INSA Lyon/ENTPE.

Teaching is given by professionals and experts in underground structures, which is one of the principal advantages of this formation. These postgraduate courses provide me the technical and scientific skills about constructions methods, tunnel assessment, design methods and contractual aspects. This masters program is a real opportunity for my career in underground spaces.”

Mr. Annick Ettien's abstract of his master's thesis:

As part of the Specialized Masters in tunnels and underground structures, my graduation project focused on the analysis of a type of lining of hydraulic tunnels subjected to high pressures. 

In the operational phase, the important load induces deformations that tend to affect the stability of pressure-tunnels. To minimize this risk of failure, a steel liner or a concrete lining is installed in the gallery. Therefore, these classical solutions are expensive and an alternative was analyzed: the pre-stressed concrete lining. 

The project revealed that pre-stressing of non-reinforced concrete lining prevents cracking under internal pressures during operation. This technique can be implemented by several techniques, including injection of grout under high pressure between the concrete lining and the rock. This solution is also advantageous in terms of economic view.

Mr. Annick Ettien has been recently hired at Eiffage TP.
We wish him a fruitful career.

• CONVENTIONAL TUNNELLING AND AUXILIARY MEASURES, Torino Italy. 15-16 January 2015
   
• TUNNELLING FOR TRANSPORT IN URBAN AREA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 28.02 - 01.03.2015. 
   
• SOFT GROUND URBAN TUNNELLING & ROCK TUNNELLING IN KARST. Dubrovnik, Croatia.
  WTC15 22-23 May 2015

Other events in preparation:

TUNNELLING & DEEP EXCAVATION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE IN URBAN AREAS, Myanmar (Yangon). To be held early 2015

MECHANIZED TUNNELLING, Chile. To be held in 2015

HEALTH AND SAFETY AND LOGISTICS DURING CONSTRUCTION / LONG TUNNELS AND URBAN TUNNELS, Argentina. To be held in 2015

GENERAL TUNNELLING, Pakistan. To be held in 2015