As the tunnelling industry heads to Munich, Germany for the triennial Bauma tradeshow, Tunnels eyes Central and Eastern Europe for its regional focus. Here we publish the first portion of a three-part article by Ermin Stehlik and Vaclav Soukup of Metrostav on the construction history of the Prague Metro from its inception in 1966 to the present, and into the future. Stehlik and Soukup will be giving a keynote presentation based on the paper at UC Prague 2013 in the week following Bauma.
It’s an exciting period for conferences, but business has been a mixed bag in the heart of continental Europe. Edgar Schömig, tunnelling manager and board member for Strabag tells Tunnels, "The building industry hopes for a stronger focus of governments and local authorities on the expansion of infrastructure. It would be highly desirable if there was more continuity and a shorter period of time between the planning of infrastructure measures and the actual implementation of the construction works.
"Some 90 per cent of tunnelling projects worldwide are put out to tender by the public sector. Thus, politics and parliamentary institutions naturally are the main drivers of public works. In recent times, many countries [in Europe] decided on austerity programmes and cut down public spending on infrastructure – as this spending usually affects a high amount of public money – which hindered the realisation of many large projects.
Schömig adds, "Although there are still huge infrastructure projects to be realised within the next years, e.g. the Brenner Base Tunnel in Austria and the high-speed railway expansion between Stuttgart and Munich, Germany, the tunnelling industry will generally be declining in the medium to long-term in Central and Eastern Europe due to the fact that most of the tunnels needed here have already been built."
He explains that Strabag for example is one of the companies keen on offering its tunnelling expertise to other continents, where there is a far greater demand for tunnelling services. Schömig points to North America with projects such as the South East Collector Sewer in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada and the Niagara Tunnel.
Despite this, for the moment some 50 per cent of Strabag’s tunnelling activity is carried out in Central Europe. The tunnelling division, which employs approximately 1,000 people, has not noticed any skilled labour shortage. And right now Schömig is focused on tendering for the Visnove Tunnel in Slovakia. The country’s Highway D1, of which the tunnel forms a key part, runs from Lietavska Lucka to Dubna Skala. In Germany, Stuttgart 21 and the HSR link between Stuttgart and Munich are highlights, while in Austria the Koralm Tunnel (the ongoing KAT Two and the to-come KAT Three contracts), Vienna’s U1 Metro Line expansion, and Preparatory work for the Brenner Base Tunnel are spurring the industry.
There is however significant protection for established companies in the market, says Schömig. "The general conditions of public tenders allow all interested contractors to participate in the Central European tunnelling market. The significant price pressure on the European market combined with local peculiarities, however, has led to the fact that non-European competitors have more or less not been able or willing to join the market over the past years".
