It’s happy birthdays all round this month! Firstly a very happy 30th to the International Tunnelling Association, who will no doubt celebrate in proper fashion at the World Congress in Singapore on the 22-27 of this month (p41). Thirty years of international travel, disseminating hard earned knowledge from all corners of the world deserves, and gets, the warmest of congratulations from T&T.
And secondly, it’s our 35th birthday! Tunnels & Tunnelling was born in May/June 1969 (making it the same age as me!), and this month celebrates 35 years of documenting the ups and downs of the international tunnelling scene – no pun intended.
The relationship that has grown between the international tunnelling industry and T&T over the years is a very special one, and one I would like to see continue to grow for many years to come. It’s a relationship built over time, founded on quality, trust and a traditional willingness by the industry to talk about problems met, and challenges overcome.
Whilst researching ‘The 2000 Harold Harding Lecture’, a talk given yearly to the British Tunnelling Society, John King, one of the Society’s founder members, said of T&T, “there is a wealth of information in these volumes – all the problems, mistakes, failures and solutions that have been encountered and written up in full. Much time, energy and money could have been saved if only we learned more from the past.”
The above sentiment is vital to the healthy growth of an industry so fraught with risk. Learning is about shared experiences, both good and bad.
But, worryingly, I fear a trend is emerging where only the good is discussed in public, the bad smoothed over for fear of retribution. In an environment where claims are an everyday part of contracting, believe me, I can see the pitfalls of openness. But this increasingly ‘closed shop’ attitude among each other is a false economy. When something goes seriously wrong on a tunnelling site we’re talking more than a slapped wrist. Experience shows property damage with costs running into millions, closed services with the same financial ramifications and tragically, loss of life in the extreme.
Things do go wrong (T&T could be written twice over if I published some of the late night bar chats I’ve been privy too), but we need to re-develop a culture of not being afraid to talk and write about it. We need to be more open with each other to help prevent misfortune re-occurring in the future.
There are plenty of well-established outlets for your experiences, whether it’s with us here at T&T, Shani on T&T North America, Mike at tunnelbuilder, or TUST.
This is one of the very, very few professions where your efforts genuinely improve the quality of everyday people’s lives and that is something you can be extremely proud of, but it’s going to be hard to move forward if this increasingly tight lipped culture doesn’t change and change soon. We’ll do our bit; we just need you to join in.
Tris Thomas
