The tunnelling industry’s certainly no exception when it comes to gossip. That’s why it is such a refreshing change when T&TI is welcomed on-site to help clear up some of the more un-founded ‘stories’ circling the rumour mill.
The case in point this month is the Lower Lea Valley cable tunnel, being built as early works for the Olympics to be held in London in 2012. Recent apocalyptic tales of shafts popping out of the ground, catastrophic inundations, TBMs disappearing down vast chasms, dogs and cats living peacefully together etc, have been plentiful.
To dispel the lip flapping, and set the story straight, the Client, the London Development Agency, invited T&TI exclusively on-site to see the situation for ourselves. Hopefully people won’t be too disappointed to discover a lost afternoon was about the sum of it. I won’t give it all away now, so read Patrick’s news feature from p15 for the full story.
The point is, an open approach can often be the best way of dealing with adverse attention.
Now turn to Shani’s article from Australia’s Perth Rail Tunnel on p27 for an example of the opposite, where T&TI was keen to throw some positive light on a project in a seemingly downward spiral – if local press reports are to be believed.
Unfortunately T&TI was stonewalled and denied access to the site, being told that the project “is not a public relations event”. Ironically, a T&TI journalist not being allowed on-site made it into the West Australian newspaper! Undeterred, a different angle was taken, and an article has been sourced unlike your normal T&TI offering, as we were fortunate enough to gain access to two high-ranking officials close to the project.
Exclusive interviews with Western Australia’s state government Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, and the chairman of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union give an incredible insight into the contractual wrangling that’s sending the project’s reputation into a nosedive with the people of Perth.
It is a shame, as by all accounts the technical challenges on this very difficult urban EPBM driven tunnel are being met admirably, but sadly, criminally even, nobody is allowed to tell that story!
The truth is, EVERY tunnelling project is a public relations event and with project’s being handled in this way, it is little wonder that the reputation of our industry is often tainted with tales of woe.
Tris Thomas
