The International Tunnelling Association (ITA) takes a global view when it comes to the skills of professionals engaged in underground construction. The umbrella organisation for the world’s tunnelling societies is often key in spreading best practice.
For professor Tarcisio Celestino, current ITA president, training is the key to safety, and has been a focus for his time at the ITA.
“I have never seen a tunnelling accident which could not have been avoided if correct measures had been taken on time,” he says. “I have, in my professional career, seen engineers without any experience or knowledge of underground construction.
“There are many universities around the world, mainly but not always in developing countries, where people get their engineering degrees without doing any training related to tunnelling. Sometimes they even reach managerial positions and still do not know tunnelling.”
The ITA met with the World Bank at the World Tunnel Congress (WTC) this year in Dubai. The two bodies are close to making an agreement that will see financing of ITA programmes for training. Such an agreement, says Celestino, would be hugely beneficial for the tunnelling industry.
Contract Performance
The ITA president has also been surprised by how many problems he has seen on tunnelling projects that are related to inappropriate contract practices.
“In some cases mistakes were made because there was not enough investigation or sometimes the contract was inappropriate. A big mistake in construction of underground works is to adopt the same procedures of a building or highway constructions.”
Tunnelling techniques vary depending on ground conditions. Such variations need to be carefully considered in the contracts, preventing any issues during the execution of works, rather than relying on ad hoc solutions.
About 20 years ago in Oslo the ITA started to discuss accidents and fires in tunnels following an incident in Austria. Accidents during construction were far more frequent than in the present day. “In the beginning insurers wanted to get out of the tunnelling industry, as there were too many accidents in tunnel projects and they were having such big losses. After that, insurers met together in London at the International Tunnelling Insurance Group (ITIG) and they introduced their Code of Practice.”
Work to update this has been in progress in recent months.
Then there is also the FIDIC Emerald Book on “New forms of contracts for Underground Works”, which is a result of a joint venture between ITA’s Working Group on Contractual Practices and the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and will be released beginning of December.
“FIDIC is a very respectable organisation that has introduced books on contractual aspect regarding hydroelectric power plants, highway and so on, but not on tunnels. So it was very a good idea to work together to create the Emerald Book.
“If the ITA continues to have this proactive attitude, working with previous presidents without any sort of competition, unlike politicians, our strategic plan will be efficient”.
Monitoring the global tunnelling industry with regards to the performance of contracts is a goal of the ITA strategic plan, to see if changes such as these have been effective.
“We can see the actions of ITA very clearly in some data of tunnelling industry. Last year in Oslo we released an underground market construction survey, which showed that tunnelling construction industry is increasing by 7 per cent per year. This data is very significant because the general construction is increasing by 3 per cent per year; so the tunnelling growth rate is even bigger than it. That means ITA is doing well and we have been successful in conveying the idea of the benefits of underground works, in particular I would like to pay attribute to ITA Committee on Underground Space (ITACUS) run by Han Admiraal [Enprodes Consulting] and Antonia Cornaro [Amberg].”
Time as President
Celestino points to the diversity of the job as a highlight of his time as president of the ITA, “It has been a very great experience because I had the opportunity to get involved in many aspects of tunnelling business and industry in general,” says Celestino. “More than 30 per cent of my time is dedicated to the ITA whether going to email correspondence, texts, press releases, monthly news and many teleconferences in addition to travelling to visit member nations or for our Executive Council meetings or for other activities in different parts of the world.
An example of the change the ITA deals with is digitalisation, which continues to have a heavy impact on all activities the tunnelling industry and we are far from having explored all the possibilities. Two years ago, a special session on the topic was organised the Congress in San Francisco. ITA has been pursuing this topic by creating a Working Group on BIM, and many other activities in existing working groups.
“Perhaps one of the goals I hoped to achieve during my term as president was to encourage the many Member Nations that have not been so active. I know that they may be a powerful instrument to expand and improve the underground construction industry. Our strategic plan now includes the possibility of ‘mentoring’ nations.”
More active countries are encouraged by the ITA to mentor less active or developed ones. History, language and common cultural affinities are factors to be considered in partnering countries for this tutoring process. The idea of the French Association mentoring the Vietnamese Association is underway, for example.
“Aside from this, I would not like to make any statement about any hopes for the next president’s term. He or she will be able to decide what is best. The past path and actions of the ITA are the best guidance.”
Industry Evolution
“I would say that [technologically], the tunnelling industry has changed for the better significantly.
“When I look at the level of our industry, such as at the great sophistications of TBMs today, I believe that the tunnelling industry has made good use of technology.
“However, the prediction of future business is not always precise as it depends on the government decisionmaking. The European Union, for example, has a long-term infrastructure plan for the next 15 years, which goes beyond local governments. While if you look at my country, Brazil, we depend a lot on the next president and the future is less certain.”
