Well, another year has passed, and what a year it has been; representing some extreme highs and lows for the industry.

The beginning of the year saw SembCorp celebrating the impressive completion of the final drive on Singapore’s Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS). After three years of struggle through tough mixed-face conditions (T&TI March, p15), under high groundwater pressures, the Herrenknecht EPBM ended up beating all production rate records on the project during the final stages of its drive.

One month later, a large collapse on Lot 1200 off Switzerland’s M2 metro project, in Lausanne saw pictures of a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant teetering on the edge of a large void in a busy district of the city (T&TI April, p6). Thankfully, no-one was hurt in the incident, but the publicity did the industry no favours.

  At the end of April, however, some very different news from Switzerland was celebrated the world over, as the final connection was blasted through on the 34.6km long Lötchberg base tunnel, after an 11 year construction period (T&TI June, p6). A particularly historic moment for the 2500 people involved in the project.

Then in July, tragedy struck as world-wide fears of a large-scale terrorist attack on underground infrastructure were realised, when three bombs were detonated on London’s Underground during rush-hour; killing more than 50 people and injuring hundreds. Two weeks later, just as London’s commuters were beginning to recover from the shock of the attack, another similar suicide-bombing campaign was launched. Thankfully for London, this time the attempt was unsuccessful, causing minimal damage.

As the year went on, news from the industry became more positive with break-throughs on the Epping to Chatswood Rail Line, in Sydney, Australia, and Caracas’ Metro Line 3, in Venezuela, amongst others.

The trend for very large diameter TBM orders continued, with news of the Herrenknecht 10.16m diameter double shield hard rock TBM being launched on the Pajares Tunnel, in Spain, the progress of two 9.4m diameter Lovat TBMs in Bologna, Italy, and the much awaited order for a massive 14.4m diameter hard rock machine from Robbins for Canada’s 10.4km long Niagara Tunnel project.

The tunnelling industry looks very healthy as we enter 2006 and, despite some of the negatives experienced in 2005, adversity once again brings new knowledge and experience to our corner.

Tris Thomas