New Zealand became its own International Tunnelling Association (ITA) Member Nation at the World Tunnel Congress (WTC) in Dubai earlier this year. It is not the first time.

Since joining the Australasian Tunnelling Society as a chapter in 2005, there has been a growth in tunnelling activity in New Zealand. That, and a desire to reconnect with New Zealand’s engineering professional society (Engineering New Zealand) have prompted the split. Bill Newns, Kiwirail project director and chair of the New Zealand Tunnelling Society (NZTS) stresses that the past years have been good, and close collaboration with their Australian neighbours will continue, but “we want to offer more direct benefits to our members and to grow the links within the New Zealand technical societies, universities and industry.”

Newns adds that in re-joining the ITA, the NZTS hopes to “assist in our overall objective to promote and grow the tunnelling industry here and to grow expertise, capability and confidence in tunnelling within client organisations and funders.

“The tunnelling practices in different countries are often built upon the experience of what works and what doesn’t, which in turn is often shaped by the prevailing geology. This can be a barrier to innovation but there are common factors that contribute to successful underground projects that should be acknowledged and shared as well as the successful innovations. The ITA working group structure and ITATech allows the sharing of experience and good practise and document’s them for wider consumption.

“In short, we wanted to join a vibrant international organisation that promotes good tunnelling practices, to understand their relevance to us, and contribute where we can.”

MARKET

The size of the market has been stable at around NZD 250M (USD 170M) p.a. in recent history, but will increase with the City Rail Link and Central Interceptor projects. The demand for skilled workers is high and Newns sees this continuing for at least the next five years. Added to this, the amount of work in Australia means that a lot of industry effort is expended there.

Outside of the major cities, the country faces the demand for smaller diameter utilities of all developed countries. “There is a widening infrastructure gap and many of the existing assets are aging. So, I think the focus will increasingly fall onto asset maintenance and renewal before new build but yes as in most cities, as the population grows in any area then the need for underground construction increases. The current focus beyond committed projects such as the City Rail Link and Central Interceptor is for more public transport, in Auckland in particular.”

Regarding methodology, Auckland in particular has seen success with EPBMs and precast segments, but in the South Island and the Lower North Island, harder geology means there is a preference for open face tunnelling methods.

CHALLENGES

The biggest single challenge to the industry is the impact of the Pike River Mine Disaster in 2011, which resulted in the deaths of 29 miners. The industry responded and the NZTS is helping the national regulator, WorkSafe (worksafe.govt.nz), to develop industry guidelines and codes of practice to improve health and safety. Improving implementation of regulations within underground structure is a key focus.

“Another of the challenges is to develop and grow the industry at a steady pace, to remain open and competitive but sustainable in terms of the local contractors. I’m proud of how we have opened up the perception of the NZ market in recent times.

“The challenges are providing a pipeline of work so that companies can invest in their training and talent development programmes.

“Another challenge is delivering a sustainable procurement model and personally I think the NZTA’s competitive alliance model gives the best chance of putting the project first and allowing contractors to perform with an appropriate balance of risk and incentive.”

COLLABORATION

The remote country is the size of the UK, but has a population of five million, rather than the former’s 70 million. It is the cultural effect that this has on the industry, rather than any physical quirk of the geology, that Newns singles out as something that makes tunnelling in New Zealand unique. “Perhaps the fact NZ is so small is why collaborative approaches are most effective – it can take a little time to adjust if you are used to a simple transaction: you become mindful that every relationship may be important in the long term. As with anywhere, if you want to get things done quickly you need to have a high level of trust.

“Sometimes I hear people talking as if the geology in New Zealand is unique, which it is in one sense, but practically speaking there are no great mysteries here that haven’t been overcome; not only here but elsewhere in other seismically active and geologically ‘young’ countries. Of course, you still have to do the assessments and communicate the issues well, and build upon what has worked well before.

And regarding a particular talent in the industry: “I’d like to think that we are getting better at our project planning, so they are set up for success before the tenders go out but we still have some work to do in that respect.”

If any readers would like to know more about the New Zealand Tunnelling Society, please visit the website: nztunsoc.org.nz