ITA and T&TI are contemporaries in many ways. We were both conceived in the halcyon days of major infrastructure activity in Europe in the late 60`s -early 70`s. Our conception was a union of the then significant tunnelling activity and the need to share knowledge in the international tunnelling community. Like any good partnership the founding values have held true and despite the ebb and flow of world events in the past 40 years the tunnelling industry is prospering, and l believe has a great future. That future is founded on the premise that we can attract the skills, talent and resource needed to identify, plan, design, construct and operate underground infrastructure. It is founded on continuing to respond to media and owners to proactively promote the use of underground space. And vitally on our colleagiate efforts to make our industry safe in construction and operation, and attractive to owners and the public.

ITA evolution

The ITA has progressed from its formation in 1974 – when 19 nations met to hold the first Annual Congress – to a thriving organisation of 54 member nations – with prospective new members yet to be enrolled.

It has stayed true to its original founding tenants but the increased number, and needs of the member nations requires constant adjustment of strategy in a world that demands knowledge, forums and networking. An individual’s needs can vary from requirements for technical and planning knowledge; benchmarking of world current best practise; identifying seminars, conferences etc where that knowledge can be shared; where contacts can be made, partnerships made and intelligence gained from industry, academia, clients and government and owners. Both ITA and T&TI meet that need. On a personal note l would congratulate T&TI in the way they have adapted the format and style over the years to meet the expectations of the readership.

Communication is an important requirement for ITA members. We too have adapted to the needs of our members through our website, newsletter, forums, Working Groups and Committees. Year 2000 saw a major rethink of Strategy. We realised that over nearly 30 years our size, needs of membership and expectations of Associations like ITA had changed since our conception. Fundamental to this was electronic communications, which suited the International organisation. We grasped the opportunity, began to change the structure of the Secretariate and to add to the services that we were prepared to provide.

ITA aims

However, the core aims of the ITA had to be maintained and the value of the Working Groups has always been at the centre of our strategy and that of the subsequent updates to the strategy in 2007 (my mandate on being elected President in Prague 2007 was to make sure that we implemented and achieved the aims and objectives of the 2007 Strategy and the Excom monitor/correct our actions to achieving this at each quarterly meeting).

Some of the current aims of ITA include:

• To encourage new uses of underground space

• To encourage studies of underground alternatives to surface construction

• To stimulate the development of guidelines

• To raise the profile of our special committees on training, communication and operational safety

• To encourage the development of better and cheaper underground structures

• To improve training

• To arrange international exchange

These aims are basically those of the founding members, but the requirements to serve those aims have increased and are more complex and detailed.

New ITA Committees

Recently we have established 2 new Committees to focus on the evolving needs of members and their requests. We formed ITACUS (Committee for Underground Space launched in Amsterdam in January 2008) under the Chairmanship of Hann Admiraal. ITACUS will assist ITA to identify proactive means of communicating with Govt, Owners, Clients, Media, Industry, Profession and Public i.e., communicating our aims, demonstrating  cost saving and sustainable subsurface options through Guidelines, Position Papers and offering a response to the media when events occur in our industry.

Also we formed ITACET last year (Committee for Education and Training in Turin in May 2009). Chaired by Andre Assiss, it will set up, manage and maintain a training organisation that will give week-long seminars on dedicated industry topics such as Sprayed Concrete Linings, Safety etc. The technical content will be based on the relevant Working Groups. There has been great interest in the formation of this Committee, with active interest from China, USA, Europe and South America and our recent meeting in Frankfurt maintained the enthusiasm for this Committee.

In 2005 we founded COSUF (Committee for Operational Safety) chaired by Felix Amberg. Again the momentum of interest is being maintained under Felix and COSUF meets 2-3 per year, where attendees can network with operators, owners, fire and emergency representatives, research bodies and suppliers/manufacturers and designers. It’s an excellent forum for Operational Safety and to benchmark best practise.

Evolution and leaders

Perhaps the greatest advances in tunnelling over the past 40 years have been in the evolvement of the TBM. Three of the leaders of the ITS’s 13 valued sponsors have achieved memorable landmarks recently and their values demonstrate this.

Richard Robbins was recently awarded (April 09) the Benjamin Franklin Award in Philadelphia for pioneering the TBM, Richard Lovat celebrated his 8th birthday and a long influential career in developing soft ground TBMs in Totonto in September last year, and Martin Herrenknecht was deservedly awarded the USA Tunnelling accolade from the US Moles in New York in January 2009. The citation was for extraordinary services to the heavy construction industry particularly for innovation and development of mechanised tunnelling. TBMs have certainly advanced over 40 years or so when John Bartlett first patented his ideas for building TBMs that could excavate and line tunnels in soft, varied, water bearing near surface, high hydrostatic conditions.

Of course it goes without saying that the profession lost a great leader earlier this year. The ITA founding President Sir Alan Muir Wood left a great legacy in ITA and he will be sorely missed. Alan wrote and spoke in an unequivocal language and was genuinely motivated to do what he thought was the right thing – compromise of principles was not his style!

Industry recognition

I can’t deny recognition for developments and advances in hard rock tunnelling machines either. Nor can we ignore advances in tunnel telemetry, mucking and conveyancing systems, significant contribution of sprayed concrete linings in challenging complex environments, material improvements in durability, fire resistance and cost reduction. But the editor wouldn’t give me more space!

So l applaud all the leaders of the designers, academic bodies, research organisations, constructors, plant, machinery, equipment, material suppliers and manufacturers for their innovation. They have responded to the market and sought to bring products that add value, reduce costs, and are sustainable. Without you the clients wouldn’t be making the decisions to use the underground to solve infrastructure needs – especially where tunnelling and underground solutions are used in complex urban locations where a surface option might have been the traditional approach. Thank you.

Happy birthday!

T&TI owes thanks to its dedicated, good and relevant journalism and editorial team and its Advisory Board. They have responded to the growing market over the last 40 years. The Journal serves our industry well and will adapt in future as the needs and expectations of the readership require. ITA recognises the past 40 years of tunnel journalism shown by T&TI and wishes the journal a successful future. T&T


Martin Knights, ITA President