Tunnelling is culturally prominent in Norway, and it needs to be. The country is topographically dramatic, with sharp changes in elevation and deep fjords that have separated communities for most of Norway’s history, until tunnelling linked (and continues to unite) isolated communities. Crown Prince Haakon opened the event in June and referred to this social and geographical coming together that came with the building of tunnels (and bridges) as “the great transformation”.
As a special mention, Haakon picked out the 1909 opening of a railway between Oslo and Bergen, which connected eastern Norway with the west coast for the first time, through 182 tunnels. Today the country has more than 1,100 road tunnels; more than 1,000km bringing the people together across mountains and fjords.
Frode Nilsen, the chair of the NFF said that Norway boasts more cubic metres of material excavated than anywhere in Western Europe. The country also has the longest road tunnel, the deepest subsea tunnel and the largest rock cavern. For the country’s population, the amount of tunnelling is very impressive, Nilsen points out that taking the length divided by the number of people, each Norwegian citizen is the ‘owner’ of 1.3m of tunnel.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2017 Tunnel market survey
The ITA released its Tunnel Market Survey 2016, which gives a statistical view of industry growth. The survey will be repeated every three years. For an extended look at some of the numbers, see the Tunnels and Tunnelling International July 2017 Editor’s Comment, but the headline is 7% annual growth averaged across the global underground construction industry, which the ITA sees continuing into the near future.
ITA president Tarcisio Celestino said, “This is even better than expected. There has been really significant growth in underground construction, twice that of the general construction market. We are at a good moment right now, despite the global economic situation.”
The survey is a bit of a revelation for the ITA, which has historically not had an accurate handle on the size of the industry. The survey’s future predictive accuracy is conservative for countries such as China, which plan, construct and commission far more swiftly than western nations, so a given study period into the future is likely to have more activity than expected.
New BIM Working Group
This year the ITA launched a new Working Group (WG 22) for building information modelling (BIM). The animateur is Jurij Karlovsek, the vice-animateur is Paolo Cucino and the tutor is Lars Babenderede. Celestino hailed this as another one of his highlights of the 2017 congress “having the Working Group will make a huge impact, what with the growing importance of BIM to the industry. In Norway for example, BIM is now a requirement of the roads authority.”
An attendee of the initial BIM WG meetings told Tunnels and Tunnelling: “The new WG 22 meetings were interesting, and there is a good deal of enthusiasm within the group. The group has a number of ambitions in terms of pushing forward IFC standards for underground works and publishing various guidance documents. However, the first phase must be the gathering of information to ensure that we are working alongside (and not against) any other initiatives. This will take a few months.”
Nigeria joins the ITA
In Bergen, Nigeria became the newest ITA Member Nation. The African nation, currently in seventh place, is set to become the world’s third most populous nation within the next few decades. This population growth, and the urgent need to create the infrastructure to deal with it, is the main reason to join the ITA and “come on board” according to Tunnelling Association of Nigeria president Abidemi Agwor.
The Nigerian economy, worth approximately USD 500bn, is the largest in Africa and has recently emerged from a bad recession. It still faces the challenge of being overly reliant on oil, but the government has apparently recognised the need to invest in infrastructure. It is possible that the new Nigerian society will spark more engagement in tunnelling locally. According to Agwor, promoting United Nations sustainable development goals and the education of government and populace as to the benefits of underground construction will be among the initiatives put forward by the group.
Agwor also made special mention of the help given to the fledgling society by Roger Bridge on behalf of the BTS.
ITA STRATEGIC PLAN 2017-2020
ITA Goals: ¦ Encourage Member Nations to develop activities, share knowledge and promote underground space
¦ Optimise the contribution of working groups and committees ¦ Enhance interaction with industry
¦ Encourage further knowledge sharing through education and Training
¦ Enhance tunnelling and underground space awareness
¦ Improve communication with Member Nations, industry and the general public
As for the prospects of the organisation, ITA identified the following:
¦ Strengths: Global network covering all categories of tunnel work; a recognised platform for knowledge development and knowledge sharing; established relationship with other global organisations (PIARC, ISOCARP, UN); recognised as bringing a strong international and unbiased voice; excellent networking platform; strong brand; involvement of young professionals; financial standing allows new initiatives; ability to pioneer new approaches in tunnelling e.g. risk management
¦ Weaknesses: Insufficient involvement of some Member Nations; limited knowledge sharing in some areas (e.g. financing and technology); communication channels with Member Nations and other stakeholders not sufficiently established; limited representation of contractors; limited representation of public agencies; limited contact with private investors and owners; known inside industry but not sufficiently outside; activities rely mostly on volunteer work; cost of participation in ITA activities Opportunities: Growth of urban development will require increased use of underground space; increasing share of underground mining; increasing demand for education and professional training; availability of new technologies for use in the tunnelling industry; increasing private investment in underground projects; increasing awareness of sustainability requirements and the contribution that underground can bring
¦ Threats: Financial constraints may cause a reduction in membership and sponsorship; other organisations trying to attract members from the same pool of professionals as ITA, plus numerous competing conferences; media focus on negative projects rather than successes; European domination of the industry; the recent global economic downturn reducing available investment; insufficient use of best contractual/procurement practices
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
In terms of how the industry can assist ITA, at the general assembly it was noted that some of the working groups have had issues with poor attendance and inactivity. Romania proposed that such groups should be divided up or suspended if they cannot improve. Any help from industry experts is appreciated. A list of active member groups and their contact details can be found on the ITA website (ita-aites.org).
It was also noted that over half of the Member Nation websites are totally inactive. This is not directly ITA business and is down to local engineers to engage with their national societies. The websites often being a useful first point of contact with these societies.
