The 5th edition the ITA Tunnelling Awards organized by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association will take place on November 18th in Miami, USA at the occasion of the 8th Annual Cutting Edge conference organized by UCA of SME and Tunnelling Journal. This year saw more than 100 entries competing for the Oscars of Tunnels and Underground Space projects in the 8 categories. The judging panel of the ITA Awards, composed of 17 judges chaired by Jenny Yan, new ITA President, has just concluded its deliberations: 32 entries have passed the first selection phase, 3 to 6 nominees being pre-selected in each of the eight ITA Tunnelling Awards categories.
The finalists are:
Major Project of the Year – over €500M:
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- The Follo Line Project – Norway
- Tuen-Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link – Northern Connection Subsea Tunnel Section – Hong Kong/China
- Wuhan Sanyang Road Yangtze River Tunnel Project – China
- The Seoul Metropolitan High-Speed Railway (Suseo~Pyeongtaek) Construction Project (Yulhyeon Tunnel) – Korea
Project of the Year – between €50M and €500M:
- Construction of two parallel tunnels for the Mexico City – Toluca suburban railway – Mexico
- The New Ulriken Tunnel – Norway
- Regional Connector Transit Project – Los Angeles – USA
- Shatin Central Link Immersed tube tunnels – Hong Kong / China
- Victory Boogie Woogietunnel – Netherlands
- New Badaling Tunnel and Great Wall Station of Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway – China
Project of the Year including renovation – up to €50M:
- Modernization of the Vladivostok tunnel of the Far Eastern Railway – Russia
- Finsbury Park Station Step Free Access – UK
- Outram Park Linkway Tunnel (Thomson Line) – Singapore
Technical Project Innovation of the Year:
- Rapid Construction Technology for Large Cross-section Extremely Gassy Tunnel – China
- Innovation and Application of New Single-hole Double-line Quasi-rectangular Shield Tunnel Technology System – China
- Toulouse Line A underground stations extension – France
- Intersecting and Overlapping (Twisted) Tunnel Group Construction Technology for Tianjin Metro Lines 5 and 6 – China
Technical Product or Equipment innovation of the Year:
- ARCHITA, an innovative multi-dimensional mobile mapping system – Italy
- AXON – platform for wireless connectivity for tunnels – Australia
- Autonomous TBM – Malaysia
- Tunnel Inspection 4.0 – Smart Tunnel Maintenance using Artificial Intelligence – Switzerland
Innovative Underground Space Concept of the Year:
- Building Large Prefabricated Urban Underground Space with Small TBMs for Subsection Undercutting – China
- SNWA Low Lake Level Pumping Station – Underground – USA
- Underground Green Farming – Switzerland
Safety Initiative of the Year:
- Air Quality Working Group: An industry-first collaboration on silica dust control – Australia
- Robotization of the Automatic Tubular steel arch instrallation: a key factor for safety – Italy
- An Automatic Geological Forward-prospecting Technique Safeguarding TBM Tunnelling – China
Young Tunneller of the Year:
- Sun Feng – China
- Elliot James Fern – Switzerland
- Yutaka Okuda – Japan
- Amanda Kerr – USA
- Diwakar – Singapore
November 18th will be dedicated to the selected projects. On this day, finalists will present their achievements, and describe the unique and innovative features that convinced the judges to select their projects. A broad array of the most impressive tunnelling works, as well as innovations and excellence in engineering, safety, sustainability initiatives and use of underground space, from around the world will be presented. This conference will be integrated in the course of the Cutting Edge conference.
This Cutting Edge conference from 19th– 20thNovember, will be a unique opportunity to discover, learn and share the outstanding projects and the recent state-of-the art practices.
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