By rosebell
Being known as an international event, the tunneling projects and innovations from around the world have been recognised in the ITA Tunnelling Awards 2024.
According to the ITA: “These outstanding achievements from across the world demonstrate how each of the projects, innovations and young tunnellers of the 2024 Awards series are changing how underground engineering is shaping the future development and sustainability of cities and global public infrastructure.”
As Major Project of the Year (€500m+), London’s Thames Tideway took the Gold Trophy at a gala dinner in Genoa last Thursday, whereas the Silver Trophy went to Grand Central Madison, formerly East Side Access, New York, US, and Bronze to Thomson-East Coast Line Contracts T222 to T310, Singapore. The judges awarded fourth place to the single-bore double-deck Municipal Expressway Tunnel with super-large diameter, China.
The winners of the seven categories of the 10th Anniversary series of the ITA Tunnelling Awards are:
Major Project of the Year (€500m+)
Gold: Thames Tideway, London, UK
Silver: Grand Central Madison, formerly East Side Access, New York, US
Bronze: Thomson-East Coast Line Contracts T222 to T310, Singapore
Fourth: Single-bore double-deck Municipal Expressway Tunnel with super-large diameter, China
Project of the Year (€50-500m)
Gold: Brenner Base Tunnel – Lot H52 Hochstegen, Austria
Silver: Isarco River Underpass – Lot H71, Brenner Base Tunnel, Italy
Bronze: Lyon-Turin Saint-Martin-la-Porte Exploratory Tunnel, France
Fourth: Musaimeer Pump Station and Outfall Project, Qatar
Renovation Project of the Year
Gold: Manfreida Road Tunnel Renovation Project, Italy
Bronze: Genoa Railway Junction Capacity Upgrade, Italy
Silver: Refurbishment of the Heinenoord Immersed Tube Road Tunnel, Netherlands
Product/Equipment Innovation of the Year
Gold: Ultra-small turning radius hard rock TBM, China
Silver: SOGUN: Geometric control system for shotcreting and other tunnelling works, Spain
Bronze: Advanced hybrid wireless sensor network system for safety risk sensing in tunnel and underground engineering, China
Fourth: Type 0-90° continuous conveyor equipment, China
Technical Innovation of the Year
Gold: Disc cutter wear sensor package and TBM monitoring system, South Korea
Silver: MIRET-Tunnel AI, Italy
Bronze: Advanced tunnelling assistance system, Italy
Beyond Engineering
Gold: Modern underground cemetery – where creativity, sustainability and efficiency meet tradition, Israel
Silver: City Rail Link goes beyond in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland, New Zealand
Bronze: Eco-friendly metro construction for challenging coastal geological environments, China
Fourth: Risk control for safe shield tunnelling through complex strata of the Pearl River System, China
Young Tunneller of the Year
Gold: Luigi D’Angelo, project engineer for Italferr on the Naples-Bari high speed railway, Italy, age 34
Silver: Hanan Samadi, Iran, age 28
Bronze: Adriano Martoccia, Italy, age 33
Next year’s ITA Tunnelling Awards will be held in Belgrade, Serbia, in conjunction with the 2025 SETC Southeastern Europe Tunnelling Conference on October 1-3.
