By Lynda Myer
Christoph Eberle, Chair of the BTS Technical Committee, and Technical Principal at Mott MacDonald, presented a speech with the title of “The BTS/ICE specification 4th edition. Collaborating for sustainability” at the end of the first day of BTS Conference on 11 October in a BTS evening meeting at 6pm.
According to Eberle: “The presentation gave a status update to brief BTS members and the industry on the ongoing work of updating the Specification, the last version of which (3rd edition) was issued in 2009.”
While the main focus of this status update was on three aspects – Building on Success; Industry Business Card; and Industry Collaboration, comprising of Crossrail, Thames Tideway, Bank Station Upgrade, Victoria Station Upgrade and the Northern Line Extension, the first point, Building on Success, explained how the Specification’s content is being updated to reflect experience on milestone tunneling projects since 2009.
Also the responsibility of describing how and where the updated BTS Specification will be positioned in relation to many other specifications and guidance that have been published, updated or first issued internationally (eg. by AFTES, DAUB, ITA, STUVA, ACI) since 2009, was up to the Industry Business Card, whereas on Industry Collaboration, Eberle explained a brief on observations so far from the peer review and contribution and further opportunities for industry input.
Workshops have already been held with industry stakeholders from the supply chain, and also by reaching out to recognized tunneling industry experts and major owners (HS2, LTC, LPT2, TfL).
In order to inform the industry of what changes to expect and what NOT to expect in the Specification update, the timeline to publication and the opportunity for further engagement in the next (2nd) round of peer review, the format of the BTS meeting was a slide presentation, plus Q&A. Additionally, a further status briefing was planned to be shared at WTC 2023.
