By Lynda Myer
In order to recognition and appreciation of his services to tunneling, the prestigious STUVA Prize was garnted to Heinz Ehrbar at the STUVA Conference 2023 in Munich by STUVA Chairman Prof. Dr Martin Ziegler.
Due to his innovative ideas on the planning side and ultimately being successful on the client side, where he was responsible for the entire shell construction as a member of the management team, Heinz Ehrbar is most closely associated with the Gotthard Base Tunnel project.
Considering that Heinz Ehrbar left AlpTransit Gotthard AG in 2012 and joined DB Netz AG shortly afterwards as Head of Major Projects, in this role, he represented DB Group Management on the Federal Ministry of Transport’s Construction of Major Projects reform commission from 2013 to 2017.
While as head of the Costs and Risks working group, he played a key role in shaping the final report with his clear recommendations and in addition to his full-time work, Heinz Ehrbar was also involved in academic teaching for young academics.
The time that he has lectured at RWTH Aachen University on the subject of Organisation of tunneling projects was 2014, and from 2016 at ETH Zurich on the subjects of Construction operations in tunneling and Management of large infrastructure projects.
With his strong commitment to universities, Heinz Ehrbar gave up his management role at DB Netz AG in mid-2017 and, as head of a competence centre, concentrated on the Group-wide implementation of the reform commission topics Building in partnership, Digitalisation of the construction industry and Project acceleration.
Voluntary activities in the DAUB, the ITA and numerous other committees, his teaching activities at RWTH Aachen University and ETH Zurich – Heinz Ehrbar is a problem solver and likes to put his own person in the background.
In the opinion of the jury, he deserved the STUVA Prize in honour of his decades of commitment and his services to the use of underground space.
