{"id":20450,"date":"2026-09-14T07:27:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450"},"modified":"2026-09-14T07:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:44:43","slug":"cutting-edge-2026-underground-construction-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450","title":{"rendered":"Innovation in Underground Construction to Take Center Stage at Cutting Edge 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The keynote session on Monday, November 9 includes presentations by CBNA tackling unique drill and blast tunnels in a densely populated area, and a presentation from Lombardi Engineering, covering the challenges of tunneling in the heart of the Swiss Alps.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20451\" src=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/A1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Alexandre Chaizemartin, Technical Director, CBNA<\/p>\n<p>Hong Kong\u2019s Central Kowloon Route: Unique Drill &amp; Blast Tunnels in a Densely Populated Area<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20452\" src=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/A2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Eric Carrera, Engineering Project Manager, Lombardi Engineering Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>The Second Tube of the Gotthard Road Tunnel \u2013 Challenging Tunnelling in the Heart of the Swiss Alps<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe uniqueness of Cutting Edge is that we are bringing in people from all over the world to talk about things that are currently in practice,\u201d said Maria Chastka, Cutting Edge Program Chair and Senior Project Engineer at Granite Construction. \u201cOur goal for this conference is to help all aspects of a job site perform better, find more efficiencies, and improve the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to high-end technical sessions, Cutting Edge 2026 attendees will have the opportunity to attend one of two regional field trips on Wednesday, November 11. Field trip registration is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.<\/p>\n<p>One trip is to DC Water\u2019s Potomac River Tunnel Project, including direct access to two TBM tunnels expected to resume mining operations shortly after the visit. Attendees will observe live construction operations across the full project footprint, including the slurry treatment plant, water treatment plant, grout plant, and TBM auxiliary equipment and support systems.<\/p>\n<p>The other field trip will take attendees to the Ellicott City Extended North Tunnel, the largest public works project in the history of Howard County, Maryland. At 150 feet underground, the one-mile, 18-foot-diameter granite tunnel will divert up to 26,000 gallons of stormwater per second away from Main Street directly into the Patapsco River.<\/p>\n<p>The UCA is supporting 10 students to attend the 2026 Cutting Edge Conference. Attendance scholarships generously cover registration and travel expenses. Applications are due by October 4.<\/p>\n<p>Registration for Cutting Edge 2026 is now open. For more information about the conference, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/ucaofsmecuttingedge.org\/\">UCA Cutting Edge Conference &#8211; Home<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The keynote session on Monday, November 9 includes presentations by CBNA tackling unique drill and blast tunnels in a densely populated area, and a presentation from Lombardi Engineering, covering the challenges of tunneling in the heart of the Swiss Alps. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Alexandre Chaizemartin, Technical Director, CBNA Hong Kong\u2019s Central Kowloon Route: Unique Drill &amp; Blast Tunnels in a Densely Populated Area \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Eric Carrera, Engineering Project Manager, Lombardi Engineering Ltd. The Second Tube of the Gotthard Road Tunnel \u2013 Challenging Tunnelling in the Heart of the Swiss Alps \u201cThe uniqueness of Cutting Edge is that we are bringing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[5540],"class_list":["post-20450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cutting-edge-conference","post--single"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cutting Edge 2026 to Showcase Innovation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cutting Edge 2026 will showcase the latest tunnelling and underground construction innovations, with technical sessions, TBM projects and field trips.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cutting Edge 2026 to Showcase Innovation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cutting Edge 2026 will showcase the latest tunnelling and underground construction innovations, with technical sessions, TBM projects and field trips.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tunnelingworld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-14T07:27:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-14T07:44:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"941\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rosebell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rosebell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"rosebell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba\"},\"headline\":\"Innovation in Underground Construction to Take Center Stage at Cutting Edge 2026\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-14T07:27:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-14T07:44:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450\"},\"wordCount\":349,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Cutting Edge Conference\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Events\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450\",\"name\":\"Cutting Edge 2026 to Showcase Innovation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-14T07:27:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-14T07:44:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba\"},\"description\":\"Cutting Edge 2026 will showcase the latest tunnelling and underground construction innovations, with technical sessions, TBM projects and field trips.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/Image-1-2.jpg\",\"width\":1672,\"height\":941,\"caption\":\"Cutting Edge 2026\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?p=20450#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Innovation in Underground Construction to Take Center Stage at Cutting Edge 2026\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tunnelingworld\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba\",\"name\":\"rosebell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"rosebell\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/tunnelingworld.com\\\/?author=5\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cutting Edge 2026 to Showcase Innovation","description":"Cutting Edge 2026 will showcase the latest tunnelling and underground construction innovations, with technical sessions, TBM projects and field trips.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cutting Edge 2026 to Showcase Innovation","og_description":"Cutting Edge 2026 will showcase the latest tunnelling and underground construction innovations, with technical sessions, TBM projects and field trips.","og_url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450","og_site_name":"Tunnelingworld","article_published_time":"2026-09-14T07:27:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-09-14T07:44:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1672,"height":941,"url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"rosebell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rosebell","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450"},"author":{"name":"rosebell","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba"},"headline":"Innovation in Underground Construction to Take Center Stage at Cutting Edge 2026","datePublished":"2026-09-14T07:27:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:44:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450"},"wordCount":349,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-2.jpg","keywords":["Cutting Edge Conference"],"articleSection":["Events"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450","url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450","name":"Cutting Edge 2026 to Showcase Innovation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-2.jpg","datePublished":"2026-09-14T07:27:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:44:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba"},"description":"Cutting Edge 2026 will showcase the latest tunnelling and underground construction innovations, with technical sessions, TBM projects and field trips.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Image-1-2.jpg","width":1672,"height":941,"caption":"Cutting Edge 2026"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=20450#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Innovation in Underground Construction to Take Center Stage at Cutting Edge 2026"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/","name":"Tunnelingworld","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4d2f4182b445645aa0b79f3f43560eba","name":"rosebell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/40b92c3f35ab56dec639479a669ce3f5158c2ac3b5cf54852fc3df01779a0812?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"rosebell"},"url":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?author=5"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20450"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20469,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20450\/revisions\/20469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}