2025 ITA Tunnelling Awards Presented in Belgrade

It is a prized accolade, a coveted trophy, and an industry-wide recognition that is cherished. Winners of the ITA Tunnelling Awards each year join an honor list of outstanding projects, innovations and individuals of the past 10 years since the series was introduced in 2015.

This year the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners, and highly commended finalists, hail from 11 countries of the world and represent all facets of the underground infrastructure industry, including four rail, five metro, five road projects; two water and wastewater treatment projects; two immersed tubes; five TBM, three drill+blast and two rehabilitation applications; a storybook to inspire the young; a project to uplift remote rural communities; and six outstanding young professionals in whose hands the future of the industry is vested.

The awards were presented Oct. 1 in Belgrade in conjunction with the Southeastern Europe Tunnelling Conference (SETC-2025), organized by the Serbian Tunnelling and Underground Construction Association (ITA Serbia).

The accolade honors the legacy of Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, an engineering partnership that spanned revolutionary advancements in bridge design, railway development and ship building. The trophy is a bust of Isambard Kingdom Brunel on a pedestal of tunnel segments honoring the work of father and son in developing what is acknowledged as the birth of modern-day shield excavation and concurrent lining. The building of their first soft ground subaqueous tunnel under the River Thames in the UK is still in operation today as an integral part of the London Underground metro system.

“Here in Belgrade, we celebrate the exceptional quality of the projects and technologies presented by our finalists, as well as the strength and inspiring achievements of the young tunnelers who have shown us such talent and passion. Let me underline that all the projects presented are winners. Each of them represents innovation, commitment, and excellence in our industry. This is why every finalist will receive the same Brunel trophy or the Brunel medal — a prestigious symbol of recognition that honors your contribution to underground engineering worldwide,” said ITA President Andrea Pigorini.

ITA congratulates all the winners, finalists, and entries of the 2025 ITA Tunnelling Awards and invites everyone involved in the widest range of international underground infrastructure development to prepare entries for the ITA Tunnelling Awards of 2026. The call for nominations will launch in Spring 2026 and the Awards symposium day and trophy presentations will be held in Lisbon, hosted in collaboration with the Portuguese Tunnelling and Underground Space Commission (CPT) and its 20th Anniversary Celebration Conference from 4-6 November 2026.

The United States was represented among the winners with the Washington Metro Yellow Line Rehabilitation Project, which took Silver in the Project of the Year between €100 and €500 Million category. That project comprised rehabilitating a 3,050-lf section of the Yellow Line suffering advanced corrosion of the steel liner and significant deterioration following decades of use, water infiltration and the consequences of an in-tunnel fire in 2015. A custom steel liner replacement includes a cathodic protection, a system rarely used in transit tunnel rehabilitation. Civil works of the $303.85 million project were advanced under the terms of the Construction Manager at Risk delivery model that enabled early contractor involvement and on an aggressive eight-month shutdown of the Yellow Line, with crews working 24/7 across 17 distinct work phases. Despite complexity and constraints, the tunnel, originally constructed in the 1970s, returned to service two weeks early and within 0.18% of the original contract value.

Stakeholders: Client: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA); Engineers: RK&K LLP, Schnabel Engineering Inc., Burns Engineering Inc.; Contractor: Kiewit-Shea-Traylor Joint Venture; • Material suppliers: Jennmar Civil, Sherwin Williams, Kelley Engineering; Support Subcontractors: Sovereign Hydroseal.

ITA Tunnelling Awards 2025 – Results

Technical Innovation of the Year:

• GOLD: Cutting CO2 emissions on Toulouse Metro extension
• SILVER: Geothermal retrofitting in Italian road tunnels
• BRONZE: Real-time deformation monitoring

Product/Equipment Innovation of the Year

• GOLD: Trackless transportation system for large-diameter and super-long TBM tunnels, China
• SILVER: High-pressure abrasive waterjet assisted TBM, China
• BRONZE: A 2-boom fully automated shotcrete machine, Japan
• HIGHLY COMMENDED: A new polymer innovation for a sitewide water recycling treatment plant, UK

Project of the Year up to €100 million

• GOLD: Hongyancun Station, Chongqing Rail Transit Line 9, China
• SILVER: Shield Tunnel for Macau Light Rail Extension, China
• BRONZE: Subsea Utility Tunnel Construction, Singapore

Project of the Year between €100-€500 million

• GOLD: Yang Zong Tunnel of the Kunming (Fude Overpass) -Yiliang Expressway in Yunnan Province, China
• SILVER: Washington Metro Yellow Line Rehabilitation, USA
• BRONZE: HS2 – Long Itchington Wood Twin Tunnels, UK

Major Project of the Year of more than €500 million

• GOLD: Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link Immersed Tunnel, China
• SILVER: Shanghai Suburban Railway Airport Link Line, China
• BRONZE: Shanghai Urban Core Area Ultra-Long and Mega Northern Cross Passage Project, China

Elevated Thinking Underground: Shaping the Future

• GOLD: Venizelou Metro Station, Thessaloniki, Greece
• SILVER: Tunneling for a Better Life in Poor Regions: Daliangshan No.1 Super Long Highway Tunnel, China
• BRONZE: Vinnie and the Metro – inspiring the next generation of tunnel builders through storytelling, Sweden

Young Tunneler of the Year

• GOLD: Aida Santos Santamaria, Spain
• GOLD: Andrea Marchioni, Italy
• BRONZE: Helena Castellvi Linde, Spain
• HIGHLY COMMENDED: Fang Lin, China
• HIGHLY COMMENDED: Akx Mlik, India
• HIGHLY COMMENDED: Patricia Lamas, Spain