ITA Announces 2019 Awards Finalists

Regional Connector, Low Level Pumping Station Among Projects Considered, Michels’ Kerr Finalist for Young Tunneller

The International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) is organizing the fifth edition of its ITA Tunnelling and Undergroung Space Awards, which will be presented Nov. 18 in Miami. The awards are an international competition seeking to recognize and reward the most ground-breaking achievements and innovations in underground infrastructures worldwide. Since 2015, the ITA keeps receiving outstanding applications: this year the association collected more than 100 entries competing for the Oscars of Tunnels and underground space projects in the frame of 8 categories.

The judging panel of the ITA Awards, composed of 17 judges chaired by Jenny Yan, new ITA President, has just concluded its deliberations: 32 entries have passed the first selection phase, 3 to 6 nominees being pre-selected in each of the 8 ITA Tunnelling Awards categories.

After careful considerations, the judges chose the following finalists:

For the category “Major Project of the Year – over 500€ million”:

• The Follo Line Project – Norway
• Tuen-Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link – Northern Connection Subsea Tunnel Section – Hong Kong/China
• Wuhan Sanyang Road Yangtze River Tunnel Project – China
• The Seoul Metropolitan High-Speed Railway (Suseo~Pyeongtaek) Construction Project (Yulhyeon Tunnel) – Korea

For the category “Project of the Year – between €50 million and €500 million”:

• Construction of two parallel tunnels for the Mexico City – Toluca suburban railway – Mexico
• The New Ulriken Tunnel – Norway
• Regional Connector Transit Project – Los Angeles – USA
• Shatin Central Link Immersed tube tunnels – Hong Kong / China
• Victory Boogie Woogietunnel – Netherlands
• New Badaling Tunnel and Great Wall Station of Beijing-Zhangjiakou High-speed Railway – China

RELATED: Regional Connector and other LA Metro Projects

For the category “Project of the Year including renovation – (up to €50 million)”:

• Modernization of the Vladivostok tunnel of the Far Eastern Railway – Russia
• Finsbury Park Station Step Free Access – UK
• Outram Park Linkway Tunnel (Thomson Line) – Singapore

For the category “Technical Project Innovation of the Year”:

• Rapid Construction Technology for Large Cross-section Extremely Gassy Tunnel – China
• Innovation and Application of New Single-hole Double-line Quasi-rectangular Shield Tunnel Technology System – China
• Toulouse Line A underground stations extension – France
• Intersecting and Overlapping (Twisted) Tunnel Group Construction Technology for Tianjin Metro Lines 5 and 6 – China

For the category “Technical Product or Equipment innovation of the Year”:

• ARCHITA, an innovative multi-dimensional mobile mapping system – Italy
• AXON – platform for wireless connectivity for tunnels – Australia
• Autonomous TBM – Malaysia
• Tunnel Inspection 4.0 – Smart Tunnel Maintenance using Artificial Intelligence – Switzerland

For the category “Innovative Underground Space Concept of the Year”:

• Building Large Prefabricated Urban Underground Space with Small TBMs for Subsection Undercutting – China
• SNWA Low Lake Level Pumping Station – Underground – USA
• Underground Green Farming – Switzerland

RELATED: Low Level Pumping Station Project Update

For the category “Safety Initiative of the Year”:

• Air Quality Working Group: An industry-first collaboration on silica dust control – Australia
• Robotization of the Automatic Tubular steel arch instrallation: a key factor for safety – Italy
• An Automatic Geological Forward-prospecting Technique Safeguarding TBM Tunneling – China

For the category “Young Tunneller of the Year”:

• Sun Feng – China
• Elliot James Fern – Switzerland
• Yutaka Okuda – Japan
• Amanda Kerr – USA
• Diwakar – Singapore

Throughout the day on Nov. 18, the finalists will present their proposal and describe the unique and innovative features of their projects. A banquet dinner will close the day during which the winners will be announced and the awards presented.

RELATED: 2018 ITA Awards Winners