ITA Launches Tunneling Awards

As part of its strategy to further enhance tunneling and underground space awareness on an international level, the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) officially launched its own dedicated Tunneling Awards program in March 2015. Through these awards, ITA aims at identify outstanding achievements in the field of tunneling and underground space use, and provide international recognition to these remarkable contributions. Since the registration opening on April 10, more than 30 candidates have applied.

A short-list of pre-selected projects performed between Jan. 1, 2014, and February 2015 will be officially presented in September 2015. The preselected candidates will ensure a presentation of their projects on Nov. 19, 2015, the date of the Prize Awards Ceremony, during a one-day conference at the Hagerbach underground test facility in Switzerland.

The winners will be announced during a banquet the same evening.

There are 18 judges, experts in the tunnelling industry, who form the jury: Soren Degn Eskesen, Chairman of the Board and ITA’s President (Denmark), Han Admiraal, ITACUS’ chair (Netherlands), Andre Assis, ITA’s past president (Brazil), Zaw Zaw Aye, ITA expert (Thailand), Mikael Belenkiy, ITA expert (Russian Federation), Tarcisio Celestino, ITA’s vice-president (Brazil), Heinz Ehrbar, ITA WG 19 animateur (Switzerland), Amanda Elioff, ITA’s vice-president, Simon Knight (Australia),  Martin Knights, ITA’s past president (United Kingdom), Tom Melbye, ITA Expert (Finland), Harvey Parker, ITA past president (United States of America), Dominique Perrault (France), Andreas Tauschinger (Qatar), Shani Wallis (United Kingdom), Jenny Yan, ITA ExCo Member (China), and Chung-Sik Yoo, ITA WG 2 Animateur (South Korea).

The 9 categories of the ITA Tunnelling Awards:

• Outstanding Tunneling Project of the Year – up to €50 million
• Tunneling Project of the Year – between €50 million and €500m million
• Major Tunneling Project of the Year – over €500 million
• Renovation/Upgrading project of the Year
• Technical Innovation of the Year
• Environmental Initiative of the Year
• Safety Initiative of the Year
• Innovative Use of Underground Space
• Young Tunneler of the Year

ITA is a non-profit and non-governmental international organization, which aims at promoting the use of underground space as a solution to sustainable development. Founded in 1974 and operating out of Lausanne, Switzerland, ITA currently associates 73 Member Nations, 300 affiliated members, 17 Prime Sponsors and 60 supporters.