October 2010
Halcrow has been shortlisted as Design Firm of the Year, the Busan Geoje immersed tube tunnel project, Republic of Korea has been shortlisted for The Major Tunnelling Project and the Halcrow owned `Halcrow GRANIT` system has been shortlisted for Technical Innovation - a new category.
The inaugural New Civil Engineer International Tunnelling Awards, are an exciting opportunity to celebrate and reward outstanding work and innovation in the global tunnelling industry.
The Awards is part of a two day Conference on Tunnelling to be held in London 7-8 December 2010. Halcrow’s global tunnelling director, Martin Knights is making a keynote speech and chairing on the second day.
Halcrow tunnel director, Mike King and Halcrow tunnel director for Australia, Malcolm Chappel are delivering papers on tunnel lining design on the first day of the conference.
The Busan to Geoje fixed link project is an ambitious scheme to reduce journey times between Korea's south coast city of Busan and the island of Geoje - a tourist hot-spot and home to the country's biggest shipbuilding yards. Halcrow, in association with Tunnel Engineering Consultants of the Netherlands, provided the Daewoo-led contracting organisation with continuous high level on-site technical advice throughout the design and construction of the link.
This world-class project provides an 8.2km highway link between the southern city of Busan and the island of Geoje in South Korea. The overall link comprises two major cable stayed bridges, with main spans of 230m and 475m respectively, and a 3.4km-long immersed tunnel. The tunnel carries traffic at a depth of up to 48m below sea level to avoid large container ships, and is the deepest of its type in the world.
GRANIT (GRound ANchor Integrity Testing) is the world’s first rapid, effective, multiple capability, non-destructive anchor integrity testing system for rockbolts for mining, tunnelling and other civil engineering ground anchorage system.
GRANIT testing involves sending a small impulse through the rock bolt using an electronic solenoid. The return pulse is analysed and the information gathered, once processed, reveals areas where remedial action is needed.
This is done by analysing the data to identify installation issues, reduced support element length, whether the support element's design or safe working load has been exceeded and potential corrosion issues along the bolt. Significant advantages are the potable nature of the system, its non-destructive nature and potential cost saving and safety benefits.
As part of a leading design firm, Halcrow tunnelling group is involved on many UK tunnelling projects including; Crossrail and Thames Tideway and as designer on significant tunnel projects in Brazil, New York, Seattle, Hong Kong, Argentina , India, Canada, Republic of Korea and major cities in Australia.
The full short list will be available to view on the awards website, www.tunnellingawards.com, from Thursday 14 October 2010.
The winners will be announced at an awards dinner on Wednesday 8 December 2010 at Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane.