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ITA Tunnelling Awards


Stad ship tunnel out to tender for design & build NORWAY - The design-build contract for the 1.7km-long Stad ship tunnel has been put out to tender, based on a standard contract NS 8407 for such procurement in Norway. The 50m-high by 36m-wide rock tunnel


is wanted to provide safe passage through the Stadhavet Sea and will cut through a coastal region. The project - which will be the world’s


first full-scale tunnel for ships - has been in planning since the 1990s. It got a green light from Parliament in 2021, with Kystverket (the Norwegian Coastal Administration, NCA) given responsibility for the project. Recently, Statens Vegvesen (the


Above: ITA Awards 2024 included Brenner Base Tunnel, LotH52 PHOTO CREDIT: BBT


ITALY - Top awards for tunnelling projects and innovations were recently announced by the International Association for Tunnelling and Underground Space (ITA-AITES). The winners were:


Major Project of the Year (€500m+) ● Gold: Thames Tideway, London, UK


● Silver: Grand Central Madison, formerly East Side Access (ESA), New York, US


● Bronze: Thomson-East Coast Line Contracts T222 to T310, Singapore


● Fourth: Single-bore double-deck Municipal Expressway Tunnel with super-large diameter, China


Project of the Year (€50m-500m) ● Gold: Brenner Base Tunnel – Lot H52 Hochstegen, Austria


● Silver: Isarco River Underpass – Lot H71, Brenner Base Tunnel, Italy


● Bronze: Lyon-Turin Saint-Martin- la-Porte Exploratory Tunnel, France


● Fourth: Musaimeer Pump Station and Outfall Project, Qatar


Renovation Project of the Year ● Gold: Manfreida Road Tunnel Renovation Project, Italy


● Bronze: Genoa Railway Junction Capacity Upgrade, Italy


● Silver: Refurbishment of the Heinenoord Immersed Tube Road Tunnel, Netherlands


Product/Equipment Innovation of the Year


6 | March 2025


● Gold: Ultra-small turning radius hard rock TBM, China


● Silver: SOGUN: Geometric control system for shotcreting and other tunnelling works, Spain


● Bronze: Advanced hybrid wireless sensor network system for safety risk sensing in tunnel and underground engineering, China


● Fourth: Type 0-90° continuous conveyor equipment, China


Technical Innovation of the Year ● Gold: Disc cutter wear sensor


package and TBM monitoring system, South Korea


● Silver: MIRET-Tunnel AI, Italy ● Bronze: Advanced tunnelling assistance system, Italy


Beyond Engineering ● Gold: Modern underground cemetery, Israel


● Silver: City Rail Link goes beyond in Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland, New Zealand


● Bronze: Eco-friendly metro construction for challenging coastal geological environments, China


● Fourth: Risk control for safe shield tunnelling through complex strata of the Pearl River System, China


Young Tunneller of the Year ● Gold: Luigi D’Angelo, Italy, age 34 ● Silver: Hanan Samadi, Iran, age 28 ● Bronze: Adriano Martoccia, Italy, age 33


Norwegian Public Roads Administration, NPRA) signed a deal to help the project development on Stad Ship Tunnel as it has much experience with rock tunnelling as a client. The collaboration is to strengthen project


organisation, primarily during the tender phase and leading up to contract signing - though it may be extended into the construction phase. NCA’s previous engagement with the


contractor market, including two supplier conferences in earlier stages of project development, showed there was quite a bit of interest in the ship tunnel project. A tender conference followed the


most recent announcement of this next step in procurement, which will lead to prequalification then bid invites this year. Negotiations with the last stage bidders in the procurement process is expected to take place around Q3-2025. The client expects the final bid in late 2025 for award soonafter. The present schedule sees construction


start in early 2026 with an almost five-year build.


Marti breaks through on Zurich flood protection SWITZERLAND - Marti Tunnel recently achieved TBM breakthrough on the Thalwil flood relief tunnel project in Zurich. TBM ‘Delia’ was launched in early 2024 to


excavate the 2km-long tunnel from the Sihl Valley to Thalwil. The 6.6m-diameter tunnel is being


constructed as a major part of the investment to protect Zurich and the lower Sihl valley from floods. The project is designed to diverting the


River Sihl into Lake Zurich during heavy rain.


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