NCE Tunnelling Awards 2016 - Winner

Delighted to be the winner of NCE Tunnelling Awards 2016 under the category "Young Tunneller of the Year".  

This award are given to individuals (with less than 10 years of experience) who has developed experience in the tunnelling industry and has made a notable contribution between Jan '15 and Jul '16. 

Judging criteria was based on:

- Commitment to the tunnelling industry

- Contribution made by the individual to bring innovative ideas or initiatives or lead technically complex design/operations.

- Deliver beyond the client's expectation

Nomination was based on following items: 

- Design and construction support for shotcrete lined (NATM) mined tunnel in soft shallow overburden condition

- Publication in International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories 2016 (Singapore special issue)

- Contribution in ITACET and local Geotechnical society (GeoSS)

Highlights of the awards event is available below:

Featured in Geoconsult website: Link (link is dead)

Featured in ITACET foundation website: Link

Featured in Tunnel Talk: Link

Thanks to generous support by the tunnelling community worldwide for identifying and encouraging  the young engineers. Who would have imagined, an Indian guy, working for an Austrian firm for Singapore projects would win this honor in United Kingdom! :D

Young Professionals Think Deep Programme (YPTDP) 2016 Glasgow (ITACUS-ISOCARP event)

For the first time, ISOCARP in partnership with ITACUS has organized a Young Professional’ Think Deep Program (YPTDP) Workshop. The event was hosted by the City of Glasgow (Glasgow City Council) and took place within the 23rd – 28th of October 2016.The intention of this workshop was to produce a set of case studies contributing towards in-depth analysis of interrelations between city planning focusing on urban design and underground space utilization and infrastructure provision.

The workshop was targeted at junior British and international professionals (up to 35 years old) with various backgrounds such as spatial planning, architecture, civil engineering and real estate management.

There were 20 international participants with various professional backgrounds who attended this workshop. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to represent Singapore at this workshop. The theme chosen for this workshop was "Rethinking the Clyde Waterfront". The focus was on developing strategies for connecting the infrastructure development into underground urban design. This theme strongly connects with the Singapore city planning and I was very hopeful to get maximum out of this workshop.

Participants of YPTDP workshop in Glasgow, Scotland

At a moment when tunnels and underground infrastructure are playing a key role in replacing high-rise infrastructure and surface development to create open green public places, the development of underground space needs to be planned and needs to be seen as an integral part of the city fabric. Many mega-cities are looking at underground space as a last resort, as the spatial relief valve that can for one last time help to free space at the surface rather than planning underground space by choice. In order to create this vision on the use of underground space, this workshop attempted to make planners aware of the subsurface and its role in urban planning as well as to educate engineers the planner's perspective.

The workshop adopted the interactive method, facilitating the search for an "outside the box" approach for an unobvious answers. The group of young planners and engineers coming from 19 countries were asked to support the City of Glasgow with their objective, external view, and with “fresh” ideas for developing the area of the Clyde waterfront. The workshop itself is usually a series of brainstorming exercises, resulting in a vision of development for the area. The style of brainstorming depends on the experience and personality of the participants.

YPTDP Glasgow 2016 - Brainstorming session

My team at YPTDP Glasgow,2016.  Theme: Urban Garden
(from Left: Negar, Senthil, Fillipo, Rosanne, David)

Full report of the workshop and details of the brainstorming session is available at:  https://goo.gl/d1oPGm

ITA Tunnelling Awards Event

ITA Tunnelling awards event took place in Singapore between 10th November and 11th November. Although I was not able to win the title, Singapore had a good share of winning entries.

Singapore won the awards under the following categories:

• Tunnelling project of the year (between €50 million and €500 million)
• Safety initiative of the year
• Innovative use of underground space

Finalists of Young Tunneller of the year 2016 (I am standing 2nd from left)

Finalist Certificate

Colleagues from Geoconsult who came to support my entry during the event

NCE Tunnelling Awards 2016 - Young Tunneller of the Year (Shortlisted)

New Civil Engineer (NCE) - the official magazine for members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK chartered body that oversees the practice of civil engineering in the UK) is organizing Tunnelling Award for the seventh year in 2016. The awards are not only known to showcase the best in tunnelling expertise, most innovative techniques and challenging projects but also has established itself as a premier networking event for the global tunnelling community.

This year, I am delighted to be shortlisted under the category "Young Tunneller of the Year".

Thanks @ncedigital @TunnellingAwds & @ICE_engineers for the shortlisting me. #tunneller #itaym #tunnelling #geotech pic.twitter.com/hxa0MDpGdo

— G T, Senthil Nath (@gt_sn) August 22, 2016

List of all finalists could be accessed here.

The shortlist is based on the personal contribution made by the individual to lead major technically complex operations. Following attributes are considered for the shortlist:

• drive their team, project or business to technical or commercial success
• deliver beyond the client's expectation
• personal commitment to improving the tunnelling industry
• tangible differences made by the environment in which they operate

The shortlisting is done by an esteemed panel of 23 international judges appointed by NCE magazine. Full list of judges is available here. 

#ITAYM #YoungTunneller

8th Asian Young Geotechnical Engineer's Conference, 2016

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to represent Geotechnical Society of Singapore (GeoSS) at the Asian Young Geotechnical Engineer's conference (AYGEC). The 25 years tradition of AYGEC started in 1991 with its first conference in Bangkok and now it has reached its 8th edition. 

Along with 2 representatives from Singapore (myself and Ms. Sue Cing from Golder Associates, Singapore office), there were 45 young engineers representing 17 different Asian countries. Apart from young engineers, there were 4 keynote/special lectures by senior professionals/academicians from German Geotechnical Society, Japan Geotechnical society and Korean Geotechnical society. In total there were more than 75 delegates from 24 countries [1]. 

8AYGEC, Astana Kazakhstan

Distribution of participants (17 countries | 29% from industry, remaining from academia)

Two presentations by Singapore representatives were on the topic:

• Mid-Tunnel underground docking of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) in Singapore - presented by me
• Two-lane vehicle underpass using pipe roof method at Sentosa Gateway Tunnel - presented by Ms. Sue Cing Teo

The conference theme was aligned with the objectives of ISSMGE Technical Committee - TC305 (Geotechnical Infrastructure for megacities and new capitals). Both the presentations from Singapore were apt for this theme. Our presentations were well received and appreciated by the senior professors from Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan. 

Representatives of GeoSS at 8AYGEC

The venue for the conference was split between Nazarbayev University and Eurasian National University in Astana, Kazakhstan. The conference had one dedicated session on Underground Urban infrastructure. Other sessions of the conference were focused on laboratory and field tests, recent trends in ground improvement, numerical modeling, advanced soil mechanics and geotechnics of historical monuments.

The 2 day conference culminated with field visit on Day 3. The main highlight of the technical visit was the visit to the construction site of EXPO 2017 - a 113 hectares international exposition pavilion. Unfortunately we could not see much of the activities due to weather conditions and safety concerns. 

Artistic view of EXPO 2017 (after completion)

EXPO 2017 (in construction)

The collection of peer-reviewed papers presented during this conference are published by CRC Press (Taylor and Francis) Publishers, UK and is available here.

Challenges and Innovations in Geotechnics (ISBN 9781138030077) 

My presentation on Mid-Tunnel TBM Docking

Since all the delegates were of same age group, it resulted in a very lively engagement, discussion and exchange of business cards (and FB handles too) during the networking sessions. The official closure of the conference was eventful with Kazakhstan music and dance. PhD thesis work of Dr. Prashanth Vangla (representative of Indian Geotechnical Society from IISc Bangalore) received the best paper award and Dr. Atsushi Takai (Asst. Professor, Kyoto University, Japan) received the best presenter award. Apart from few hiccups, the conference was very well planned and moderated by Prof. Askar. 

References:

[1] Online article, "The outcome of 8AYGEC" available at: http://www.enu.kz/en/info/news/44808/ (retrieved 20th Aug, 2016)

Shortlisted for ITA Awards

I am very honoured to be shortlisted for the International Tunnelling Associations' ITA Awards (under the category "Young Tunneller of the Year"), in what is considered as the Oscars of the tunnelling industry. A total of 33 finalists (projects and engineers) are selected out of 98 entries from 25 countries in 9 categories. The complete list of finalists is available here. 

ITA Awards Trophy - Bronze bust of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (Sculpted by Sebastien Langloÿs)

All the finalists for the category "Young tunneller of the year" are shown below (in alphabetical order). Link: https://awards.ita-aites.org/finalists/young-tunneller-of-the-year.html?tmpl=component

Join me for the two-day ceremony (with 8 high profile keynote lectures, finalists presentation and awards ceremony) at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

References:
[1] ITA Awards website and newsletter
[2] Tunnel-Online Info website
[3] Tunnel Talk newsletter
[4] Tunnel Builder newsstream
[5] Argentinian tunnelling society newsletter 

Invited Talk on "Impact assessment on existing tunnels due to TBM tunnelling in close proximity"

With the growing population, the need for TBM tunnels in urban environment has continuously increased in the last decade. The need for TBM tunnels is not only limited to urban transportation but is also constantly increasing for other key infrastructure elements, which results in new tunnels constructed close to existing tunnels / other infrastructure. During this presentation, I presented problems/risks associated with tunnels driven in close proximity and how to assess/quantify the impact. A case study was considered to illustrate the impact assessment and risk evaluation.

A copy of the presentation slides could be accessed here. Details of the conference program below.

3rd Annual Underground Space Engineering, Singapore

Featured in ITACET newsletter

June issue of ITACET newsletter has featured the abstract of my paper which was shortlisted by Geotechnical Society of Singapore (GeoSS) to be presented at the 8th Asian Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference in Kazakhstan (8AYGEC).

ITACET Newsletter - June edition

The title of the paper is "Mid-tunnel underground docking of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) in Singapore". The paper discusses a case study from Singapore in which, TBMs are docked midway in the tunnel to establish a safe working chamber for concluding construction works (including the TBM dismantling, internal concrete lining etc.) without the need for any intermediate TBM retrieval shaft. 

Picture illustrating docking without a retrieval shaft

Reference:
[1] Senthilnath, G.T., 2016. Mid-tunnel underground docking of tunnel boring machines in Singapore, In The 8th Asian Young Geotechnical Engineering Conference, Astana, Kazakhstan, CRC Press/ Balkema Publishers (accepted, in press)

Keynote Presenter in Upcoming conference on Underground Space Engineering, Singapore

Trueventus is organizing the 3rd Annual conference on Underground Space Engineering in Singapore and I am invited as one of the Keynote presenters to present a talk on "Existing tunnel movements due to close proximity". Details of the conference are enclosed below. This post will be updated soon to include the summary of my presentation.

  

Underground Space Utilization in Singapore - Part 1

Most of the cities exploit the underground space for dirty and noisy uses like sewer system, transport systems etc. But a few cities have gone a step further and started extensive use of underground space for pedestrian passages, underground storage facilities, shopping mall, office spaces etc. Singapore is one of such cities which is constantly pushing for new innovative use of underground space and already boasts an extensive of use of underground space (see picture below).

Underground space utilization in Singapore

And is further looking for possibilities of creating underground transport hubs, pedestrian links, cycling lanes, utility plants, storage and research facilities, industrial uses, shopping areas and other public spaces. In order to facilitate such projects, Singapore parliament recently amended laws to say that by definition, the state owns underground space more than 30 meters below the surface and the law enabled the state to buy out plots of surface land  so that the ground underneath it can be accessed. These law changes indicate Singapore government's serious foresight about future underground usage plan.

Another school of thought is that it is not just because they need space for people, but it is also because it generates revenue for the economy. Income from land sales alone account to more than US$10 billion for the past few years.

Either way, Singapore is geared to make maximum utilization of its underground space. Now the question is how are the policies developed for such growth? What are the cities that we could look upon for "template"? How Singapore's needs differ from them? I will cover in the next post. 

New Blog from Politecnico di Torino about Tunnelling Course

I am happy to share that current master student (Mr. Rodrigo Winderholler) of the Tunnelling and TBM master course (10th edition) has started a blog explaining the course details and giving weekly update of the course progress.

It serves as a valuable information to the people who are interested in similar course and gives a basis to someone who wants to assess the course before joining it. I thank Rodrigo in taking the initiative and following the practice that I set during my course period.

I recommend my readers to visit his blog at: http://tunnelling-tbmmaster.blogspot.sg/

New blog on Tunnelling & TBM Master Course - 10th Edition

Breakthrough Magazine - Issue 2

This year during the World Tunnel Congress in San Francisco, ITAYM released the second issue of the Breakthrough Magazine. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend this WTC. The magazine could be accessed here.

Breakthrough Magazine - Issue 2

During WTC, there was also an election for ITAYM board members and three new board members (Doris Frank, Slovenia; Giuseppe Maria Gaspari, Italy; Joanne Sui, United Kingdom) were elected to replace the outgoing board members (Nichole Boultbee, Petr Salak and Emily Roguska). Jurij steps down as Chair and Sindre Log is elected as the new Chair for a tenure of two years.

ITAYM Board