Award winner International Project of the Year
On Tuesday 14 May the Ground Engineering Award in the category International Project of the Year was presented to Witteveen+Bos (partner in TEC jv), for the bored tunnels of the North/South metro line in Amsterdam. The GE Awards are an initiative of the renowned British magazine Ground Engineering, published by the same editor as the New Civil Engineer.
During an award ceremony in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the GE Awards were presented in several categories. Frank Kaalberg attended the ceremony to receive the award on behalf of TEC/Witteveen+Bos. Kaalberg: ‘This award is a recognition for the whole design team, which worked with tremendous commitment on this very challenging and successful bored tunneling project for many years.’
At the end of February this year, it became clear that we made it to the shortlist of nominated international projects. The bored tunnels of the North/South metro line were chosen by the jury, consisting of several highly esteemed experts from the British geotechnological field, because of an unprecedented combination of advanced 3D numerical predictions and a ‘design by testing’ approach, merged into an integrated design philosophy. For many tunneling design aspects, which were beyond best practice full scale, trials have been developed, executed and analysed. Their results were integrated into a challenging design to meet the unrivalled urban and geological conditions. In order to control this challenging design during construction, an automatic monitoring system of unprecedented scale was initiated and installed on 1500 historical buildings. On top of that a feedback loop of monitoring information was created via GIS to the TBM operators, which provided a good basis for a successful tunnel drive by a very committed contractor.
Witteveen+Bos is part of the combination Adviesbureau Noord/Zuidlijn (with Royal HaskoningDHV as partner), which is responsible for the design of the North/South metro line under the authority of the Dienst Metro of the City of Amsterdam.