Eisenstein and J. ]VL Serrano Herraro will act as representatives from Canada and Spain, respectively, to keep the

Executive Council apprised of plans for the next two ITA General Assembly meetings (1988 in Madrid, 1989 in Toronto).

Beijing, People's Republic of China, has been selected as the site of the 1990 ITA General Assembly.

News from Around the World

The EEC (European Economic Community) has released a report calling for a ful ly integrated European natural gas grid, long-term maintenance of indigenous production and greater cooperation between member countries' gas companies. The report, which examines supply and demand prospects and security issues, predicts that gas will maintain its share of Europe's energy demand, although no large increase is expected. Infrastructure related to the Zeepipe project in the North Sea could provide a basis for integration of the European gas grid, the report says, adding that a link between the U.K. and the continent could make a significant contribution to Europe's overall security of supply.

A study group of representatives from FIDIC (Federation Internationale des Ingenieurs Conseils) and the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Court of Arbitration has concluded that construction disputes take more time than necessary. The number of d isputes submit ted to the ICC Court o f Arbi trat ion has increased cons iderab ly over the past f e w years , and today such disputes represent 30% of new cases . The study suggested that the speed of arbitration depends to a large extent on the arbitrators, the selection of which is of vital importance. As a result of the study, the EIC and FIDIC have established lists of engineers, project managers and lawyers competent to act as arbitrators in disputes arising out of construction contracts submitted to arbitrat ion according to the rules of the ICC Court of Arbitration.

Argent ine companies . The new system will include a 360-mi. section from Neuquen province to Bahia Blanca; a 390-mi. section from Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires; and a 90-mi. line around Buenos Aires. Financing of the $US400 million project reportedly will come from Argentine, Japanese and Italian sources. Meanwhile, Argentina may call bids for expanding its Center-West pipeline. The $200 million project would expand the capacity of the line from 10 million m 3 per day to 18 million m 3 .

Braz i l

Braz i l recent ly s igned an agreement for a gas pipel ine w i th Argent ina . The two countries will share the $US230 million cost of the 800-mi. line, which will run from Santa Fe province in Argentina to Rio Grande do Sul province in Brazil.

Canada

Two jo int venture contractors driving the 14 .6-km- long Mount Macdona ld r a i l w a y tunnel in Br i t i sh Columbia have met near its center . The 6.4- km-long west section of the tunnel was excavated by Manning Kumagai jv using the conventional drill and blast method. Working from the east end, 8.2 km was excavated by Selkirk Tunnel Constructors, using a 6.g-m-diameter Robbins ful l-face TBM for removal of the top heading. The Macdonald Tunnel travels 290 m below Rogers Pass. Its breakthrough is a major milestone for the overall SCan600 million grade reduction and double tracking project, scheduled for completion by the end of 1988.

$ U S 1 8 0 mi l l ion Central Llanos oi l p ipel ine th is year . The line will link oil discoveries in Casanare and Meta provinces to Colombia's ref ining centers.

D e n ma r k

Denmark is about to embark on its most expens ive public project , a 12-mi. r a i l w a y tunnel and bridge. The 1000 million project will link Zealand, Denmark's largest island, to Fyn, an island already connected to Jutland, the only part of Scandinavia physically attached to Western Europe.

Egypt

A contract has been awarded for the single largest projcct in the f irs t phase o f A lexandr ia ' s w a s t e w a t e r t rea tment system. The project will upgrade and expand the city's east and west wastewater treatment plants. Another part of the project involves construction of a 17-rni. sludge pipeline to a desert disposal site, and sludge processing and compost facilities. The $US530 first phase of the project is slated for completion by mid-1990.

Fin land

Fin land and S w e d e n are negot ia t ing for a natural gas pipel ine l ink be tween the two countries . A 250-mi. line across the Gulf of Bothnia would allow Sweden to import one billion m 3 of gas per year from the Soviet Union. A decision on the line is expected in 1988. If the line goes ahead, it will allow Finland to tie the western part of the country into its gas network. Finland recently inaugurated a 260-mi. extension of its system.

Argent ina

An 850-mi. , 30- in. natural gas pipel ine wi l l be ins ta l l ed by a consort ium of Mex ican and

Colombia

Colombia 's s tate oil company plans to build its 161-mi. ,

France

Skiers at the Val d'Isere resort now can use not only the

228 TUNNELLING AND UNDERGROUND SPACE TECHNOLOGY Volume 2, N u m b e r 2, 1987

country's first alpine funicular, but the first underground funicular, a $US10 million conveyance that will whisk skiers 2,700 vertical ft. from La Daille through the Bellevarde mountain to the summit in less than four minutes. The two- cabin "Funivar ' should considerably reduce l if t l ine congestion at what has tradit ionally been one of the most congested l i f t l ine areas at the popular French resort.

India

India's Oil and Natural Gas Commission is expected to call tenders soon for a turnkey operation project involving approximately 560 mi. of 26-, 30-, and 36-in. oil and gas pipelines. The $US770 million project will include design, procurement, fabrication, corrosion and weight coating, transportation,installation/ laying, burial, hook-up, testing and commissioning of the lines. Offshore platforms and an onshore crude stabilization unit are included.

New Zealand

A feasibil i ty study recently completed by New Zealand's Energy Ministry recommends construction of a 145-mi., 14- to 10-in. natural gas line on North Island from Huntly to the Marsden B power station near Whangarei. Meanwhile, Petroleum Corp. of New Zealand has received approval for a 24- mi., 6-in. gas line from Reporoa and Taupo. Completion of the $US3.7 million line is scheduled for August 1987.

People's Republic of China

China's longest tunnel, the 14.3-km-long Da Yap Shan, has been completed. Work on the Great Yap Mountain double- track railway tunnel on the 2324-1~m Beijing-Guangzhou line began in November 1981. To shorten the construction period, ten faces were worked simultaneously. The 3000 workers removed approx. 2.5 million m 3 of rock and placed 280,000 m 3 of concrete. The tunnel, claimed to be the eighth longest double-track railway tunnel in the world, has the

longest adit and deepest construction shaft in the history of tunnelling in China.

China and Hong Kong are conducting a feasibili ty study for a 3,000-Mw pumped storage power plant in China to help alleviate power shortages there and provide support for Hong Kong's power system. The study for the hydro scheme should be completed in about a year. The plant would be located in Guang-dong Province about 31 northwest of Guangzhou. Officials believe two dams would be required. The faci l i ty is viewed as a supplement to the $4-billion twin 985-Mw Daya Bay nuclear units under construction by French and British groups in Guang-dong Province.

China is considering construction of a 1,250-mi. natural gas pipeline to Pakistan. The long-term project would provide an outlet for large volumes of gas being discovered in the Xingjiang Uygur Autonomous Republic and Tingshai province.

Several pilot district heating projects are in progress in China, with technical assistance from the Swedish consulting company VBB. One such project is in Hua Xiang, a suburb of Shenyang, a city of several million inhabitants in northeast China. When construction is completed, the district heating system should produce approximately 350MW heat and approximately 100MW counter- pressure power for a 3.5 million m 2 area of living space. Another pilot project, in the Nan-Shi area in central Shenyang, will comprise 150,000 m 2 of heated living space when completed.

Portugal

Portugal and Spain have agreed to study a natural gas pipeline link between the two countries. The line would run about 200 mi. from the Spanish gas grid at Valladolid to the port of Oporto in northern Portugal. A joint commission will study the f inancial and technical details of such a link.

South Africa

Three tunnels totaling 1274 m in length were completed in February as part of a R10 million project to upgrade the Richards Bay coal line. The tunnels, part of a 580-km coal export line, are situated near the KwaZulu capital, Ulundi. All three are arched single-track tunnels, with a height of 6.5 m and a width of 6.5 m. The tunnels were driven at 12-m centers from existing tunnels that were completed in 1972-73. Five more new tunnels remain to be constructed, for a total length of 8918 m in new tunnels on the coal export line.

Soviet Union

A 8.3-km-long tunnel on the new 77.5-km-long Idzhevan- Razdan electrified railway line through mountainous terrain in Armenia is claimed to be the longest in the Soviet Union. The line includes six tunnels totaling 16.1 km, and 20 bridges and viaducts. Some 7.4 million m 3 of earth and rock were blasted and moved to provide temporary access roads. The new line will shorten considerably the distance between Yerevan and the capitals of other Transcaucasian Republics, and is expected to speed development of central Armenia.

Spain

INH, Spain's state energy company, will provide $US20 million to l iquefied petroleum gas company Butano for pipeline networks and connections in Palencia and Valladolid, where Butano will set up distribution companies. State-owned Enagas plans to spend $100 million in Andalucia over the next two years, including a 55-mi. line between Huelva and Seville.

Sweden

Following the installation of digital communications systems in its three major cities, Sweden is working on a nationwide fiber optics link for digital data transmissions. The national telecommunication administration is coordinating the expansion in order to meet the anticipated

Vo lume 2, N u m b e r 2, 1987 TUNNELLING AND UNDERGROUND SPACE TECHNOLOGY 229

annual growth of 15% in telecommunications, including 5% for telephone and 10% for digital data transmissions, including facsimile and telex services. By the end of 1986, more than 40 optical transmission systems had been installed, mainly in the three largest cities--Stockholm, Malmo and Gothenburg. The project network will link these three cities with the far northern center of Lulea over a combined distance of some 2,500 kin.

Switzerland

The Zurichberg tunnel, showpiece segment of Zurich's underground rail transit line, was holed through in December 1986, almost two months ahead of schedule. The 3-mi. tunnel was driven by a Robbins 38-ft.- diameter bore through layers of sandstone and marl. The 590- ft.-long, ful l-face mole, mounted on a 240-ton shield, advanced up to 60 ft. per day, with an average advance rate of 46 ft. The tunnel surface will be finished with an 1 l-in.-thick concrete lining to augment the 10-in.-thick precast lining. The $US40-million tunnel is part of a $370-million project that will link existing transit lines in and around Zurich into an integrated regional network. The transit project is scheduled for complction in 1990.

Turkey

A $US65 million, 16-kin-long water tunnel linking a new reservoir with an existing reservoir at the Idriss Dam is to be built in Turkey in connection with construction of a new hydroelectric scheme and 240MW power station at Matmata.

United Kingdom

Underground space is an important component of several development plans for London's transit services. As part of a multi-million pound redevelopment plan, British Rail 's Holborn Viaduct terminal in the city would be moved underground. The new underground station would also be converted from a terminus to an Inter-City station with a

network of tunnels linking services from the north with southern region routes via Blackfriars Station. Trains from the Northern and Midlands regions would reach the southern network via two old tunnels near King's Cross that would be re-opened and widened. A new underground line costing about 1000 million is being considered as a possible solution to a large increase in the number of people using the London Underground. The new line would run from Fulham in the west to Hackney in the east.

The British opened the nation's first toad tunnel under the Henley roadway just in time for the mating season. The $US4000 tunnel, the first of a chain, will begin easing the burden on hundreds of volunteers waiting at night by Britain's roadsides to help lovelorn toads cross safely by the bucketful to breeding ponds. Each year at the height of the breeding season, 20 tons of toads are killed by drivers as the toads bound from drier winter grounds toward the spring mating ponds. The way the 6-in.-high tunnel is designed, hordes of toads heading toward the ponds will be channeled to the tunnel entrance by a foot-high fence of clear plastic sheathing running much of the length of their winter ground in the roadside woodland. It is estimated that 200 toads an hour will hop through the 40-ft. tunnel on the busy mating nights, usually in the first month of spring.

Marconi Command and Control Systems recently delivered a total supervisory system for 7 km of the AI(M) motorway, north of London, which includes the 1200-m Hatfield Tunnel. The tunnel supervisory system uses an intelligent microprocessor termed the CAMU-L, one of which is installed at each air-monitoring out-station and each lighting outstation. It performs the calculations and averaging required to transpose the voltage output of the sensor to readings in correct units for easy user assessment. System reliabili ty and standards are maintained by a pa'ssword and key system that strictly limits human intervention. The

supervisory system is designed not to require permanent manning.

United States

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has provided $US4.4 billion through 1996 for construction of a superconducting supercollider. In fiscal 1988, $US35 million will be earmarked for construction, research and development of the supercollider; funding will be increased to $348 million in 1989 and $615 million in 1990. By July 1988, the DOE secretary is expected to designate the preferred site for the SSC, and the winning site is expected to be announced in January 1989.

The world's first underwater hotel has been opened in Key Largo, Fla. The hotel, designed to give visitors a fish-eye view of the ocean, has been called "the greatest thing in the world" for scuba divers. Guests check in by swimming down to the hotel from a floating wooden platform, breathing through regulators and hoses that carry air from the surface. To enter the hotel, guests dip under a metal wall and surface in an indoor "moon pool". Once in the pool chamber, visitors hang up their masks and fins, shower off the salt water and change into dry clothing. Luggage is ferr ied down in waterproof blast plastic suitcases, each equipped with 50 Ibs. of lead weights in the bottom. The bottom of the hotel is 30 ft. below the sufacc, deep enough to make the ears pop but shallow enough that visitors will not suffer from decompression sickness. The Florida hotel sleeps up to six people at a time. Guests must have valid scuba certification cards or obtain a hotel-issued certification that requires them to bc accompanied by an instructor. The 50-ft. by 20-ft. steel and acrylic hotel previously housed an undersea research lab.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T) has announced that It will spend $US2.5 billion to upgrade its communications system in 1987, with plans for similar spending in 1988 and 1989. A key part of this program will be fiber

230 TUNNELLING AND UNDERGROUND SPACE TECHNOLOGY Volume 2, N u m b e r 2, 1987

optic cable, as AT&T increases its system to 24,000 mi. by 1989, up from a current 11,000 mi. A $400 million project to be in service in 1991 includes 4,000 mi. of cable to link points in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, and Spain.

Computer records of many of the nation's largest corporations are stored 30 ft. beneath a Cornfield in rural Hillsborough, New Jersey. Reels of magnetic tape are stored in a 6,000-sq.- ft. underground fortress that has 3-ft.-thick concrete walls backed up by 5 ft. of crushed rock. More than 300 businesses store duplicate records in the vault 30 mi. southwest of Newark to protect them from fire, industrial sabotage, computer failure, theft and terrorism. Vital Records Inc., the company that operates the vault, bout the vault in 1980 from AT&T, which had built it to protect special equipment in the event of a nuclear attack.

The Robbins Company, Kent , Wash., has sold a double-shield hard rock rotary tunnel boring machine to bore the 9-km-long Los Rosales water supply tunnel near Bogota, Colombia. The 3.56-m-diameter TBM incorporates a number of innovations, including a flat cutterhead with recessed 432-mm disc cutters for better cutter l ife in the abrasive ground. The machine also is designed to provide more than 22.7 T. of thrust per cutter, with a maximum cutterhead thrust of 910 T. Depending on ground conditions, the Los Rosales tunnel support may range from precast concrete segments to rock bolting. The TBM will be built at Robbins' headquarters faci l i ty in Washington and shipped to Colombia in June.

The New York City Transit Authority (TA) is currently spending $ U S I million to convert over 10,000 maps and diagrams into a single computer database to guide fire fighters through the city's subway system. Using a computerized map of New York's streets, the TA superimposed layers of information including the location of subway power lines, stations, tracks, entrances, emergency exits, shafts and train signals. The maps are simultaneously transmitted over

phone lines to the fire department dispatcher's off ice in the affected borough when a subway f i re is reported. Using the information from the database, the dispatcher can locate the nearest call box and use the f i re department's own system to alert the local station. The dispatcher also can talk with the token booth clerk involved to tell emergency personnel how many feet of hose will be required to get from the surface to the tracks. Implementation of the fire safety program began in October 1986 and is expected to be completed by the end of 1987.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has joined the M.I.T./Penn State Universi ty Center for Innovative Mining Systems and several other university groups to form a technology group designated the American Mining and Excavation Research Institute (MERI). The purpose of the new organization is to conduct research and development leading to safer and mot productive mining, tunnelling, and excavation equipment in systems capable of using that equipment effectively. The research will be conducted by academic participants working closely with industry; funding will come from both domestic and foreign sponsors.

A nationwide toll-free telephone number for technical service needs of people working with heat-transfer systems has been announced by the Monsanto Company's Specialty Chemical Division. The 800 number will provide information to help designers optimize system design, to suggest ways to improve operating costs in existing systems, and to answer questions about the operation of systems based on Monsanto's experience in the heat-transfer area. The St. Louis (Mo.)-based company is the world's leading supplier of heat-transfer fluids. The toll-free number is 1-800- 433-6997; in Missouri, the number is (314) 694-7038.

Olympia, Wash., has commissioned a second feasibil i ty study for a district heating system for its downtown area plus 16 state, government buildings on the Capitol Campus. The study, to be completed in early 1987, will concentrate on

the requirements to retrofi t buildings with new equipment; will refine costs of production and distribution; and will ultimately define the projected system's overall costs, savings and f inancial feasibility.

Under a $US500 million program, the U.S. Department of Energy is isolating the railings left over from unused uranium mines by containing them in engineered piles. The problem of radon emitted by the uranium mill railings has been called the largest nuclear waste problem in the U.S. So far, construction work has been completed at two sites, is nearing completion at two more, and will proceed at three or four other sites this year. The disposal program, which eventually will af fect 24 inactive piles of tailings in 10 states, is scheduled for completion in 1993.

The 1.1-mi. downtown Pittsburgh (Pa.) subway, which opened in July 1985, may be extended by as much as another 5.8 mi. The Port Authority of Allegheny County is studying improvements to its mass transit system.

County and state engineers for a $US75-million New Jersey sewer interceptor project jacked a 1,575-ft. section of sewer through clay and soft ground using a new earth-pressure- balance shield instead of a conventional pipe-jacking system. The cut-and-cover method was used because standard open-cut methods would have closed the roadway, a heavily traveled section that feeds the New Jersey Turnpike, and forced the relocation of underground utili ty lines. Using a soft-ground mole for the 3.5- mi.-long portion of the Cooper River interceptor cut the cost of the intersection job by about $1 million. The City of Camden project is only the third in the U.S. to use the 6-ft.-din. shield.

West Germany

A report in Public Innovation Abroad noted that billions of DM, or roughly half the German federal budget, will be needed to repair or replace the quarter of the country's sewage systems estimated to be in urgent need of renewal. Dr. Dietrich Stein,

Volume 2, N u m b e r 2, 1987 TUNNELLING AND UNDERGROUND SPACE TECHNOLOGY 231

who heads the Sewer Technology Association in Bonn, pointed out that urban sewage systems were set up over a century ago to handle a per capita consumption rate of approximately 5 liters per day. They now have to handle up to 180 liters per person per day, and age, leakages and corrosive chemical are taking a heavy toll of the groundwater. The DM 190 billion (approximately $USI00 billion) needed to repair a quarter of the sewerage pipeline system does not include the cost of repairs to household drains, totaling some 600,000 km throughout the country, that link up with the municipal systems. Many of these, among the older housing stock, are also in need of replacement and are believed to be the source of most leakages that contaminate the groundwater.

Yugoslavia

A decade-long stalemate over projects to exploit massive lignite deposits in the southern province of Kosovo has been broken with the signing of a financial agreement between regional electric utilities in Yugoslavia. Six of the country's eight regional utilities reached an accord to jointly finance feasibility studies for the construction of the Kosovo-C station and open mines to supply it. The Kosovo-C project includes the construction of seven 300-Mw units by the year 2000, and the opening of mines to produce approximately 20 million tons of lignite annually. Environmental problems, including land restoration after mining, are major constraints that require design solutions before Kosovo officials will grant approval to the project.

Donald C. Gillis, 36, died of pneumonia on March 25, 1987. Gillis served as managing editor of Underground Space journal from 1982-1985, and as executive director of the American Underground- Space Association from 1983-1985. As a public affairs consultant, Gillis recently had been involved in organizing lobbying efforts for the Superconducting Super Collider.

232 TUNNELLING AND UNDERGROUND SPACE TECHNOLOGY Volume 2, N u m b e r 2, 1987