The prestigious World Tunnel Congress (WTC), organised by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA), is the world’s leading and most internationally recognised tunnel forum. TYPSA presented the article ‘Tunnelling below Barcelona Airport: Lessons Learned in the control of EPB TBM Face Support Pressure for Settlement Risk Management’ at the 2020 edition, which was held virtually in Kuala Lumpur. The article was not only published but also selected for presentation and included in a digital book ‘Proceedings of ITA-AITES World Tunnel Digital Congress and Exhibition (WTC) 2020’, together with the 285 articles finally selected out of a total of more than 800 presented. Moreover, of all these articles, only 7 are by Spanish authors, so our congratulations to the representatives of TYPSA.
The article detailed the face pressure control criteria for the tunnelling machine that bored the new access tunnel to terminal T1 at Barcelona airport. The tunnel is of particular interest because it was bored in an area of deltaic geology and under a runway, which limited the maximum permissible settlements.
The authors, Xavier Torelló, Xavier Gost and Helena Castellví, of TYPSA’s Catalonia and the Balearic Islands Regional Departments of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, presented the article after providing Construction Assistance Services.
ITA, which currently federates 74 member nations, also held its 46th General Assembly at the Congress where Spain was represented by Pedro Ramírez, who has extensive experience in tunnels and is a Technical Advisor at TYPSA. Pedro, as a member of the AETOS (Spanish Association of Tunnels and Underground Works) Board of Directors is in close contact with ITA through the European Underground and Tunnel Forum EUTF.
