ONE MONTH TO GO BEFORE THE WORLD TUNNEL CONGRESS & 45th ITA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Geneva, April 17^th 2019 – One month to go before the beginning of the annual international congress for the engineering sector dedicated to underground construction!

Organized by the Società Italiana Gallerie (SIG) and by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA-AITES), the World Tunnel Congress and ITA 45^th General Assembly will be held in the city of Naples, from May 3^rd to 9^th.
During a 6 days innovation-sharing event, the Mostra D'Oltremare will host the leading experts in the field, university professors and researchers, professionals, engineering firms, major clients and representatives from the most important construction companies in this sector.

Over 150 speakers and 2000 participants are expected from every part of the world. This scientific event will review the state of the art and the most recent innovations in tunnelling methods, technologies and equipment.

AT A GLANCE: A HIGH SKILLED AND SCIENTIFIC EVENT

Between major announcements, conferences and technical sessions, the program of the upcoming WTC promises to be rich.

Either through conventional tunnelling for urban tunnels, environment sustainability in underground construction or safety topics, the event will approach numerous major issues showcased by many examples from all over the world: City Rail Link - New Zealand; the role of Cairo metro in saving the social costs of air pollution; Stockholm bypass; the Naples Line 6 underground metro system works: from the feasibility study to the construction; twin tunnels excavated in mixed face conditions- Brazil; Grand Paris Express Line 15 South; Brenner Base Tunnel; Anacostia River Tunnel Project – Washington - USA; the second Gotthard tunnel tube; the Genoa Bypass project; Tuen Mun - Check Lap Kok link in Hong Kong; CERN (HL-LHC) - New underground & surface structures - Switzerland.

The WTC is also the occasion to meet and listen a prestigious panel of lecturers: from May 6^th to 8^th, a series of lectures, seminars and workshops will focus on the world of design and construction, in relation to works involving tunnels. On the panels, the finest authorities in the world on underground construction: Martin Herrenknecht, CEO of Herrenknecht AG, Georgios Anagnostou of ETH University in Zurich; Raffaele Zurlo, Konrad Bergmeister and Mario Virano administrators of the special purpose entities responsible for the construction of the great Alpine railway tunnels in Italy; Håkan Stille from Sweden; Jamal Rostami from Colorado School of Mines, who will talk about excavating equipment designed to build tunnels on the moon; Markus Thewes from Germany; Pietro Lunardi from Italy, Mike Mooney from USA.

NOVELTY OF THE WTC2019: SPECIAL SESSIONS ON ARCHAEOLOGY, ARCHITECTURE AND ART TOPICS

The Naples program is distinctive in the way it highlights the many connections between the world of tunnelling and the disciplines that until now have been considered unrelated to the field. They include what have been called the Triple-A sessions – Archaeology, Architecture and Art, to be held at the Mostra D'Oltremare and at Palazzo Serra di Cassano, mostly in collaboration with the ITACUS Committee, co-chaired by Han Admiraal and Antonia Cornaro, and in the presence of other renowned designers and planners of the underground, including Elisabeth Reynolds, Elsa Wifstrand and Dominique Perrault, who will participate in the session dedicated to archaeology, architecture and art.

They will highlight many examples, notably the cases of Thessolaniki Metro and the issue of Intersecting microtunnels to support archeological findings at Sintrivani Station, the integration of archaeology in architectural design of Milan metro connection M2-M4 in st. Ambrogio station and the viability of underground transport construction in Guatemala City.

The Open Session will be devoted to TUNNELS A RESILIENT LINK BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE with the participation of representative of Grand Paris Express, Italian State railway, PwC, John Holland, Pacific Consultants, ÖBB…

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