Oden Anläggningsentreprenad secured a SEK112.7 million contract to construct the 835 m Gårdberg tunnel on the Adalsbanan line. Visit www.oden.nu and www.banverket.se/adalsbanan 31/08...

The Ministry of development awarded FCC a EUR97 million contract for the construction of the southbound carriageway on the southern motorway A-4, section Venta de Cárdenas-Santa Elena. This 9 km section includes the 166 m La Cantera tunnel and the 1,823 m Despeñaperros tunnel, which is a three-lane tunnel. Click es/113 for more details. Visit www.fcc.es 31/08...

Acciona Infraestructuras concluded a EUR81.4 million deal with the Ministry of development to build the Valls-Montblanc bypass on the Tarragona-Montblanc motorway A-27. The 5.1 km section includes the Lilla tunnel, which consists of two bores of 1,565.50 m (left tube) and 1,567.41 m (right tube). Click es/89 for more details. Visit www.acciona-infraestructuras.es 31/08...

Ferrovial Agroman scooped a EUR82.1 million construction contract for the 8.6 km Rialiño-Padrón section on the Atlantic coast high speed line. This section includes the 1,460 m-long 85 sq m Bustelo tunnel. Visit www.ferrovial.es 31/08. ..

The Veneto regional assembly has approved a financing proposal presented by Grandi Lavori Fincosit, Adria Infrastrutture and Mantovani for the design, construction and operation under concession of the so-called Alpe Adria connection-Extension of highway A27. From the administrative point of view, the proposal has been sent to the regional council to be submitted to a commission of counsellors

The EUR845 million Liefkenshoek railway connection project involves the construction and maintenance of the civil infrastructure for a new 16.2 km freight-only railway, whereof 8 km in tunnel, linking the western docks and eastern docks of Antwerp. The project is a design, build, finance and maintain type agreement, with a maturity period of 41½ years

Solicitation for conceptual proposals, deadline 29th September, 2008 for improvements to the Downtown tunnel, the Midtown tunnel and the Martin Luther King (MLK) freeway extension between Norfolk and Portsmouth in the Hampton Roads area, as part of a plan to make an estimated USD1 billion.

Stockholm, Sweden, 19th August, 2008: Atlas Copco today announced that it has signed a global cooperation agreement in the field of ground control and geotechnics for the mining, tunnelling and civil engineering markets with Minova International, the ground control division of the Orica Group.

A European consortium for the management, maintenance and operation of Aragnouet-Bielsa cross-border tunnel between France and Spain has been set up on 2nd June, 2008 by France’s Upper Pyrenees county council and the government of Aragon. 31/08.

Ascom Security Solutions has been awarded the contract to deliver the operational communication system for the Gotthard base tunnel. The contract volume amounts to CHF3.6 million. 31/08.

The Ministry of development opened to commercial service a tunnel for suburban trains in Madrid on 10th July, 2008. This is the second south-north tunnel between Atocha and Chamartin main railway stations, while tenders have been invited to build a third one, which will be used by high speed trains. 30/08.

The Swiss authorities are to test a new anti-fire system at the Gotthard tunnel, the scene of a horrific blaze in 2001 in which 11 people died. Designed by innovative Swiss software firm ECTN, the device detects heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) that are overheating. It is said to be the first of its kind in Europe. 30/08.

Bombela’s tunnel boring machine hit a “transition phase” of soft soil and “decomposed granite” that led to a subsidence that left an 84 sq m hole in Oxford road in northern Johannesburg. The immediate damage caused by the sinkhole has been repaired and the integrity of the Gautrain tunnels "has been maintained". 29/08.

Global concern for improving tunnel safety and security has lead to the 3rd International Symposium on Tunnel Safety and Security (ISTSS) held in Stockholm in March this year. The programme of ISTSS 2008 was divided into a number of sessions covering the following themes: case studies, design studies and criteria, active and passive fire protection, security in tunnels, incident management, threat and risk assessment, threat deterrence, and emerging research. The pdf versions of the presentations are available at: www.sp.se/en/units/fire/news/ISTSS2008/symposium_program/Sidor/default.aspx. The 4th ISTSS will be held 17th-19th March, 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany. Visit www.sp.se/en/units/fire/news/ISTSS2010/Sidor/default.aspx. More information, including call for papers, will be available after the summer. 28/08.

Keymile's multi-service access node UMUX is one of the key elements in the axle counter application in the new Gotthard base tunnel and makes a vital contribution to line and train safety. 28/08.

The newly-opened Sentvid tunnel that leads towards the Gorenjsko region was closed because of falling fire protection coating just six hours after being opened to traffic, as part of a key 5.5 km section of the A2 north-south motorway through Slovenia. 28/08.

Two years after the collapse of a Big Dig tunnel ceiling in Boston, some experts say there are still lessons to be learned from the failure. Engineers need to understand basic failure modes of polymers such as creep resistance and rely less on supplier data sheets, says Myer Ezrin, a failure analysis expert and fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers. 27/08.

The geotechnical Visualisation Tool (gVT) is being used to chart the route for the Devil’s Slide tunnel excavation. Engineers use the tool to watch rock layers as they separate and observe the orientation of the fractures. The new system is a precious tool to safely excavate the twin roadway tunnel beneath a landslide-prone stretch of California's Highway 1. 27/08.

VICATS (acronym for Video Content Analysis for Automated Traffic Surveillance) is a project which aims at developing novel real-time and robust video content analysis algorithms for video surveillance and traffic monitoring, with a special focus on tunnel surveillance. This EUR1.5 million R&D project is financially aided by the European Union. It will last 36 months from October 2007 to October 2010. 26/08.

Three important tunnelling projects in Canada, namely the Niagara Falls hydropower tunnel in Ontario, the Capilano-Seymour filtration scheme in British Columbia and one part of the York region sanitary project, also in Ontario, have hit snags recently, showing how difficult it is to predict conditions for these types of projects. 26/08.

Knowing as accurately as possible the characteristics of the subsoil is the first safety guarantee in the excavation of tunnels, according to the Catalonia society of geologists. Extensive geological surveys, but not only, have been carried out to bring the project to a successful end, awaiting the arrival of the TBM in 2009. Read more. 25/08.

Dr Ruediger Giese from the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) and his team received the “Technology Transfer Award 2008” from the Technology Foundation Brandenburg for the development of a new system for use in tunnel pre-exploration, named ISIS. ISIS is a system for the detection of disturbance zones during tunnel construction. Amberg Technologies and Herrenknecht, the global market leader in TBMs, are among the partners for the market launch of the ISIS system. Read more. 25/08.