The International Tunnelling Association celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in Oslo from 29 May to 2 June, in conjunction with the World Tunnel Congress '99 organised by the Norwegian Tunnelling Society, NFF. The meetings were attended by representatives, delegates, observers and working group members from 40 of the 47 Member Nations of the Association.
MEMBERSHIP
The Association has registered the membership of 3 new Member Nations (Iran, Singapore and Ukraine), 27 new Affiliate Members (9 Corporate Members and 18 Individual Members), taking the total to 47 Member Nations and 271 Affiliate Members (85 corporate members and 186 Individual members) taking into account radiations and resignations.
ITA PERIODICALS
Tribune:
Last year 4 issues of Tribune have been published including focuses on Russia, USA, Germany and Norway. The average circulation has been around 3,000 copies per issue.
Two special issues have been published one on immersed tunnels and one on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of ITA.
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology:
The journal is now in its fourteenth year of publication. In volume 13, the journal featured 43 papers representing authors from 17 countries. During the ITA meeting in Oslo, the editorial board met to discuss plans for future issues.
WEB SITE
The Association has got a web site since last year.
For 6 months the site received 60,000 successfull requests from 65 countries. Forums are being prepared for the Working Groups and links with Member Nation sites will be installed soon.
RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED NATIONS
ITA is pursuing active co-operation with the United Nations: This year a seminar has been organised on establishing a methodology to determine the cost of the Gibraltar Strait crossing: It has been organised by the two Societies from Spain and Morocco with the support of the Economic Commission for Europe of the UN.
RELATIONS WITH THE "SISTER ORGANISATIONS"
ITA confirms the excellent relations it has with its "sister organisations", especially the World Road Association (PIARC) with which a joint working group has been formed for the study of protection in case of fire of road tunnel structures on the theme of risk management for underground works.
The joint ISTT-ITA WG on risk analysis in tunnelling and micro-tunnelling gathered 7 people from 6 countries: The group discussed its main objectives and the way to proceed during the next months. Possibly there will be a next meeting in Budapest this year in connection with No-Dig '99.
NEXT MEETINGS
- Durban (South Africa) from May 13 to 18, 2000, during the ITA-AITES 2000 World Tunnel Congress "Tunnels under Pressure".
- Milan (Italy) from June 10 to 13, 2001 during the ITA-AITES 2001, World Tunnel Congress "Progress in Tunnelling after 2000" organised by Italy and Switzerland.
- Sydney (Australia) spring 2002 during the ITA-AITES 2002 World Tunnel Congress.