Established in 1992 as a non-profit incorporated association, the Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (KTA) is a tunnel-oriented national organization to comply with the international aims of ITA.
The total number of members as of 2012 will be 2,526 and additional 53 corporatemembers are registered so far.
Most of the KTA members are tunnel engineers, but not limited to the civil engineering field and recent expansion into the field of fire, disaster prevention and ventilation within tunnels, among others, are noteworthy.
The KTA has changed its English name from the Korean Tunnelling Association to the Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association this year according to ITA.
The KTA is working closely with the Korean government in terms of tunnel-related policies and technologies, and plays a major role in revision of the tunnel specification and standards.
The technical journal of “Tunnelling Technology” is published 6 issues in 2012 and covered 43 papers including awarded paper of “Rock TBM design model derived from the multi-variate regression analysis of TBM driving date”. In addition, the KTA is publishing a quarterly magazine entitled “Nature, Human Being and Tunnel” and web based monthly news as well.
Major activities and events held in 2012
The 2012 KTA General Assembly and Annual Conference was held in Seoul onApril 25th and Prof. Sang-Duck Lee was elected as the 10th President of KTA during the General Assembly. At the Annual Conference, 2 invited lectures as well as 12 papers were presented.
The 5th Open Forum on Tunnelling Technology was held in Seoul on September and more than 70 members were registered to take part in the heated topic of “Tunnelling Technology – Past and Present”.
The 13th International Symposium on Mechanized Tunnelling Technology was held on November, 2012, and 3 major projects on TBM tunnelling in foreign countries were introduced by the foreign experts.
2012 Tunnel Engineers’ Night was held on November 23 rd and the awarded photos of the annual tunnel photo competition were also displayed at the banquet.
Total 6 working groups regarding standard & specification, mechanized tunnelling, tunnelling & support, geotechnical survey & IT, urban tunnelling and disaster prevention & environment are currently enrolled in KTA and various activities such as technical advice in the format of memorandum have been carried out this year. Technical tour of the various tunnel sites were also made to reduce the accidents and enhance the maintenance activities of the various tunnels.