In 2011, the building industry was probably one of the economic industries that was most affected by the economic crisis and building of tunnels in Slovakia virtually stopped. Public contracts were suspended and building of tunnels was limited due to insufficient financial resources in the state budget. Another unfavourable factor affecting the existence of building businesses is inappropriate and inadequate competition resulting from lack of work, but mainly from insufficient requirements in terms of references and market protection, which leads to tenders won by the firms that are unable to realise the big contracts.
Year 2011 saw a sharp decrease in building industry workers, including specialists in the area of ground construction. Despite the difficult situation, STA managed to persist and fulfil the role for which it has been established.
In 2011, there was General Meeting of STA (26 April 2011) connected with electionsto the Association’s Committee. Ing. R. Turanský was elected Chairman for the following period again.
There were small changes in the Committee, but the number of members remained unchanged.
Given the gravity of the economic situation in the country, the Committee decided to reduce the 2011 (and 2012) membership fee to 70% of the original fee set out in the Association’s Statutes.
The Committee held meetings regularly in 2011 (5 meetings in total).
We are pleased that the number of the Association’s members did not decrease. The members still include around 50 legal persons and 5 individual members.
Some of the members had to leave the Association for financial reasons, but new members applied for membership in our club so the number of members has not really changed.
In 2011, the Committee was active in many areas. In April 2011, the Association organized a seminar at the General Meeting for all members on the topic “Use of wire concrete in tunnels”. Another seminar was organized in cooperation with CzTA (Czech Tunnelling Association) on the topic:“Presentation of machine tunnelling TBM in construction of Praha’s underground”. The seminars attracted exceptional interest of the members.
Together with the Czech Tunnelling Association, STA participates in a significant extent in preparation and distribution of the magazine TUNEL that is issued in Slovak, Czech and English language.
Members of the Association prepared a new technological regulation for tunnel ventilation and participated in creation of other regulations:
- TP 01/2011 Inspections, maintenance and repairs of roads in tunnels
- TP 02/2011Risk analysis for Slovak road tunnels
- TP 03/2011 Fire safety of road tunnels
Subsequently, the Association organized a specialist seminar on the topic “New technical regulations and their use in designing and building of motorway tunnels” (27 September 2011). The seminar was an exceptional success with extensive international participation.
STA organized a visit to the construction site of Underground V.A in Prague on 20 October 2011. Again, this event was a success as 25 students with professors participated.
Subsequently, a seminar was organized for suppliers of material and semi-finished products for the members of the Association involving a presentation of companies: Bekaert, MC-Bauchémia, BASF, Hydrobetó andMaccafferi.
The Chairman Ing.RóbertTuranský participated in the World Tunnel Congress that took place in Helsinki in Finland from 20 to 26 May 2011. He attended several specialist meetings and arranged contacts with sister association from other countries.
In conclusion, it may be stated that the Association’s priority is to be devoted to development of tunnelling expertise and to support of students in the given profession.