The WTC 2017, the ITA-CET Committee and the ITACET Foundation have the pleasure of inviting you to the ITACET training course that has become a traditional part of the annual World Tunnel Congress. The 2017 WTC training course will focus on "Excavation and Support in Soft Ground Conditions" and will take place on the Friday and Saturday before the WTC, on the 9th-10th June.

The prime goal is to attract young professionals and students, with an interesting and useful programme and world class speakers. The issues discussed will be of interest to professionals internationally.

A worldwide development in soft ground tunnelling

Tunnelling in Norway is dominated by typical hard rock conditions and unlined tunnels supported with sprayed concrete and rock bolts as the prime rock support methods. Despite this, hard rock tunnelling has experienced soft ground in weak zones in between the surrounding hard rock. Sometimes these sections of soft or adverse ground can be tens of meters wide, requiring support and contingencies as if the tunnel were fully excavated in soft ground.

There has been an incredible worldwide development in soft ground tunnelling and it is not a bold claim that the majority of ongoing tunnels worldwide is excavated in such circumstances.

The easy tunnels are already built – leaving the challenging and interesting ones to you!

There is a global trend towards increasingly longer tunnels and underground projects are becoming more complex, often with a combination of hard rock and softer ground. This is both due to the higher requirements and expectations from society, the removal of technology limits and the fact that the geology is what it is when the tunnel alignment or cavern location has been decided. This is also seen in the Scandinavian tunnelling industry, with some projects with extremely challenging geology coming up in the next years, including the world's deepest subsea tunnel and new urban infrastructure projects in mixed ground conditions.

Traditionally, there are two schools of tunnelling, where one is associated with hard rock tunnelling and the other with tunnelling in soft rock/soil conditions. However, hard rock tunnelling does not always involve hard rock and good rock conditions. Certain sections can be disrupted by much softer ground conditions which are the extreme opposite to that of rock. Such varying conditions and extreme situations could benefit from experience gained from the school of soft ground tunnelling. Consequently, tunnel engineers require knowledge of a variety of ground conditions that could occur during tunnelling works, including excavation and support in soft ground conditions.

Top International Speakers!

This course will bridge the gap between the schools of hard rock tunnelling (which prevails in Norway and Scandinavia and many places around the world) and soft ground tunnelling , by taking experience from soft ground conditions and applying it to the extreme needs that appear in hard rock tunnelling from time to time.

To keep the lectures on a top international level, ITACET has invited speakers from major internationally recognized universities within the tunnelling industry. Amongst others, these speakers are from the Colorado School of Mines, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), The University of Turin, The University of Zurich, The University of Munich, The Montan University of Leoben, The University of Brasilia, The University of Torino and The University of Graz.

They will share their experience with you!

These international speakers have been invited to share their experience with you. Together with some of the most respected experts within their field, representing owners, suppliers and contractors, they will all be at your disposal for questions and discussions, an opportunity not to be missed!

The training course is also an ideal chance to network and meet other young tunnellers in a friendly, professional  and collegial setting.

The price of this two-day course is 4500 NOK

The programme and registration information will be made available shortly.