People like to talk about the ‘bigtunnelling family’. It’s an idea that makes sense in a relatively small industry where everyone knows each other – well, almost. But the thing about most families is that the older relatives are usually in charge. And sometimes new ideas from younger members can take a while to be accepted. So it is interesting to see how the rest of the family is reacting to ITAtech, the industry group within the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) which was set up just over two years ago. At an open meeting of ITAtech at the World Tunnelling Congress (WTC) in Geneva in June, some appeared slightly anxious about this new kid’s ambitions. Already ITAtech’s Activity Groups (AGs) are living up to their name (see Table 1). Where Working Groups typically take on larger subjects that might require several years’work, the AGs have already produced guidance despite having been formed just 18 months ago, some even more recently. You can read reviews on both these documents at the end of this article. Speaking to TJ after the meeting, DanielRuckstuhl, chair of the ITAtech steering board and vice president of MEYCO Global UGC, BASF, acknowledged that there are some maybe feeling anxious. “To a certain extent, there may be a misunderstanding and a fear. But there is a distinct difference between Working Groups and Activity Groups. “Working Groups see representatives from member nations coming together to share technical knowledge, helping countries where tunnelling is developing and bringing in best practice from other industries. Activity Groups on the other hand provide a forum where industry can come together to promote innovation which is relevant to the industry at that time. We have always been missing this type of forum.”Ruckstuhl is a confident public speaker and diplomat, who is well-suited to making ITAtech’s case. “When I reported in theGeneral Assembly I reached out to both parties and said ‘let’s work together’,” he says. “’Lets invite each other and be very clear that we are not duplicating work, that we are complementing each others’competencies and that we learn from each other’.”ITAtech Activity Groups certainly are different from Working Groups. For a start, companies have to pay to be involved in them.  If you want to chair a group and have a seat on the steering board, your firm has to be a prime sponsor, paying Euros 15,000 a year. Or a firm can be a supporter for a much more modest Euros 1,500 a year, which allows them to sit on a group. What this means is that Activity Groups need to produce results. No company wants to pay for membership, pay for travel to meetings and give its employees’ time for no return. As Ruckstuhl told fellow ITAtech members at the open meeting, “We all have to fulfil the expectations of our shareholders.”ITAtech’s purpose is to speed the uptake of new technologies, primarily by coming together to agree on what decision-makers should know and what current best practice is. The output from the Activity Groups is likely to be guidance, in the form of published documents, which ITAtech will be looking to share freely with anybody and everybody.In Geneva, two of the Activity Groups, Excavation, and Lining and waterproofing, were able to unveil guidance documents on main bearing life and spray-applied waterproofing membranes respectively. This first 18 months of activity haven’t just been about getting the guides out. Companies which usually compete have willingly come together in order to find common ground, and to set the right level of detail and information to promote the technology without favouring any particular manufacturer.In defining and explaining to the world about bearing life, for example, some of the leading TBM manufacturers have almost formed a treaty. Now like can be compared with like, and if anyone tries to misrepresent what they are offering, the guidance can be referred to. There must have been some heated debates around the sprayed waterproofing table too. But the group managed to overcome their differences – and even to stand side by side to deliver a deminar on the subject, a live illustration of what they are trying to communicate with three products all being applied next to each other. Many lessons have been learned, some of which were highlighted at the meeting and as a result, some changes will be made. But that isn’t a problem for people who come from a commercial environment. “I want to have an organisation that can review what it’s doing and adapt to the needs of  that organisation,” says Ruckstuhl. “Because we all come from industry, we all know what it’s like to change organisations in order to meet new challenges.”You pay, you play ITAtech was formally born in April 2011 (For more details about its origins, see TJ Oct/Nov 2012 p10-14). Suppliers see it as their chance to take a more constructive role in the ITA: rather than only have the opportunity to promote their own products through exhibition stands, advertising and branding, they hope to answer some of the big questions that consultants, contractors and clients might have about existing but notwell-established technologies. ITAtech isn’t a suppliers only club; consultants, contractors and academics are equally welcome, but they too must pay for membership. Ruckstuhl would like to attract more contractors. “This is a big challenge for us, and for the ITA generally. Contractors are key people in the industry. ”There are some contractors who see the benefit from getting inside information one merging technologies through ITAtech. Already five contractors have joined up, one as prime sponsor and ITA executive director Olivier Vion reports two or three more may also sign up. All-in-all there are 14 prime sponsors and 51supporters, with eight in the process of joining after the WTC in Geneva. Some smaller firms see ITAtech as a good way to punch above their weight, contributing their position to industry-wide guidanceand making connectionswith other professionals intheir field.There are currently fiveActivity Groups, some ofwhich have sub-ActivityGroups. The output of  theAG Lining andwaterproofing, under the leadership of TomMelbye, president of the Normet Group, hasbeen impressive.At the meeting in Geneva, Melbye said ofITAtech: “We burn for this!” And he meantit. He must have been driving his group hardbecause not only did it produce a 64-pageguidance document on spray appliedwaterproofing membranes, it also organisedthe deminar which was held at theHagerbach  test galleries in Switzerland, justprior to the WTC.Melbye had a few words of wisdom topass on to leaders of other AGs and sub-AGs.Getting agreement on anything at meetingswas difficult, he said; leaders should set stricttimetables, ask for comments from everyone,compile those comments, and move on.Forging ahead, too, is the Excavation AGunder Robbins CEO Lok Home, which hasproduced the guidance on main bearing lifeand has now moved on to look at bestpractice in backfilling. The purpose of thebearing life document was to try and explainwhy standard specifications calling for 10,000hours’ bearing are totally meaningless –unless the loading on the bearing during itslifetime has been taken into consideration.Home addressed the issue of potentialconflict with Working Groups head-on duringthe Geneva meeting: “We are cognisant thatthere are a couple of Working Group leaderswe are bumping up against,” he said. “Weare conscious that we don’t want to steponto your ground. We are not puttingourselves up as a theoretical group, we arejust trying to say: this is out in the industry,we want to set best practice and to clear upthings that bother us all.”Under the Monitoring AG, headed up byFelix Amberg president of the AmbergGroup, there are three sub-activity groups alltackling issues which are most definitelytopics of discussion in the industry right now.One sub-AG is providing advice on how oftenmeasurements should be made and defining‘active zones’ and ‘vigilance zones’ aroundtunnels and station excavations.A second sub-AG is trying to tackle theissue of information overload in monitoring.Its goal is to define what an information andcommunication system which takes andtranslates all the information should look like;what information is valuable and what is not.Finally a third Monitoring sub-AG isproducing draft guidelines on how to use andtender some of the new technologies on themarket. The document will focus on three –reflectorless measurement, laser scanning andInSAR  - and also set out how these newtechnologies can work with existing ones.The Support AG, led by Gustav Bracher,corporate key project manager for SikaServices, has been working to produceguidance on fibre reinforced precast concretesegments through one of its sub-AGs. This isan important subject, because manyconsultants and clients are reluctant toconsider this technology because of aperceived lack of track record.Clearly there have been plenty ofdiscussions between members of the sub-AGon fibre reinforced segments, but discussionis an important part of the whole process,says Ruckstuhl. “It’s not always easy to agreeon what is best practice,” he says. “It cantake time, lots of discussions, but this is a bigpart of what ITAtech is about. It cannot beabout promoting a single technology orcompany because if we allow this, we willlose credibility.