Week 4: Getting into Tunnelling

In the past week at T&TBM Master there was a combination of very interesting lessons held by high level professors that resulted in a great learning experience.

On Monday, directly from Lyon, Robert Galler (Montanuniversität Leoben) gave a video conference lecture for three simultaneous spectators: T&TBM Master's students at Politecnico di Torino, a University board at Paris and face to face with Master's students at Lyon (Tunnels et Ouvrages souterrains). 

The title of the lecture was Sustainable Tunnelling - Focus on Resource Efficiency and it was part of an experimental video-lecture approach being investigated as the future of training courses, conceived mainly for emerging countries with short access to specialised tunnelling education.

Robert Galler's video conference lecture from Lyon seen from Politecnico di Torino.

The quality of the lecture was perfect, interactive questions from each of the parties were really useful so finally feedback of the students was very positive from this experience.

The following lecture was held by Eng. Piergiorgio Grasso, president and founder of GEODATA Consulting and ITACET foundation Vice President. There are few words to say about such an outstanding professional, and his lecture on Layout Parameters for the Design and Risk Management in Tunnelling was a proof of it. Definitely one of the most remarkable lectures to learn from the experience of today's leaders in tunnelling industry.

Students and Eng. Piergiorgio Grasso after his lecture at T&TBM's Master Course.

Geologist Lo Russo Stefano from Politecnico di Torino provided a lesson on the fundamental aspects of water control in Tunnelling projects. He merged some basic concepts of hydrogeology with his professional experience from several big projects involving water resource management. Special remark was the need of searching smart solutions to overcome underground in-rushes treating the water as a resource instead of as a problem.

Stefano Lo Russo, Hydrogeology in Tunnelling lecture's.

Finally the director of this Master Course Professor Daniele Peila introduced the fundamental concepts of support techniques both for conventional and mechanised tunnelling. Special attention was laid to the design phase of first phase supports through empirical, analytic and numerical methods. The remarked concept by Prof. Peila was that none of the results of these methods should never be taken as a closed solution for any problem, instead we must consider the specificity of each project merged with the constructor experience.

A special opportunity was the visit to the Tunnelling and Underground Space Centre (TUSC) Laboratory at Politecnico di Torino. At this incredibly modern research centre several tests for Tunnelling industry are carried on mainly on Soil Conditioning for EPB, Wear tests, Extraction tests and some other innovative research devices are tested to model the reaction of the ground to the mechanised excavation process. We had the opportunity to presence some tests carried out on bicomponent grouting mixes for backfilling purposes. Special thanks are given to Eng. Carmine Todaro who introduced the main properties of this material and its characterisation process.

Eng. Todaro, Students and Prof. Peila at TUSC Research Laboratory.