[MUSIC] I'd like to welcome everybody.
My name is Russell Green.
I'm a professor at
the Geotechnical Engineering Program area
from the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering.
My understanding is that we have,
in addition to attendees
from civil and environmental engineering,
but also mining and geoscience,
and I'd like to give a special welcome to them.
My job is to introduce Mr. Allen Cadden.
He's an alumni of Virginia Tech,
he's the principal of Schnabel Engineering,
and he's also the Chairman of the Board for Schnabel.
He's been a strong supporter of our program,
to include the sponsor of this lecture,
as well as being the representative from Schnabel to
the CTVTR setting that we have.
After the lecture, there is food in the back,
and that is also courtesy of Schnabel and
all are welcome to partake in that.
With that, I would like to welcome Allen Cadden.
[APPLAUSE]
Okay. Thank you.
It's a pleasure to be back here at Virginia Tech.
This is our 12th lecture,
it's been a great month so far.
I'm looking forward to another incredible lecture,
so thank you for joining us today.
Thank you, Dr. Green, Dr. Bills,
and the associates back there,
thank you very much for helping to coordinate all this.
It's wonderful to see so many in attendance today.
I always enjoy the opportunity to catch up with
many old friends here when I visit the campus.
We at Schnabel have enjoyed this opportunity to share
some history and insight
about the civil engineering world.
In particular, the parts that interact with the Earth,
which is really our specialty and our interest.
Schnabel recently celebrated our 60th anniversary.
I am proud to say that I've
been part of about half of that,
so over 30 years.
I've been a part of Schnabel Engineering,
and it's been a wonderful career for me.
We have 18 offices,
mostly on the East Coast.
We work throughout the country and around the world,
and for a firm of our size,
we're rather unique having worked in
about 140 different countries in the last decade or so.
It's an interesting opportunity to see
a lot of different experiences,
and it's also a great opportunity to meet
some wonderful people around the world,
one of which is our speaker today,
and we'll introduce you here in a second.
I'm also happy to say that over the 60 years,
we have grown in the breadth of
our services as well as the geographic reach.
Moving from predominantly a
geotechnical engineering consulting firm,
we now include geosciences,
dam and underground engineering,
and designing services with
our staff of experienced people located in these offices.
You'll know from our tagline,
which you can see on
the bottom there, "Build Better Together."
That speaks to our focus on
working closely together within
our company to bring
the best capabilities we can to a project,
but also working closely with our clients to understand
their needs and to find ways that
we can help them become successful.
You've probably been hearing something similar to
that throughout your college career,
that civil engineers lead teams.
We work together to
understand each other and to find solutions.
This is the key to your success,
and what will be key to your success,
and is definitely the key to Schnabel's success
over the years.
It's probably a good segue
to transition to the purpose that we're here for today,
so thank you again for joining us.
Let me introduce our guest speaker.
With this lecture series,
we strive to bring you representatives of
the civil engineering construction community
who have had a significant impact
in the advancement of our practice and profession.
This industry experts come to share
experiences and insights gained throughout their career.
They may further provide a
little of their insight as to what you
might experience that might not be
in store for you early in your career.
What you see at the end of your career
is going to be completely up to you.
Today, as our 12th Schnabel Engineering Lecturer,
we're proud to bring you a good friend of
mine who has worked around
the world solving many interesting,
self-service challenges, Mr. Paolo Mazzalai.
Mr. Mazzalai has particular expertise in
many areas of advanced engineering and related services,
which he has developed throughout his career.
In particular, in his career at
his recent role as CEO of SWS Engineering.
SWS is a company based in Italy,
the Northern part of Italy,
which also operates throughout
subsidiaries from within North America,
to Africa, the Middle East,
and Asia, so he's seen a lot over the years.
In 1973, Mr. Mazzalai
graduated in Civil Engineering from
the University of Padua,
where he's also taught
as associate professor for many years.
That's near Venice, by the way,
in case you ever want to take his class, but I'm kidding.
He often reminds me
that the field has been his laboratory.
From the early dam engineering projects
beginning in the 80s with Valda dam,
which is near his home in Trento,
to the 90s when he worked on
one of the largest, at that time,
TBM road tunnels in Martignano,
[LAUGHTER] and continuing deep
tunnels in squeezing ground in the Alpine mountains,
like the Brenner Base Tunnel,
that you'll hear more about today in his presentation,
soon to be the world's longest
railway tunnel when it's completed.
The challenging urban tunneling installed
consolidated in place in the City of Florence
and investigations of the effect of urban tunneling and
excavation on building distortion and damage.
The keyword for his career has always been innovation.
Nowadays, he's dealing with digital projects,
large datasets, SSS infra protocol,
which you'll have to corner him after the presentation in
the back to ask him some details about that,
and other new patented systems such as
the Smart Cross Passages,
which is a means to drill between tunnels underground,
what a challenging feat.
An international planner and designer of
major infrastructure projects and transportation,
including roadways, highways, and railways,
and water systems including rivers and dams,
Mr. Mazzalai has also never shied about sharing
his experience as author
and co-author of over a hundred scientific papers,
as a member of several
scientific and entrepreneurial associations.
So without further ado,
[FOREIGN] [LAUGHTER] Paolo Mazzalai.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you. I try to wear
the second micro because that one is just with me.
You need me to help you put it on you?
No. It's not so easy, but-
You just stick that in your pocket.
I put here.
That might need to get pinned on. Okay.
Hopefully, I don't break
anybody's ears as I'm doing this.
Okay.
Here we go.
It's fine. You listen me? Okay.
Almost, there we go.
Thank you, Allen. Can you hear it?
Can you hear, everybody?
Okay, thanks. Thank you all for being here.
[NOISE] Thanks to Virginia Tech
and to Schnabel for this invitation.
Many thanks to Allen,
I have had the opportunity to
appreciate his professional skill and social commitment.
My name is Paolo Mazzalai,
being here with you is a great honor for me.
For many years, I have taught
Engineering at the University of Padua in Italy.
In Padua, Italy, I've been involved in
several road and railway infrastructure project,
as well as dams and the regulatory plans.
For the last 15 years,
my main interest has focused on underground structure.
[BACKGROUND] I am chairman of SWS,
a mid-size engineering company based in Italy,
small size compared to the US market size.
Today, I'll be talking about opportunities,
challenges, and innovation in underground tunneling.
All the design cases I have selected
for today's lecture are based on my own experience,
as I've been directly involved in this project.
In the next hour,
I will discover together
why we can define these cases special.
My experience is international but today,
I will present full works performed in Italy.
Italy is one of a kind country,
so compact, complex, so beautiful,
what is necessary to apply innovative technologies
and intelligence solution from
a technical and environmental point of view.
The goal of today's reading is to share lesson
learn and ideas with students
entering the engineering career.
Ever since my 1st youth,
I've lived in environment with
many engineers and my 1st wish was to become an engineer.
Now after many years of engineer profession,
my answer to the question,
what do engineers do is very simple;
it's incredible and interesting life.
I was so lucky,
and I wish the same for all of you.
[BACKGROUND] I hope I can transmit you today, at least,
some personal experiences and most of all,
the passion that has driven them.
About my career, Allen just spoken enough,
so I start with a short presentation of SWS.
I founded SWS in 1982,
it is based in Taranto.
We started as a regional engineering consultancy firm
dedicated to three main cores,
soil, water, and structure.
SWS is the acronym.
Then about 15 years ago,
our core business become
that of underground infrastructure.
Our tag is innovation in underground solution.
SWS core values are passion,
innovation, commitment and integrity.
If we analyze the feedback of
visitor from outside our organization,
the most frequent one referring to
people met in our office is passion and commitment.
Our engineers are on average between 30 and 35.
This is the confirmation that in a proper environment,
the professional life of a young engineer can be
truly inspired by passion and commitment.
Now, I come back to you.
You are in a beautiful University, Virginia Tech.
I've been here for the 1st time, really beautiful.
So I am sure that you are
strongly motivated for being here.
You are receiving high level education
and training in this campus,
but you must never forget then
your future engineer profession
will primarily consist in solving
problems and taking decisions.
This is what will be waiting for
you in your future professional life.
Now, let's see what's happening around.
The world has been
changing rapidly in the last few years,
and with the same speed,
the contents and method
of engineering including tunneling,
are changing as well.
What drives the engineering science today?
The same that drives
the development of underground works.
Input at the top, creativity, multidisciplinarity,
and innovation are the driving forces
for the any engineering and underground project.
Creativity, you don't have to go far.
Simply read the motto of your university to confirm it,
invent the future, you are in the right place.
Multidisciplinarity.
Only the ability to manage
multiple disciplines can lead to success in engineering,
particularly in underground engineering.
Some of these disciplines are
geotechnical engineering, rock mechanics,
mechatronics, material science and engineering,
geology, MEP, architecture and many more.
Innovation. It is the basis of any disruption,
and disruptions are essential for growth.
A small example of effective,
innovative disruption has been our decision,
15 years ago to transform SWS from
a small multipurpose engineering company
to a deeply specialized in underground solution.
Output at the bottom.
A project supported by the three driving forces above,
you have safety,
complexity management, and sustainability.
Safety is a must that can never be forgotten.
People's lives are worth more than any engineering job,
both during construction and operation.
Complexity management has to be in any engineering work.
Managing complexity
requires tools and organizational experience,
typical of well-organized companies.
Sustainability allows performing large work
in sensitive and complex environment,
maintaining the ecological balance,
and avoiding depletion of natural resources.
We start with a brief history
of underground construction.
When did excavation activity start in the past?
The origins are very ancient,
but I want to focus
our analysis on the last two centuries.
Tunnel excavation in the recent past has referred to
conventional method associated with
the countries when they have been 1st developed.
Originally, the number of tunnels were
small and excavation approach was not systematic,
but based on specific experiences
related to particular geological and local condition.
You can see in this slide,
different excavation sequences adopted in
different countries like Austrian,
German, Belgium, English.
Now we are using to
quite totally the full-face excavation,
but it's the last development.
The excavation technology has strongly developed in
the 20th century and in the 1st part of the 21st.
Among the main factors that contributed to
this progress are the following one:
improvement in blasting technique,
introduction of new equipment and machinery
which now can even
allow the crossing of heterogeneous rock mass,
the laying of excavation support
mainly by means of short grid and concrete casting,
soil improvement and consolidation technique,
characteristic of the working environment, ventilation,
lighting and the effective control of groundwater.
Last but not least,
method of design excavation and
support installation as an ATM,
a Deco, Norwegian method, etc.
What the progress on mechanized on the ground excavation?
Here there is a summary from the early stage
of the mechanized excavation,
1818, top on the left is not a TBM,
it's a shield for protecting a conventional excavation.
The 2nd one is a funny new TBM,
I don't know if really operates effectively.
But in the 2nd line you can find
the 1st TBM Robbins in 1952,
and the one extra on the right side,
one extra [inaudible] of the 3rd millennium.
You can see that if you compare the dimension of the
main with the diameter of the TBM or the face of the TBM,
you can image how is the progress
in the construction of this machinery.
Now, we try to start
from the safety and the working condition.
This is a movie of the '90s of the last century,
and this is the rock blasting for the dam construction
in construction either power plant in North of Italy.
This is the construction of the dam,
this is original movie recorded at that time.
We'll see the construction phase
where the risk are evident,
are present, and safety is really a crucial aspect.
This is the turbine Pelton,
this at that time was the biggest worldwide.
This is the old-style site rail
for the water tunnel excavation.
This is a compressor there doing hammers,
dynamite cartridges, and charging
blast holes with cartridges
in a very not sophisticated way.
But this is what happened at the time.
Firing the fuse without any hurry.
Look the sequence.
Fire it in the lines and then go away,
[LAUGHTER] [BACKGROUND] before blasting.
Blasting, and then compressed air loader
for muck removal.
This is our story,
but with this system,
in North of Italy are being constructed
a huge number of
hydropower plants and huge number
of kilometers of tunnels.
Let's go. Now, we are comparing the same procedure,
drill and blast, excavation circle
is completely different.
We can see some stages of excavation, drilling,
both installation, mucking,
[inaudible] , welded wire mesh,
lighting machinery ventilation is present
always during the construction phase,
and even you can record
the blasting [NOISE] with a camera.
You can control the blasting in
very sophisticated and useful way.
This is what happens now in
the excavation of the longest tunnel worldwide,
the Brenner Base Tunnel.
What is happening in the TBM?
The working condition in TBM
for people have completely changed.
The inner part of the TBM is
like an office moving underground.
No comparison with the old phase
of the excavation method.
[NOISE] Well,
for considering the progress
on uncertainty definition of risk control,
I love this phrase.
This phrase is, so what is
ahead of the phase uncertainty?
The phrase is by Sir Alan Muir Wood,
is a co-founder of
ITA, International Tunneling Association.
In underground, the real cost
of overall feasibility of
any project is dominated by geology.
Uncertainty geology ahead of the phase
can be eliminated in underground project,
but should be minimized by
geophysical investigation through understanding
of the regional geology and that hydrogeology.
But the risk is not totally canceled.
How do we proceed with the risk?
The risk is the combination of impact,
the possible negative consequences of
the project in terms of safety, cost,
delay, environment, and probability,
chance of the negative event will occur.
Main sources of risk are changes in economic,
commercial, social, political contexts.
Sometimes, this aspect is not well
defined during the design phase
and during the construction phase.
Inappropriate contract project management,
at the various geotechnical condition,
inappropriate design sometime happens.
Inappropriate selection of
construction techniques and procedures.
For reducing the risk,
we need a risk management plan.
A risk management plans should be adopted to
minimize the risk to an ALARP level.
ALARP stands for as low as reasonably practicable.
This is the target of
the modern design in construction management.
How do we manage
the risk in practice? This is the question.
In the following slides,
we will see how to apply
the procedure in different cases.
[NOISE] Now, I go back to my personal experience.
I will introduce four special cases I was involved with.
These cases represent
concrete answer to different question.
The question are starting with,
how is it possible to excavate?
But the technical translation of how is possible is,
how do we minimize the risk?
This is the main goal
of the designer and the constructor.
The question are four.
How it's possible to excavate
the world longest railway tunnel?
It's in the North of Italy,
is the Brenner Base Tunnel.
It's 64 kilometers long.
Three tubes. A lot of
infrastructure along the track stations
for rescue and so on.
The second question is,
how is possible to excavate a rail
underneath Florence in presence of ancient buildings?
We'll see how it's possible and
what are the risk and how we can measure the risk.
The third question is,
how it's possible to excavate the enlargement
of a highway tunnel in presence of traffic?
Again, in Italy, in the East-side.
The last is, how it's possible
to excavate a metro crossing very difficult soil?
We are in Sicily, near the town of Catania,
at the foot of the volcano Aetna.
We start of the first question,
how it's possible to excavate
a metro in a very difficult soil?
Catania is really in a very strange place,
where you can find hard rock mixed with coarse soil,
clay, silty clay, silts.
It's very heterogeneous.
How it's possible to guarantee
the safety and minimize the risk?
The answer is, choosing the
best effective, optimized TBM.
Maybe not all the students here are
knowing in detail how many kinds of TBM are existing,
but there are many possibilities,
different excavation methods.
So the best way,
the answer for realizing
a tunnel in that soil condition
is to choose the best effective device TBM.
Now, how do we do for choosing the optimized TBM?
We have to follow a procedure.
We describe the procedure we used in Catania.
We start from a very detailed map.
The image you see is a picture by
our Digital Terrain Model
developed directly for this site.
It combines open source 3D surface model
and detailed topographic survey performed on site.
This is the first data necessary for the process.
The topographic survey has to be combined with
a 3D geotechnical representation.
The sum of these two components define
the framework where the 3D metro project can be placed.
This is what we are calling digital project.
We are really transferring procedures coming
from automotive aerospace environment,
transfer it to civil construction.
The project is not more a huge file of 2D drawings,
but it's an entire model of
all the environment interest in the infrastructure,
starting from the early stage in
the pre-feasibility study till the maintenance.
This is the idea.
Now, with this data,
we proceed for choosing the TBM.
In this case, distinguishing
between open TBM, EPB, and Slurry,
then three main categories,
we have to exclude the first one because we are
under the water table and so we are in presence of water.
So the choice is only between EPB and Slurry.
How do we choose the correct?
I have to spend some words for describing the process.
This is the core for the correct choose.
The analysis is performed in four different steps.
I don't think that you can comprehend all the details,
but just for describing the procedure,
because it's important to describe
the procedure and then we can improve each single step.
The first one, the first step is to identify
the potential risks due to the
geological and type of geological condition.
For example, front excavation failure
due to insufficient front pressure.
Excessive load on TBM shield due to high gloat.
So you have to identify the potential risk.
The potential impact of
all risks has to be assessed considering extra cost.
Delay in the environmental structural impacts.
General standard classifications, the impact has low,
medium, high, and very high.
I drink a bit of water.
The second step is to calculate the probability
of occurrence of each risk for entire tunnel.
This calculation is based
on engineering models and can be
highly demanding if performed
manually without the support of advanced digital tools.
The level of risk is then calculated as the product of
the risk impact times the risk likelihood. Step 3.
Once the risk level is assessed for
the entire panel and for each TBM type,
the engineer chooses the TBM type
associated with the lowest risk profile.
The last step is after the TBM choice,
the analyses are performed several
times to optimize that one specific TBM.
Its parameters has shin diameter,
length, resistance,
[inaudible] trust, [inaudible] torque.
The aim of this optimization is to
reduce the residual risk as far as possible,
is the concept of ALARP risk.
[NOISE]
In this slide, this represented
the optimized condition for
the EPB front pressure
for minimizing the impact on buildings.
If you have a too high pressure,
you can uplift the building.
If the pressure is too low,
can emerge some settlements.
If the front pressure is low,
you can induce differential settlements in the building.
It's a complicated situation.
Well, now I show
the 4D excavation process representation
versus building risk assessment.
This is not a pure drawing.
We'll speak about BIM later.
But it's the representation of
the excavation process linked
to the building risk assessment.
Tunnel excavation is combined
with station enlargement strategy,
shaft construction according to
the work plan in different.
The different colors of
the building as connected with
a different level of risk of the same
and the necessity to
introduce other techniques for protecting from the risk.
So it's a forecasting of the process of construction,
connected with the effect on the entire environment,
including soil, and buildings,
and what it's connected.
But take into account that
the main risk was not
connected with the sensitivity of the buildings,
but mainly with the difficult soil
encountered by the TBM.
Well, this is the picture of the TBM.
You saw an EPB.
The white is not snow.
It's the conditioning foam,
anti-clogging conditioning foam.
It's really another very important aspect
in dimensioning EPB,
tune a body machine in difficult soil.
You have to do a lot of proofs.
This morning, we visited
some labs here, geotechnical labs,
but even for a conditioning foam testing,
it's necessary to have a very spatial lab.
With scaling this spatial analysis,
there are some procedure, not as conventional,
but a procedure for checking
the effect on the excavation
of the conditioning additives.
The diameter is 10.24 meters.
I didn't convert the meters in feet,
but maybe you can image
what is 10 meters in a real dimension.
Well, so this is the procedure for avoiding risk
in excavating a tunnel in a difficult soil.
The second question, how it's possible to
excavate the enlargement of
a highway tunnel in presence of traffic?
Imagine that this is a highway north,
south of Italy, east part of Italy,
near the sea side,
there is huge traffic.
It's impossible to close
completely the highway and we're not
possible to construct another tunnel in parallel.
The second one, there were two tunnels.
One was doubled with the construction of a new one,
but one of the two were
not possible to doubling in another side,
so was necessary to maintain the traffic.
How was possible to maintain the traffic?
Was possible innovating TBM.
We are not mechanical engineer,
but we are civil engineer in
dealing with the soil and rocks in a very confident way.
So we suggested the creation of a big saw, a cutting saw.
We'll see in detail in the next picture.
For doing what?
For cutting the soil.
We put a shelter.
I'll go here. We put a shelter in concrete for
protecting the traffic in
the original and existing tunnel.
Then we use an arch in which is installed a big saw,
six meter long, and we cut the soil.
The soil was over-consolidating clay, not rock.
It was over-consolidating clay.
Not extra-strong, but not soft,
and we realized you
can see this is a longitudinal section.
Okay. No, [LAUGHTER] fantastic.
We have the temporary lining
is done by cut with the saw, filling with shotcrete.
Then you realize a umbrella for
protecting a temporary lining.
Then the traffic is inside the shelter.
Perfect. In between, there is
our excavation method for taking away all the soil,
demolishing the existing lining,
and then realizing the final lining
in concrete with segment.
We can see the sequence.
Thank you so much for your help.
This is the sequence.
Pre-cut, left up.
Filling with shotcrete is a big saw.
We'll see directly in dimension and in characteristic.
Then we'll excavate in-between the shelter.
This is the shelter, and
the temporary lining is after this final lining segment.
So you open the space,
you protect with the final lining,
and the work is done.
There are two movies.
The first one is the assembly of
the big saw in the factory.
It's a mechanical Italian factory,
and the second one is installation on the site.
We start with the first.
It's a mechanical factory near Bologna. This is the saw.
That is the shape of the shelter.
We tested the saw with strong concrete.
If it's effective on strong concrete,
it will be enough for over-consolidated clay.
You can see the job is just completed.
The highway is open.
So the result, it was on time
in terms of time and cost-effective, and good.
It's an innovation because
the second worldwide application,
the first one was performed in
another enlargement of highway in Italy.
But they have had a lot of problems
because the dimension, it was not so good,
so they used 10 times
the forecast period for the construction.
But now, with this experience,
even with this experience,
we have had the possibility to design
with the mechanical company.
We have the possibility to design a correct saw.
This is the saw,
and this is the process, the installation.
The road traffic is interrupted overnight,
one time only, to allow the position
of the TBM and the
beginning of the tunnel to be enlarged.
You can see the tunnel,
the shelter, and overnight,
we put the TBM on-site,
over the shelter, for starting with the enlargement.
[NOISE]
This is the overnight work, traffic was interrupted.
We are taking picture from the shield,
the shield is there, this is the shield,
and over the shield this is installed there,
the TBM night is
finishing and the traffic will restart,
and the excavation will start.
This is the second answer to the second question.
The third question is how it's possible to excavate
the rail underneath fluoresce
in presence of ancient buildings?
The answer is using
proper monitoring and compensation grounding activity.
We are working in Downtown Florence,
near the most important historical buildings
of Italian Renaissance,
so it's important place.
We have to take all the safety
and even procedural techniques for avoiding any damage.
We have done a lot of shaft from which you can
inject the mortar and
protect and avoid settlements in the building.
This is a view, a picture of the TBM is again APV,
TBM, 9.4 meters in diameter.
I don't know if you can read from from every place here,
but the tunnel is 60 kilometer,
two tunnel of eight kilometer each.
We are under passing more than 200 ancient building
and the alignment is crossing all Downtown Florence.
[NOISE] What about the monitoring system?
The monitoring system is the only way
for taking under control what is happening,
and for managing all the compensation grouting necessary.
We have more than 40 cross-section
of geotechnical monitoring,
40 cross-section of internal tunnel monitoring,
more than 5,000 targets in the building,
and the real-time monitoring
system for the compensation grouting.
There is a drawing here,
you can see the distance
of the TBM from the shallow foundation of
this building and in-between with
volume loss due to this process of excavation,
you have potential settlements.
You need to inject
something in between for avoiding this.
This is what we have done,
but not using only experience,
AUK inject, stop, inject.
No, there is a complete monitoring platform
managing all the data coming from the TBM,
coming from the targets on the buildings,
coming from the instrument installed inside the ground,
and managing what is not really big data,
but it's a huge number of data to be
managed for controlling what is happening.
Is evident that sometime
even a modeling, 2D, 3D modeling,
I am showing this just
for showing without compensation
the settlement is happening here.
With compensation, you can reduce
quite zero settlement connected with the volume loss.
This is the shaft in Florence,
this is the station,
this is an underground station under construction
now the architect is normal foster.
We are not architects,
we are the designer of the tunnel of
the compensation grouting system.
The main aspects are connected with the platform.
The main aspect of the platform for
managing of the data is integration
of different data sources coming from
surveys in ground monitor TBM data,
elaborating data in real time according to
customer algorithm to produce engineer indicators,
lost volume, volume loss, distortion,
etc, and the production of
combined graphs for every building
for checking what is the forecast,
if what is happening is fitting
with what we have forecasting during the design phase.
[NOISE] Using a well organized monitoring
and control in the system
for avoiding settlements it's
the best way for reducing risk
acrossing a few meters below
the foundation important town like Florence.
The 4th question, last question,
the 4th is how it's possible to escalate
the world longest railway tunnel?
Maybe, this is a tunnel.
The high-speed rail is
connected north and south of Europe from Sicily
Rails is connected with the Island of Malta and North
of Sweden and the Finland.
Thanks. The question is,
managing complexity there are even other problems,
is not the only but the main problem in
a so longest tunnel is managing complexity
and multidisciplinarity and protecting the environment.
If you consider that the excavation of
64 kilometers multiply by
three of tunnel in
is quite 10 millions
of cubic meter or excavated material.
You have to reposition
this in a very sensitive environment.
You know that dolomite is a UNESCO World Heritage site,
this is the real problem.
[NOISE] How do we resolve the problem?
This is the alignment,
the general map with a comparison between
the existing tunnel alignment is
the green line is narrow, steep,
longer with the new design alignment
is the red is in tunnel
two station for escaping possibility.
Is managing a huge number of data.
If you consider that there are many TBN working together,
many war construction company working,
you have to manage all the services.
Even avoiding environmental problem and
the relationship with the road system existing.
You have to resolve a lot of problems.
Even from the geological point of view,
it is not an easy situation.
It says that the answer in that part
are at the edge between
the African tectonic plate and the European plate.
In detail, each color
represents a different geological formation,
significant faults or evidence showing huge complexity.
Now, we are describing what we
have done a lot on the construction,
and the Italian side in which as WS
is involved for the construction design,
the estimated cost is 1.3 billion Euro.
There are three tunnels,
two main tunnels 10.7 meter in diameter.
Exploratory tunnel, 6.8 meter in diameter.
How do we manage this big complexity?
BIM, it's the magnificent,
magnificent tool for managing complex situation.
BIM is really a unique and complete database for owners,
constructor, engineers,
including all the data of
the project in a clear and organized way.
What are the advantages?
I am not seller of BIM I am
just only for describing the characteristics.
Advantages, virtual validation of
complex geometry and the clash free design.
You don't have any clash if you design in 3D,
because the 2D drawings are coming from the 3D model,
so no clashes at all.
Consistency of the design documentation,
because for the operation of construction they need even,
sometime it's not necessarily
because it should be possible to use 3D,
but we are not enough
advanced for using these during construction.
Some time happened, we have
no experience with hydro-power plant in which
they can use a tool like phone,
or a tablet for checking where is the construction?
What is happening?
How many bars in that specific place?
But this is not yet consolidated.
But consistency of
all the documentation is another advantage.
Another advantage is that
all the components can be defined at the proper scale.
We can use larger or micro-scales,
it depends how many information we want to add.
In considering that, you have
to connect this documentation with the price list,
you have to enter in
the details connected with the price list.
It depends if it's only a pure of concrete,
or it's a combination of concrete plus mechanical stuff,
hydraulic stuff and so on,
so you have to enter in different detail.
One of the most important aspect is that,
like I told you before,
it's a unique repository of
project info from concept to operation.
This is the real big advantage for
all the actors of
the construction started from design to the maintenance.
You can even simulate processes during construction.
Now, I try to accelerate a bit
because I don't know if I am on time. Where is Allen?
I have to increase the speed.
Okay, managing complexity in environment,
like you can see in the picture is not so easy.
One example of process control
is the management of the repository
for the deposit of
the material coming from the excavation.
The blue is the material not reusable for concrete,
the yellow is reusable.
You can appreciate the growth of the deposit in
the two parts of
the material during all the excavation phase.
At the end you can arrive at a situation
of consuming all the yellow material.
Quite all the yellow material and
having in a good position,
all the material not usable.
The complexity is really in a huge challenge in
order to manage excavated material before
the arrival to the deposit,
is necessary to realize
a complex underground logistic notes,
avoiding transportation of public roads,
it's not consistent conveyor belt system crash
or batching plant, site railway.
For managing these, BIM
is the only tool for resolving this complexity.
You have to reproduce even during the design phase and
subdivided spaces even for the accesses.
You have to put
the legit site railway for transport of segments.
In other aspects, very important
is connected with the ventilation system.
Ventilation system has many purposes.
Improving of water quality,
emergency handling, control in the environmental impact.
But in this case,
with the cover of more than 1,300 meters,
the temperature of the rock create huge problem,
because the average temperature of
the rock that depth is around 41 degrees celsius.
How much is 100 more or less Fahrenheit?
If you don't use a cooling system,
you can arrive at the temperature of the air inside
the tunnel around 60 degrees,
140 Fahrenheit is impossible for levy,
so you have to add the specific cooling system.
I cut some picture,
I skipped some picture.
The protection of the environment
is a particular attention,
even from the very start phase of the design phase.
I want to illustrate only two aspects,
wastewater management and final deposit.
It's necessary to install
a spatial plans for clarifying the water
to assure the environment protection
for drain the river is Arco,
a good quality of water.
Even for the excavated soil deposit
is necessary to requalify the environment,
permitting the planting of native species,
and even the re-used for agriculture on the top.
I am near to the end of the speech.
I have only two aspects to underline with you.
The first is the market.
What is the market of
the underground construction project?
The pipeline is huge,
If you can see on the picture by region,
you are moving between 550 billion of US dollar
in Europe and Asia Pacific,
250 billion US dollar in America's,150 in Middle East.
If you consider the pipeline versus countries,
you can see that the third is USA.
There are many opportunities of work for
the person which intend to deal
with this particular construction technique.
What is the scope in U.S.A.
mainly for constructing tunnels?
It's connected mainly with water.
The major part of
underground construction is connected with water and
mainly flood control hydropower,
and they're not so large part with mass transportation.
There are many opportunities for everybody.
I go to the conclusion.
I give even some suggestion for
fresh engineers based on my own experience.
The first suggestion is, be flexible.
The world is now complex and chaotic.
The problems we have to face change every day.
The variables in play are so many,
so try to be flexible.
Second, be generous.
Your privilege to be educated
here shall become an advantage for many.
The third one, good academic result
is the best investment for your future.
I think this don't need any comment.
In the professional life,
feet on the ground, job training experience,
and training in the lab are
the best start for the career of a fresh engineer.
If you are interested in geomechanic application,
I suggest you a period of training in a country
where these applications have been
widely used: Mid Europe,
Italy, Austria, and Switzerland.
Underground application will still be
an extra large market for a medium log period.
Good opportunities for each one of you.
The last, here at Virginia Tech,
you are on the right way to become great civil engineers,
both for yourself and for the country you live in.
Well, there are two slides.
The actual mission of the engineer
is evident and still valid in
Herbert Hoover's premonitions about
his career as a mining engineer before entering politics.
You know that Herbert Hoover is the 31st president
of U.S.A. from 1929-1933.
What is the phrase?
The phrase is, there is the fascination of
watching a figment of the imagination
emerge through the aid of science to a plane on paper.
Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy.
Then it brings jobs and homes to men.
Then it elevates the standard of
living and adds to the comfort of life.
That is the engineer's high privilege.
I think that it's valid today,
like 70 or 80 years ago.
Well, what I have to add?
This slide report the paper with
technical details on the work is post to today.
You can download the full papers at
the web address, www.swsglobal.com/vt2017.
I suggest you to read these papers and if you
have any additional question after reading,
please feel free to send me a mail.
I launch a proposal,
SWS is always open and willing
to host in terms for short period of time.
If somebody is interested in this kind of work,
don't hesitate to contact me.
I wish all the best to each one of you.
Thanks for your kind attention,
and I apologize for my bad English,
for the pronouncement of
the speech. Thank you so much. [APPLAUSE]
That was wonderful. Thank you.
I really appreciate you leaving
us with the words that the future is bright,
there's a lot of workforce in the underground world,
that's exciting to hear
those kind of [OVERLAPPING]
It's a good market, really.
Well, we're going to be busy for a long time to come.
Yeah. Thank you.
Any questions?
But please speak slowly because it's for
me very difficult to understand some time.
Yes. Back there. Yes.
Do you have in-house expertise in BIM or did you
contract for that [inaudible]
Do you have in-house expertise
in BIM or did you contract for that one?
Absolutely, yes. We are applying BIM in many application.
It's really a huge advanced support
for realizing better design,
more consistent design without any glaciers.
We have one experience in Canada
using BIM in an hydro-power plant.
It's an effective method for reducing glaciers,
for permitting the construction of
important structure without reducing a lot of problems.
When you have connection between
different staff where it was at them, concrete them,
pours between 500 until 1000 cubic meter each.
Full of mechanical components,
hydraulic stuff, electric part,
it's impossible to manage
huge number of components without having
a well-controlled and performing way
of putting together all these aspects.
Yes.
Will you design the Sal machine for expanding
the [inaudible] The developers of the machine were
expecting to use the machine in more than one work.
[OVERLAPPING]
It depends. This is a big question. Very interesting.
Now in the world,
there are a huge number of TBM working now, today.
If we number how many TBM are working today,
I think that 1,000 could be huge numbers.
But the strange situation is that
all these TBM are different one from each other.
But the difference in cutters,
the difference in dimension
of the shield could be accepted,
but the difference in diameter is out of mind.
There is one 9.3 meters,
the other is 8.9 meter.
No unification of this kind of parameters.
This could be the target for the
[NOISE] more and more development of this market.
But I think that it's the producer of
the TBM are not so happy to unify diameters and system,
because each is a prototype
and the prototype costs much more than,
and if you have to ask I don't know.
A car for you
is different that you go to
the dealer and you say I choose that,
that is different. Other questions?
Thank you.
I would like to ask if Europe companies that deals with
the preliminary incremental assessment,
the Italiano [inaudible]
Yeah. Are you Italian?
Yeah.
Yes. But we don't cover all the aspects.
We are 130 person.
We are a small company in
the international market, but deeply specialized.
My idea is just for giving one image.
We are sharpening only green pencil.
We don't have the other color,
but green pencil we are sharpening well-written pencil.
We can analyze some aspects,
sometime we need expertise from
other companies, from other professionist.
Did they name that TBM of the cutter?
Excuse me?
The TBM with the saw,
did they give it a name?
No, sometimes happens.
Anything else?
Or everything is clear or
everything is completely unclear?
[OVERLAPPING]
We are all waiting to talk to you in the back.
[LAUGHTER] Okay. But if you have more question,
the mail address is there,
so you don't hesitate to send me a mail.
If you want to answer to my last proposal,
up to you. [LAUGHTER]
Please enjoy yourself.
Help yourself to the food and drink back there
Thank you.
Mazzalai, I'll be here to answer questions.
[OVERLAPPING] Happy to talk to you.
Absolutely. If you need something we can discuss.
Thank you. [APPLAUSE]