The following message was sent to Jenny Yan, President of the Chinese Tunnelling and Underground Works Society and Past-President of the International Tunneling Association following the very successful recent Tunneling Conference in Shenzhen China, marking the 50th anniversary of the International Tunneling Association.
Jenny – on the occasion of your very successful ITA 2024 Conference in Shenzhen, and the 50th anniversary of ITA I looked back at the work we did in 2000 and 2001 regarding implementation of mechanized tunneling and joint manufacture of TBMs in China. The results of TBM implementation in China since that time are truly impressive, with many machines working at advanced levels. The high-level 2001 TBM report was extensive in its content and guidance for the future of mechanized tunneling in China.
I am very appreciative of the work of my co-authors – Piergiorgio Grasso, Shulin Xu and Gianni Arrigoni– for their contributions to the report and tunneling world-wide. Thank you!
Background to the 2001 High-Level Report:
Following an address on Tunneling and Megaproject delivery that I gave in Beijing in 2000, I was asked by one of the very senior Chinese engineers, Mr. Han, if he could talk to me about the future of tunnelling in China. I asked my colleague Gianni Arrigoni to come, with his colleague Mai Zie to translate. We subsequently found that Mr. Han had studied in Moscow with Li Peng (Former Premier of the People’s Republic of China) and thus was quite influential in China. He had worked to introduce mechanized tunnelling to China for several years but with limited success. He asked if I could write a high-level report which would help the Chinese to understand the need for advanced mechanical excavation, the use of tunnel boring machines and to expand tunneling capacity in China.
I then asked Piergiorgio Grasso and Xu Shulin, with Gianni, to help with the report. We completed the report and sent it to our colleague, Professor Fu, for review and publication. After some time had passed (during which an incomplete translation was corrected), it was published in the Chinese Journal Modern Tunneling Technology Vol. 39 February 2002.
Subsequently Prof. Fu asked me to organize a symposium in Beijing in 2002 so that TBM manufacturers around the world could come to Beijing to meet with their Chinese counterparts – to discuss joint cooperation and tunnel boring machine manufacture in China. We were successful in getting most of the manufacturers to attend and for them to develop formal relationships with Chinese manufacturers. The result has been that now there is a very significant capability for tunnel boring machine manufacturing in China, of good quality, with many machines operating in China (almost equal to all TBMs operating in the world today). China is now exporting advanced machines to other countries.
Quite a story. At the end of the 2002 symposium, that night, on TV, I saw the images from New York of the 9/11 planes hitting the twin towers. Next day, my Chinese colleagues told me “….you are welcome to stay in Beijing as our guest, you will be safe here”. They also said: “…this is a concern for everyone, we must work together to resolve this”. Sadly, such good intentions were not fully realized.
A current note: In listening to the former ITA presidents speak at the ITA Open Session in Shenzhen, it was clear that we can work together cooperatively, in the development of underground space and facilities, and that person-to-person contacts and relationships are essential. I have been fortunate to have such relationships with international colleagues, ITA Presidents, Executive Board and Working Group members, since 1993. For that I am truly grateful.