1 World Tunnel Congress
World Tunnel Congress 2010 was held from May 14 to May 20 in Vancouver, Canada. The theme of this congress is “tunnel vision towards 2020”. Mr. Guo Shanyun, the director of CCES-TUWB and his delegate members attended the congress as the member nation of ITA on behalf of China Civil Engineering Society (CCES).
According to the registration provided by the sponsor, 873 people have attended the congress, among which 113 from mainland China, Hongkong and Macao; 2 from Taiwan. Mr. Bai Yun, member of executive committee of ITA from China and the standing member of CCES-TUWB attended the World Tunnel Congress and the relevant meetings of ITA. The vice-directors of CCES-TUWB, Mr. Chen Shaozhang and Mr. Zhu Hehua and the vice-secretary-generals of CCES-TUWB, Mrs. Yan Jinxiu and Tan Zhongsheng participated in the congress. Mr. Li Shucai, the director of Underground Engineering Branch of Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering and the president of Civil Engineering School of Shandong University, also participated in the congress.
The proceedings of World Tunnel Congress 2010 (electronic files) contain 244 papers, among which 17 papers are written by Chinese authors. Those papers are related to such topics as application and planning of tunnels and underground works, environmental protection, disaster prevention, design and construction, equipments and operational maintenance. To a great extent, they indicate the state-of-art and development trend of tunnels and underground works in the world. Several scholars and engineers from China deliver their lectures in the congress.
2 ITA General Assembly
(1) As response to China’s proposal, working group 9, seismic effect working group is founded during the 36th ITA General Assembly. Civil Engineering School of Southwest Jiaotong University is in charge of WG 9. Professor Qiu Wenge is the animateur. This is the first ITA working group directed by China. During General Assembly, a series of activities of WG 9 are held. Activity report of WG9 is delivered in the member nations meeting. Professor Qiuwenge presides over the activities of WG9.
(2) New leaders of ITA elected in the 36th ITA General Assembly are as follows:
President: I. M. LEE, Korean, Professor
Primacy vice-president: M.T, German, Professor
Vice-president: Bai Yun, in charge of harmonizing the relations among member nations
Vice-president: S.E, Dane, Senior manager of COWI, in charge of ITA affairs
Vice-president: E.H, Czechm, Senior manager, in charge of supporting companys
The current 5 executive committee members come from Singapore, Hungary, USA and Canada. Usually, one executive committee member takes care of one working group.
The focus of the newly elected executive committee is to strengthen the activities of the three committees and working groups and to strengthen the functions of vice-presidents.
(3) World Tunnel Congress 2013 will be held in Geneva in 2013 according to the vote results of the member nations (Greece failed by two votes). Singapore and Australia declares that they will apply to hold World Tunnel Congress 2014 in the next year.
(4) The next executive committee meeting of ITA will be held from September 4 to 5 in France.
3 Activities after the congress
After the closing of World Tunnel Congress 2010 and the 36th ITA General Assembly, 58 Chinese participants went to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto to visit the planning, construction and environment protection technologies of urban underground projects.