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Welcome To The British Tunnelling Society

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The BTS is a learned society of the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and has a membership of almost 700 individual and over 60 corporate members. It is one of the most vibrant gatherings of professional tunnellers in the world.

Formed in 1971 to provide a forum for meetings and discussion on tunnel related matters, the Society also publishes industry guidelines and codes of practice, conducts design and construction training courses, acknowledges excellence in tunnelling and supports scholarship and disseminates information via its monthly meetings.

For further information on BTS click here...

Latest news and information

Posted	Event Date	Latest News
07/05/2013	28th May 2013	BTSYM May talk - Immersed Tube Tunnels - A different way of tunnelling The immersed tunnelling method has some unique aspects to it and some particular circumstances where it is a highly favourable solution to crossing a waterway. The method of construction combines conventional subsurface construction techniques with offshore marine technology. This talk will explain the immersed tube construction method to those who have not come across it before and it will look at how the technology is developing. In particular it will show how environmental issues are being tackled, how construction in deeper offshore environments is being managed and touch on the age-old debate of whether to build in steel or concrete, using examples from projects around the world. The meeting will be held on Tues 28th May at the ICE, starting at 6pm. All are welcome - the meeting is not restricted to Young Members. For further information, click here
07/05/2013	16th May 2013	BTS May meeting - Ribble Estuary and Coastal Water Environmental Improvement Scheme, Preston The project, a complex £114m sewer improvement scheme within the City centre of Preston and within the environmentally sensitive River Ribble corridor, involved the construction of a 6km of tunnel in a densely populated urban environment and included three tunnelled River crossings. KMI Water commenced in February 2010 and all went well until August 2010 when two failures occurred. The first, a 30m deep shaft, two thirds complete, suddenly found water and silt flowing into its base. A second larger 35m deep shaft, just 10m away, then flooded in similar circumstances. Elsewhere at the River Ribble tunnel crossing with 70m complete, water and silt inundated the sewer tunnel and trapped the full face tunnelling machine. The presentation will highlight the challenges faced and the solutions implemented which include one of the most complex grouting and dewatering systems ever installed, plus a German pipe thrusting technique, new to the UK, but which proved fast and cost effective. The meeting will take place on Thursday 16th May at the ICE, starting at 6pm. For further information, please click here
26/04/2013		BTS Harding Prize 2013 The 2013 Harding Prize was won by David Clayton, for his paper on the 'TBM crossing at the Lee Tunnel connection shaft',presented to the BTS on 18th April. Stiff competition was provided on the night by Avni Mehta, Jiang Su, and Mai Nguyen, with a further ten papers submitted. The judges were delighted with both the large number and excellent quality of the submitted papers this year.
26/03/2013	October 23rd to 24th 2013	BTS Conference and Exhibition 2013 Two daysof highly technical and educational talks and a trade exhibition. 23rd to 24th October 2013, at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London For further information, please click here
16/01/2013		London Underground celebrations to mark 150 years January 2013 marks 150 years since the commencement of operations on the first ever underground railway - the section of the Metropolitan Railway from Paddington to Farringdon. For details of events to commemorate this anniversary, follow the link to the BBC News story - click here.
11/11/2012		Mai Nguyen receives ICE Ambassador Award Chair of the BTSYM Schools and Universities Group, Mai Nguyen, has received recognition for her work in the first STEM Ambassador Awards from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) London Region. Mai received the award for her work in organising a series of lectures and interactive workshops for schools and universities in London and elsewhere, raising the awareness of tunnelling to more than 200 young students this year, and receiving exceptionally positive feedback from the schools and universities involved. Mai and the Group are currently preparing a Teachers Pack providing lesson plans about tunnelling, for use in secondary schools. For a link to the full article, please click here
23/06/2012		Kate Cooksey recognised by Management Today Kate Cooksey, founding Chairman of the BTS Young Members and a member of the BTS Committee has been awarded a place on Management Today's prestigious "35 women under 35" list. For a link to the list, please click here
29/06/2012		Peter Harris, Chief Civil Engineer at Donaldson Associates, has been appointed as Tunnels Convener on the Panel for Historic Engineering Works (PHEW). If you are involved in works to tunnels which are already listed or are of some historic interest please contact Peter with details. This will enable the PHEW to assess whether or not they need to take an interest in the tunnel: perhaps to record its history and details; or to put it forward for listed status. Similarly if your work involves other historic structures and you need assistance Peter will be able to put you in touch with the relevant PHEW convener. Peter can be contacted via the BTS Secretary or the PHEW page on the ICE website, click here
21/03/2012		High Pressure Compressed Air guidelines. The Compressed Air Working Group of the BTS and the ITA Working Group 5 (Health and Safety in Works) have recently published Guidelines for good working practices in high pressure compressed air. This document formed the subject of the March 2012 BTS lecture, and is free to download - please click here
10/02/2012	N/A	Best Practice Guide to Monitoring Underground Construction The Best Practice Guide to Monitoring Underground Construction has now been published. Copies are available from the ICE Bookshop at £30.00 each. Please click here to purchase your copy.