The papers presented at No Dig Berlin 2017, the trenchless technology symposium held last March, are available online now. We were delighted to attend a very well organised event and learn of innovations and best practice in the industry. The paper authored by Trevor Orr and Ciaran Reilly on the role of lubricant slurries and effective stress in skin friction reduction in pipe jacking was well received at the symposium, as were all the other papers.
Herrenknecht AG, the tunnelling equipment manufacturer, presented a promising innovation in miniaturisation. They are developing a new small diameter TBM suited for installing significant lengths of HV underground cable to help Germany meet its targets for putting, as we understand it, all new heavy electricity lines from wind farms in the North Sea underground. This is an adaption of the microtunnelling technique with which we are very familiar. We look forward to following the development of this technology and can foresee many applications for this new equipment in UK and Ireland.
