STUVA turns 50

Review

"Past meets Future" was the theme from June 17 to 18, 2010 in Düsseldorf's Tonhalle. The STUVA Inc. held a special conference there to celebrate its 50th anniversary. With this event the STUVA returned to its "birthplace" for STUVA's history began on June 15, 1960 with the association entering its name in the register of the Amtsgericht Düsseldorf.

Prof. Martin Ziegler, the chairman of STUVA's board opened the jubilee conference. After a short address he handed over to Dipl.-Ing. Andrea Blome, who heads Düsseldorf's Office for Transport Management. She chaired the "Young Forum" during which young tunnellers passed on aspects dealing with the fascination of the topic within the scope of a series of lectures.

In the afternoon leading experts presented papers during the first, future-oriented part of the celebrations under the title "the Future of Underground Construction" relating to the significance of the Alpine Base Tunnels for transportation, the possibilities and limits of driving activities right up to the importance of underground construction for urban development and operating Metro trains by automatic means.

During the second and more festive part of the celebrations following an introduction by Prof. Martin Ziegler, the Capella Augustina, the ensemble of the Brühl Schlosskonzerte, played pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart thus emphasising the festive character.

Dr.-Ing. Gregor Bonin, technical consultant and head of Düsseldorf`s Planning and Construction Department representing the regional capital and Rainer Bomba, state-secretary in the Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development then gave welcoming addresses. They were followed by Prof. In-Mo Lee, the president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.

On the occasion of the association's 50th anniversary, the STUVA awarded the STUVA prize for up-and-coming talents for the first time. By winning the lecture competition in the "Young Forum" Dr. Jan-Niklas Franzius took the prize for his contribution "Geothermal Use of TBM-driven Tunnels". The final choice was the outcome of an assessment among the audience attending the jubilee event with the lecture content, the nature of the visual presentation and the manner of  presentation all being appraised. Dr. Franzius was able to impress on all these sectors.
 

The prize comprises a trip to Dubai to one of the most interesting Metro construction sites and one of the world's most topical and highly modern fully automatic driverless Metro systems. We should like to take this opportunity to once again express our congratulations to Dr. Franzius on his success and wish him an eventful journey during which he will be able to acquire more worthwhile knowledge.

Prof. Günter Girnau's lecture on the STUVA received particular attention and a highly positive response. As someone who was there from the very start, he was thus able to relate his own story with the STUVA "Between Vision and Reality". With this paper Prof. Girnau provided an insight into his personal life strategy crowned with enormous success, which helped establish the STUVA's success over a period that has now lasted 50 years. He appealed particularly to his listeners to return to traditional virtues based on partnership.

The series of lectures on the first day of the event concluded with a further outstanding paper presented by Prof. Adolf Müller-Hellmann on future energy sources, which examined the aspects and chances of renewable energies.

The gala evening in the Rheinterrasse Düsseldorf that followed was once again made use of for personal encounters. Many invited "old boys" were present and thus the evening started in many cases with the words "do you recall?"

The second day was devoted to Düsseldorf's Wehrhahn Line. Five representatives of the companies involved presented papers explaining this remarkable project. Following a midday snack at the invitation of the Wehrhahn Line JVs, the event participants had the chance to visit the construction sites. We should like to express our thanks to the City of Düsseldorf for the hospitality and the various offices involved for their collegial support in organising the excursions.