International No-Dig Meets in Singapore

The 2010 International No-Dig is in the history books. It was held Nov. 8-10 in Singapore at the Suntec Convention & Exposition Centre.

Singapore is a fascinating spot as a city state on a relatively small island with five million population and 500 thousand guest workers. Its Far East location puts it in proximity to Malaysia, with convenient flights from China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. ISTT engaged Westrade out of the United Kingdom to manage the show, which attracted more than 500 attendees and more than 100 exhibitors.

No-Dig Shows are highly regarded because of their technical papers. In this case, there were 60 papers
presented from all around the world. The keynote speaker was Khoo Teng Chye, chief executive of Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB), Singapore’s National water agency. Singapore is a highly developed country. At this time, they are going through a major expansion of its subway system — so dramatic that by the end of 2011, it is expected that it will be adding about 16 more TBMs to work on all the tunneling. The main sponsor for the show at the gold level was Vermeer,with Pure Technologies as a silver sponsor.

During the formal activities at the show, Dec Downey, Jason Consultants, concluded his term as ISTT chairman. Stepping in as the new chairman is Dr. Sam Ariaratnam, Arizona State University.

At the Gala Dinner, award presentations were made as follows: the 2010 Trenchless Project was awarded “Rehabilitation of the North Georges River Submain, Sidney, Australia, Interflow and Sekisui Rib Loc; 2010 Trenchless Product “Forced Air Vortex Aggregate Cleaning System,” Whirlwind Utilities Ltd.; 2010 Student Paper “Non-conventional Solutions of Utility Installations,” Zuzana Halova, Czech Technical University, Prague Facility of Civil Engineering.

The 2010 International No-Dig returns to Germany for the first time in quite a few years. The location is Berlin and the dates are May 2-5. Of note, the show will be held in conjunction with the Wasser Berlin International Show. This is the highly regarded Berlin water show. This combination will make for a fantastic 2011 International No-Dig.