Italian Association for Trenchless Technology Holds March Seminar Series

Italian Association for Trenchless Technology (IATT), in cooperation with the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) – Amman Office, organized a series of seminars in Amman, Suleimaniya and Erbil between March 22-26, 2009 to introduce their newest technologies in underground network establishment without digging and leaving trenches, according to the Kurdish Globe.

The seminars in Suleimaniya and Erbil were organized in cooperation with the Suleimaniya Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Erbil Chamber of Commerce and Industry, respectively.

The first day of the seminar, held in Suleimaniya, opened with the welcome message and presentation of the IATT/ICE Project by the Italian Trade Commissioner Mauro Mariani and the welcome message of the President of the Suleimaniya Chamber of Commerce Hassan Baqi Hassan.

Mariani expressed his gratitude for Hassan and Suleimaniya Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their assistance in hosting the seminar and for all the help they offered his team to facilitate their tasks in Suleimaniya. Hassan, on the other hand welcomed the Italian guests and promised to give them all the support and assistance they may need. He also thanked them for bringing new technology to the region and participating in the rebuilding process and economic advancement of the region.

Later, representatives of several member companies of the IATT gave lectures and presentations about the new technologies that they have brought to the region and how they can be best used to support and facilitate the reconstruction and rebuilding process currently going on in the region.

The first presentation was IATT Presentation, which included an introduction to trenchless technologies by Paolo Trombetti, a member of the IATT.

Then another presentation was given about the Geo-radar Applications, which is a new technology to scan the ground for any underground cables, pipes and other networks where another network is intended to be established, such as passing a cable across a street, so that it can find a path for drilling without damaging the existing networks and digging the street.

After that, a field test was done for the Geo-radar Application for data acquisition purposes. Later, results of the field test made in Amman and strategy for the underground Master Plan were reported and discussed.

Two other seminars were also presented about a. Infrastructural Engineering & Project Financing: Methodologies and Testimonials by Eng. Lorenzo Candelpergher, SCF Engineering and b. Relining: Application, Materials & Technologies by Michele Libraro from CEPA Srl.

At the end of the seminar, the participants’ questions were answered by the lecturers and presenters.

In Erbil, the same agenda was repeated on Thursday, March 26 in Erbil Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Conference Hall. The seminar was attended by Dara Jalil Khayat, President of the Chamber, who welcomed the guests in a speech and emphasized on helping the ICE and IATT in their projects.

Besides and for the same purpose, a German engineer and his son have already brought the technology to Kurdistan and they are currently using it in the region.

The father and the son have chosen Kurdistan for their business through Mustafa Muradi, a Kurdish environment expert, and with the support of Nawzad Hadi, the Governor of Erbil.

During their one month operations, the two Germans have established a high voltage electricity network of 500 meter cables underground using this technology.

The German engineer, who has Master’s degree in technology, has a 30-year experience in this field in his country and is planning to train local engineers and technicians on the equipments.

This new technology has some important advantages including reducing costs by almost 70%. Engineer Fatima Jawhar, director of cables’ department in Erbil Power Distribution Directorate, says that with this technology, the cost of establishing one meter of cable network is around US$40-50 as compared to US$150 per meter with traditional methods.

Other advantages of this technology is keeping the streets and roads undamaged and thus avoiding traffic jams and disturbance for the people, besides reducing the time needed for the operations.
Realizing these advantages, the Minsitry of Municipalities has issued a decree to all water, sanitary, power distribution, post, transportation, traffic, municipalities, traffic engineering directorates in Erbil that from now on those equipments should be used for any projects and the contractors should not be allowed to dig the roads.