Martin Herrenknecht Receives ITA’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr.-Ing. E.h. Martin Herrenknecht is the recipient of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association’s 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award.
ITA President Tarcisio Celestino presents Dr.-Ing.
E.h. Martin Herrenknecht the “ITA Lifetime
Achievement Award” for his outstanding
achievements in tunnelling.
Herrenknecht received the award for his remarkable contributions in tunnelling visit homepage. After studies at the Konstanz University of Applied Sciences, from which he was graduated in 1964, he founded his own company in 1975, specialized in tunnel boring machines. In 2010, Herrenknecht AG, his company, was recognized for drilling the largest tunnel in the world. He also took part in the rewarded Eurasia Tunnel Project, elected ITA Major Project of the Year in 2015.
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“Singlemindedly tackling and realizing exciting and ambitious tunnelling projects together with professional and competent partners, that is my passion,” Herrenknecht said at the awards ceremeny in Singapore. “To receive the ITA Lifetime Achievement Award for that is a special honor. I would like to share that honor with my excellent engineers and employees as well as our customers.”
Together with his engineers and in partnership with international customers, Herrenknecht has been innovating tunnelling technology; which over the past 20 years in particular has dealt with unprecedented challenges underground and repeatedly pushed the boundaries of feasibility in mechanized tunnelling.
Prime examples of this are epoch-making projects such as the 2x 57 km long Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland that opened this summer, the Eurasia Tunnel – the road tunnel under the Bosphorus nearing completion – as well as the metro network under Doha with 111 km of ultra-modern new tunnels completed in record time.
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In an entrepreneurial career in global tunnelling spanning more than 40 years, Herrenknecht has received a wide variety of accolades for his achievements, including the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany. Renowned technical universities have awarded him an honorary doctorate or appointed him honorary senator.
On Dec. 13, the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Herrenknecht will be the recipient of the Werner von Siemens Ring, which is the highest technical engineering award in Germany and has only been awarded to 36 people since 1916.
