TPT September 2009

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Editor • Rory McBride
Features editor (USA) • Dorothy Fabian
Editorial assistant • Christian Bradley
Production • Lisa Benjamin
Sales & marketing • Catherine Sayers
English speaking sales
• Giuliana Benedetto
Italian sales
• Hendrike Morriss
German speaking sales
• Linda Li
Chinese sales
• Jeroo Vandrevala
Indian sales
Advertising • Liz Hughes
co-ordinators • Andrea McIntosh
Subscriptions • Liz Hughes
Accounts manager • Richard Babbedge
Publisher • Caroline Sullens
Founder • John C Hogg
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Technology Update. .... 0 40
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Underground movement
“I bet you won’t miss the Tube,” was one of the statements that echoed in my ears as I bid farewell
to colleagues in London to take up my new role as editor of TPT. Little did they understand the
irony of their statement.
But, admittedly, travelling on London’s underground rail network, which is known as the Tube, is not
foremost on the list of things I will miss, even though, as a feat of engineering, it has always left me
in awe. Indeed, as I travelled on it for the final time I gazed at it with new eyes and was struck by
the hundreds, if not thousands, of different tubes and pipes – crafted from a multitude of materials
– that were essential to its safe operation. From tiny sprinkler systems to beautiful handrails to the
gargantuan concrete and steel pipes that hold back rivers and millions of tons of earth.
And it seems underground is the new overground for many other overcrowded, gridlocked cities
around the globe. Last year alone, 140km of tunnels were built beneath Shanghai. In Rome,
engineers are sweating over plans for a new metro line that will pass beneath the Coliseum. In
Amsterdam a metro line will require 6km of tunnels to be threaded between the largely wooden
foundations of its buildings. Hundreds of miles of sewers, tunnels and pipes all situated in a variety
of geologies and the foundations of buildings make it a delicate balancing act.
In my old home city of London they are building the new Crossrail, a 120km railway, which will pass
beneath the city’s busy streets along 42km of underground tunnels, leaving engineers to figure
out how to thread Crossrail’s tunnels though the tangled subterranean infrastructure. The subsoil
beneath the city is packed with sewers and pipes that date back hundreds of years and that carry
electricity, gas, telecommunications and water, serving a densely packed population.
For most of us this challenge would be the stuff of nightmares, but for
engineers like yourselves, it’s just another obstacle to overcome, an
opportunity for invention and innovation, which is the one thing that has
struck me already about the industry in my short time and something that
makes editing the magazine such an exciting challenge of my own, and one
that I too hope to rise to.
Rory McBride, editor, Tube & Pipe Technology
When you have finished with this
magazine please recycle it
F ront Cover
S tory
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September2009 |Vol22No5 |US$33
Contents