North American Special - Trenchless International

Events
ISTT International No Dig 2009
Toronto, Canada
29 March – 3 April 2009
www.nodigshow.com
Wasser Berlin 2009
Berlin, Germany
30 March – 3 April 2009
www.wasser-berlin.de
PFTT celebrates
ten years
The Polish Foundation for Trenchless Technology (PFTT) has
recently celebrated its ten year anniversary.
Remembering a
trenchless Pioneer
The life and contribution of Dr Satoru Tohyama, a Trenchless
Technology pioneer in Japan and the ISTT, is remembered by
friend and colleague Ted Flaxman.
istt news
April 2009 - Trenchless International
UKSTT Awards Dinner
Birmingham, UK
24 April 2009
www.ukstt.org.uk
CityPipe 2009
Moscow, Russia
26 – 29 May 2009
www.citypipe.ru
Ville Sans Tranchée (VST ) /
Trenchless City
Paris, France
16 – 18 June 2009
www.fstt.org
SWE Japan
Tokyo, Japan
June 2009
www.jswa.jp/
Modern Trenchless Technologies
Ukraine
June 2009
www.no-dig.odessa.ua
Engineering 2009
Tomaszowice, Poland
16 - 18 June 2009
www.i-b.pl/conference/
DT Exhibition 2009
Cheltenham, UK
16 – 17 September 2009
www.dtexhibition.com
Trenchless Australasia 2009
Melbourne Park, Melbourne,
Australia
20 - 22 September 2009
www.trenchless2009.com
ICUEE 2009
Louisville, USA
6 – 8 October 2009
www.icuee.com
International Pipelines and
Trenchless Technology
Conference
Shanghai, China
18 – 21 October 2009
www.icptt.org
over the last decade, the PFTT has
succeeded in achieving its central purpose
of promoting the use of Trenchless
Technology in Poland. The PFTT is very
active at both a national and international
level. The foundation is one of the
co-organisers of the Polish No-Dig conference;
an international event held every
second year in Kielce. The next conference,
themed Trenchless Technologies
in Environmental Engineering No-Dig
Poland 2010, will be held in April 2010.
The founder of the PFTT was Per
Aarsleff Polska Director Arkadiusz
Bachan. The foundation’s first Chairman
was Jerzy Adamski, also a Chairman
of Kielce Waterworks. Following Mr
Adamski, Marek Banasik led the PFTT.
For the last three years its Chairman has
been Andrzej Kuliczkowski (pictured).
The PFTT was awarded the 2008
No-Dig Award in the Academic Category
for organising a twelve month course
in Trenchless Technology. This year, in
conjunction with the Kielce University
of Technology, the PFTT will offer an
international post graduate course from
the 2 to the 22 September (See Issue 2
Trenchless International).
To encourage the study of trenchless
solutions, the foundation grants an
annual award for the best master thesis
involving Trenchless Technology. The
PFTT also supports various initiatives
including two polish magazines, trade
fairs and conferences through the generous
support of council and supporting
members.
The ten year anniversary was commemorated
with the presentation of
PFTT Chairman Andrzej Kuliczkowski.
From left Dec Downey, Jerzy Adamski,
Arkadiusz Bachan and Andrzej
Kuliczkowski.
Jubilee Expert statuettes. The statuettes
were awarded to Arkadiusz Bachan
and Jerzy Adamski for their personal
contribution to the foundation and development
of the PFTT. The Jubilee Expert
was also granted to ISTT Chairman Dec
Downey for his outstanding activity in
promoting Trenchless Technology at an
international level.
Polish Foundation for Trenchless Technology
akulicz@tu.kielce.pl www.pftt.pl
Although it was more than 20 years
ago, I well remember my first meeting
with Dr Tohyama. It took place in London
on 15 April 1985, on a River Thames
boat where we had arranged a dinner for
Chairmen and Authors of papers on the
evening before the opening of No-Dig
85. I was immediately impressed by two
things about him. First, his friendliness
and easy approachability and secondly,
the great respect in which he was
obviously held by the other Japanese
delegates present, who clearly knew
him well.
That was an important meeting for me.
It led to a long and very fruitful friendship
which, sadly, came to an end recently
with Dr Tohyama’s death. The news of
his death must have saddened a great
many people, both in Japan and various
other countries round the world, who
had come to know him during his long
and distinguished career. I am grateful
for this opportunity to put on record my
appreciation of his major contribution to
the trenchless initiative worldwide.
Even before we met, he had shown
his keen interest and strong support for
the first No-Dig event. He had submitted
a paper on Microtunnelling in Japan,
which we felt to be so important that he
was asked to present it during the opening
session of the Conference. Also, he
had brought to England a party of 30
from Japan – the largest overseas delegation
at the Conference. During the
closing session of the Conference, the
formation of an international society was
proposed. The support of the Japanese
delegates and of Dr Tohyama in particular,
was a great encouragement.
We kept in touch and in October 1986
I had an opportunity to visit Tokyo. It
was typical of Dr Tohyama that although
my plane arrived in Tokyo more than
12 hours late – due to a mishap before
leaving Heathrow – he nevertheless met
me at the airport in the evening and conveyed
me to my hotel. The following day
we had very useful discussions about
the newly formed ISTT and about the
next event planned for London, No-Dig
Dr Satoru Tohyama.
87. He also arranged for me to pay visits
to the Iseki Poly factory and, when
I moved on to Singapore, to several
microtunnelling construction sites.
In 1987, Dr Tohyama again led a
major delegation to the No-Dig event in
London, and it was in that year that the
ISTT really began to develop as an international
organisation. Plans were agreed
for holding No-Dig 88 in Washington DC,
in collaboration with the American Water
Pollution Control Federation. Dr Tohyama
accepted an invitation to become Vice-
President of the ISTT in recognition of
the key role that he was already playing
in the Society’s development worldwide.
He again led a substantial Japanese
delegation to the Washington DC event
and it was there that the first tentative
discussions took place about the formation
of National Societies that would be
affiliated to the ISTT. The Netherlands
Society was created first and Japan
soon followed with the JSTT, which was
formed with a splendid initial membership
of more than 150 in April 1989, with
Dr Tohyama as its Chairman.
This led to proposals for an
International No-Dig event to be held in
Osaka in 1990, organised jointly by the
JSTT and ISTT. The Executive Secretary
of the ISTT Col Jon Sutro and I visited
Japan in February 1990 and were much
impressed by the arrangements proposed
by Dr Tohyama and his team.
When the event took place in October
of that year, it attracted the largest
number of attendees for any No-Dig
to date – just over 1,000 – and also
included the presentation of the largest
number of papers to date.
When it was over we had a special
‘round-up’ meeting of those who had
been involved in organising this highly
successful event, followed by a dinner.
It was not a large gathering and it was
very informal, but I remember it well. At
the conclusion of the meal Dr Tohyama
invited me to say a few words and in my
response I emphasised how pleasing
it was that two teams of people from
very different cultural and historic backgrounds
had collaborated so easily,
that our common interest in promoting
Trenchless Technology had enabled us
to work so well together. As we parted,
he shook me repeatedly by the hand
with a warmth that I am sure echoed
his own pride that the first International
No-Dig in Asia had been such a fine
achievement.
We met repeatedly after that, in many
different parts of the world. He attended
every International No-Dig in places as
diverse as Paris, Hamburg, New Orleans,
Copenhagen, Dresden, Taipei, Prague,
Birmingham, Genoa, Perth and Budapest,
always leading a substantial Japanese
delegation and always ensuring that
papers were presented illustrating the
steady progress of the technology in
Japan. We also met on other occasions,
such as Lord Nugent’s lunches in London,
and even — by chance — occasionally in
airport lounges. When an International
Committee was set up in the early days,
Dr Tohyama was one of the founding
members and when the International
Board was established a few years later
he became one of the small team, which
during his lifetime grew to a board of
more than 20 directors. His contribution
to the ISTT was so outstanding that it
was recognised first with a Gold Medal in
1995 and then in 1998 when he accepted
an invitation to become the ISTT’s first
and only President.
Drafting this note about Dr Tohyama
has brought back a flood of memories.
His dedication to golf; the friendly presence
of his wife during many of the early
No-Digs; his chairmanship of Working
Group No 3 on microtunnelling, which
produced several excellent reports; and
the quiet way in which he would interject
sound ideas into the Board’s discussions.
He was a wonderful man and a
great civil engineer. It was a pleasure
and a privilege to have known him.
istt news
April 2009 - Trenchless International
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