©2015 PHOTO COURTESY OF YAPI MERKEZI AND SK E&C
The Eurasia Tunnel Project in Istanbul, Turkey received the “Major Project of the Year” award from the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.
WSP USA was named Engineer of the Year by the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) during the ITA Tunnelling Awards 2015 in Hagerbach, Switzerland on Nov. 19.
An aerial view in February 2009 shows construction of the Marmaray Project, which now connects the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, Turkey with a rail tunnel under Bosphorus Strait.
One of the firm’s current tunneling projects, the Eurasia Tunnel Project in Istanbul, Turkey, was named “Major Project of the Year” by ITA.
“We are thrilled by this recognition of our design for the Eurasia Tunnel Project as well the ITA’s acknowledgment of our firm’s outstanding tunneling portfolio over 130 years,” said Gregory Kelly, president and CEO of the U.S., Central and South America region of WSP.
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Fifty years after designing the Midtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, WSP designed the Second Midtown Tunnel, which when completed will double traffic capacity across the Elizabeth River.
“Beginning with the design of the original New York City subway system in the 1890s, our technical excellence continues today with design services for projects such as the Central Subway in San Francisco, the Second Midtown Tunnel in Norfolk, Virginia, the Airport Link in Brisbane, Australia, the Port of Miami Tunnel, the Waterview Connection in Auckland, New Zealand, and the East Side Access project in New York City,” Kelly said.
The Port of Miami Tunnel provides motorists with greatly improved access to Miami’s seaport, the largest and busiest cruise ship terminal in the world.
For the Eurasia Tunnel Project, WSP was the lead designer for a 3.4-kilometer (2.1-mile) tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait as part of a 14.6-kilometer (9-mile) roadway linking Goztepe in Asia and Kazlicesme in Europe.
WSP also played a prominent role in the planning and design of the $4 billion Marmaray Project, which included the first tunnel to cross the Bosphorus Strait and link two continents. That 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) immersed tube tunnel, which carries commuter trains under Bosphorus, was completed in October 2013.
Completed in 1930, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a 1-mile crossing of the Detroit River between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, was the first underwater vehicular tunnel to connect two countries.
“It’s gratifying to have contributed to these two Bosphorus tunnels, which will significantly improve road and rail travel in Istanbul,” said Kelly.
Other prominent projects in WSP’s tunneling history include:
In the late 1960s, WSP designed the BART Trans-Bay Tube, an immersed tunnel crossing San Francisco Bay.
