ABOUT SANCOT
The SA National Council on Tunnelling (SANCOT) was formed in 1973, and very soon after that, in 1974, became one of the founding members of the International Tunnelling Association (ITA). SANCOT has been represented at most ITA General Assemblies since its inauguration, with Nick Chittenden representing SANCOT in September 2022 at the ITA General Assembly in Copenhagen. SANCOT has also organised many regional symposia and conferences over the years, and arranged site visits to various tunnelling and underground construction sites.
In 2003, SANCOT became a Committee, operating as an interest group under the umbrella of the SAIMM. The Committee comprises volunteers who meet regularly to collate information on both civil and mining tunnelling in South Africa and to organise conferences, site visits, colloquia and symposia such as the recent Stellenbosch symposium titled ‘Tunnel boring in civil engineering & mining’ which included a technical visit to the North Bore of the Huguenot Tunnel on the N1 between Paarl and Dutoitskloof.
SANCOT membership is free, and to join so that you can regularly receive ITA and SANCOT correspondence, is very easy: Just email the SAIMM Secretariat at Gugu@saimm.co.za with a request to add your email address to the SANCOT mailing list.
AWARDS
Awards
The South African National Council on Tunnelling (SANCOT) makes an annual award, namely the Alec Wilson Memorial Award for the best paper on Underground Construction, to the author(s) of the best paper concerned with the technology of underground construction published in any South African journal or to any paper by a South African journal or to any paper by a South African author in overseas journals, or in any conference proceedings.
The Award was initially instituted by SANCOT in 1984 in order to encourage South African citizens and residents to submit technical papers on tunnelling matters both for local conferences and publications and overseas events.
Judging Criteria
The criteria for judging by the panel are originality, interest value, quality of presentation, clarity, information content and the contribution of the paper towards the advancement of the technology of underground construction.
Should no paper published be considered of sufficient merit, no award is made.
The award may be divided between the authors of papers judged of equal merit. If more than one paper is considered to be of exceptional merit, the runner-up may be carried forward for consideration together with nominations for the following year.
The Judging Panel elected by SANCOT Exco, consists of three persons, each of whom represents one of the three main 'constituencies' within SANCOT, namely Tunnel Designers, Tunnel Contractors and Suppliers and Tunnel Owners. This enables a balanced paper review to be undertaken.
The late Alec Wilson was one of South Africa's foremost Tunnel Engineers. He was born in Cape Town in 1926 and grew up in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. He obtained his Civil Engineering degree at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and joined the South African Department of Water Affairs. In 1964 he became a partner in the Consulting Engineers Keeve Steyn and Partners, remaining with them throughout his career.
He was heavily involved in the Orange-Fish River Scheme and continued his career in tunnelling and rock mechanics. He was chairperson of Tuncon '70, one of the first major international conferences to be held in South Africa in 1970. Following that conference he was instrumental in the formation of SANCOT in 1973, being it's Chairperson until 1976 and subsequently assisted in the formation of the International Tunnelling Association in 1974.
He was involved in many tunnelling conferences and became well known as a mediator and arbitrator. He advised on a number of aspects of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. After his death in 1992, it was unanimously decided by SANCOT Exco in June 1993 that, as a lasting tribute to a fine engineer, the Annual SANCOT Award should be presented henceforth in his memory.
Award Recipients
1984 - J.C. Sharp and T.W. Mellors (RSA)
1985 - H. Duddeck (Germany) - "General Approaches to Design of Tunnels"
1986 - N.J. Terblanche - "Underground Power Stations: Critical Design Influences"
1987 - O. Fenn - "The use of water jets to assist free-rolling cutters in the excavation of hard rock"
1988 - P. Loudon (RSA)- the award was for a suite of papers relating to the Huguenot Tunnel published in an issue of "The Civil Engineer in South Africa"
1989 - C. Forbes (RSA) - "Heatlieskrans - a recent Tunnelling experience in Cretaceous Sediments"
1990 - O.T. Blindheim and A. Boniface (RSA) - "Boreability Assessments for Major Tunnelling Projects"
1991 - C.R. Spiers (RSA) - "Support for Tunnels subjected to Changing Rock Loads- Comparison of Design Loads"
1992 - I.J.A. Brackley, R.M. Galliers, A.M. Dell and S. Nthako. (RSA and Lesotho) - "Geotechnical Investigation for a Water Transfer Tunnel in Lesotho"
1993 - M.J. de Witt (RSA) - "Limits of Watertight Linings for the Delivery Tunnel, Lesotho Highlands Water Project"
1994 - B.S. Bruce, J.G. McKelvey and S.A. Taylor (RSA) - "Excavation of the Clermont Tunnel. (KwaZulu/Natal)"
1995 - L. Pringle (RSA) - "Construction of a Drill and Blast Tunnel under the Caledon River (LHWP)"
1996 - A.R. Leach and D. Ras (RSA) - "Use of Three Dimensional Numerical Models in Shotcrete Design for Development of Target Exploration Company, Lorraine Gold Mine"
1997 - T.R. Stacey and W.D. Ortlepp (RSA) - "Performance of Rockbolt and Wiremesh Tunnel Support under Dynamic Loading"
1998 - No award
1999 - B.C. Viljoen and J.R. Metcalf (RSA) - "Commissioning of the Delivery Tunnel : Overview of work done and results obtained (LHWP)"
2000 - T. Okai (Japan) - "Tunnel construction procedures to overcome the high pressures of rock mass swelling"
2001 - D. H. Deiring (RSA) - "Tunnels under pressure in an ultra-deep Witwatersrand gold mine"
2002 –
2003 –
2004 – Mr J P L Morgan, Prof J L van Niekerk and Mr D Cosijn for their paper entitled: “Gautrain Tunnels: Surface vibration and ground-borne noise”, published in the SAIMM publication: Tunnelling and Development in Southern Africa in 2003.
2005 - Mr W D Ortlepp, Mr A H Swart and Mr P N Erasmus for their paper entitled: “The performance of yielding tunnel support systems under dynamic loading”, published in the Surface Support in Mining Conference Publication in Perth in 2004.
2006 - R G B Pickering and K Moxham for their paper entitled: “The development and implementation of the Lonmin mechanised breast mining.”
2007 - Andrew Hindmarch, Andy Griffiths, Andrew Officer and Gert Wittneben for their paper entitled: “Durban Harbour Tunnel – first use of a slurry tunnel boring machine” as published in the proceedings of the 2007 Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference, held in Toronto, Canada.