In late 2016 Kate Cole received a Fellowship from the Winston Churchil Memorial Trust with the following mission statement;
To investigate best practice to prevent illness and disease in tunnel construction workers – Norway, Switzerland, UK, USA.
The Fellowship highlights international best practice in illness and disease prevention and includes information from major tunnelling projects including Crossrail, Thames Tideway, High Speed 2, Arna-Bergen, Gotthard Base Tunnel, Belchen Renovation Tunnel, Anacostia River Tunnel and the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Drawing from exisiting best practice frameworks eight elements were reviewed in depth to understand international approaches. These included Leadership, Engagement and Collaboration, Training and Awareness, Standards, Health in Design, Program Health Risk Management, Targeted Health Risk Management, and Sustainability.
The final Report of this Fellowship has been published and is available via the link below. Kate had the following to say regarding her the chosen topic of interest;
Australian tunnelling has reached a new chapter, planning to tunnel further in the next seven years than we have in more than the past two decades. Tunnel construction represents a vital part of building Australia’s necessary infrastructure and services and is complimented by world-class feats of engineering. However, the delivery of such world class infrastructure should not be at the expense of the health of thousands of workers who will support these great projects.
This topic and may more relating to the tunnel environment are sure to be discussed in depth at the upcoming ATS2017 conference. Congratulations to Kate, and we hope to see you in Sydney for #ATS2017.
