The World Channel Tunnel Engineering Projects Construction Essay

The World Channel Tunnel Engineering Projects Construction Essay The Channel Tunnel (French: le tunnel sous la Manche), widely recognized as one of the worlds greatest civil engineering projects, is a 50.5km underwater rail tunnel connecting Folkestone, Kent in the UK with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais in France under the English Channel. Even though it began construction in 1988 and was opened in 1994, the idea to have a cross-channel tunnel was first mooted more than 200 years ago but did not materialize due to political, national security and cost considerations. However, with the tremendous increase in traffic growth, better and alternative means of communication, convenience and speed was necessary and hence the need for an alternative transport route was clearly evident. The need for such tunnel was further compounded with Britain joining the European Community and the cross-channel traffic doubling in the last 20 years (leading to the project), reflecting improved trading between the Britain and rest of Europe. The Channel Tunnel would also be a ble to provide an alternative competitive link between the transportation systems of the UK and France, providing both speed and reliability to freight deliveries. With the strong endorsement from the governments of both sovereigns, the decision to build the Channel Tunnel was thus made. In April 1985, the British and French governments issued a formal invitation to potential tenderers for the fixed Channel link and eventually the contract was awarded to the consortium Channel Tunnel Group Limited- France Manche S.A. (CTG/FM) (later renamed Eurotunnel). Figure 1: Project Organization The Channel Tunnel, with the governments intention that it be privately funded and there would not be any government assistance or undertaking, was a build-own-operate-transfer (B-O-O-T) project with a concession. The project organization is shown in Figure 1. In this contract arrangement, Eurotunnel would be the owner cum operator, which was being funded by the banks and shareholders. The governments of UK and France were represented by the Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC), to which the Safety Authority and the Maitre dOeuvre (an independent technical auditor) would report to. The IGC would then make final engineering and safety decisions. TML (essentially split from CTG/FM so as to separate the roles of owner/operator and contractor) consisted mainly of five British contractors (Translink Joint Venture) and five French contractors (G.I.E Transmanche Construction) and would carry out the construction works for the Channel Tunnel in a design and build contract. Upon completion of the project, the British and French governments would award Eurotunnel a 55 (which was later revised to 65) year operating concession to repay the banks and shareholders. The Contract was officially signed on 13 August 1986 and the fixed rail was to be fully commissioned in 1993. The services offered by the Channel Tunnel include the Eurotunnel Shuttle (a shuttle service for vehicles), Eurostar passenger trains and freight delivery trains. TMLs contract was to design, build, and test and commission the fixed rail tunnel. The Channel Tunnel (Figure 2) was designed to have three concrete-lined bores approximately 50km long, with 37.9km undersea and the rest under land at either ends of the English (Cheriton near Folkstone) and French (Pas-de-Calais village of Frethun) terminals (Figure 3). Two of the running tunnels were designed to have an internal diameter of 7.6m while the third was a 4.8m service tunnel running midway between the two and connected to them via 3.3m diameter cross passages at 375m intervals. 2m diameter piston relief ducts connecting the main tunnels at 250m spacing were built to prevent the accumulation of differential air pressures and aerodynamic resistance. To facilitate operations and maintenance, four crossover caverns were built between the two terminals to allow trains to cross between the running tunnels. Two crossovers were laid close to the terminals while the other two were under the seabed , effectively dividing the tunnel into three approximately equal lengths. Figure 4 below shows the main phases of the project. Two separate rail tunnels were chosen instead of a single large twin-track rail tunnel because this could minimize construction risk while at the same time enhance operations, maintenance and safety. The diameters were finalized after design analysis, development and optimization studies, taking into consideration the operation and support, speed and cost of construction. The service tunnel provided access between the running tunnels during normal and emergency situations and was equipped with a guided transport system. It was also where the water and pumping mains run and functioned as a fresh air supply duct to the tunnels in normal working condition. In addition, the service tunnel would function as a lead tunnel during construction which allowed the workers and engineers to assess and ascertain the uncharted ground conditions before advancing the main tunnels. Basing on the existing geotechnical investigations, past tunneling expeditions and two additional geotechnical and geophysical surveys carried out by TML on the English Channel along the proposed tunnel line, it was ascertained that there was a distinct sub-unit of the Lower Chalk layer known as the Chalk Marl running continuously between the two terminals. Chalk Marl, made up of alternating bands of marly chalk and limestone, was found to be the best tunneling medium as it was essentially impermeable (due to its high clay content) and provided good short term stability under excavation, thus minimizing the number of supports required (Figure 5). It was designed to be bored in the bottom 15m of the Chalk Marl layer to minimize the ingress of water from the fractures and joints, but above the Gault clay which is susceptible to swelling when wet, imposing high stresses on the tunnel lining. The chalk marl strata dipped gently at less than 5o with smaller displacements of less than 2m d ue to faulting towards the UK side; whereas the strata dipped severely towards the French side (up to 20o) with much larger displacements of up to 15m (Gueterbock, 1992). Chalk at the French side was also harder, more brittle and fractured. This thus led to the use of different tunneling methods on the English and French sides. The seaward and landward bores for all three tunnels on the UK side began at Shakespeare Cliff. Construction traffic would enter the tunnel via a new inclined access (Adit A2) at the Lower Shakespeare site, while worker access was built via a shaft driven to the tunnel level from the Upper Shakespeare site (Gueterbock, 1992). Due to the fast construction time required and the relatively dry chalk marl at the UK side, it was assessed that the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) was most suitable for the UK tunnels. One feature of the NATM was the interlinking of design, construction method, sequence and plant and the success of this method depended on the continuous integration of these elements by the tunneling engineers. Six TBMs were used to drive the UK tunnels spanning a total distance of 84km. The TBMs were operated on an open-face mode with a front excavating section and a rear gripper unit which acted as a temporary anchor point when the cutting head drove forward at 1.5m inc rements (Anderson Roskrow, 1994). Excavation of the tunnel and erection of the tunnel linings were carried out concurrently. Depending on ground conditions, the thickness of the linings ranged between 380mm and 500mm. Expanded concrete lining was used for the UK tunnels where the unbolted lining was expanded against the excavated ground. Pads on the back of the lining allowed the formation of an annulus to be filled with grout to prevent water ingress (Byrd, 1996). Each 1.5m lining ring was made up of eight precast concrete segments with a key segment. Cast iron lining segments were only used in poor ground conditions. Over at the other side, the tunnel drives started at the shaft in Sangatte in France. Due to the highly fissured ground resulting in very wet conditions on the French side, a different type of TBM known as the Earth Pressure Balance Machine was used. The TBMs were designed to operate both in open and closed modes. Close mode is characterized by the sealing off of the machine from the spoil around it and the cutting head, thus keeping pressure on the dirt in front as it excavated and allowing the machine to work in the dry as the pressure in the machine was higher than the outside. The arrangement of seals on the TBM allowed it to withstand up to 10 atmospheric pressures. When the TBMs reached dryer and more favourable grounds, they could then switch to open mode. While precast sections were also used on the French side, the materials used were different owing to the different soil conditions: neoprene and grout sealed bolted linings made of cast-iron and high strength concrete (Ander son Roskrow, 1994). The French tunnels were made of six 1.4 to 1.6m wide segments plus a key segment. A total of 5 TBMs were employed on the French side, and the bores from the UK and France were to finally meet in the middle of the English Channel in the tunnel breakthrough phase. The Channel Tunnel project was huge by any standard, with a number of key factors that could potentially impact the parties involved: bi-nationality, private funding (thereby effectively transferring most of the financial risks to the contractors), schedule and cost. To stay attractive to investors and banks alike, the project had to meet the following priorities: minimum risk of cost overrun, minimum operating cost and maximum traffic revenue. It was recognized, from the outset, that the main challenge of the project was to resolve the logistical support associated with large scale tunneling and the fast-track nature of this project. The management, finance and technical challenges related to this project would be explored in the subsequent paragraphs.

Maggi Brand Consumer Behaviour Research Essay

Well the history of this brand traces back to the 19th century when industrial revolution in Switzerland created factory jobs for women, who were therefore left with very little time to prepare meals. Due to this growing problem Swiss Public Welfare Society asked a miller named Julius Maggi to create a vegetable food product that would be quick to prepare and easy to digest. Julius, the son of an Italian immigrant came up with a formula to bring added taste to meals in 1863. Soon after he was commissioned by the Swiss Public Welfare Society, he came up with two instant pea soups & a bean soup- the first launch of Maggi brand of instant foods in 1882-83. Towards the end of the century, Maggi company was producing not just powdered soups, but bouillon cubes, sauces and other flavorings. However in India(the largest consumer of Maggi noodles in the world! ) it was launched in 1980’s by Nestle group of companies. Maggie had merged with Nestle(This company too has a very interesting history which I will discuss in some other review! ) family in 1947. When launched it had to face a stiff competition from the ready to eat snack segments like biscuits, wafers etc. Also it had other competitor the so called ’home made’ snacks which are till today considered healthy and hygienic. Hence to capture the market it was positioned as a hygienic home made snack, a smart move. But still this didn’t work, as it was targeted towards the wrong target group, the working women. Although the product was developed for this particular purpose. After conducting an extensive research, the firm found that the children were the biggest consumers of Maggi noodles. Quickly a strategy was developed to capture the kids segment with various tools of sales promotion like pencils, fun books, maggi clubs which worked wonders for it. No doubt the ads of maggi have shown a hungry kid saying ’’Mummy bhookh lagi hai’’ to which his mom replies ’’Bas do minute! ’’ and soon he is happily eating Maggie noodles. The company could have easily positioned the product as a meal, but did not, as a study had shown that Indian mentality did not accept anything other than rice or roti as meal. They made it a easy to cook snack that could be prepared in just two minutes. The formula clicked well & maggi became a brand name. That’s precisely what is required in making a product a brand The brand has grown to an estimated 200 crore & contributes to around 10% of Nestle India’s top line. So next time when you are eating this noodles just remember these facts that have gone on to make Maggi a brand. In the early 1980s India was opening up to the world after three and a half decades of self-existence. Till then, the concept of â€Å"fast food† was practically non-existent. Nestle had already been pipped to the post by Cadbury in the milk chocolate segment and it desperately wanted to create a niche for itself in the high potential Indian market. It was then that it realized that it could be a first-mover in the untapped â€Å"instant food† segment. Several years went by and a lot of money was spent and Maggi Noodles was born. The problems had only just begun. The biggest of them was the Indian psyche of the 80s. The conservatism which India showed in their culture boiled down to their palate also. They would rather stick to their Tandoori Chicken or Idli Sambhar than be a little more adventurous in trying a new taste. Maggi Noodles was a new taste from a new culture. It was then that Maggi Noodles became Maggi Instant Two-Minute Noodles. The whole point was to position Maggi as platform of convenience and soul food for the a fast growing section of the Indian population – the working women. Heavy promotion was done on the same lines. But even this did not work. Sales were good but not as good as they wanted it to be. A research was carried out which revealed that the largest consumers of the brand were not the working women but young children in the Indian households. Realizing this, Nestle repositioned their brand using new promotional strategies and smart advertising. Marketing teams were sent out to schools to distribute free Maggi samples to take home. The kids would inevitably take their Maggi packets home and ask their mothers to prepare it for lunch or as a snack. The mothers would find that it took them only two minutes to make a proper hot meal for their children who would love it. They would refer it to their neighbors who would pass it on to distant bachelor cousins who lived alone and had to cook for themselves. Thus, the hugely successful viral campaign ensured that Maggi created a distinct affection in the hearts of its consumers unlike any other proprietary food of its time. But the story was far from over. In 1997, Nissin – the inventor of instant noodles – launched its flagship brand Top Ramen in the Indian market with Shah Rukh Khan – fresh from the success of super hits like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge – endorsing the brand. It was then that Maggi took its first false step – it changed its taste to align itself with that of Top Ramen’s. The results were disastrous. A generation which had grown up on Maggi could not accept the new taste and would rather give Top Ramen a try. Nestle was fast losing ground to Nissin. It took them two years to work out a new strategy – accept the consumer’s verdict and get back to the basics. In 1999, Maggi relaunched itself with its original taste. It paid off handsomely and the faithfuls returned to their master. Top Ramen could no longer sustain the growth it built up in the two years. The next big hurdle came in 2004. The SARS epidemic of 2003 in South East Asia had led to widespread concerns regarding personal hygiene and health. Mothers were now more concerned regarding what their children were eating and maida in general was always considered to be low on the health aspect. In 2005 Maggi launched Atta Noodles with the tagline â€Å"Taste bhi, health bhi. † Although the advertisements showed Atta Noodles replacing the rotis and chapatis, this was never Maggi’s intention. It knew that thinking about that objective was a far cry and the main purpose was to convince mothers that their children was eating the right thing. In this sense, it scored over the Licia and Bambino semolina-based Macaroni products, which, though being an healthier alternative to Maggi, always tried to position themselves as a substitute for wheat based items of daily consumption. Within 10 months, Maggi Atta Noodles was declared a success and now they are foraying further with the â€Å"Taste bhi, Health bhi† campaign with products such as Multi-Grain Noodles. The above examples show that Maggi as a brand knows the customer and is willing to learn from its mistakes. It knows that its USP is convenience to ake and good to eat and it sticks to that without pushing the envelope further in its campaigns. It has also leveraged its success to other food products – the most notable of which is the Maggi ketchup which has garnered a market leader position of about 45% largely thanks to the Maggi brand and its positioning as a â€Å"Different† product ( Remember the tagline – Its different! ). The savior of many students (and especially the ones staying in hostels), there is little doubt as to why many regard Maggi as the greatest invention since the wheel.

All About Any in French

The English word any has numerous French translations, depending on what it means and whether it is used as an adjective, pronoun, or adverb. Any = No Matter Which adjective: nimporte quel You can have any book | Tu peux avoir nimporte quel livreAny chair will do | Nimporte quelle chaise fera laffaireIll watch any programs | Je regarde nimporte quels programmes pronoun: nimporte lequel You can have any one (of them) | Tu peux avoir nimporte lequelAny (one) will do | Nimporte laquelle fera laffaireIll watch any one (of them) | Je regarde nimporte lesquels Any = Some adjective: partitive article Do you have any money? | As-tu de largent  ?Do you want any bread?  | Veux-tu du pain  ?Are there any survivors?  | Y a-t-il des survivants  ? pronoun: adverbial pronoun en Do you have any? | En as-tu  ?Do you want any?  | En veux-tu  ?Are there any? | Y en a-t-il  ? Any = Each and Every adjective: tout Any child can learn French | Tout enfant peut apprendre le franà §aisAny student who talks in class will be punished  | Tout à ©là ¨ve qui parle en classe sera puniAny other response would have been more appropriate  | Toute autre rà ©ponse aurait à ©tà © plus approprià ©e Not Any = None adjective: pas de or, more emphatically, the negative adjective ne... aucun He doesnt have any proof | Il na pas de preuve / Il na aucune preuveI dont have any sisters | Je nai pas de sÅ“ur / Je nai aucune sÅ“urThere isnt any excuse | Il ny a pas dexcuse / Il ny a aucune excuse pronoun: ne... pas or ne... aucun with en We dont want any | Nous nen voulons pas / Nous nen voulons aucunI dont have any | Je nen ai pas / Je nen ai aucuneThere isnt any | Il ny en a pas / Il ny en a aucune Not Any More plus maintenant or ne... plus Do you eat fish? Not any more | Tu manges du poisson  ? Plus maintenantI dont have it any more | Je ne lai plusHe wont help any more  | Il naidera plus Any = Somewhat, a Bit un peu Do you feel any happier? | Te sens-tu un peu plus heureux  ?Is he any taller? | Est-il un peu plus grand  ?Are you any more athletic than David?  | Es-tu un peu plus sportif que David  ?

Angular Velocity