Tunnelling Boom In Australia: Prospect Of Educating Tunnel Engineers

Australia is in the middle of an infrastructure boom. Nine out of twelve of Australia’s current largest infrastructure projects are tunnelling projects. The value of the planned underground projects in Sydney and Melbourne is over $40 billion. The avoidable social costs of congestion are estimated to increase in all eight Australian capital cities by 2030. To address this problem, the focus is on the development of underground space. Extensive state and federal government infrastructure programs have increased public investment in civil infrastructure programs and are expected to drive growth in the sector over the next 20 years. Despite the number of international companies joining the local market, the issue of recruiting skilled workforce is significant. The professional skills shortage within the local tunnel consulting industry is a major threat to Australia’s underground projects. This paper investigates the benefits of offering tertiary degrees in Australia on tunnelling and development of underground space-related topics. Requirements to establish a tunnel engineering degree with the main focus on current industry skills and knowledge requirements are presented.