CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of ATTIKO METRO S.A. Mr. Nikolaos Kouretas Greeting speech, at the 3rd European Regional Conference of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG)
ATTIKO METRO S.A. participated as a sponsor in the 3rd European Regional Conference of the IAEG held in Athens from October 6th to October 10th under the auspices of the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport.
CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of ATTIKO METRO S.A. Mr. Nikolaos Kouretas extended greetings at the opening ceremony of the conference stressing, inter alia, the following: “The Metro, being an urban tunnelling project, is by nature required to be constructed in a safe, timely and cost-effective manner and the importance of engineering geology in all these three aspects is greatly appreciated”.
Particular reference was made to the honorary president of the IAEG, professor pier of Metsovio National Technical University Mr. Pavlos Marinos, who has recently passed away and has been ATTIKO METRO S.A. lead engineering geology consultant and an expert on TBM issues in all ATTIKO METRO S.A. projects.
Mr. Kouretas made a particular reference to the temporal contribution of ATTIKO METRO S.A. projects to the archaeological investigation works, as well as to the preservation and revealing of the cultural heritage in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki.
Closing his speech, Mr. Kouretas stressed as follows: “Now, we have ahead of us the construction of Section A of Line 4, the biggest infrastructure project in Greece. A separate line that incorporates approximately 13 km of mainly TBM tunnelling and 15 stations”.
A number of professionals, several companies operating in the fields of the design and construction of major infrastructure projects, as well as members of the Academic Community participated in this conference.
The complete text of the speech of the CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of ATTIKO METRO S.A. Mr. Nikolaos Kouretas is presented here-below.
CEO and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Attiko Metro S.A. Mr. Nikolaos Kouretas
Greeting speech at the 3rd European Regional Conference of IAEG – EUROENGEO 2020
Divani Caravel Hotel, Athens, October 8th 2021, 09:00 – 10:00
Dear participants, distinguished guests,
It is a great honour for me, both personally and as a representative of Attiko Metro S.A., to address
your conference which is organized by the “Hellenic Committee of Engineering Geology” and the
“International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment”.
Attiko Metro S.A. is the state-owned company that is responsible for the implementation and development of the Metro networks of the two major metropolitan areas of Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki. Attiko Metro is a company that is affiliated with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport which has also endorsed the conference.
The metro, being an urban tunnelling project, is by nature required to be constructed in a safe, timely and cost-effective manner and the importance of engineering geology in all these three aspects is greatly appreciated. But the connection of Attiko Metro and the International Association is more “personal” and goes back to the early years of the base project of Athens. The past president of the Association, the esteemed professor Paul Marinos, has been our lead engineering geology consultant from these days to the more recent years.
Urban tunnelling projects rely on the accurate engineering geological modelling of the ground conditions as well as the continuous and real-time geotechnical monitoring of the ground and buildings’ response to the excavation works. From the beginning of the project, these two tasks have been entrusted by our company to the department of engineering geology and the job they have been doing is representative of the goals of Attiko Metro; innovative and efficient.
The geological environment of the metropolitan area of Athens is characterized by the presence of heterogeneous and complex rock masses. So complex that based on the Monastiraki Station rock mass conditions, the Marinos and Hoek GSI system, with the collaboration of our Engineering Geology department, was revised and extended to allow for the characterization of the sheared and laminated Athens Schist. Furthermore, Attiko Metro has issued guidelines to standardize the logging of such rock masses and has incorporated these guidelines into the project specifications. Specifications with full compliance with the provisions of Eurocode 7, for which, the introduction, by Attiko Metro, of the Hellenic Soils Classification System (HSCS) has also contributed.
Attiko Metro has been conducting extensive ground investigations in order to determine the engineering geological conditions along the underground works of the Athens Metro. These investigations have incorporated the drilling of more than 2.300 sampling boreholes. Recently, the department of engineering geology has issued a new and revised geological map of the Athens metropolitan area based on the findings of this enormous geological database. A database that is also physical since the samples of approximately 1300 boreholes, despite the logistic difficulties, are currently preserved in a storage facility at one of our stations. We are considering making these samples, as well as the future borehole samples, available to the scientific community.
As early as 2000, Attiko Metro has started the development of world-class ad-hoc information management systems and analysis of the recorded data from start to completion of all projects, in order to achieve secure, timely and comprehensive management of the monitoring data related to the construction. Since 2004, the Geomechanical and Structural Monitoring Data Management System has been integrated, a system that has the ability to evaluate the data in order to immediately and timely notify users in cases of records that deviate from pre-defined alert and
alarm limits.
Browsing through the conference sessions, it is hard not to come across a topic that plays an important role in the projects of Attiko Metro; ground investigation, behaviour of soils and rocks, environmental engineering geology… But for us, one that has a special place in our hearts is the Cultural Heritage Protection.
The Metropolitan areas of Athens and Thessaloniki have a long and continuous history from the antiquity to the medieval times and up to the modern era. The metro works serve as an enormous archaeological investigation and for this reason they are undertaken under constant supervision by archaeologists.
Every effort is being put in the retrieval, protection and preservation of the numerous artefacts that have been unearthed, some of them invaluable. More recently, at the Venizelos station in Thessaloniki, Attiko Metro is undertaking the most significant task of the detachment and repositioning of the “Ancient Byzantine Road”.
A significant number of stations, both in Athens and Thessaloniki, have been planned to serve as “open museums” with displays of significant findings within them for every passenger to admire.
This is one of the many ways that Attiko Metro S.A. implements its social responsibility and gives back to the community.
And now, we have ahead of us the construction of Section A of Line 4, the biggest infrastructure project in Greece. A separate line that incorporates approximately 13 km of mainly TBM tunneling and 15 stations.
Closing my speech, I would like to extend my most sincere wishes for a productive and fruitful conference.
Thank you.
