A member of BATT took the most significant international honours

The annual No-Dig Award of the International Society for Trenchless Technologies (ISTT) is given for achievements in five categories, connected with development and application of trenchless technology all over the world.

For the first time 25 years after being established (in 1986), the award in the category “Significant infrastructural project completed with the application of trenchless technology” was won by a project realized in Bulgaria by an entirely local company. The award is given for a water main rehabilitation job in Moderno Predgradie district, Sofia, implemented with the application of Cured-in-place Pipe (CIPP) or also called Phoenix trenchless technology.  

The prize was given by the Chairman of the International Society for Trenchless Technology, Mr. Samuel Ariaratnam to Mr. Pavel Gruev, Deputy Director of Stroitelna Mehanizatsia AD and Mr. Stefan Zhelyazkov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Association for Trenchless Technologies (BATT) at an official ceremony on May 4^th in Berlin, during the International No-Dig Berlin Exhibition, held May 2^nd – 5^th.

“We are proud with the fact that Bulgarian project represents the experience and the potential of our country in the field of trenchless technologies in front of the wourld branch”, Mr. Zhelyazkov said.
“This estimate is a great honour to our team and a real impetus for our forthcoming projects”, Mr. Gruev emphasized.

The project that won the award is for rehabilitation of 850 m long water main with large diameter. The project implementation was impeded due not only to bad weather conditions but also to the fact that the pipe passes under a railway. Divided in 9 sections, the pipeline was rehabilitated within the time limits, although, in order to rehabilitate the sections with length of above 70 m, the contractor had to design and manufacture a new machine with inversion vessel with diameter of 3000 mm and width which is enough to take 1200 mm liner. Calculated in kilograms, 45 tons of liner and resin were installed within 35 days, including 3 days Christmas holidays and 3 days New Year’s holiday. For the realization of this large project Sofiiska Voda invested more than 1,89 mio. levs.    

The distinguished ceremony was held in the beautiful Charlottenburg castle in Berlin that has an almost 400-year history. The castle which is the largest one in the city has been a summer residence of the Prussian kings and impresses with its early baroque architecture and stylish interior design. Participants in the event were experts in trenchless technology branch from all parts of the world. Official guests on the Bulgarian part were Mr. Hristo Stankov, Director, Directorate Commercial companies and state enterprises in the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW);  representative of departments – Ms. Vanya Videnova from MRDPW and Ms. Svetla Ivanova from the Ministry of environment and Waters (MEW).