Tough and delicate hard construction work

Hiroshima Expressway 5 Shield Tunnel Construction Project, currently under construction, is a 4.0 km route connecting the north exit of JR Hiroshima Station and the Nukushina Junction. A 1.8 km tunnel is located on the north side of JR Hiroshima Station, of which 1.4 km is being excavated by shield construction (as of October 2021).

The excavated ground consists of hard granite bedrock and during the excavation, the site is under severe conditions of water pressure equivalent to a maximum water depth of 130m. In addition, the ground subsidence countermeasure standard for excavating directly under the residential area is decided to be at an unprecedentedly strict value of 2.4mm.

This is the most technically challenging work among 17 shield tunnelling projects at 7 different sites that I have been involved in.

Taking Pride in being a shield tunnel professional with abundant experience

Starting with construction in Nagoya in 2002, I have been involved in shield tunnelling for about 20 years, including a total of about seven years overseas in Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore. In Bangkok, Thailand, in particular, I experienced difficulties in not only construction work itself but also staff management.

The difficulties ranged from hiring local people and teaching work to novices beyond language barriers to labor piracy. Through these experiences, I have developed leadership abilities.

Taking pride in being a shield tunneling professional, I took on the challenge of acquiring qualifications, and over four years I became certified as a Professional Engineer (Construction Division, Tunnelling).

The experience and knowledge successfully bore fruit ― at the previous construction site I was engaged in, I developed an efficient construction method and patented it.

Efforts and attitude as a construction management professional

Every construction manager has his or her own way of approaching the work. I believe that three things are important as a professional construction manager: expertise, a strong sense of responsibility, and problem-solving ability.

We sometimes outsource design and surveying, but without specialized knowledge, we cannot check the validity of the work. Even in tunneling, the knowledge acquired through regular work is limited, so we need to keep learning new ideas outside our domains. Also, underground excavation is fraught with dangers and the unexpected, and a large-scale construction project can be halted with the slightest mistake, so we must always remember the responsibility our instructions and actions carry with them.

Issues large and small occur on-site, many of which we have never experienced before. To deal with the problems promptly, we need to grasp the situations, find out the causes and come up with countermeasures, using the ability to think logically and in order.

Sharing the joy of breakthrough with local residents

The current project has the longest construction period I have ever experienced, and it is also one of the most technically demanding. The sense of accomplishment upon completion of any construction site is indescribable, but this one will perhaps be even more so.
I look forward to sharing the joy of completion with the local residents.