Rotterdam, The Netherlands – During the opening program of the No-Dig Conference in Ahoy’ Rotterdam the winners of the annual ISTT No-Dig Awards are presented in four categories: best project, best product, best academic work or research and best student paper. The award is made to bring into the daylight the achievements of trenchless technologists during the past year which are otherwise underground by the general public.

The winners this year are:

Best project:
Mr. Nicola Massella, TRENCHLESS TECHNOLOGY ITALIA srl for a spectacular project to provide a new water supply to the town of Riva on Lake Garda, Italy by drilling almost vertically through solid rock.

Best product:
ShieldLiner Ltd, Australia (Mr. John Hassen) for a totally new development for installing “Cured in Place Pipe” where the resin and pipe felt are offered separately in the pipe itself.

Best academic work or research:
Prof. Dr Stein & Partners GmbH (Mr. Robert Stein) for UNITRACC, an online decision making and training platform for trenchless technology.

Best student paper:
John Mathews, Louisiana State Technical University USA for his paper on “Interactive Software for the Selection of Technologies for Installation and Replacement of Utilities”

For three days Ahoy’ Rotterdam will host ‘No-Dig 2005’. For the first time in fifteen years specialists from all over the world meet in the Netherlands for this one-off international conference on trenchless technology. A trade fair for suppliers and clients of directional drilling will be held alongside the conference. No-Dig 2005 is taking place from 19 to 21 September in Ahoy’ Rotterdam. No-Dig 2005 is organised by Ahoy’ Rotterdam in collaboration with Kivi-Niria by order of the International Society for Trenchless Technology (ISTT) and the Netherlands Society for Trechnless Technology (NSTT).