NSW Air Quality Working Group
The Australian Tunnelling Society recognises the importance of health and safety in our industry in addition to valuing the strong experience and contribution of our members to support key stakeholders in our ever-growing sector. Collaboration with industry stakeholders is essential to both raise awareness of the important issue of silica dust control, but also to enable effective strategies to be developed that are practical and a positive step forward.
The Air Quality Working Group (AQWG) was formed in 2017 as a collaborative platform to enable industry to work together to develop and implement health strategies in conjunction with regulatory efforts to improve occupational health outcomes, with an initial focus on respirable crystalline silica (“silica dust”). Over the past 12-months, the AQWG membership have worked to collectively produce reference material that currently does not exist in the tunnel construction industry’s body of knowledge. This information is considered to benefit the wider tunnelling industry and therefore is now made freely available on the ATS website.
- AQWG Part 1 of 12 – Background and Methodology
- AQWG Part 2 of 12 – ATS Good Practice
- AQWG Part 3 of 12 – Silica Dust Awareness Package
- AQWG Part 4 of 12 – Speakers Notes
- AQWG Part 5 of 12 – Design & Procurement Industry Considerations
- AQWG Part 6 of 12 – Scrubber System Case Study
- AQWG Part 7 of 12 – Ventilation during Tunnel Construction Industry Considerations
- AQWG Part 8 of 12 – Portal Misting System Case Study
- AQWG Part 9 of 12 – Roadheader Cabin Air Filtration Case Study
- AQWG Part 10 of 12 – RPE Industry Considerations
- AQWG Part 11 of 12 – Monitoring RCS Exposure Industry Considerations
- AQWG Part 12 of 12 – Health Monitoring Industry Considerations
If you have any queries or comments relating to this initial release of information from the working group, get in touch via the Contact Us section of the ATS website.
Tunnel Design Working Group
Due to many developments in tunnel design in Australia over a period of many years, the Australian Tunnelling Society (ATS) has recognised the requirement to establish a guideline of tunnel design practice in Australia. During the Tunnel Design Short Course in 2018 held in Melbourne, the ATS Young Members (<35 years) recognised this deficiency and suggested a Working Group to develop a best practice guideline for Australian tunnel design. This group is supported by the ATS executive committee with the Young Members. The Design Guideline is available to ATS members via the “Members Section“.