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www.engineeringnews.co.nz 71 E N V I R O N M E N T ARANZ GEO EXTENDS REACH INTO ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY CHALLENGES Kiwi technology is enabling management of global earth, environmental and energy challenges ARANZ Geo is extending its global influence into new areas to contribute geological understanding to the management of some of the earth’s significant environmental and climate change driven challenges.  Shaun Maloney, ceo of ARANZ Geo says, “We’re contributing to a wider variety of projects that target some of the major global environment and energy challenges we face.  This is a shift from our origins as a mining-centric business, and will increase our reach and depth to open up a new world of opportunity. “Our strategy is already gaining traction. We’re contributing to geothermal energy work with NGOs around the world, hydro dams in Turkey, transport tunnels in the EU, and a wide range of water quality and resource management projects.” One such project sees ARANZ Geo technology contributing to the Yusufeli dam and hydroelectric power plant project, currently under construction the Coruh valley in the north-east of Turkey, which will be the third highest arch dam in the world.  The dam will have a height of 273m, capacity of 2.2 billion m3, a reservoir size of 33.63km²; and energy production of 540MW, 1,827GWh/year.  Mr Maloney says, “Consulting heavy-weight iC consulenten based in Austria has a team of engineering geological and geotechnical experts using Leapfrog Geo to establish computer based 3D ground models for the project. These models help bring a new level of insight into site investigation and excavation design.” Design teams in Austria and Slovenia are also working on the second tube for the Karavanke tunnel, a 7820m long two-lane tunnel tube through the Alps. The tunnel adds to the existing tube of the Karavanke Tunnel constructed in the 1980s, a critical section on the Pan-European Transport Corridor X. Elea iC is the leading partner of the Joint Venture Karavanke on the Slovenian side, whilst iC consulenten is a partner of the “Planungsgemeinschaft Karawankentunnel” on the Austrian side. Leapfrog Geo is used for geological modelling for both projects. “The geology in the area is very complex and the initial tunnel encountered difficult geological conditions with frequent strong water inflow, overbreaks and methane seeps.  The opportunity with the new Karavanke tunnel is to test emerging technologies and move engineering geology, geotechnics and tunnelling to another level by using 3D modelling in this design phase of the project,” says Mr Maloney. ARANZ Geo are now contributing technology and solutions to enable dozens of earth, environmental and energy projects around the world, both from their global headquarters in New Zealand, as well as, from a score of offices around the world.


EN-May17-eMag
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