TE1 – Geology of Singapore and Tunnel Design

Dr. Kar Winn is currently working as a sessional lecturer with Newcastle Australia Institute of Higher Education (NAIHE) and a freelance consultant. He is a professional geologist of American Institution of Professional Geologists, a geologist of the Geological Society of London, and a European geologist of the Federation of Geologists, Belgium.

He received his B.Sc. (Geology) from Rangoon Arts & Science University, Myanmar, in 1976, M.Sc. (Geotechnical Engineering), M.Sc. (International Construction Management) and his Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 1999, 2005, and 2019, respectively.

In Myanmar, he worked as an Exploration Geologist with Myanmar Oil Corporation and Myanmar Shell B.V. before moving to Singapore in 1993. He works here in engineering geology, geotechnical engineering, and rock mechanics fields, involving various projects such as geotechnical site investigation and instrumentation, underground rock cavern excavation, cut-and-cover excavation and tunnelling works, rock slope stability analysis, etc.

Dr. Yeo Chong Hun teaches vector calculus, differential equations, numerical methods, linear algebra, ground improvement, soil behaviour and finite element method. His research background include tunnel heading stability, ground shock, liquefaction and deep mixing. He has extensive experience in soil tests, field instrumentation, physical modelling and numerical modelling. He is a technical assessor in the fields of soil tests, rock tests and pile tests. In the area of teaching, he is designing applied methods in the teaching and learning of engineering mathematics. His present research interest is in advanced soil tests and geotechnical model tests.

Mr. Paul has a strong technical background, which he has developed further at Arup since joining the organisation more than 13 years ago. He currently works as an Associate at Arup Singapore and is involved in several ongoing major infrastructure projects throughout the region. He has significant experience in the planning, design, and analysis of tunnelling work, particularly using FE programmes such as FLAC, UDEC, and Plaxis.

Mr. Jeyatharan obtained his Bachelor of Science from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He has worked with few consultants designing major infrastructure for about 10 years before moving to Land Transport Authority to plan and manage designs of major infrastructure projects. He has over 30 years of geotechnical and tunnel engineering experience and has been involved in the design aspects of several road and rail infrastructure projects in Singapore, including site investigations and testing, geotechnical interpretation, earth retaining structures, tunnels, foundations, instrumentation and monitoring and ground improvement. He conducts technical studies on topics such as geotechnical interpretations of deep excavation and tunnelling works etc. and shares his findings regularly in local conferences and seminars.

Dr. Leo has been involved in major infrastructure projects in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. He is a result-oriented and goals-driven engineer with more than 15 years of professional experience encompassing analysis, modelling, design, management, research and development, and tendering and procurement, with excellent foresight and the ability to plan ahead.

His expertise is in Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC). He supported the design and construction of the first precast Steel FRC (SFRC) segmental tunnel linings in Singapore MRT projects, pioneering the future application of SFRC material in the region. He is one of the working group members contributing to the launch of SS674: 2021, Singapore Standard on Fibre Concrete – Design of Fibre Concrete Structures.

Dr. Sigl graduated as Diploma Engineer (MSc) in 1985 from the Technical University of Graz (Austria), in geotechnics and soil mechanics and in 1991 he achieved the PhD in mining engineering at the Mining University of Leoben (Austria). Oskar’s 30 years of experience cover a wide range of projects such as subways, railways, roads, power transmission cables, sewerage mains, underground storage schemes and caverns. Oskar has been working in Singapore since 1997, where he was involved in the detailed design of almost all major underground infra structure projects. This includes the MRT lines, high voltage transmission cable tunnels, underground expressways and deep sewer tunnels. Outside of Singapore, Dr. Sigl was involved in leading roles in the design of underground transportation systems in Dubai, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur as well as the design of underground oil and fuel storage cavern schemes in Saudi Arabia, India and the UAE.