ConcepT Study Tour 2024 Pacific Perspectives
From September 27 till October 21, 28 students of the ConcepT Study Association of Civil Engineering visited Taiwan and Australia. Baran Ulak and Vasilis Kitsikoudis joined the Taiwan week. I had the honor to join this great group of students during the two week visit of Melbourne and Sydney.
The Australian journey started with what turned out be one of the first highlights: a trip along the Great Ocean Road with a focus on erosion and coastal protection measures. This excursion was excellently guided by a civil engineering professor from the University of Melbourne. Other highlights were a visit to the Warragamba dam, an insanely large water dam responsible for Sydney's drinking water supply, and the Sydney Metro West project, the largest metro tunneling project of Australia. Other great excursions, amongst others, were the Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Sydney Warringah Freeway Upgrade, the University of New South Wales water research laboratory, Sydney’s Circular Quay project and the Living Seawalls (see https://studytourconcept.nl/). In the evenings, students gathered at pubs to enjoy drinks or headed out into the city to enjoy Melbourne's or Sydney’s vibrant nightlife!
The project excursions showed, compared to Australia, the high level of innovativeness of civil engineering in the Netherlands in terms of technological innovations, construction and water management, circularity and renewable energy and investments in public transport. This was also confirmed during our visit at the Dutch Consulate-General in Sydney. In particular, I was proud on our UT civil engineering students who asked the Australian project consultants and advisors hard and in-depth questions they often could not answer. Or as one consultant of a large road construction project in Sydney said afterwards: 'through these questions I have to think more critically about my own projects.'
Finally, Baran, Vasilis and I would like to thank the ConcepT organizing committee for the excellent organization of this great journey!
Hans Voordijk
Associate Professor Construction Engineering and Management
