The Japan Tunnelling Association (JTA) and International Tunnelling Association (ITA) sponsored the Shotcrete for Underground Support IX Conference held in Kyoto, Japan, from November 17-20, 2002. It is a cooperative conference with the United Engineering Foundation, New York, which sponsored the previous eight conferences, the first of which was held 30 years ago. A total of 35 papers were presented at the conference, 34 of which are published in a proceedings available from the JTA. The conference was chaired by Koichi Ono, Professor, Kyoto University, Japan, and co-chaired by D. R. (Rusty) Morgan, Chief Materials Engineer, AMEC Earth & Environmental Limited, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The conference was a resounding success. It was attended by over 70 delegates, with papers from Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Canada, Brazil, France, Finland, Norway, and Switzerland. Keynote addresses were given by Koichi Ono from Japan on œShotcrete Use in Tunnelling Works in Japan (over 2 million m3 per annum); Minema Ikoma from the Japan Railway Construction