Dr. Martin Herrenknecht receives the STUVA Prize 2005 in Leipzig.

?Herrenknecht?s success story is unique,? explained the Chairman of the STUVA Board, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Ziegler, of the decision to award Dr. Martin Herrenknecht with the STUVA Prize 2005 during his speech. In 30 years Dr. Martin Herrenknecht has turned a one-man-business into world market leader in tunnelling technology with a 1,700-employee company. He also said: ?I remember the beginnings of the company very well, when I was working as an intern during a 1.2m diameter Pipe Jacking project in Luxembourg, where the first Herrenknecht excavator was used. On this jobsite it was today?s Chairman of the Board of Management, Martin Herrenknecht, and his Board Member colleague, Gebhard Lehmann, who were working in overalls to solve problems right away?

?Today we keep on being amazed at the company?s fast and continuous worldwide growth?. Prof. Martin Ziegler declares that such a success can only be reached by somebody ?with a sound technical knowledge, the courage for innovations, the readiness to run entrepreneurial risks, the ability to motivate his employees and, most importantly, the ability to maintain visionary foresight even in the tough daily business routine?. Therefore it was easy for the STUVA jury, consisting of the STUVA Executive Board Members, to unanimously chose the entrepreneur Martin Herrenknecht for the award, since he possesses all these qualities. The STUVA Prize has been awarded five times before. One aim of the award is to promote the use of the underground among experts and the general public.

In 2003 the Swiss large-scale projects of the New Alpine Transversal ?Loetschberg Base Tunnel? and the ?Gotthard Base Tunnel? won the STUVA Prize. In Leipzig Dr. Martin Herrenknecht thanked the STUVA for this special award, but he also thanked his engineers, in particular, Gebhard Lehmann (Member of the Board of Management, Traffic Tunnelling Machines), Werner Suhm (Member of the Board of Management, Utility Tunnelling Machines) as well as Werner Burger (Head of the Traffic Tunnelling Machines design department). ?This achievement would have been impossible without their commitment,? declared the award winner. Dr. Martin Herrenknecht has received a number of awards over the last few years.

Since 1987 he has received the following honors and awards:

1987:    Baden-Wuerttemberg Industry Award

1993:    Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

1998:    ?Honorable Phd? awarded by the Civil Engineering and Surveying Faculty of the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina at Brunswick

2002:    ?1st Innovation Award of Karlsruhe for Construction Endeavors? awarded by the Society of Friends of the Institute for Technology and Management in Construction, Karlsruhe University (Technical Institute)

2002:    Distinguished Service Medal of the State Baden-Wuerttemberg

2002:    Guest Professor at the Colorado School of Mines, Colorado, USA

2005:    Prize of the Research Association for Underground Transportation Facilities Inc. (STUVA), Cologne, Germany

2005:    ?Good News Award? awarded by the German news channel N24