From 5th to 7th December the 5th International Exhibition for Tunnelling and underground Excavation took place in Basel, Suiss. It revealed itself to be a good opportunity for our company to let the special Ecospritz cement be known both to the Swiss market and to the Central Europe. Besides being geographically near to Italy, Swiss is the European Country which shares with us the leadership in road network in tunnel and its land is now being object of a very important tunnelling activity. Jobs in Gottardo and Lötschberg tunnels are being done and as far as the latest is concerned, as well as for Ardez job-site, tests with Ecospritz Gunite and Binder have been successfully carried out.
Intertunnel 2001 is a key event for the tunnel industry and underground excavation including road, rail, water, hydroelectric and more.
Many associated events and conferences about the aspects of tunnel management systems could be taken part in.

Olmo outdistances the field and wins the Desert Cup
While the sun beats down inexorably on the sandy dunes, your skin starts to boil, your throat becomes parched from the heat, the fatigue, and the thirst: how many hundreds of kilometers has Marco Olmo run under conditions that are at the very brink of human limits?
Thirteen years ago at the age of 40, the athlete from Robilante hung up his skis after a successful downhill racing career, and started participating in extreme running competitions in the desert, reaping one success after the other. By now he is a veteran at the famous Marathon des Sables in Morocco, having competed six times and coming in third three times. Last year he won both the Desert Marathon in Libya (for the third time) and the Desert Cup in Jordan.
This year was no different - in May he won the Sinai Marathon of the 10 Commandments (climbing the biblical ascent where Moses received the Commandments in record time), in July he won the Trail du Verdon in France, and on June 16 and 17 the 1° Grand Raid International “Sur les traces de Cromagnon”, all at 2000 meters. The 100 km race, which varied between 5500 and 6500 meters, started from Limone Piemonte (Cn), and climbed up mule paths and descended down precipitous trails to the Marquet beach at Cap d’Ail, not far from the Louis II stadium: Olmo ran it in 12 hours and 10 minutes, winning by 2 hours and 54 minutes.
Also this year, he participated in the Bad Water Ultramarathon in the desert in California, considered the most extreme and prestigious ultra marathon in the world. 135 miles non-stop between Death Valley and the gateway to Mount Whitney, which climbed from -282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the entire United States, to more than 8300 feet above sea level, at temperatures higher than 126 F° (approx. 52 °C).
What is the secret of this man who spends his Saturdays and Sundays alone in the mountains where he was born and has always lived? Every day that he is not working at the Buzzi Unicem quarry at Robilante, Marco – with a backpack on his back – trains by doing “long ones”, or long distance runs for seven or eight hours on the old trails that crisscross the Val Gesso, formerly busy throughways to France and now the kingdom of eagles and mountain goats. In the afternoon, when he leaves the receiving area of the quarry crushing facility, he can be found on the roads and byways of the villages around Robilante. For years he has been a fervent vegetarian, eating mainly chestnuts, potatoes, and pasta. “Every day – he tells us – I train for at least two hours, even running on the state highway, but whenever possible I prefer to run in the mountains or the desert, because it is only there, when I am alone with my own heart beating and my endorphins and adrenalin have been stimulated by the running, that I can think and arrive at important decisions”.

ICMQ has just awarded the Environmental Management System certification under the UNI EN ISO 14001 standard to Unimed S.p.A.’s cement plant at Barletta.
With this certification, Barletta becomes the third cement plant in Italy and the second production site belonging to the Buzzi Unicem Group, to obtain this important recognition, and supports the commitment, principles, and main goals of our Corporate Policy, which strives to achieve maximum environmental efficiency and total compliance with the most current environmental standards.
Because the environment, health, and safety are so interconnected that it is impossible to manage and control one aspect without including the others, our corporate certification plan intends to voluntarily integrate the Environmental Management System with the management of health and safety, in compliance with both the UNI EN ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) standards.
This modern management tool gives the Group an important opportunity to demonstrate the positive aspects of our ecological and environmental responsibilities and to certify the high standards and efficiency of our prevention and protection measures, which are in keeping with the new European legislative philosophy that is seeking to redefine and promote the streamlining of bureaucratic and administrative processes.
To achieve this important goal, we will gradually implement the Integrated Environmental and Safety Management System in our cement manufacturing facilities.

Massimo Calzolari (Marzaglia), Michele Guarino (Barletta), Mario Giordanino and Marco Olmo (Robilante), Giancarlo Losi and Mariano Proietti (Piacenza) Augusto Mari (Guidonia), Edoardo Sirchia (Casale Monferrato)
covered 150 laps (60 km) during the 4-hour race, running for an average of 7.5 km in their 30' run.
The coach Marco Massini, the cement sales coordinator for the Emilia-Romagna region, supported and led his "pupils" to a prestigious 5th place (over 35 teams), which is a major technical result. Each team of the Piacenza team relay is made up of eight runners; each runner has to run for 30 minutes and the winner is the team that covers the highest number of laps. This race - now at its 5th edition - is held every year to remember Silvano Ruffo, an athlete from Piacenza who was the victim of a fatal accident at work in 1996.
The mayor of Piacenza presented Marco Olmo with a special award for his legendary exploits and for thanking him for participating to the Ruffo Memorial, which is the only road race to which "the king of the sands" takes part. Despite the soreness from his last "Marathon des Sables" in Morocco and the fact that for him, who is used to longer distances, it's difficult to find his pace in such a short time, he was the 16th best athlete. At present he's getting ready to leave for "The Ten Commandments", the Egyptian marathon that will be held in Sinai from April 29th to May 6th.