(New) 2012 - Tunneling Magazine

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Tunneling
north american
June/July 2012
journal
www.tunnellingjournal.com
STATE-OF-THE-ART AUTOMATED
SEGMENTAL TUNNEL LINER CAROUSEL
MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
and its proprietary molds to produce
over 100 segments each shift
SEE PAGE 5
SEE PAGE 17
DETAILS ON PAGES 20-21
MOLEYS BREAK
THROUGH
ARE WE
HAPPY YET?
CUTTING EDGE
ROUND UP
SPADINA PROGRESS
AND OTHER NEWS
FROM AROUND THE US
AND CANADA
CDM SMITHS MIKE

SCHULTZ TALKS
ABOUT ALTERNATIVE
DELIVERY METHODS
HIGHLIGHTS FROM A
SUCCESSFUL
PRESSURIZED TBM
EVENT IN MIAMI
TJ_0612_OUTSIDE_FNT_COVER_PLUS_SPINE_001.qxd:cover
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Tunnelling
June/July 2012
The international journal for the tunnelling industry
journal
SEE PAGE 6
SEE PAGE 26
SEE PAGE 43
TJ WORLD
NEWS
SFR LINING
DESIGN
ISSUES
PROBE
DRILLING
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
THE TJ WEBSITES
DAILY NEWS
SERVICE
MODERN DESIGN
CHALLENGES FOR
SFR SEGMENTAL
LININGS
SUCCESSFUL
TBM PROBE
DRILLING AND
PRE-GROUTING
EXPLAINED
TUNNELLING JOURNAL JUNE/JULY 2012
THE SPARVO TUNNEL

MEGA TBM
THE FUTURE OF SEGMENTAL LININGS

VIEW FROM ACADEMIA
MAN VERSUS NATURE

No two tunnels are the same. Every project has its own challenges.
Even basic elements like ground conditions often change during the bore.
To resolve any issues that you encounter, Robbins provides a full range
of support including engineering staff and on-site field service technicians.
From mixed ground to high cover conditions, weve helped our customers
overcome hundreds of challenges over the last 60 years.
We keep you advancing.
TJ_0612_CONTENTS_003.qxd:Feature
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contentS
5
6
10
Above: Sparvo
segments (p10)
Right: Pre-cast
segmental linings
are seeing a
plethora of areas
where
modernisation
looks set to
radically change
methodology
(p18)
Above: Steel
cages could
become a thing
of the past (p32)
Right: Brisbanes
Airport Link
Tunnel is
currently the
largest diameter
steel fibre
re-inforced
segmental
lining (p26)
Editors comment
Snapshots of
www.tunnellingjournal.com news
Sparvo Giant worlds biggest TBM
The world's biggest TBM has been
getting into its stride in Italy's jumbled
Apennine mountains. Report and
pictures by Adrian Greeman
16
18
Letters
26
Design challenges for SFR segmental

linings
Halcrows Anthony Harding and Malcolm
Chappell discuss the ever increasing use
of steel fibre reinforced concrete for
segmental linings
32
Synthetic fibres the viable

alternative?
Garry Martin of Elastoplastic Concrete
(Europe) puts forward the case for using
structural synthetic fibres as a replacement
for steel mesh and steel fibres in precast
segmental linings
35
Waterproofing SCL tunnels

Dr Benot Jones, of the University of
Warwick, looks at the underlying
mechanisms behind waterproofing
design philosophies for sprayed concrete
tunnels
38
The TJ Linkedin Group drill & blast

debate
TJs Linkedin group has been throwing up
some interesting discussion again - this
time on the subject of Drill & Blast v TBM
43
TBM probe drilling and pre-grouting

Desiree Willis of The Robbins Company
explains some of the essential factors
surrounding a successful TBM probe
drilling and pre-grouting campaign
46
Validating Rock Mass Strength

Criterion
Alex Lowson and Richard Bieniawski
validate the modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski
Rock Mass Strength Criterion
52
54
Product News
The future of pre-cast segments

Kristina Smith speaks to designers and
manufacturers about what they thought
the most important recent changes in precast concrete segment design have been
Contacts
TUNNELLING JOURNAL 3
12-06-13_159_ID186_eAz_VSM Seattle_Tunnelling Journal NA_210x297mm_4c_oc_Version A/Fassung 03
h e r r e n k n e c h t A G | u t i l i t y t u n n e l l i n g | T r a f f i c t u n n e l l i n g U S A
USA : POWERFUL PRE M IERE OF

THE VSM TECHN O LOGY OF H er renknecht.
Successful premiere of a Vertical Shaft Sinking Machine (VSM) from Herrenknecht in the USA:
As part of the Ballard Siphon Project in Seattle, where a 77-year-old wooden sewer is being
replaced and an additional sewer pipeline is being installed, the VSM10000 is showing its
strengths. The VSM created a 45 meter deep launch shaft with a diameter of 9 meters for the
Herrenknecht EPB Shield, which will create approximately 600 meters of the new sewer tunnel.
By using the VSM technique the caisson was sunk safely and with a very high vertical
accuracy. Even under water, the construction crew from Fowler was able to successfully sink
the launch shaft in just 4 weeks.
Herrenknecht VSM technology has proved its advantages in comparison to conventional
shaft construction. The parallel, low-noise sinking and lining of shafts, as well as the m
odular
machine design guarantee rapid construction progress even on inner-city construction sites
with restricted space. As personnel no longer have to work in the shaft during the excavation
process, operational safety has increased significantly.
This major project is well on course so that the EPB machine from Herrenknecht can
start operations as planned.
s e a t t l e | u sa
PR OJEC T D ATA
CONT RACTOR
VSM10000, Vertical
Shaft Sinking Machine
Diameter: 9,000mm
Max. torque: 80kNm
Shaft depth: 45m
Geology: sand, gravel, clay
J.W. Fowler
Herrenknecht Tunnelling
Systems USA, Inc.
1613 132nd Ave E, Suite 200
Sumner, WA 98390
Phone +12534472300
Fax +12538639376
marketing@herrenknecht.com
www.herrenknecht.com
12-06-13_159_ID186_eAz_VSMSeattle_TunnellingJournalNA_210x297_03_bp.indd 1
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editorScomment
Looking at the hard or
the soft option?
ITS FASCINATING how
tunnelling can be split into two
almost completely opposing
disciplines even mindsets, with
some people having a vast
working knowledge of one, and
virtually no idea about the other.
Im talking about what some
refer to as hard engineering,
things like massive TBMs and
segment manufacture, blowing
things up etc, and soft
engineering, GBRs, contract
forms, project insurance, the
legalities of claims and the like.
In this issue of TJ we can see
some cracking examples of hard
engineering, and encouragingly
within these some fair degree of
innovation either in practice or in
the pipeline. Take for example the
worlds largest TBM (only for
now) working at Sparvo, in Italy.
The 15.6m diameter EPBM really
is an impressive beast in its own
right, but also on this project we
can see some real ingenuity, for
example in the casing of the
conveyor to protect workers
against the dangers of methane,
and probably more unusual the
floating mechanism for turning
the TBM between drives. In our
look at the future of pre-cast
segmental linings theres some
great forward thinking and
analysis from those interviewed
on where we could, and indeed
are going, with lining design and
segment manufacture. The
Linkedin discussion is a good old
bash at the well trodden TBM v
D&B argument, some good
points made, although it
becomes clear that everyone is
pretty much of the same opinion
even if we go around the
houses somewhat to get there.
But what about the soft side of

our industry? For the most part
engineers agree on methodology,
but can you get anybody to agree
on contract forms, etc, and the
new hot topic GBRs? No we
cant, and thats for the simple
reason that most engineers
would rather watch a fire go out
than spend time pouring over a
subject that doesnt involve huge
machines and vast quantities of
ground being removed.
For example, hands up if you
genuinely understand where we
are with GBRs. And now here
comes the problem, you may
have your hand up, but your
answer could well be completely
different to the person with their
hand up next to you, who
incidentally obviously believes
their opinion is absolutely right.
To be honest, Im not entirely
sure what to think anymore.
Every time I think I know where I
stand a new opinion is throw in
that makes me question my own
judgement!
The truth is, in the chain of our
complex projects - contract
forms, insurance, and very
importantly GBRs come BEFORE
the hard engineering. Get these
wrong and you could be in real
trouble before you even start up
your US$50M machine.
Maybe its time to start
concentrating a little more on
understanding the soft side of
our game and being sure
everybody knows where they
stand right from the start. It may
not involve the big toys but
falling at this hurdle could see
our toys left rusting in the yard.
Most engineers
would rather watch a
fire go out than
spend time pouring
over a subject that
doesnt involve huge
machines and vast
quantities of ground
being moved
Tris Thomas
TJ_0612_NEWS_006_008.qxd:Feature
NEWS FROM THE WEB
12/6/12
Page 6
www.tunnellingjournal.com - breaking industry news first!
Entrustment Agreement signed

for Shatin to Central Link
May 30, 2012
Hong Kongs MTR Corporation has
announced that it has entered into an
Entrustment Agreement with the HKSAR
Government for the construction of the
main works and commissioning of the
17km long, US$4.6bn Shatin to Central Link
(SCL). The line is split into two phases
between Tai Wai in the north and Admiralty
on Hong Kong Island. Phase 1 runs for
11km, 10.6km of which is underground
between Tai Wai and Hung Hom Stations,
whilst the 6km long entirely underground
Phase 2 continues the line from Hung Hom
to Admiralty with a 2km crossing of Victoria
Harbour.
The signing of the Entrustment
Agreement signifies another major
milestone for the railway development in
Hong Kong. The new rail link will provide a
much-needed railway service to East
Kowloon district, including Kai Tak, To Kwa
Wan and Ma Tau Wai areas, said Mr Jay
Walder, the Chief Executive Officer of MTR
Corporation.
Hong Kong tenders TM-CLKL

Tunnel
May 29, 2012
The Hong Kong Highways Department has
issued a prequalification and tender notice
for the Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Link
Northern Connection Sub-sea Tunnel
Section that includes a 5km long dual 2lane sub-sea tunnel between Tuen Mun and
the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong
Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities.
Also included in the contract is
reclamation works to form land of
approximately 16.5 hectares for the tunnel
landfall at Tuen Mun, and associated civil,
structural, building, geotechnical, marine,
water supplies, drainage, sewerage,
landscaping works and reprovisioning works
of affected existing facilities, etc. The works
are expected to commence in the second
quarter of 2013 for completion in the
fourth quarter of 2017. The deadline for
submissions is 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 3
July 2012.
Japanese tunnellers bodies

found
May 28, 2012
The bodies of four tunnel workers missing
since Thursday following an explosion some
1.2km into a 2.8km long tunnel under
construction in Minamiuonuma, Niigata
Prefecture, Japan were located and
recovered in a rescue operation on Sunday
morning, according to local firefighters.
Rescue attempts were put into action
immediately after the explosion at around
10.30am last Thursday, but high levels of
6 TUNNELLING JOURNAL
22:53
flammable gas
hampered operations
later that night. The
four bodies were
finally discovered at
1.15am on Sunday
but high gas levels
made it impossible to
retrieve them until
after 6am.
The four, have
been identified as
Daisuke Kobayashi,
37, an employee of
Tokyo based
contractor Sato
The 6.28m diameter Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corporation EPBM
Kogyo Co which was breaksthrough on Beijings Metro Line 9
building the tunnel,
and Kokichi Koshii, 57, Takafumi Toda, 40,
Beijing Line 9 breakthrough
and Masayuki Otani, 39, all working for a
May 8, 2012
subcontractor.
April 10, 2012, marked a milestone in the
Local press reports say police searched the
construction of the 16.45km long Metro
office of Sato Kogyos Hokuriku branch in
Line 9 in Beijing, when a 6.28m diameter
the city of Toyama in Toyama Prefecture on
CatEPBM made a major breakthrough in a
Sunday morning and two other places on
section with very difficult geological
suspicion of professional negligence
conditions.
resulting in injury.
The project owner, Beijing MTR
Further local reports say the deceased
Corporation, together with the contractor,
tunnellers were preparing to resume work
Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG),
on Thursday morning following a winter
held a celebration ceremony at the
break. The infrastructure ministry has said
construction site together with managers
the tunnel alignment had been changed to
from Caterpillar Tunneling Canada
avoid methane heavy geological strata.
Corporation (previously known as LOVAT).
Chinas official CCTV and other general and
Poor safety is likely blame for
trade media covered the ceremony.
The construction of Lot 6 of the Beijing
deadly Hunan tunnel blast
Metro Line 9 consists of two parallel tunnels
May 24, 2012
with a total length of 1.2km each that pass
Preliminary investigations have confirmed
underneath a lake in the western part of
that the truck suspected of causing a
the capital. It is believed to be the most
deadly blast in a highway tunnel under
difficult section that the alignment has to
construction in Hunan, Central China, was
run through due to the water-rich
in serious violation of safety regulations.
conglomerate containing big boulders
The blast which took place in the 2,355m
(1.2~1.5m), which are rarely seen in other
long Baimianshan tunnel at 8.20am, last
subway projects in China or anywhere else
Saturday (May 19) killed 20 of the 24
around the world.
people working in the tunnel at the time.
Four workers were rescued, one is in a
serious condition and another slightly
injured. Two more escaped injury,
according to provincial authorities. The
injured are being treated in hospital.
The blast occurred as twelve 24kg cases
of explosives were being unloaded from a
truck inside the tunnel. Most of the
workers in the tunnel were in close
proximity to the truck at the time of the
explosion.
Investigations found that the truck had
also been carrying detonators, despite
regulations stating that explosives and
detonators must be transported separately,
Fan Jinsheng, director of the State
First Crossrail TBM breaks
Administration of Work Safetys emergency
rescue center, told China Daily. How the
ground
detonator was ignited remains unknown,
May 4, 2012
he said, adding that a team of experts is
Crossrails first TBM, Phyllis, has broken
still analyzing the cause of the accident.
ground at Royal Oak to begin construction
12/6/12
22:54
Page 7

of the mega-projects first section of tunnel
between Royal Oak and Farringdon.
Keith Sibley, Crossrail Area Director West
said: Tunnelling for Crossrail has now
commenced. Phyllis is now beginning to
slowly disappear below ground and will
steadily ramp up to the planned average
tunnelling rate of around 100m a week.
Following the official unveiling of 1,000
tonne Phyllis, Crossrails first TBM travelled
400m to Royal Oak Portal including under
Hampden Street footbridge which was
jacked up to allow the 7.1m diameter
machine underneath.
The arrival of the TBM at the portal in
mid-March allowed for remaining major
works to get underway to support
tunnelling. A steel seal has been fitted
around the portal entrance to support the
ground during the early stages of
tunnelling.
on developing skills on interfacing,

managing and coordinating, he said.
Currently all of Phase 111s 28
underground station designs and tunnel
alignments have been finalized, as well as
all the civil tenders for the Central
Secretariat Kashmere Gate line, where
works have already started. Also, all civil
tenders for the extension from Jahangirpuri
to Badli have been let and works started.
Bank Station shortlist

announced
April 30, 2012
London Underground (LU) has announced the
four bidding groups shortlisted to go through
NEWS FROM THE WEB
the new Innovative Contractor Engagement

(ICE) procurement process for the US$391M
US$782M Bank Station Capacity Upgrade
project. Works include the constructing a
570m long new section of the southbound
Northern Line tunnel and the transformation
of the existing southbound platform and
running tunnel area into a new concourse and
passage area. The pre-qualified bidders are:
BFK Joint Venture (BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial SA
& Kier)
CVC Joint Venture (Costain, VINCI Grand
Projets & VINCI Construction)
Dragados SA
MBA Joint Venture (Morgan Sindall, Balfour
Beatty & Alpine Bemo Tunnelling)
Arup wins Chile Metro work

May 4, 2012
Arup has been appointed by Metro de
Santiago to lead the concept design of 11
stations in the Chilean capital. The scope of
the project covers some of the most
challenging stations on two new lines being
built by the operator Lines 3 and 6 and the
work will involve creating interchanges with
existing lines on the metro network.
Metro de Santiago already boasts the most
extensive metro system in South America and
the project to add Lines 3 and 6 will extend
the reach of the network by some 28 stations
and 37km in total. The work will also add
capacity to some of the busiest existing metro
lines when the new lines open in 2016 / 2017.
25 TBMs for Delhi Metro

Phase 111
May 3, 2012
Delhi Metro Managing Director Mangu
Singh has announced the 41km of twin
tunnel to be built on its 103km long Phase
III will utilize 25 TBMs at the peak of
construction to hit the scheduled 2016
completion deadline.
In Phase-III the underground component
is quite high and it is expected that during
peak period about 25 TBMs will be
working, he said. In order to monitor the
performance of the tunnel boring machines
in the sensitive areas, a centralized control
centre shall be set-up with connectivity
through GPS to all the tunnel boring
machines.
To help hit the tight program Singh also
announced that Delhi Metro has been
providing specialist training to boost skill
levels. We realize that Phase-III shall be
very huge task to manage. On the
technology front we have enough
experience but we realized that the middle
level management is the back bone and the
need for the project management was more
NEWS FROM THE WEB
12/6/12
22:54
Page 8
The Bank and Monument Tube station

complex is located in the heart of the City of
London financial district and is the fourth
busiest interchange station on the
Underground network with 96,000 customers
during the morning rush hours, which is set to
increase.
The upgrade project will, by 2021, deliver
increased capacity at Bank station and a stepfree route between the Northern line
platforms, DLR and street levels.
Following the advertisement in the Official
Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in
November 2011, LU has completed its
evaluation of the Pre Qualification
Questionnaire (PQQ) responses and aims to
award a contract by July 2013.
Ferrovial Agroman wins

Pardonelo Tunnel
April 30, 2012
Ferrovial Agroman, a construction subsidiary
of Ferrovial, has been awarded a contract to
build the Padornelo Tunnel-Lubin section of
the Madrid-Galicia high-speed railway line, for
US$143M. This section of line, which is 7.6km
long and will have a single-track 8.5m wide
bed, crosses the Requejo and Lubin
municipalities, in Zamora province.
The project includes the construction of the
6.4km long right hand tube of the Pardonelo
Tunnel and cross passages connecting with
the existing tunnel, which will be upgraded as
part of a different project. Ferrovial Agroman
will also build the Leira viaduct (168m long)
and the Pedro viaduct (295m long), both for
the right-hand track. This project will be
completed by the end of 2015.
This section is part of the 99km route
between Puebla de Sanabria (Zamora) and
Orense (Galicia) and is one of the most
complex segments of the Madrid-Galicia highspeed railway line because of the areas
rugged terrain.
Dr Bassett, a world-renowned expert in the

field of geotechnics, is the course technical
consultant. UCL lecturer Raul Fuentes is
course director and he has worked with
business development manager at itmsoil Nick
Slater to organise the sessions.
Year long delay for

Fehmarnbelt
April 18, 2012
Construction work on the 18km long fixed
link tunnel under Fehmarnbelt linking
Germany and Denmark is set to commence
about a year later than originally planned in
the middle of 2015 instead of 2014. Femern
A/S, the company responsible for the planning
of the link, said the delay was due the
planning approval process for such a large
cross-border construction project in both
Denmark and Germany proving even more
complex than previously assumed.
The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link is Northern
Europes largest transport construction project
and will connect Scandinavia with Germany
and the rest of continental Europe. The
preferred technical solution is an immersed
tunnel with an electrified dual-track rail line
and a four lane motorway.
The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel must be approved
in accordance with European as well as
Danish and German regulations and
procedures. Although they are based on the
Monitoring training courses

now available
April 30, 2012
University College London and itmsoil, a UK
manufacturing and monitoring services
provider are establishing training courses to
give practicing engineers a sound
understanding of monitoring in civil
engineering.
They will also be helpful for clients who
want to understand the value of monitoring
and how best to procure it; researchers
interested in state of the art research and
development, and insurance industry
professionals working in the Built
Environment.
They will be based on the contents of a
new book A Guide to Field Instrumentation
in Geotechnics written by Dr Richard Bassett,
Emeritus Reader in Geotechnics at UCL, who
worked extensively with itmsoil to produce his
book.
same EU directives to a significant extent,

there are great differences between how the
regulations are administered in the two
countries. This requires more time than
originally anticipated.
The need for coordination and detailed
planning is greater than we had expected,
said Leo Larsen, CEO, Femern A/S. We have
a highly constructive partnership with both
the Danish and the German authorities, but
nevertheless we have to recognise that this is
a very challenging task for all parties. In part
this is because of the substantial differences in
the regulations and procedures between
Denmark and Germany. We are in a situation
with many unknown factors that have to be
tackled as the applications to the authorities
are prepared and this takes time.
The new timetable means that the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the

coast-to-coast link in Denmark will commence
in May 2013 and that Folketinget, the Danish
parliament, will be able to pass a construction
act for the project at the end of 2014. By then
the contractual sums for the four major civil
works contracts will be known.
In Germany, the authorities will receive the
final application material no later than August
2013 after which the approvals are expected
to be in place around the turn of the year
2014/2015. In the autumn of 2012, Femern
A/S will begin the process of selecting the
contractor consortia that will be invited to
tender for the major construction contracts.
The contracts are expected to be signed in the
summer of 2015.
HS2 awards design contracts

April 11, 2012
HS2 Ltd has awarded four design contracts
under Lot 1 of its Professional Services
Framework covering civil and structural design
services. The successful companies will
prepare preliminary designs and work closely
with HS2 Ltd, rail systems designers,
environmentalists and land referencing
companies. The designs will be used to inform
the hybrid bill documents that are due to be
submitted to Parliament by the end of 2013.
The winners are:
Mott Macdonald US$21M London
Metropolitan Area contract for
the design of approximately
25km of new high speed rail
line from the redeveloped
Euston station through NorthWest London. They will also
work on the link to HS1 and a
new 14 platform interchange
station at Old Oak Common.
Atkins US$21.1M Country
South contract covering the
design of approximately 91km
of the route through
Buckinghamshire,
Northamptonshire and
Oxfordshire, which includes
the Colne Valley viaduct and the Chilterns
tunnelling.
Capita Symonds Ineco JV US$17.6M
Country North contract covering
approximately 78km of high speed rail
through Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and
the connection to the West Coast Main Line.
Arup US$18.1M West Midland
Metropolitan Area design contract for
approximately 22km of the route, Curzon
Street Station complex; Birmingham
Interchange Station; Washwood Heath Rolling
Stock Maintenance Depot; and a people
mover from the Interchange station to the
NEC/Airport.
All HS2 Ltd contracts are awarded following
public body procurement rules based on the
principles of equal treatment, transparency
and nondiscrimination.
To complete your whole.
SUBWAY (C LINE), ROME, ITALIA

Contractor Generale: METRO C ScpA, Roma, Italia - Client: Roma Metropolitane s.r.l.
Products used: MAPEQUICK CBS SYSTEM, MAPEBLOX T,

POLYFOAMER FP, SILICAJET ST, MAPEFILL, MAPEGROUT COMPACT,
MAPEGROUT TISSOTROPICO, LAMPOSILEX
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accessories.
Discover the world of Mapei: www.utt-mapei.com, hq.utt@utt.mapei.com
For 75 years weve been helping to build large and small projects.
V7. TJ_0612_Sparvo_010_015.qxd:Feature
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ANYONE WHO HAS DRIVEN in Italy knows

the dramatic multiple viaduct-tunnel
sequences that carry many of the scenic
autostrada routes. Italian engineers have
become some of the world's most skilful in
creating hundreds of these bores through the
jumbled and twisted strata of the country's
Alp-formed mountains and hills.
For the roads in particular, with large cross
sections to carry several lanes of traffic, this
has meant traditional excavation. Over the
years the Italian industry has seen the
development of multiple techniques for face
and bore support in often chaotic ground, and
with it, increasing specialist knowledge of the
technical challenges.
But one of the latest projects has turned to
the TBM. It is a choice made possible by the
development of ever larger machines, and in
this case, a true giant of 15.6m diameter, to
date the biggest TBM ever made. It may be
overtaken soon but for the moment a
Herrenknecht EPB, christened Martina, is the
world record holder.
The monster machine was not the first
12/6/12
22:37
Page 11
SITE REPORT
option. Like nearly a dozen tunnels on a new
alignment for part of the A1 autostrada, Italy's
spine motorway from Naples in the south to
Milan and Turin in the north, the 2.6km twin
bore Sparvo tunnel was planned as a
conventional excavation. A sister tunnel, the
Val di Sambro, which starts just to the north
across a 500m viaduct, is part of the same
contract package and proceeding with
conventional methods.
But contractor TOTO Costruzioni Generali
managed to convince the client, motorway
operator Autostrade per Italia, and its engineer
Rocksoil from Milan, that a TBM drive would
be a better option for the Sparvo tunnel.
"And we said that it could be done at no
additional cost to the client" says project
engineer Lorenzo Scolavino. The contract value
is US$426M with the Sparvo Tunnel
accounting for US$188M. The machine cost
with all the fittings is about US$75M.
The reasons are twofold. Firstly, the geology
of the ground in this section is as complex as
any on the 40km realignment to upgrade a
twisting and congested road section between
Bologna and Florence. It is in the Appenines,

which are a mass of mixed sandstones, clays,
porphyrite, limestone and more, often layered
and quite pushed around by the tectonic
movements that heaved the Alps high in the
air just northwards. Substantial support was
envisaged including areas of consolidation
grouting, heavy anchoring and arches, and
significantly thick concrete lining work.
For the first time instead, the option of using
a machine is available, as bigger diameters
have been achieved. It offered the advantage
of speed compared to the painstaking inching
forwards the soft and mixed ground would
demand by conventional methods.
"We think it can make over 400m a month
compared to the 20-30m or so possible
otherwise" says Scolavino.
But the machine also offered another
significant advantage. The Sparvo section is
known to have methane in the ground, the
highly explosive "firedamp" which all miners
fear for good reason. A machine could be
designed to accomodate the danger, sealing
the gas outside and using a special enclosed
The central ring of the cutterhead

was only just able to traverse the site
approach roads
SPARVO GIANT
Worlds biggest TBM
The world's biggest TBM has been getting into its stride in Italy's
jumbled Apennine mountains. Report by Adrian Greeman
12/6/12
22:37
Page 12
CLEVER CONVEY
SITE REPORT
Existing A1 autostrada has a more

mo
ore tortuous
alignment at a higher level in the hills
To Bologna
Flo
orence
Sparrvo
Sparvo
o tunnel
t
showing
h
g the To Florence
bore
e direction of the TBM
TB
AUSTRIA
SWITZERLAND
Moden
Modena
Bol
Bologna
FRANCEE
HUNGARYY
HUNGAR
CROATIA
CROA
ATTIA
SERBIA
SSLOVENIA
A
BOSNIA
Molina di Setta
viaduct
Florence
ITAL
Y
Sparvo
viaduct
Rome
Sparvo tunnel
Val di Sambro tunnel done

by conventional excavation
TUNISIA
Tunnel cross section and (bottom) the

giant segments on the tunnel transporter
0.31
13.60
15.62
0.70
0.70
The circular tunnel shape is backfilled to

4.75m to form the road with drainage and
service channels below and at the side
0.31
spoil removal system to vent any entering gas

safely away. The sealed progress of the TBM
also allows for a completely watertight tunnel,
whereas an excavated bore would have
needed drainage systems to relieve pressure.
Overburden here is up to about 100m.
But such a large TBM has presented its own
challenges, not least in getting the equipment
to site, launching the machine and making the
enormous segments it requires. It also requires
a special turning area and equipment for the
transition between the current bore towards
Bologna and the return carriageway. Each has
two lanes and a hard shoulder emergency lane.
The first problem was preparing the portals,
says Scolavino."We had already made
conventional portals areas, because initially in
2008 the project was to be done by
conventional means."
The piled wall in the loose weathered debris

of the start area had to be removed again once
the decision was made in late 2009 to go with
the TBM. "It was anchored back into the
ground" he says,"but anchors would have got
entangled in the cutterhead."
A 41m deep start chamber was remade in
the area instead using jet grouting and bored
piling, roofed with a concrete slab to form a
concrete box. The end of this chamber was
filled to 80% height with soft concrete for the
initial cut of the machine as it pushed off the
enormous reaction frame.
"At the far end, we also removed the
anchored wall and used 1200mm diameter jet
grouting to make a 31m long reception area
for the machine" he adds.
As well as the start chamber a 150m long
semicircular concrete trough was built for the
machine assembly. This was on sound ground
and was made with heavily reinforced concrete
between 1.2m and 1.5m thick.
"We also had to build the viaduct outside
the tunnel which links the road to the next
tunnel because this gave us a route in for the
components" he adds. The 550m long steel
deck viaduct is one of two which form part of
the overall contract. The other is at the north
end of the job between the Sparvo exit and the
Val di Sambo tunnel, this one of 580m length.
The contract also included making a network
of mountain access roads which all have to be
removed at job's end because the site is part of
a nature reserve. It lies in the 1000m high
mountain spine of the Appenines some 40 to
50km south of Bologna.
The largest of the components to negotiate
these roads was the central section of the
cutterhead wheel, a massive 200t element of
just under 9m diameter. It required special
Support fo
Galleria Sparvo/ Ital

kilometre-long Sparvo
Sasso Marconi and Ba
its twin-tube construc
lane motorway, it expa
A1 between Bologna a
H+E is involved. Besi
porting the huge amou
largest EPB shield, the
be designed in accord
because the tunnel lea
tain methane. A comp
of explosion preventio
12/6/12
22:37
Page 13
CLEVER CONVEYING. SPARVO, ITALY.
Support for the worlds largest EPB shield.

Galleria Sparvo/ Italy. The approximately 2.5kilometre-long Sparvo tunnel is situated between
Sasso Marconi and Barberino del Mugello. With
its twin-tube construction, each housing a threelane motorway, it expands the busy stretch of the
A1 between Bologna and Florence.
H+E is involved. Besides the challenge of transporting the huge amount of spoil from the worlds
largest EPB shield, the entire construction had to
be designed in accordance with ATEX guidelines,
because the tunnel leads through layers that contain methane. A complex task not least in terms
of explosion prevention.
The naked facts:

I Tunnel diameter:
I Conveyor lenth:
I Capacity:
I Installed power:
I Belt storage:
I Belt storage capacity:
I TBM:
I Installation:
15,55 m
2 x 2.750 m
2.000 t/h
3 x 355 kW
vertical
470 m
EPB
2011
H+E Logistik GmbH

Josef-Baumann-Str. 18
D-44805 Bochum
Germany
Tel. +49 (0)234 I 950 23 60
Fax +49 (0)234 I 950 23 89
www.helogistik.de
12/6/12
22:38
Page 14
580
BOLOGNA
400
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Km
3+000
3
275
s.l.m.
Km
2+000
2
300
Km
1+000
Metres
FLORENCE
500
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Weathered debris
Grey sandstone with silt
Embedded Ophilite
Limestone breccia in clayey matrix
Clay, Sandstone, Limestone mixture
Limestone and marl with clay intercalations (inclusions)
Above: The
longitudinal section
of the Sparvo
Tunnel
Left: The EPBM has
impressive torque
statistics
Main Pic: Martina
the 15.6m
Herrenknecht EPB
readies to launch
900
transport arrangements of its own on multi

axle transporters. "And clearance on the roads
in was just a few centimetres" says Gianluca
Comin, a recently graduated engineer and one
of three assistants to Scolavino.
A large portal crane, itself needing four
mobile cranes to assemble it, was installed on
rails outside the tunnel entrance for assembly
of the TBM when its major components began
arriving in 2011. Like everything these are on a
giant scale; there are some four motors alone
for the 6m long screw conveyor unit and
another 50 in total for powering the machine
cutterhead. "Actually there are 12 electric
motors, 24 hydraulic pumps and 38 hydraulic
motors" says Comin. Power demand is about
12000kW. Meanwhile a purpose built factory
for segment construction was being
established nearby the site, on a area that will
be used later for a motorway service stop once
the road is complete. This factory is also on a
large scale, producing massive 17t segments,
each 2m long and 700mm thick. A complete
ring requires nine in total plus a half key. The
Internal diameter is 13.6m which means the
exterior is 15m.
Segments are made in completely enclosed
steel forms explains factory manager Gabriele
Trovarelli, using hinged lids to contain the
concrete rather than have the top trowelled, as
in many plants. The forms, from Italian maker
Euroform, must deliver a tolerance of 0.5mm
and are checked every three to four weeks.
These rail mounted forms are filled by an
automated hopper at the batching plant and
then sit in a relatively cool steam curing line for
12 hours before being lifted out. After another
day in the factory storage they go outside to
harden for 10 days before travelling to the
machine.
The segments are transported to the
machine on a purpose built rubber tyred
transporter which holds one complete ring
French maker Techni Metal Enterprise supplied
this US$627,000 unit which is a little like a
mini-car transporters. A second transporter for
the second drive, which requires a longer route
around through the first bore, is being supplied
by Italy's Comtec which also provided the big
portal crane outside.
A crucial element of the machine assembly
was putting together the enclosure for the
back-up train conveyor. This is a specially
designed feature to contain any possible
methane. Essentially the EPB's pressurised
12/6/12
22:38
Page 15
SITE REPORT
excavation chamber will hold any gas behind
the bulkhead. The screw conveyor itself is
sealed and then enters a sealed box enclosure
for the longitudinal conveyor line along the
machine.
"It is a double sandwich containing overpressurised air between two skins" explains
Scolavino. "That way if there is a puncture any
methane is pushed back into the interior."
Large volumes of fresh air are blown into the
box enclosure which dilute any methane as it
passes along. A maximum of 110m3/sec is
supplied to the tunnel from two Flkt Woods
fans, though normally they work at 45m3/sec.
This provides 67m3/sec in the TBM, 22m3/sec in
the conveyor and 6m3/sec for the work
chamber. By the time spoil reaches the cross
conveyor on the back of the machine, it is safe
to end the box enclosure.
"But there is a wide variety of gas detection
instrumentation on the machine systems, and
anti-spark installations" Scolavino says. One
man is assigned as safety monitor also.
Once exiting onto the cross conveyor the
spoil tips onto a 1.2m wide tunnel conveyor
supplied by Herrenknecht daughter company
H+E Logistik.
The tunnel conveyor is extended every 200m
of drive, which requires a stoppage says
Scolavino, during which time the cutterhead
tools are checked. To enter the emptied spoil
chamber means waiting
for gas to disperse,
usually between 4 hours
and two days. "Though
one stop we had to
allow four days before it
was clear."
The side conveyor
finishes at a large
conveyor tower just
outside the portal where
it discharges onto a
Giant segments
second conveyor from
being lifted at
Marti Technik. This is a
the production
1m width belt carrying
plant.
the spoil some 1.9km to
a special inspection area
Bottom: Testing
next to the segment
the air cushion
factory.
frame
"We have to check the spoil quality here

before sending it to final disposal which is
along a river valley" says Scolavino.
Requirements are tight because the river is a
main feed for Bologna's water supply. The site
is about 15km away and transport is mainly by
truck though there is also another conveyor
near the final site which is loaded by trucks to
distribute spoil further on.
Progress on the machine took a while to pick
up after it began driving in late August last
year, with an initial 64m achieved in September
and 266m in January. But in March it was
hitting its stride with 408m and just around
375m in April and May. Each ring advance
produces some 400m3 of spoil, which is around
1000t. At full pace the machine excavates
about eight rings daily which means dealing
with 8000t of spoil.
Difficulties causing hold-ups include a
squeezing effect in the clay and a tendency for
the alternately layered clay and sandstone
ground to create large half metre size blocks in
the spoil. "These pass the screw conveyor OK,
but can damage the machine and tunnel
conveyors" says Scolavino.
"We also had a two month stoppage
initially because of hardening and clogging of
the clay" he says. Minerals in the clay proved to
be heat sensitive and particularly at the centre
of the cutterhead where friction and the
motors both caused
temperatures increases.
"The solution was to
add six more nozzles to
inject water in the
middle along with the
foam treatment which is
already done by
eighteen nozzles" he
says.
Meanwhile the
squeezing is handled by
using a a fairly large
annulus, some 300m
wide between the
15.6m excavation
diameter and the ring
exterior. This is filled
with a two part cement
bentonite grout injected
from the tailskin on the
TBM head unit.
Now the machine is
reaching the end of the
first drive, the next
complication this
summer is the turning
operation. The machine
makes to drives, first
north and then back
again for the
southbound
carriageway. But how to
reorientate such a giant
machine is a challenge
in itself.
The answer is a special cradle using a

hovercraft like principle to lift the giant 2700t
weight on air "cushions". It can then be slid
carefully around.
Herrenknecht offers a system for this but
Toto has decided to work with equipment
maker Palmieri, well known for manufacture of
cutter discs, and in fact the chosen supplier for
"Martina". By chance its factory is in the
hillsides nearby. "They have designed a steel
frame unit, two of which make up a circular
shaped base frame for the machine" says
Scolavino. Each unit has eight large circular
rubber rings beneath which each are inflated
around a central pad. As air reaches around 4
bar it spills out of the rings onto the pad
creating a thin air layer which reduces friction.
Eight units, with eight pads each, will
support the TBM head. A test carried out while
TJ was visiting showed four of the units lifting
1100t of kentledge steel at the Palmieri works.
But the units require a flat concrete base to
be usable, so on site a 1m deep concreted area
is being formed at the reception portal
extending across to the start portal opposite,
On this platform a 400mm thick flat floor must
be cast. "It is not quite a 'superflat' floor, as
they have in warehouses, but we still have to
use a laser levelling system to make it" says
Scolavino.
Scolavino says the Palmieri units are
shallower than the Herrenknecht system and
require less excavation for the pad.
A second circular concrete trough will
support the TBM train behind the head once it
goes through its slow motion dance around.
The same air pads will be used to move the
backup train, but with extender beams
between the air pad units.
"It will take about three months to move it
around and restart" thinks Scolavino. The
machine must then drive back with an
estimated finish in early 2013.
That this is a lot faster than the traditional
method is apparent from comparisons with the
drive on the Val di Sambro tunnel. Here rates
have been between 20m and 50m a month.
The tunnel has also suffered a hold up because
it passes through an active slide which began
moving at the end of last year. Work has just
restarted.
Surface effects on the TBM drive have been
negligible, though in the last month one
building is reported to have shown settlement
of some 40mm. It is unclear at present if this is
the drive, or an effect of two recent
earthquakes which saw significant damage to
Bologna.
Once the second drive begins the first bore
will see the road bed built up. After drainage is
installed with a filter layer around it the
contractor will use selected and graded spoil at
fill material to backfill to a maximum 4.75m
depth where the road will be built. "It is very
wasteful filling it all up again" laughs
Scolavino. But anyway, more efficient than
traditional methods.
TJ_0612_Letters_016_017.qxd:Feature
12/6/12
22:45
Page 16
LETTERS
GBR varying
opinions
Dear TJ,
Kristina Smiths excellent article on the use
of GBRs (GBR Bible or Bane of the
Industry?) in the February/March issue
certainly raised the debate on the Linked In
TJ Discussion website. It soon became clear
that there are a number of differing
opinions as well as interpretations, and
possibly misinterpretations, of GBRs in
current use around the
world.
I would like to
highlight a couple of
points which were
discussed in the article.
It seems to me to be
largely immaterial to
the function of the GBR
the extent of ground
investigations and
whether the
interpretation of the
resulting data is right or
wrong. The quality of
the GI data should be
made clear to the
Owner/Client by his
design consultant and
be considered in the
level of risk the client is willing to carry. By
definition a GBR is always wrong, any
number of boreholes, horizontal directional
drillholes, geophysical surveys and
laboratory tests will only lead to a more
informed interpretation of the ground
conditions to be encountered, not a correct
answer. The function of the GBR is to take
the important features of this
interpretation, consider them along with
the envisaged methods of construction and
corresponding risks and than make a series
of definitive contractual statements which
represent the Owner/Clients understanding,
and risk acceptance, of those ground
conditions. The Owner must be prepared to
pay for the unforeseen if his GI is
inadequate, the GBR should effectively
define at what point he is willing to pay for
the unforeseen and to what extent he
expects the Contractor to carry that risk.
This should be achieved by a series of well
defined unambiguous statements.
My personal test of a baseline statement
is this:
Each baseline statement must be clear in
its individual intended scope and method of

measurement. The Owner/Client, on the
advice of his designer, geotechnical
engineer, project manager and QS, should
then test each of these baseline statements
against the envisaged geological conditions
and method of construction to ensure these
two key conditions are met and to be clear
that he is happy with the level of risk he is
carrying for that baseline.
It is extremely
dangerous to baseline
things that cannot be
clearly defined and
easily measured in real
time on site during
routine construction.
Any attempt to do so
can often lead to more
protracted claims as the
baseline itself becomes
a point of contention
before the quantities
can then be agreed and
then the cost/time
impact calculated.
As an example of
differing measurements
of the same geological
feature, consider the
definition of boulders and, as we commonly
find in Hong Kong, corestones. The method
of construction and measurement is critical
to the chosen definition and, most
importantly, can be different for the same
geology depending on the envisaged works
being undertaken. Consider a station box,
which consists of a perimeter wall and a
bulk excavation. In the perimeter wall,
boulders and corestone zones may best be
defined as vertical linear reaches (say
600mm or greater of grade III rock with
weaker rock on either side) along the wall
and measured within the pre-bore drill
holes. However, for the bulk excavation this
definition and method of measurement is
of little use as there are no pre-drill holes in
the bulk excavation. For this aspect of the
works boulders and corestones are better
defined by a size or volume (0.2m3) and
directly measured when encountered in the
excavation. The baseline statement for each
stage of the works being the number of
them, or overall volume percentage,
expected to be encountered during the
total excavation.
One other point the article makes is that

the GBR is initially owned by the designer,
who is often a consultant with a
geotechnical background. This is common
and practical. However, before the contract
goes to tender the GBR must be critically
scrutinized by the Owner/Clints intended
construction team and the commercial
team who are the ones who will have to
use it in anger. If they are not available, or
do not have the experience of multiple
GBRs, then get a review from an external
consultant construction manager, with the
relevant experience. The team should be
prepared to have their GBR totally picked
apart and have justified reasoning for each
baseline statement. If a baseline statement
cannot be clearly understood almost
immediately by the reviewer, revise it or
take it out.
Another section in the article suggested
that where the owner required the use of a
closed face TBM it should be stated in the
introduction to the GBR. I disagree. If you
want to specify something in particular you
put it in the particular specification. If you
want to state a baseline for a geotechnical
condition put it in the Geotechnical Baseline
Statements. The separation of these types
of points is key to a clearly defined GBR.
I could go on, I do not presume to be
right on any of the above points, and I am
sure this debate will run for some time.
Many of the contributors to the article
disagreed with each other as often as they
agreed, as do those in the ongoing
discussion groups, and no less so colleagues
in my own office. I found myself concurring
with many and disagreeing with others and
sometimes changing my opinion as the
discussion progressed. A healthy debate
with an open mind is surely the best for all
concerned.
Sadly, what this all points to is that there
are likely to continue to be voluminous
GBR's drafted with a multitude of these
views expressed and inferred into them,
resulting in less well defined contract
documents. This can only be a recipe for
disaster. More wasted time for geotechnical
engineers arguing their employers side of a
ground conditions claim (It's not like there
are dozens of geotechnical engineers sitting
around with nothing better to do!),
Commercial teams trying to make sense of
it all, contractors trying to get the thing
build without a cashflow crisis bankrupting
them halfway through the project, and
owners wondering if they can sue their
designer for not producing a perfect
geotechnical interpretation in the first
place. I guess the lawyers and expert
witnesses will sit back rubbing their hands
together waiting for it all to blow up in our
faces.
David Salisbury, Hong Kong.
TJ_0612_Letters_016_017.qxd:Feature
12/6/12
22:46
Page 17
LETTERS
Statement of Foreseeability?
reasonably have foreseen through the maze of
legal hypothetical syllogisms.
So is this enough to avoid the conflicts that
we face ubiquitously today I dare
to say it only responds to half of
the problem as once we do know
that the Contractor does have an
entitlement the next layer of
dispute is the valuation of those
entitlements. Lets call this the
SoE (Statement of Evaluation)
for now. The SoE should ideally
give direction as to what
happens once the entitlement
is established and how this
entitlement is to be valued in
terms of time and cost.
The GBR should therefore be just these
two things: a statement of when liability
transfers and, once transferred, how it is to be
dealt with nothing more and nothing less.
I also put to the industry that the Contractor
can, within reason, price any GBR
(containing the above elements) that the
Employer gives him. I am further of the view
that he should also be able to pre-value the
time and cost variances for baseline variables
should they occur and finally put forward the
Dear TJ,
There is a lot of good information here (TJ
Feb/March - GBR Bible or Bane of the
Industry? TJ April/May - The GBR Linkedin
Discussion,) and most of it is useful to the
general contracting community but my take
on the GBR (sic) is as follows. Firstly lets not call
it a GBR as this is where most of the confusion
starts. Lets call it a SoF (Statement of
Foreseeability) instead for the time being.
Its main purpose is to inform the Contractor
of the precise point at which he will be entitled
to claim for additional expenses and time by
way of a clear and definitive line of transfer of
liability for compensation from the Contractor
to the Employer it is as simple as that.
It does not matter if the Contractor priced
the SoF when pricing the tender, it does not
matter that his programme is inconsistent with
the SoF and finally it does not matter that the
SoF does not reflect the anticipated sub
surface conditions at all.
I put it to the industry that such a Statement
of Foreseeability will do away with the all too
common position of hindsight where we
argue about this mythical competent
contractor and what he could or could not
rules of valuation. The Employer would be able

to consider the sensitivities of these pre-valued
time and cost variances when assessing
tenders and in doing so correlate his
own appetite for risk with that
of the Contractor. This
principle would be fair to both
parties and would provide a
quick and equitable solution it
may not provide full
compensation or it may
overcompensate but it will be
what the parties agreed to.
So to go back to the start what
has the term Geotechnical
Baseline Report got to do with the
main functions of the document
the industry is trying so hard to
create. The documents should be two
statements - one covering foreseeability and
the second dealing with evaluation. That being
the case it should be drawn up by the persons
that will be called upon to use it and those are
the Contractor and Employers construction
and commercial teams.
Malcolm O'Neill,
Senior Quantity Surveyor, Hong Kong.
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TJ_0612_SEGMENTAL_018_025.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
20:04
Page 18
SEGMENTAL LININGS
The future of Pre-cast

Tunnel Segments
In a bid to define the state-of-the art for pre-cast concrete segment
design, Kristina Smith spoke to designers and manufacturers about
what they thought the most important recent changes had been. And
we asked them to consult their crystal balls about future trends
IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS there has been a
step change in the design and manufacture of
pre-cast concrete tunnel lining segments. Its a
change that is moving the segments away
from construction site tolerances towards the
engineering precision of a production line.
In the last five years, everybodys quality
expectations have changed dramatically, says
Colin Eddie, managing director of Morgan
Sindall Underground Professional Services.
Historically, I would say that there was a very
high proportion of tunnels where the
segments were manufactured out of
tolerance. Now there is much more attention
to tolerance detail.
For segment manufacturers, this means a
whole new approach (see p20). And in tandem
with the new production ethos come
incremental improvements to the component
parts of the segments and their accessories:
the science of concrete mixes and compaction
is evolving; the use of steel and polypropylene
fibres will grow with our understanding of how
they work; cast-in gaskets will become the
norm; and connection details between
segments will be honed further to bring
greater speed and accuracy to the build.
Lets talk tolerances
The shift in segment manufacture to a
production-line mentality means that segments

can be produced to much tighter tolerances.
Rather than plus or minus a millimetre, we are
talking about tenths of millimetres on some
dimensions. In terms of the finished product,
tighter tolerances should mean a more
watertight tunnel. The British Tunnelling
Societys (BTS) Specification for Tunnelling, 3rd
edition, published in 2010, tightened up some
critical tolerances. And it also set five levels of
water tightness.
A client can select the level he requires
depending on what the tunnel will be used
for, says Eddie. Generally, the higher the level
of water tightness required, the higher the
costs are likely to be.
A good designer, says Mike King of Halcrow,
would not apply the BTS tolerances to every
project. The design should still review these
tolerances in relation to what importance they
have to the actual design as there is no point in
over-specifying, over-measuring, and rejecting
segments for no good reason, he says. It is
easy to forget the waste that can be caused by
adopting an overly conservative approach, and

just following guidelines without thought.
The important thing about tolerance is that
they have to be tied in with what you are
assuming in design, says Jon Hurt, Arups
tunnels practice leader, Americas. You need to
have done some calculations which
demonstrate that if you set the tolerances at
that level you can avoid damage or remove
reinforcement.
Setting the segment tolerances must also
take into account the method of construction,
says Hurt, citing the tolerance on the back of
the segments which is hand finished as an
example. From a design point of view, you
can have a fairly generous tolerance there: it
does not affect the build or the durability, says
Hurt. But it does affect how the seal performs
on the back of the TBM if you have a
pressurised face.
Having said that, it is a brave designer who
chooses to play with tolerances. Tolerances
are a difficult area and can catch out almost
everyone as they relate not only to local
We have got a good understanding of

what these stresses are and how to
design for them in reinforced concrete
13/6/12
20:04
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SEGMENTAL LININGS
interaction, the soil relaxation, all the variable
soil properties, and the whole construction
sequence more accurately.
King agrees that FE/FD is vital in such
situations but cautions against their use as a
matter of course. The garbage in garbage
out rule still has a very strong influence on
these designs, he says. We can put too
much faith in the multi-detailed answers that
come out of the black-box analysis, and
validation by other means is still a very
important aspect.
There are other issues which designers must
bear in mind when designing segments for
larger diameter tunnels. Handling of the
segments is more critical than for a small
segment, says King and secondary issues such
as creep and thermal movements deserve
greater consideration. Tolerances will take on
greater importance, he adds. And there is
the increasing challenge of meeting tight
tolerances with significantly larger units.
Perhaps the most important consideration
of all for a designer working on a project such
as the SR99 Bored Tunnel is that there is no
room to go beyond the tried-and-tested. The
implications for a tunnel liner without
precedent is that there is little opportunity to
risk new technology, says Johnson. From
HNTBs point of view, we have to stay with
what we know and what we can model when
we are expanding the limits of tunnel liner
design to accommodate the largest soft
ground tunnel in the world.
Above: A good distribution of the steel fibre reinforcement is vital. Top: The
future of gaskets looks cast-in (CBE Group)
variations in load distribution, but overall

geometry and ring behaviour both in the
temporary and permanent conditions so its
not surprising that people take the low risk,
well trodden path, says King.
The implications of getting it wrong can be
financially, and reputationally, very large indeed,
with the result likely to be significant damage
and cracking in the tunnel, requiring durability,
structural or waterproofing repairs.
Model solutions
When it comes to large diameter tunnels, such
as the 17.5m-diameter double deck SR99
Bored Tunnel in Seattle, the same design rules
apply as for a smaller tunnel. The challenge
comes in modelling the loads the tunnel lining
will experience, the ground parameters and
boundary conditions.
The analytical approach may be different as
the lining is more likely to cross highly varying
strata, and simple closed form solutions may
not be sufficient due to their assumptions,
says King. Larger diameters are taking us into
more complex analysis, with less precedent and
more concern about validation.
Without the tools of Finite Element (FE) or
Finite Difference (FD) analysis, the design of the
SR99 Bored Tunnel would simply not have
been possible, located as it is in a high-seismic
zone says Rich Johnson, HNTBs vice president,
and design manager for the tunnel. Johnson
pinpoints the use of FE and FD in tunnel
engineering as the most significant design
advancement of the past five to 10 years. It
allows the designer to simulate the soil-liner
Understanding fibres
Though steel fibres have been used to reinforce
precast segments for nearly 20 years, many
designers believe that we have yet to
understand how they handle the forces inside
the tunnel rings. The area which causes
concern is close to the radial joints, a little
distance from where two segments meet.
Here, tensile stresses build up, perpendicular to
the line of thrust and must be resisted by the
reinforcement to prevent bursting.
We have got a good understanding of
what these stresses are and how to design for
them in reinforced concrete, says King. But
there is not the same level of understanding of
the theory of how fibre reinforced concrete
resists these forces. We do have a theoretical
approach that works and a certain amount of
testing thats been done, and we can back
analyse the tests against the theory, but there is
more work to be done there.
For segment manufacturers, fibre reinforced
segments for larger diameter tunnels cause
challenges because of their thickness. They
must prove that the fibres have been evenly
distributed throughout the section. On the 7m
i.d. Blue Plains wastewater tunnels this means
making samples twice a day to prove the fibres
are correctly spread out.
The largest diameter tunnel to date which
has been entirely steel fibre reinforced is the
12m diameter Brisbane Airport link tunnel.
13/6/12
20:04
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SEGMENTAL LININGS
One of the advantages of steel fibres is that
the reinforcement extends to every corner of
the segment. If you have got reinforcement
right to the faces of the segment, there is far
less chance of severe damage, says Charles
Allen of CA Consult, who is a consultant to
CH2MHill, the Project Manager for the tunnel
and shaft linings on Thames Waters Lee Tunnel
project in East London. With a traditionally
reinforced segment, the corners may get
knocked off, the cover to the rebar is reduced
and potential durability issues ensue.

Another approach could be a hybrid
arrangement with both reinforcing cages and
steel fibres, as was used on the Barcelona
Metro. It allows you to target the additional
rebar where you need additional capacity,
says Hurt.
Arup is proposing a hybrid approach for a
project in San Francisco where there is the
additional challenge of seismic loading where
the ring goes into tension. We are trying to
Factory philosophy
For a lesson in 21st century segment
casting, Herrenknecht Formworks casting
plant for six combined rail and road tunnels
in Sochi, Russia is a good place to start. Set
up in 2009, it was the largest segment plant
in the world, churning out 350 segments a
day at peak. The 10,000m2 production
facility had two reinforcement carousels
with machines to prefabricate the rebar
cages, and three carousels to carry
segments into a curing tunnel, allowing
operation on a 24-7 basis.
This type of facility is where the future
lies, according to Alain Praut, sales director
at CBE Group. In regions where there is
real potential, most precast companies are
now considering heavy investment in the
beginning to get the highest manufacturing
productivity, he says.
Projects are getting bigger larger
diameter, longer tunnels or bigger network
of tunnels. They have upgraded their
approach to manufacturing. When you
produce segments like a car production line,
it is very different to the artisan, craftsman
type approach.
The changes that manufacturers have
absorbed over the last two decades have
been considerable. Concrete strengths have
risen from 40MPa to 60MPa, steel fibre
reinforcement and polypropylene
microfibres for fire resistance have changed
the nature of the concrete mix. And in the
last five years, tighter tolerances have made
their mark on the casting process.
Keeping up with the ever-tightening

tolerances in the specifications is a
challenge, says Trevor Cobby, mould
manager for Buchan Concrete Solutions.
The BTS specification is pretty tight
anyway, and we try to achieve around half
the tolerance in each case that the BTS
specification asks for. But every time we
achieve it, they tighten the tolerances.
Buchan has traditionally worked mainly
with concrete moulds. Although on the
current National Grid Replacement Tunnels
project for Costain in London, the
specification called for steel moulds.
Specifying the tolerances is one thing.
Measuring them is another. According to
Stefan Medel, Herrenknecht Formworks
MD, 3D measuring is still the exception
with most checks carried out manually in
2D. There are still no uniform standards
and no clearly defined regulations as
regards the type of measuring procedure,
evaluation of algorithms and the frequency
of measurement, he says.
Buchan engineer Mark Lambert has
encountered difficulties with the way laser
checking is being interpreted. Theres a
problem with the understanding of the
laser checking results, he says. Theres a
3D model of how the segment is and you
fit that against a 3D model of how it should
be and measure the difference. Its all done
by extrapolation, rather than actual
measurement. You could have three of the
four points perfect, but the best fit would
Above left: Herrenknecht Formworks Sochi segment factory in Russia. Above right: Buchan
Concrete Solution moulds
go with a partial fibre approach with some

structural rebar, says Hurt. Some rebar to
take the main loads, but you dont need any
rebar for temperature/shrinkage or for
temporary loads.
As thing stands, a hybrid solution will be
rare, because it costs more than either rebar or
fibres alone. The hybrid tends to be the most
expensive option. You dont save any of the
effort in putting in rebar and you are still
paying for the fibres, says Hurt. Certainly we
say that all of them were a little bit out.

On the Lee Tunnel, the specification called
for laser checking of the finished product
rather than the moulds. The US$310,000
investment to buy the laser measuring kit
appears to be worth it: checking the
segments rather than the moulds is more
efficient as all the moulds remain in play
unless anomalies are found.
Colin Eddie of Morgan Sindall
Underground Professional Services is
convinced that this type of laser systems
improves the build quality of the tunnels.
There have been concerns that laser
checking was not actually contributing to
the real quality of the segments. Earlier
versions using different technology were a
little bit of a masquerade. Now they are
absolutely giving accurate information
about tolerances.
Its very important to understand the
plain of each surface, he adds. Even a
minor twist of the segments can have
massive consequences on the amount of
damage during construction.
Laser checking will become widespread,
not least because of the benefits for
manufacturers. A major one is that it can
prove that problems underground are not
due to errors on their watch.
Good vibrations
Achieving and checking such tolerances
requires thought and analysis from the
earliest stages of mould design, says Praut.
You have to be very proactive in reaching
the tolerance goal, he says. You have to
consider it at the very beginning. If you
believe you can match the tolerance by
adjusting the mould during assembly, thats
the wrong approach.
Everything must be taken
into consideration. Segment
manufacturers are working with
very stiff mixes, due to the high
early strength requirements and
the additions of fibres. The
moulds vibrate to compact the
concrete, but if too much
vibration is required, your
tolerances could be under
threat. The segment mould is a
paradox, says Praut. It must
be strong enough to be reliable
but flexible enough to distribute
the vibration.
To assess all the contributing
13/6/12
20:04
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SEGMENTAL LININGS
would look at it on a project by project basis.
Looking ahead, King believes that a greater
understanding of how the two reinforcing
materials could work together will lead to
better efficiencies in design. Its probably likely
that the two materials will enhance and
compliment each others behaviour, but for the
time being the justification for use is likely to be
that one material undertakes one function and
the other something else. The understanding
of any composite action is not complete yet
and there are some strain compatibility issues

that would appear to preclude a full symbiotic
hybrid.
Johnson agrees. I think that the perfect
world could be a combination of conventional
reinforcement with steel fibre, he says, But I
dont think the industrys there yet.
While the UK has seen between 30 and 40
projects where steel fibres have been used to
reinforce tunnel segments, their use is less
widespread in the US. This is partly due to the
seismic issue, but more relevant is the absence

of steel fibres from codes.
The AASHTO (American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials) LRFD
(Load Factor Resistance Design) standards do
not recognise steel fibre reinforced concrete, so
you wont see its use in vehicular tunnels.
However in light rail transit tunnels and utility
tunnels, which dont have the AASHTO LRFD
standards imposed on them, fibre reinforcing is
sometimes used, says Johnson.
factors, CBE has developed its own model

based on finite element analysis. When a
client provides mix details, CBE can now
simulate the vibration of the mould, check
the mould deformation and also check
whether the vibration could create a fatigue

point in the mould.
This is a much more efficient approach
than the empirical one where mixes and
moulds are trialled and tweaked. Now CBE
can make changes before any concrete
is mixed. For example, on the Lee
Tunnel project, it had to rethink the
mould structure, the fixing of the
vibrators and the frequency of the
vibrations.
segments are needed and the environment it

is being cast in. Herrenknecht Formworks
Abu Dhabi production facility, in contrast to
the Russian one, is using stationary
production. Feeding three TBMs constructing
wastewater tunnels for the Strategic Tunnel
Enhancement Programme (STEP) the average
daily production rate from 16 sets of moulds
is 280 segments or 40 rings. On Crossrail,
two different contracts have taken different
approaches. C300, BAM Nuttall/Ferrovial
Agroman/Kier is casting once a day, whereas
C305 Dragados/John Sisk & Son is casting
three a day with heat curing. Theres not
much difference in cost between the two
approaches, says Charles Allen. If you have
one casting a day, the money you save on
not having a carousel, you spend on extra
moulds.
Curing
Herrenknecht Formworks plant in Abu Dhabi
The move to a production-line approach

will not always mean that segments are
speed cured using chambers. The
decision whether to cure at ambient or
elevated temperature depends very
much on the speed at which the
Maschinen- und Stahlbau Dresden
Maschinen
Stahlbau
Dresden
Branch of Herrenknecht AG
Partner for segment handling equipment:

segment cars, vaccuum segment handling systems,
segment clamps.
Photo courtesy of Nicholson Construction Co
www.msd-dresden.de
. . . industry news as it happens!
13/6/12
20:04
Page 22
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13/6/12
20:04
Page 23
SEGMENTAL LININGS
But the hurdle is that before fibres can be
used anywhere, there must be design
guidelines supported by independent tests.
The only way to be confident of the design is
to take all the elements and test them, says
Johnson. If you dont take that step, you
cannot be confident that your design works for
all loading conditions including transportation,
temperature, shrinkage, creep, etc.
Often, programme and budget restraints
may not allow testing as was the case for the
SR99 Bored Tunnel, says Johnson. With a
tunnel of that size, there could be an
opportunity for a hybrid of steel fibre with
conventional reinforcement but there is simply
not the time to conduct the tests, he says.
There is never time on design-build projects.
Even in the UK, where there are plenty of
reference projects, the lack of a design code
causes issues. There is a nervousness because
of the lack of codification, says Eddie. What
that meant in 94 when we used them for the
first time on the Heathrow Baggage Tunnel
and on pretty much every project since, is that
you have to have full scale testing to prove the
adequacy of design. Thats a perfectly
legitimate approach under Eurocodes and
British Standards.
Generally clients are happy to see that
testing, however because it takes out any
uncertainty about any particular detail.
Cast-in at last
Its something that the industry has been trying
to do for a decade. But now at last, it looks like
we are there. Following on from three smaller
projects in Japan, the Lee Tunnel project in
London is the first large-scale project where
segment manufacturers, in this case Morgan
Sindalls Ridham Precast Factory, are casting in
the EDPM gaskets (Tunnelling Journal
April/May 2011).
It took us two years to develop the system
to be reliable enough to match current tunnel
specifications, says Alain Praut, sales director
for mould manufacturer CBE Group which
supplied the job. We had to change our
approach for designing the moulds.
JV MVB, comprising Morgan Sindall, VINCI
Construction Grands Projects and Bachy
Soletanche, took the plunge on Lee Tunnel,
believing that the technology was ready and
that there would be cost and quality wins.
The major benefit is the quality of the fit,
says Eddie. For years there have been
problems with EDPM not fitting properly or not
remaining in tight contact with the segment
which leads to damage during handling and
erection. The cast-in gaskets also give better
seating at the corners, says Allen, which
improves the ring build.
Now the art has been mastered, we can
expect to see cast-in gaskets appearing on
other projects around the world. Look out for
them on the Central Subway in San Francisco,
the Tramway Velizy in France and Hinkley
nuclear power plant in the UK.
Another gasket development has been the

combined EDPM and hydrophilic gaskets,
invented in the early 2000s in response to
tough waterproofing specifications for the MRT
lines in Singapore from the Land Transport
Authority. On the SR99 Bored Tunnel HNTB has
opted for this approach. Its something of a
redundant system, says Johnson. The owner
has put in rather tight leakage requirements
The cast in gasket on the Lee Tunnel

segmental lining
and required this composite-type gasket to be

used.
Hurt cites the ability to coat EDPM as a
useful advancement for gaskets. EDPM
dissolves in hydrocarbons, so an option was to
use Neoprene gaskets. But Neoprenes
performance in terms of load deflection is not
as good as EDPMs.
Connectors
Perhaps one of the most notable evolutions in
precast linings has come not in the segments
themselves but in the way they are connected.
Dowels on circumferential joints which
originally served only as locators have now
evolved to take over from bolted connections.
When compressible rubber gaskets appeared
on segments, dowels were needed which
could resist pull-out forces once they had been
closed to keep the gasket closed. The first
generation required huge forces to push the
connecting pin into sockets in either segment.
Then around 10 years ago TTC invented a
dowel which could be inserted by hand but
could then resist a 6 tonne pull-out force.
The dowels have got to close easily, resist
the load being exerted by the rubber gasket,
but as important is that the pin under load will

not extend too much in length. That was one
of the earlier problems, says Dave Morgan,
technical director for TTC. Its important not to
have gaps between the tunnel rings for the
gasket to be effective. Thats been one of the
problems of the dowels.
TTCs biggest dowel under maximum load
extends less than 4mm, compared to 15mm
for an older type system. The dowels must also

be able to take shear forces, says King. We
need good shear strength for the emergency
situation. If you are building rings and
something goes wrong with the hydraulics or
you remove the rams, you can end up with the
segment just hanging.
The radial joints between segments are
almost always bolted, although the bolts could
perhaps be eliminated, something we may see
more of in the future. We considered
completely boltless rings on the Lee Tunnel,
using dowels and locating bars in the radial
joints. Thats the most efficient design, says
Eddie. But there were not many precedents
for using it. For Lee, it was one step too far.
So instead MVB will remove the bolts from
the radial joints after the rings have been firmly
grouted into place. This will remove the risk of
bolts corroding if water gets into the tunnel.
However, it isnt always a good solution,
cautions Eddie: If movements in the long term
are expected due to vibration through use or
from future tunnelling activities, then
consideration needs to be given to leaving the
bolts in.
Over the years, various solutions for holding
the radial joints together during erection have
been considered. So far none have yet
emerged which make economic sense. I am
13/6/12
20:05
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SEGMENTAL LININGS
sure something simpler is going to come
along, says Morgan. We have looked at it
but one of the challenges is cost. Traditional
steel bolts going into plastic sockets is a
relatively inexpensive solution.
To curve or not to curve
One question which wont get a straight
answer is whether the surfaces of the radial
joints should be curved or flat. Its an issue
that crops up a lot and its the subject of big
debate, says Hurt. A lot of it is down to
preference.
Tests show that where the radial joints open
up to form a birds mouth with an angle of less
than 0.6o flat joints work better, says Hurt.
Where there is the possibility of a larger birds
mouth the curved joint can be used to try and
avoid the single point of contact at the edge of

the segment that you would get with flat
joints.
The distortions which cause birds mouths
can be due to the tunnel being built out of
shape - which should be controlled by
specifying the right tolerances - or it can be
down to continued movement in the ground,
for example in clay where the pore water
pressure distribution over time changes causing
the lining gradually to distort.
Part of the challenge is that we are
designing based on distortions measured in
tunnels built 20 or 30 years ago or longer
when segment linings were more flexible,
says Hurt. It may not be appropriate to
modern segmental systems.
My position is it has to be project specific,
depending on the geometry, ground conditions
and the TBM, says Eddie. We have extensive
test results for both. Sometimes we can
demonstrate convex are better, sometimes
plane joints are better.
The Future
The question for the future is what can bring
yet further reductions in build time and better
build quality?
I think we will see stronger, more resilient
segments with less thickness, says Praut.
Concrete is expensive. If they can reduce the
thickness, they save money. Thinner segments
also mean they can be wider. It takes the same
amount of time for a TBM to install a 1.5m
segment as it does a 1m segment.
King thinks the driver for thinner linings is to
cut down the cost of excavation and spoil
disposal. A relatively small reduction in lining
can have a big impact on the volume of
material excavated, he says.
Eddie believes that although plates will get
bigger, thicknesses wont reduce. There is a
TTCs dowel and connecting system
minimum thickness you need for all the detail

and to provide a reaction, he says. The
industry is pretty much at that practical
minimum thickness.
Polypropylene structural fibres have yet to
have their day. Much less understood than their
steel cousins, they may have their uses in
tunnels where risk from fires is low, predicts
Hurt. Polypropylene fibres will have their
place, and in highly aggressive areas will be a
useful tool within the designers little box,
agrees King. However, as with any material
we can only successfully design with the
product if we have a full understanding of its
weaknesses or limitations. There are still issues
to deal with, such as performance during a fire
and after, and creep affects in the main
segment body and at the joints.
Concrete technology will move on too.
Herrenknecht Formworks MD Stefan Medel
sees self-compacting concrete on the horizon.
Charles Allen thinks nanotechnology could
come into play. The next giant step would be
to develop a concrete that does not need heat
curing but which could be demoulded within
six or seven hours, says Allen. By using
nanotechnology in concrete mix design, such
as BASF use in X-SEED, you can get very fast
early strength. If you can do without a curing
chamber you are saving a fortune in energy,
thousands of pounds a week on oil or gas to
heat the curing chamber.
Medel also highlights the use of inliners as
an emerging trend. CBE Group produced
moulds for a sewer tunnel in Sacremento
California, completed three years ago, where
the PVC lining layer was cast into the segments
for the first time.
If you can reduce the construction time by
casting in the lining, that can be an attractive
option for the contractor, says Praut. We
are experiencing more demand for this now.
Arups Hurt is looking forward to a time when
tolerances will be even tighter than they are
now. The reason for the tighter tolerances
would be that the segments are being erected
by a robot. I saw fully automated segment
erection in Tokyo five years ago, using a robotic
erector, he says. It halved the ring build time
and improved the ring build tolerances
significantly.
But perhaps the real innovation will be the
disappearance of segments altogether. Both
Eddie and Johnson predict that extruded linings
can become a reality. Experiments in the 1980s
by German and Japanese firms were ahead of
their time, says Eddie, but the technology will
catch up. Materials technology and the
limitations of the equipment at the time meant
it was in the too difficult category. For
settlement control, speed of construction,
safety, water tightness, just about every reason
you can think of, it is a better solution than
precast segments, he says.
If you can solve the practical difficulties that
have been uncovered on previous attempts,
that is definitely the future.
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TJ_0612_HALCROW_026_031.qxd:Feature
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SEGMENTAL LININGS
Design challenges for

SFR segmental linings
Anthony Harding, Principal Tunnel Engineer, Halcrow Pacific, Australia,
and Malcolm Chappell, Director of Tunnelling Australia & East Asia,
Halcrow Pacific, Australia and Global Leader: Tunnels, discuss the ever
increasing use of steel fibre reinforced concrete for segmental linings
13/6/12
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SEGMENTAL LININGS
THE LAST 10-15 YEARS has seen a

significant increase in the number of
segmental tunnel linings designed and
specified with steel fibre reinforcement in
lieu of conventional steel. This has mainly
been as alternative solutions offered by
contractors but have now, due to greater
acceptance, become the principal design.
This has occurred as the significant short
and long-term benefits of steel fibre
reinforced concrete have become more
widely appreciated in the industry. The
size of these tunnels has varied in
diameter from 2.5m to greater than
11m. The main benefits are outlined in
Table 1.
The 11.34m i.d. SFRC segmental lining on

Brisbanes Airport Link Tunnel
Table 1: Benefits of SFRC segmental linings over conventionally reinforced

Production costs
Steel fibres are batched directly into the concrete mix, thereby avoiding the
labour and manufacturing space required for the assembly of concrete cages.
The net savings are typically more pronounced in locations where labour costs
are high (such as Europe & USA), than where they are lower (such as South
East Asia).
Impact resistance
Steel fibres are generally close to edges and corners within the concrete matrix,
giving improved resistance to damage during handling. This in turn reduces
damage and rejection/repairs, providing a cost and programme saving to the
contractor and asset benefit to the client.
Waterproofing
It is also believed that this increased impact resistance reduces damage near the
gasket groove, reducing gasket failures and improving waterproofing.
Durability
Corrosion of steel fibres is typically limited within 10-30mm of the face of the
segment, and does not result in spalling, so the impact of corrosion on durability
is much less than with conventional reinforcement.
Fire resistance
Conventional reinforcement can promote explosive spalling so removal avoids

this concern.
Stray current
The elimination of reinforcement avoids issues with stray current.
CHALLENGES OF SFRC
There is an abundance of literature on steel
fibres, but not a great deal relating to SFRC
segmental linings. For guidance, the authors
would recommend King and Alder (2001); and
the Concrete Societys Technical Report 63.
However, even accepting that the designer
has established methods at his disposal to
undertake the design calculations, there are still
a number of challenges the designer must
overcome in designing, specifying and
obtaining relevant approvals for a SFRC
segmental lining. The principal challenges are
outlined below.
Codes of practice - With the possible
exception of NZS 3101:2006 the authors are
not aware of any current codes of practice that
specifically provide for SFRC. This is usually a
concern to clients who want to assure
themselves that the lining is fit to meet their
long-term durability and structural
requirements. To address this issue the designer
must be prepared to educate the client in the
use of steel fibres. The client will often be very
well informed regarding the performance of
conventionally reinforced concrete and may
have many legitimate concerns concerning
how SFRC performs differently to bar
reinforced concrete in a number of regards,
including:
structural performance during
transportation, erection, and the permanent
condition especially with regard to bending
moments
durability
the additional quality controls required for
SFRC manufacture
Therefore as well as selling the benefits, the
designer must genuinely listen to understand
and then allay the clients concerns.
Handling - SFRC segments have a lower

resistance to bending moments (typically in the
region of 20-40%) than their conventionally
reinforced counterparts when subject to
handling stresses. This means that segment
handling needs to be considered carefully.
The lower moment resistance means that
SFRC segments are not preferable for use with
single point lift on the erector arm. Vacuum
pads are normally the chosen method.
Furthermore, positional tolerances and
spacers between segments are also usually
tighter to further control offsets, and hence
bending moments. There is a trade-off
between different support offsets for stacking
support and the permissible tolerances: the
closer the supports, the lower the tolerance will
have to be to remain within capacity.
This requires that all lifting and
transportation equipment to be used must be
carefully coordinated between designer,
contractor and manufacturer.
There is a perception that due to handling
issues the ring must be divided into more
segments in order to reduce aspect ratios of
segments, and hence bending moments.
Contractors often ask how many segments
can the ring be divided into if fibre reinforced
segments are used? From a purely technical
point of view the true answer is often that the
same number of segments might be used as
for a conventionally reinforced ring, but the
requirements for stacking and handling may
turn out to be very onerous.
Ideally, prior to finalising the segmentation
for TBM design, the handling requirements
should be fully developed to properly evaluate
what level of handling constraint the contractor
is willing to adopt. However, given the long
lead times for TBM delivery the lining design
13/6/12
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NFM TE
SEGMENTAL LININGS
has to be completed almost at the outset of
the project to allow sizing and ordering of the
TBM, so such a detailed study is rarely
practicable. The decision on aspect ratios
therefore tends to be largely based on what
has worked in the past, and aspect ratios on
SFRC segments increase in small increments
from one project to the next. This trend is likely
to continue, and aspect ratios will approach
those of conventionally reinforced segments in
the near future as contractors become
accustomed to the stricter handling regimes
required.
Testing and mix design - The development
of the mix design is made more complex by the
introduction of the following additional testing
requirements:
fibre content tests on the fresh concrete to
ensure that the desired fibre content is
maintained
residual flexural strength (beam) tests, which
are required to demonstrate ductile flexural
resistance
tensile splitting (Brazilian) tests, to concrete
strength required to resist bursting stresses at
the joints
Furthermore, the splitting and residual flexural
strengths can vary with different aggregates
and cements, and the specification is initially
developed without knowing what aggregates
and cements will be used. It is often the case
that the first mix design will not quite meet the
requirements, particularly the flexural strength
requirements. Therefore some iteration is
required to obtain a satisfactory mix, and the
designer is a key player in this process if it is to
be successful. The authors usually recommend
that:
Left: Concrete
sample for
checking
Below left: Two
key and two
typical segments
in a bolted lining
the designer verify what splitting strengths

are usually achieved with local concretes if
specifying high residual or flexural splitting
strengths (>2.5MPA and >3.5MPa)
respectively; and
the manufacturer commence the mix design
at least 6 months before planned
production, especially if they are new to
SFRC.
The manufacturer is also likely to wish to

reduce the fibre content as low as possible
while ensuring that the flexural strength
requirements are met. Given the high
coefficient of variation associated with flexural
tests of fibre reinforced beams of around 20%,
it can require a few iterations and a number of
tests to obtain a satisfactory mix, and to ensure
that the fibre dosage will be sufficient to ensure
that there are no beam test failures. Where
time is limited or testing expensive it may be
preferable to start production with a higher
than desired fibre content and slowly reduce
the dosage as confidence in concrete
performance increases.
CASE STUDY 1 GOLD COAST

DESALINATION
The Gold Coast Desalination project was the
first project in Australia to employ a SFRC
segmental lining (Angerer & Chappell, 2008).
The designers were intimately involved in the
client approvals, monitoring of production, and
construction of the tunnels, in order to ensure
that the benefits of SFRC were delivered.
The project was delivered as part of an
alliance, and this meant that the client was
intimately involved in the decision to adopt
steel fibres, and directly benefited from the cost
and programme savings. In particular, the use
of SFRC offered a one-pass lining in place of
the primary segmental plus insitu secondary
lined solution that would have been required to
meet the durability requirements had a steel
bar reinforced segmental lining been adopted.
Nevertheless, the designers had to carefully
explain how SFRC would meet the 100 year
design life in a highly saline environment. A
durability model of the concrete was developed
for this purpose.
Having the designers available during
manufacture allowed the designer not solely to
rely on a carefully prepared specification, but
also to brief the manufacturer on the tests
required. To meet a tight schedule for mix
design and the performance of the mix a
combination of rapid testing together with
long duration testing for durability was
specified to ensure no hold up of the
production due to absence of test data. This
was largely successful with regard to the SFRC,
although the length of time required for the
durability tests did lead to problems with
durability being identified with the initial mixes.
High cement contents combined with high
summer temperatures and limitations on
double washing aggregates due to water
restrictions lead to problems meeting the
durability requirements. Nevertheless, the high
cement contents did not reach a level that
caused fibre performance to drop significantly.
This last point was particularly important as
the nearest accredited lab capable of
performing the aggregate tests was in Victoria,
and the beam tests for residual strength were
in Sydney, almost 2000 and 1000km away by
road respectively. This resulted in feedback
delays on the aggregates. It also made the
beam testing expensive and carried a high risk
of test beams being damaged in transit.
OUR ME
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Page 29
NFM TECHNOLOGIES. TUNNEL BORING MACHINE MANUFACTURER.
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13/6/12
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Page 30
SEGMENTAL LININGS
Therefore when tests failed the designers
reviewed all relevant production records,
including other strength testing and fibre
content data, to determine whether the test
was an outlier (possibly arising from damage
during transit) or whether there was reasonable
cause to believe that the RFS of the concrete
had deteriorated. The availability of a good
database with all test results was extremely
beneficial to this exercise.
This approach was necessitated by the low
number of beams collected (3 per week), but
was vindicated by the fact that not one
segment was damaged during transportation,
where it is exposed to the highest loads.
Concerns over a low residual flexural strength
in the installed rings was not a concern as the
insitu design loads were within the capacity of
an unreinforced segment of the same size and
compressive strength.
While this approach proved adequate for this
project the authors would recommend that
beams be cast more regularly, but only a
proportion tested. The additional beams are
then available to provide additional justification
should one beam test fail.
Key learning points were therefore:
Ask early questions to understand client and
contractors drivers, and identify solutions
Address durability concerns with the client
early to gain buy-in
A combination of careful specification of
testing and production in conjunction with
contact with the manufacturer, can when
properly managed provide a quality
product even when the manufacturer has no
SFRC experience
Ensure that the designer is involved in
manufacture and construction, particularly
when things do not go to plan
Consider casting more beams than the
testing regime requires to prevent rogue test
results resulting in the unnecessary rejection
of segments
CASE STUDY 2 SCL
Halcrow were engaged by MTRC for the
design of the Lion Rock Tunnels and the
Diamond Hill Approach Tunnels component of
the Shatin to Central Link (SCL) project. This
included 2km of TBM tunnel.
The durability modelling that Halcrow
undertook for the Diamond Hill Approach TBM
tunnels component of the project showed a
risk of chloride build up in the segments due to
saline water on the extrados, which could
result in corrosion of the steel and spalling of
the segment intrados. SFRC would offer
significant durability benefits in this regard.
Further durability benefits could be realised
through the elimination of both stray current
corrosion and potential rebar exposure when
drilling and fixing drilling.
The client, who had been investigating the
use of SFRC segmental tunnel linings for some
time, saw the benefits of trying to use SFRC for
this project and was keen to obtain the
approvals that would allow the construction

contract to specify SFRC linings. However, the
regulatory environment in Hong Kong is very
strict and considerable effort was required to
obtain approvals.
The code compliance issues were resolved by
noting that the RILEM sigma-epsilon design
method (RILEM, 2003) was designed for use
Geopolymer is an alumino-silicate
material using industrial by-products
such as fly ash and slag. When used
in place of Ordinary Portland Cement
in concrete the resulting material is
very like traditional concrete in
performance, but is associated with
much lower emissions of carbon
dioxide. For this reason it is
sometimes referred to as low-carbon
concrete.
A research project in Australia aims
to combine synthetic fibre
reinforcement and geopolymer
technologies, developing a new
generation of precast concrete
products with enhanced durability
and reduced carbon emissions. This
with Eurocode 2, and as such is compatible

with the stress-strain assumptions adopted in
Eurocode 2. While this method is not strictly
code compliant, and while Eurocode 2 is not
universally approved for use in Hong Kong, it
was possible to demonstrate compliance with
the design intent of an established
international code of practice. Furthermore it
was noted that the alternative code compliant
solution introduced a significant durability risk
to the project. This basis for the design of SFRC
was ultimately accepted.
Quality of the concrete was further ensured
by careful specification of testing requirements.
Testing is initially onerous but the client will
retain the option of relaxing requirements if
quality of manufacture is maintained.
CASE STUDY 3 BRISBANE AIRPORT LINK
For the Brisbane Airport Link, Halcrow
seconded key technical staff into the Parsons
Brinckerhoff-Arup JV team to lead and provide
specialist advice in the development of the
11.34m i.d. SFRC segmental lining. This is
thought to be the largest diameter pure SFRC
segmental lining in the world and as such
provided significant challenges to deliver. The
main challenges included:
High hoop loads generating high bursting
stresses at joints
Large aspect ratios in excess of 1:11
High flexural strength requirements in
conjunction with high compressive strength
requirements
Difficulties in achieving flexural stress in the
initial mix
The early reaches of the tunnel either had soft
ground in the crown or a low cover of

weathered to extremely weathered rock. This
lead to relatively high ground loads which,
when combined with the large diameter,
resulted in high hoop loads and high bursting
stresses. By obtaining local test results from
another project it was possible to demonstrate
that a high splitting strength of 4.5MPa could
research seeks to verify that synthetic

fibre reinforced geopolymer concrete
can meet the onerous specification
requirements for tunnel segments,
including resistance to explosive
spalling in a fire.
be achieved. This provided adequate resistance

for almost all of the alignment.
However, there was a short length of tunnel
where this tensile stress would not be adequate
to resist the hoop loads. It was considered that
full scale tests on the joint might be able to
demonstrate that the joints had more capacity
than the design methods were able to justify.
However, setting up a test with high
dimensional accuracy of the pieces required
and very high test loads made this route
appear quite difficult and potentially expensive.
Following discussion with the contractor the
decision was made to not engage in testing,
but put small specific bursting cages at the
longitudinal joints for those areas where the
hoop loads were in excess of the SFRC capacity.
In reaches where the rock was extremely
good the design faced the opposite problem:
the hoop loads were low due to a combination
of largely self supporting ground and low
water pressures. This meant that under
wedge/block loading the steel fibres were
relied upon to provide the required long term
bending capacity. Expected high levels of
carbonation were an issue as these increased
the zone on the intrados face with potential for
fibre corrosion and loss of strength.
In the short term the high aspect ratios also
put pressure on the required residual flexural
strength (RFS). The designer was directly
involved in discussions on the handling steps
and the constraints on the equipment used to
handle the segments from the mould to the
erector. This ensured that equipment was
specified which minimised forces developed in
the segments and ensured very low levels of
13/6/12
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Page 31
SEGMENTAL LININGS
breakage. Both the short and long term
bending requirements resulted in a high
requirement for RFS (3.4MPa), while the
segment design also called for a high concrete
compressive strength (55MPa). The first trial
mixes did not consider the loss of RFS that can
occur when concrete strengths exceed 60MPa,
and were focused on achieving the
compressive strength requirement. However,
the compressive strengths were too high and
the RFS results poor. After discussions involving
the designer and concrete specialists the
compressive strength was controlled to ensure
that RFS values were achieved. The process of
achieving an acceptable production mix took
around 6 months.
During production there were segments that
did not achieve the compressive strength
requirements. However, having the designers
available during the construction process
allowed the opportunity to identify areas where
the design would work with slightly lower
compressive strength requirements ensured
that segments were not rejected.
Key learning points were therefore:
SFRC can be used at high diameters and
designers should not reject the use of SFRC
solely based on the size of the tunnel
The designer should check achievable
concrete strengths from similar local projects
where available to reduce risk to the project
mix design process
The potential for brittle failure of standard
fibres must be taken into account when
specifying high concrete strengths
Designer involvement in the development of
the handling regime ensured negligible
rejections due to handling damage
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
The selection of steel fibre reinforced concrete
segmental linings is fast becoming the
preferred solution for contractors and clients in
many parts of the world, due to the cost and
durability enhancements it offers over
conventionally reinforced linings. The authors
see this trend continuing, and see areas of
development highlighted in this section.
The diameters at which SFRC linings are
specified will continue to increase. Recent
Segment fire testing
increases in aspect ratio of over 11 to 1

provide confidence that handling can be
managed. Furthermore, increased concrete
strengths in conjunction with high strength
fibres can significantly increase the capacity
of segments
The inclusion of RILEM sigma-epsilon design
method (RILEM, 2003), is expected in the
next revision of Eurocode 2. It is our
expectation that SFRC design methods are
likely to be included into other standards
around the world as the use of SFRC
develops, although it may be several decades
before this is widespread
The use of synthetic fibres will become
increasingly common. Halcrow have been
involved in recent research that has
demonstrated the viability of synthetic fibres
in precast segment production
Similarly, Halcrow have been involved in
research to provide geopolymer (low carbon
concrete) solutions for precast linings has the
potential to offer significant benefits over
conventional concrete. Initial results are
encouraging and results will be published
within the next couple of years
One final observation is that much experience
with SFRC segmental linings has been driven
by contractors, and not by clients. Some project
specifications permit the contractor to propose
SFRC linings, but propose a conventionally
reinforced lining as the preferred solution. It
appears to the authors that the most likely
explanation is a lack of experience with SFRC
and lack of awareness of the long term
benefits it can offer. It is the authors belief that
as these benefits become more widely
understood clients will increasingly request
SFRC as their preferred solution.
CONCLUSIONS
The significant cost and durability benefits of
using SFRC precast segmental linings are being
realised by both clients and contractors in many
parts of the world. Nevertheless, in order to
successfully deliver these benefits the designer
must be aware of the additional complexities
that specifying SFRC brings. These complexities
begin with the client and the lack of design
standards, and bring in the contractor and their
handling procedures, and the precaster, with all
the mix design and testing required to
demonstrate that the product meets the
requirements.
Throughout this process the designer plays a
key role. The designer understands how the
lining must perform, both insitu and during
transportation and handling. This
understanding spans both structural and
durability performance, and must be carefully
transferred to the client to provide them with
the assurance they require to ensure that they
are getting a truly durable, functional asset.
Development of stacking and handling
systems by the contractor is also best
undertaken in concert with the designer to
ensure that appropriate handling systems are
specified and unnecessary damage to

segments avoided.
Development of mix designs is often
somewhat iterative, and the designers
knowledge is key to ensuring that design
requirements are delivered effectively and
economically. Communication with all parties is
critical to achieving this. Therefore the designer
needs to be involved at least up to the start of
production, and preferably beyond.
The designer should, as far as practicable,
obtain information on local concretes. Tensile
(splitting and flexural) strengths are particularly
useful in this regard. This data is particularly
important if high strengths are specified, and
the designer should try to keep tensile strength
requirements as low as possible.
The availability of local testing should also be
considered very early. This includes not only
specific SFRC tests but also tests relating to
durability. Options for reducing concrete
permeability by increasing cement content can
cause problems with brittleness and failure of
the residual flexural strength tests, so the mix
design can be more constrained than for a
conventionally reinforced segment. The mix
design should be allowed more time in the
programme ideally commencing at least six
months prior to production.
ACKNOWELDGEMENTS
The Authors would like to thank the following
for their insights in the subject matter:
John Holland Tunnelling
Thiess Tunnelling
Mass Transit Railway Company (MTRC),
Hong Kong
Wolfgang Angerer
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
1. Angerer, W and Chappell, M, 2008.

Design of Steel Fibre Reinforced
Segmental Lining for the Gold Coast
Desalination Tunnels. 13th Australian
Tunnelling Conference Melbourne,
pp463-470.
The Concrete Society, 2007. Technical
report No 63, Guidance for the design of
steel-fibre-reinforced concrete, UK.
King, M R and Alder, A J, 2001. The
practical specification of steel fibre
reinforced concrete (SFRC) for tunnel
linings, presented to Underground
Construction Conference, London.
King, M, and Chappell, M. Highly
Durable Linings. Presentation to
Tunnelling
2010 conference, London, Dec 2010.
NZS 3101: 2006. Concrete Structures
Standard, Standards New Zealand
RILEM TC 162-TDF: Test and design
methods for steel fibre reinforced
concrete design method Final
Recommendation. Materials and
Structures/Matriaux et Constructions,
Vol. 36, October 2003, pp. 560-567
TJ_0612_Synthetics_032_034_OK.qxd:Feature
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Page 32
VIEWPOINT
Synthetic fibres the

viable alternative?
STRUCTURAL SYNTHETIC FIBRES offering
any real technical performance value first
came onto the market towards the end of
the 1990s and were quickly adopted by
firstly the tunnelling industry in Japan in
sprayed concrete linings for primary support
purposes and then were exported to the
mining industry in Australia; where for the
last 15 years or so, they have been the
reinforcement of choice for over 90% of
the concrete used underground there.
Today, Norway has adopted structural
synthetic fibres in over 200km of sprayed
concrete linings, including those for several
sub-sea tunnels, where the use of steel
reinforcement is avoided, due to concerns
about durability due to corrosion.
It should be noted that structural
synthetic fibres are not limited to primary
ground support applications, but have been
included in single shell permanent linings
such as in the UKs Hindhead Tunnel and
cast in situ permanent linings in water
tunnels and high-speed rail tunnels in Spain.
However, it is their adoption in the ever
growing precast segmental lining sector,
where the most significant benefits lie.
Traditional manufacture
Precast segmental linings have traditionally
been manufactured using steel cage; which
segment manufacturers freely admit is
regarded as a necessary evil, rather than the
optimum solution, given the issues
surrounding manufacturing hold ups,
increased labour requirements, compaction
problems and correct placement, amongst
other issues that stem from having to use
cumbersome cage designs.
Taking all of these impracticalities as a
start point, fibre companies realized that
there might be a potential to bring the ease
of usage that fibre reinforcement brings,
either through addition via bags direct into
the mixing cycle, or through dosed solutions
and thus eliminate many of the negatives
associated with using cage reinforcement.
However, neither the quality of the fibre
product, nor the optimization of dosing, nor
the ease of usage would be enough on
their own to persuade the industry to shift
away from steel reinforcement cages if the
technical performance was not there to
back it up and if said technical performance
Garry Martin, tunnelling manager at

Elastoplastic Concrete (Europe) puts forward
the case for using structural synthetic fibres
as a replacement for steel mesh and steel
fibres in precast segmental linings
Above: A BC54 reinforced cast segment.

Top: Segment re-inforced with BC54 fibres being poured
12/6/12
23:06
Page 33
VIEWPOINT
Steel cages
are not
considered
the
optimum
solution by
many
designers
could not be proven via internationally

accepted and transparent means.
The starting point for justifying the
performance of any type of fibre concrete is
the testing of beams, in accordance with BS
EN14889. These beam test results are a
mandatory part of the CE marking of
products and provide a fixed term of
reference for the performance of the fibre

concrete in question, taking into account
the classification of the concrete used, the
dosage of fibres and the amount of energy
that is absorbed in flexure after first crack at
a set point of deflection of the beam. This
data from beam tests, (which are performed
independently at such places as The
The starting point for

justifying the performance of
any type of fibre concrete is the
testing of beams, in accordance
with BS EN14889
BARCHIP
SYNTHETIC FIBRE
REPLACING STEEL
REINFORCEMENT IN CONCRETE
University of Greenwich in the UK) gives a

series of what are known as re3 numbers,
(indicating the level of residual flexural
strength in the fibre reinforced concrete
once it has cracked) which typically increase
with the increase of fibre dosage, from
around 30 for 2.5kg of Barchip fibres to 70
for 10kg. This number is then used as an
input into design programmes and is the
same for steel fibre reinforced concretes
and for those with structural synthetic
fibres. Hence it is possible to compare a
given concrete type with a known amount
of fibre and based upon the re3 number, be
sure that the level of performance is
equivalent. The same applies to beams
reinforced with mesh too.
FEA in use
EPC decided to take things further and
employed finite element analysis, as
opposed to the more limited calculations
showing only equivalent flexural strength,
which uses the inputs from the beam tests
and can now calculate and show in full
transparency, the performance generated by
fibres at every stage of the segments life
cycle, from the stresses generated by demoulding and transportation, to stacking
and to loadings that would be expected at
the serviceability state and ultimate limit
state for any given segment design. FEA
BARCHIP, REPLACING STEEL

STEEEL IN

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SHOTCRETE LINING

SEGMENTAL LINING
INVERT SLABS
CONCRETE TRACK SLAB
SHAFT LINING
PORTAL STABILISATION
ROADWAYS
At EPC, weve built our reputation on the strength of

our people and on the quality of our products which
have been tried and tested by major corporations
and engineering experts worldwide.
WWW.ELASTOPLASTIC.COM
12/6/12
23:06
Page 34
VIEWPOINT
FEA used in the design of segments
also shows that the substitution of cage for

fibres not only provides equivalent
performance, but also improves
performance levels as fibre reinforced
concrete is more resistant to initial micro
cracking (leading to higher loads for first
crack generation) as well as greater
resistance to jacking pressures during
placement and the prevention of joint break
offs, which lead to ill-fitting seals.
Having proved, using independent testing,
that there is a transparent level of
performance equivalence between steel
fibres and structural synthetic fibres at given
dosages and that through the usage of FEA
modelling it can be shown that the fibre
reinforced concrete performs not only as
well as that reinforced with steel cage, but
often surpasses the performance of steel
cage, why would the industry want to move
away from a material such as steel fibres?
These have been around for significantly
longer than polymer fibres - which are only
recently being used in precast segmental
linings? Obviously, for any change to take
place, there has to be a big enough driver
for it to happen and that driver is the trade
off that centres around using a technology
that has been tried and tested for a longer
period of time, as in the case of steel fibres,
but which is known to have potential issues
surrounding corrosion and embrittlement,
especially when segmental linings are
expected to provide a service life in excess of
120 years.
Drive for change
Independent testing has shown that the
continuing trend to use higher strength
concretes in segmental linings, typically with

design strengths around 50MPa (but which
over time can go on to be over twice that
strength), with increased early age strength
gains to aid the productivity of factory
segment lines and reduce issues surrounding
de-moulding and handling, where it is
agreed the segments are subjected to their
greatest stresses, can cause longer term
issues. Such high strength concretes pose a
significant problem as the failure mechanism
of steel fibres changes from ductile to brittle
as the fibres are snapped rather than pulled
and deformed by the matrix surrounding
A fibre reinforced segment being cast
them. Indeed, this is supposing the steel

fibres are still intact anyway and have not
been subject to degradation by corrosion,
which in independent tests has shown them
to lose up to as much as 50% of their initial
capacity as measured at 28 days, when
measured again at 90 days in a cracked
concrete.
So maybe in these difficult economic
times the right drivers for change exist and
now is the time for us to invest in
infrastructure that will stand the test of time
and not need replacing prior to the specified
design life, as is often the case using current
materials?
This article is published courtesy

of the Concrete Society magazine Concrete.
TJ_0612_Benoit_035_037.qxd:Feature
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Page 35
SPRAYED CONCRETE
Waterproofing
sprayed concrete
tunnels
MOST THINGS ARE a little more
complicated than they first appear. And
complicated things are interesting. If you
dont agree, best put this magazine down
now and go get a different job because you
clearly arent suited to tunnelling.
In the last issue of Tunnelling Journal,
Andy Pickett and Alun Thomas laid out a
smrgsbord of design philosophies for
sprayed concrete linings past, present and
possibly future. One thing all the
philosophies had in common was that
where there was a waterproof membrane,
either sprayed or sheet, the water pressure
was assumed to act on the back of the
membrane, and this pressure was assumed
to be transferred to the secondary concrete
lining, whether sprayed or cast in situ. This is
because the membrane is either considered
impermeable or at least a couple of orders
of magnitude less permeable than the
concrete, and therefore a water pressure
within the concrete will tend to be applied
to the membrane. There is nothing really
wrong with these assumptions, but it is
interesting to ask what might actually be
occurring, partly because it is complicated
(and hence interesting), and partly because
we can then question whether these design
assumptions and philosophies bear any
relation to what we think may be the reality.
Unpicking the design philosophies
It is clear that for a sheet waterproof
membrane system not bonded to the
primary lining and with a geotextile fleece
behind the PVC sheet, any leakage of water
through cracks in the primary lining will
eventually spread around the sheet
membrane and apply a hydrostatic pressure
to the secondary lining. Therefore, it seems
reasonable to design the secondary lining to
support all of the groundwater pressure. For
a sprayed waterproof membrane, it is not so
obvious that this is the case, because the
membrane is bonded to the primary lining.
Bond strengths quoted by suppliers are up
to 1.5MPa. Therefore, water passes through
In this article, Dr Benot Jones,

Tunnelling and Underground
Space MSc Course Manager at the
University of Warwick, looks at the
underlying mechanisms behind
waterproofing design philosophies for sprayed
concrete tunnels
So for a sprayed
waterproof
membrane, the
water would need
to penetrate
through the full
thickness of intact
sprayed concrete in
order to apply
pressure to the
whole membrane
and make the
secondary lining
earn its keep
Darren Page
cracks in the concrete and applies pressure
to the back of the membrane, but only over
the area of the crack plus a small distance
either side (due to local debonding to allow
crack bridging to occur). Therefore, the
forces exerted on a secondary lining due to
the groundwater pressure over these small
areas would be tiny, or to use a technical
term, ickle.
So for a sprayed waterproof membrane,
the water would need to penetrate through
the full thickness of intact sprayed concrete
in order to apply pressure to the whole
membrane and make the secondary lining
earn its keep. But a good quality modern

sprayed concrete has quite a high strength
and a low porosity, and usually contains
cement replacements such as microsilica,
and superplasticisers, which serve to make
concrete less permeable. Therefore,
permeability will probably be lower than
10-12m/s, and quite possibly less than
10-13m/s. What does permeation of water
through such a nigh-on impermeable
material look like? And how long will it take
for groundwater to reach the membrane?
Tests to determine permeability of
sprayed concrete
Permeability can be calculated by applying a
pressure gradient to a saturated specimen,
waiting for a steady-state to be established
and then measuring the flow. For good
quality concrete with a permeability of
10-12m/s or less, permeation tests become
impractical because the flow quantities to be
measured are so small, and the errors
introduced by very small leaks, mechanical
deformation of the concrete or apparatus
under pressure and absorption by seals can
affect the results (Concrete Society, 2008).
Therefore, permeability testing usually
consists of a penetration test to EN 123908:2009. Here water is applied under
pressure to a 75mm diameter circular area
on one face of a cube or cylinder with a
minimum dimension on that face of
150mm. After 72 hours the specimen is split
open and the penetration measured. This
means the flow is approximately uniaxial as
long as water doesnt reach the sides of the
specimen. Since the hydraulic gradient
decreases as the penetration front moves
13/6/12
20:26
Page 36
SPRAYED CONCRETE
into the concrete, Valenta (1970) came up
with an equation to relate the uniaxial
penetration of water into concrete to time:
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
where d is the depth of penetration at time t,

K is the permeability in m/s, h is the pressure
head in m and is the porosity of the
concrete. The penetration is proportional to
the square root of time, and this means the
rate of penetration decreases with time. This
relationship was corroborated by tests
performed by Browne & Domone (1975),
which are shown in Figure 1. Contrary to usual
[4]
[5]
BS EN 12390-8:2009. Testing hardened concrete Part 8: Depth of penetration of water

under pressure. British Standards Institution/CEN.
Cabrera, J. G. (1997). Specifying concrete for high performance and long term durability.
Proc. Mario Collepardi Symp. on Advances in Concrete Science and Technology (ed. P. K.
Mehta), Rome, pp. 356- 371. Ponzano, Italy: Enco SRL.
Concrete Society (2008). Permeability testing of site concrete. Concrete Society Technical
Report No.31, ISBN 978-1-904482-45-1. Camberley, Surrey: The Concrete Society.
Pickett, A. P. & Thomas, A. H. (2012). Where are we now with sprayed concrete lining in
tunnels? Tunnelling Journal, April/May issue, pp.31-40.
Valenta, O. (1970). The permeability and durability of concrete in aggressive conditions.
Proc. 10th Int Conf. on Large Dams, Montreal, Canada, pp.103-117, Paper Q3 9R6.
practice, the data is not presented in log scale

so that the true decay of penetration with time
can be appreciated.
But how does this penetration permeability
Figure 1: Penetration of seawater into concrete under 70m pressure head, data from
Browne & Domone (1975)
40
35
Penetration (mm)
30
25
20
15
10
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Time (days)
Figure 2: Projections of Valenta's penetration equation into the long-term

1600
Penetration of groundwater
into sprayed concrete (mm)
1400
test relate to intrinsic steady-state flow

permeability? Luckily, in this case it doesnt
have to, because what we are really interested
in is penetration, i.e. how long the
groundwater takes to get to the membrane
and apply a pressure. Once it gets there, the
water stops if the membrane is doing its job,
so steady-state flow never occurs.
Figure 2 shows curves based on Valentas
equation with a porosity of 0.3 and an applied
pressure head of 20m for three different
values of permeability. Plotting these curves
over 500 years should be cautiously
undertaken since we obviously do not have
experimental data to validate them. However,
they suggest that during the design life of the
tunnel and for typical sprayed concrete
permeability values the groundwater may
never even reach the waterproof membrane
let alone exert pressure on it (except at tiny
crack locations). If longer-term penetration test
data were available, a maximum sprayed
concrete permeability could be specified for a
project to ensure the groundwater wont
penetrate to the membrane over the design
life of the lining system. Maximum
permeability is often specified for durability
reasons, for example on the Jubilee Line
Extension project the maximum permeability
specified for the precast concrete segments
was 10-13m/s, and the standard deviation of
over 2000 measurements was only 3.9 x
10-14m/s (Cabrera, 1997). It is also often a
standard test on larger sprayed concrete
projects. Installation of a secondary lining
designed for the full hydrostatic water pressure
could then be postponed for 200 years or so.
1200
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1000
Some of these ideas were inspired

by a conversation with Normets
Ross Dimmock.
K = 1e-12m/s, h = 20m
K = 1e-13m/s, h = 20m
800
K = 1e-14m/s, h = 20m
600
CORRECTION
400
200
0
0
100
200
300
Time (years)
400
500
600
In Benots article in the last issue,

entitled A Loaded Question, the labels
on the graph were accidentally switched
in production. The light blue line should
have been labelled elastic soil and the
dark blue non-linear elastic soil
www.lin
13/6/12
20:26
Page 37
www.linkedin.com/groups/Women-in-Tunneling-4470112/about
TJ_0612_LinkedIn_038_041.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
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INDUSTRY COMMENT
The TJ Linkedin Group DRILL

TJs Linkedin group has been throwing up some interesting discussion
again. This time on the subject of Drill & Blast v TBM. Use the arrows after
Pablo Alfredos initial posting to follow the debate!
Pablo Alfredo
Why are we moving back to the Drill and Blast methods instead of TBMs?
David Lees
It depends on many factors most specifically the length of the tunnel as it can take a long time to procure and establish a TBM. For a
short tunnel this is not economic. Also if poor geology and groundwater are expected, which may cause the face advance to be
stopped for long periods, the mobility of drill and blast equipment means that they can be utilised elsewhere.
Knut F. Garshol
Because the TBM system is very sensitive to rock conditions locally being outside of those thought before the start of excavation (which
happens quite frequently). Considering that the normal reasons for selecting TBM excavation mostly have to do with construction time
and that the actual cost primarily depends on the excavation time being as planned, the above mentioned sensitivity often causes both
time and cost to miss the target by a wide margin. Achieving short construction times also depends on a short length of tunnel to
compensate for the long delivery times and mobilization times associated with a TBM.
D&B offers a lot of advantages that are sometimes overlooked:
Equipment immediately available - no mobilization time
Variation of cross section is no problem, including niches etc
Probing ahead is easy and pre-excavation grouting can be efficiently executed
One jumbo can serve 2 opposing headings when circumstances allow it
Computer controlled units reduce overbreak and temporary support
Modern detonators can reduce vibration significantly
Modern explosives are safe, simple and fast to work with
Spiling bolts and other pre-stabilization equipment can be installed as needed
Easy and fast access to the face when needed in extremely poor zones
Any shape tunnel cross section possible (the circular TBM-shape is not always the best)
Much less cost-sensitive to massive, hard and abrasive rock
The list could be made longer, but even more excavation would be executed by D&B if more consultants and contractors actually had a full knowledge
and greater experience with D&B operations.
David Lees
I don't think Knut is correct - we are not reverting to drill and blast because TBMs cannot cope with unforeseen ground conditions - nor
because a round tunnel shape is not the best (a round tunnel is generally the most stable). It really is economics and program that
drives the decision. Mixed face TBMs can cope with a great variety of ground conditions. TBMs also allow immediate face support and
provide a safe area for workers. Drill and Blast is flexible and cheap for short tunnels with minimal establishment time.
Knut F. Garshol
To David: When we compare D&B and TBMs, it is typically for a hard rock case (otherwise D&B would not be in the picture at all) and NOT a
mixed face situation. Under such conditions, D&B allows basically any tunnel shape and there are plenty of cases where the shape is
important for the user and the project costs, while the stability aspect is completely marginal. I am not saying a TBM cannot cope with
unforeseen ground conditions, but it is clearly a MUCH more sensitive method than D&B. How many TBMs have been left in the hole to be
saved by a D&B bypass.... The immediate face support is also just a nice wish when operating hard rock TBMs. If you hit running ground and
a collapsing face, the problem zone cannot be brought back to the "safe area for workers". I have taken part in hand-digging to free a TBM more than once,
to finally do the rest of the tunnel with D&B with improved advance rate compared to the TBM.
Continue at top of next page
& BL
DRILL
13/6/12
20:02
Page 39
INDUSTRY COMMENT
& BLAST DEBATE

Leo Troitski
D&B is one of the tools in the box. It is no better or worse that any other. One has always to consider: time, money, environmental
consequences, skilled labor and materials availability etc, to make a final decision and not necessarily in this order. There are times when even
a combination of two or three different excavation methods have to be used to get the job done.
John Butchart
Hi David, you are not correct about the shape of tunnels. Circular tunnels are good for water races, utility tunnels and single track rail. Three lane highway tunnels
(even with ventilation duct channels overhead) are very oval in section, and a TBM drive at the moment would result in massive over-excavation with all the extra
cost. It will not always be thus: sooner or later, some propellor-head will invent an oval TBM. Until this happens, hard rock highway tunnels will be done by D & B.
Knut F. Garshol
Leo, of course you are right, but the whole subject was polarised a bit (which is OK) by the first posting asking why are we going back to D&B.
There is no going back. Both methods have their place and will continue to be successfully used when they are the right choice. The reasons for
the choice made will vary from project to project. My personal feeling is still that if there is significant doubt about the method to use, the
consequences of being wrong with a TBM are more serious.
M
Leo Troitski
I would have to agree Knut - most of the TBM models do not have a "reverse gear" ;-)
David Lees
I agree with Knut, it is difficult to give a distinct pure view when the subject under discussion is polarised. I think however this has been a
good discussion with many good points made. What it comes down to is a good geotechnical investigation and detailed planning to select
the right tool for the job. In conclusion I don't think we are moving back to drill and blast instead of TBMs - it might just be that the list of
projects you are looking at Mike are more suited to a drill and blast approach.
Leo Troitski
Concur, we are not moving back, we are developing new tools and techniques, frankly speaking none of the old excavation methods
become obsolete just because a new one is available. There are no grounds for "polarization" (And I do not see or feel it as such). An open
minded approach to any task is needed, along with thoroughly done home work (it is cheaper to run options on paper) and good advice
from friends and colleagues.
Bruce Matheson
Good points by all I think and for the most part everyone seems to be on the same page - However often times what seems to be the best
(most logical) solution technically (to those of us inside the industry) is not perceived as the best solution economically, or is seen as "risky"
by stakeholders (from outside the industry) who are not always technically as experienced as they might be.
M
Chas Dean
With reduced vibration counts through better management of advanced detonation methods and explosives, there should be more use
made of D & B in situations where they are warranted in inner city development.
There is nothing worse than changing red hot picks every cut, knowing full well you could remove the obstacle before you (and multiply
your metres) with a few well placed holes and some jelly. Maybe its time to update the Insurance Companies on our latest and more superior
abilities to move rock?
13/6/12
20:03
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INDUSTRY COMMENT
Knut F. Garshol
Bruce and Chas are both on to the fact that there are a lot more factors at play than the purely technical/economical ones. What
is abundantly clear to me is that explosives are under-utilized in many places due to bureaucrats and politicians with a perception
of D&B as being dangerous. This perception has in some locations lead to regulations enforced on D&B-operations that I partly
don't dare to expand on. If a TBM can do the job, why not go with the flow and not rock the boat? However, when there is a
need for caverns, subway stations and the like in hard rock, D&B cannot be avoided. That is when the unnecessary part of such regulations will cost
a bundle.
Leo Troitski
Well... politicians, lawyers, trade-unions, perceptions, public opinions, earthquakes... are all forces of Nature and need to be
accounted for thats what I call thoroughly done home work. Knowing the environment one has to deal with is essential to
success in the Construction Industry but not an engineering part. It would take a "Bigger Picture" discussion to consider it all.
Shashank Bhatnagar
A good discussion from all, deserving appreciation. In my view the scenario is different everywhere. In India, D&B still has an edge
over TBM. The very first experience of TBM usage on the Dulhasti H.E.Project in Kashmir Himalayas was not a success story. The
TBM got buried and the balance of tunnelling was done by D&B. Both techniques have their own merits and drawbacks and the
choice should be based on site specific conditions. In one project in South India tunnelling was to be carried out in a wild life
sanctuary and D&B was not permitted. On the Lr.Subansiri Project ,the country rock is fragile Shiwalik sandstones. The tunnelling is being done by
roadheader, not TBM nor D&B.
Kevin Tracey
Driving two running tunnels side by side is more cost effective by D&B because you can excavate cross passages and both drives at the same time
whereas a TBM can only do one tunnel at a time then has to be dismantled or turned around to do the second, and that can take 3-4 months.
1 mm
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13/6/12
20:03
Page 41
INDUSTRY COMMENT
Ignacio Vecillas Fernndez

I think that the D&B has the disadvantage that since certain blast wavelengths significantly increase the diameter of the ventilation pipes and times of
evacuation of gases to the outside, so the cycles become excessively long. However, this problem can be overcome with the creation of intermediate
attacks or fronts. In my opinion, this maximum length by only one front of attack can be placed at about 2,000m, approx. Does anyone have
experience of carrying out excavation from a single front exceeding 2,000m by D&B?
Knut F. Garshol
For all sorts of possible reasons, you may in many cases not have the option of intermediate ventilation points. If so, you may have to
ventilate much longer single heading D&B tunnel (or use a TBM). However, 2000m is far from any limit in this regard. Double and triple this
has been done many times. It is a matter of proper dimensioning of the ventilation system and allowing muck transport through the
explosives gas plug before it has been evacuated. The drivers will need to have fresh air supply for health reasons.
Leo Troitski
Depending on the diameter and rock type one might consider a portable crusher and conveyor system - no need for drivers and a much
better capacity for muck handling.
Knut F. Garshol
Leo, that transport solution certainly deserves consideration, but proper ventilation will still need to be installed. Also, staff will have to
traverse the blast fumes to get to the face after a blast if the heading is very long. Otherwise, things will take too much time.
Bruce Matheson
So many variables and a wide world - this conversation could go on for ever, as it is we are going around in circles (just saying :)).
Knut F. Garshol
Hi Bruce, yes, but it is fun! The dog has fun chasing its own tail :-) Anyway, I think we see a bit of a tendency that people have perceived
problems with D&B that are solvable and not as serious as they may think. I personally think that too many projects are done by TBM
viewing the choice from a purely technical/economical side and not considering availability of qualified and experienced D&B staff and
consultants and owners that actually give it all an objective analysis. I know there is an element of wishful thinking in this position, since you
cannot exclude those other aspects of a given market, but maybe there still is a tendency in the direction implied in the original question?
Pablo Alfredo Arrieta Rex
Dear all, many thanks for this debate and ideas regarding D&B and TBM. As you said it all depends, but I agree with Knut that in many
cases D&B considerations are overlooked, therefore the temptation to go for TBM end up being the chosen option. It happened to us (we
were about to go for 2 TBMs !! now we are moving towards more headings and full D&B)
Leo Troitski
Knut, there is no doubt that proper ventilation/fresh air delivery and maintaining a sufficient fresh air pocket/zone at the heading is an
absolute must, but if sequence and pattern allows you to make more than one blast per shift, positively pressurized man-trip (with sufficient
back-up air supply on board for emergencies) will get your crew out and new crew in through the slowly moving blast fume zone. Of cause
you would have to stop blasting and ventilate the tunnel for periodical maintenance and extension of the conveyor belt e.t.c. but it all could
be pre-planned. We are not discussing any emergency situations either.
David Salisbury
A healthy debate. I would point out one thing. Several have commented on the relatively immediate availability of drill and blast plant etc.
However, for many of todays projects the tunnel horizon is not immediately available. On rail tunnel projects, especially in an urban
environment, it can take 12-24 months from award of contract to achieve the access to the tunnel horizon. While this is often achieved
using multiple methods including soft ground and drill and blast, the delivery time of a TBM can usually easily match or better the long leadin time required to clear sites, sink shafts and construction adits etc.
There is a healthy future for both methods if their selection is properly considered. If we keep getting it wrong the Clients will walk away from projects leaving
us all out of a job!
photo credits: MVB, VINCI and subsidiaries photo libraries, Andras Nemeth, Clarence Michel.
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TJ_0612_Robbins_043_045.qxd:Feature
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PROBE DRILLING
TBM probe drilling

and pre-grouting
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
Desiree Willis of The Robbins
Company explains some of the
essential factors surrounding a
successful TBM probe drilling
and pre-grouting campaign
WHILE PROBE DRILLING and pre-grouting
have a long and successful history in drill and
blast applications, their adoption for TBM
technology has been more tenuous.
Continuous probe drilling and pre-grouting
was first pioneered in Norwegian hard rock
D&B tunnels, where they have since been used
with great success to detect ground conditions
and consolidate weak rock ahead of the
excavation face. If these methods have great
potential to allow TBMs to excavate in difficult
conditions, what are the barriers to their
acceptance? Some of the most important
variables will be familiar to anyone who has
been involved in a tunnel project: time, cost,
and experience.
Number 1: There are always Pros and Cons
Industry opinions on the efficacy of the
methods vary widely and are often based on
personal experience. Much of the reluctance
to adopt the methods is based on a belief that
the overall impact on the project schedule and
TBM advance does not usually make up for
the benefits provided. However, the benefits
can be dramatic when compared to
alternatives such as stuck TBMs, bypass
tunnels, and other costly delays to the project
schedule. The ability of a grout curtain to cut
off or reduce water ingress and stabilize weak
zones is unique to the method. This result has
also been proven on hundreds of D&B projects
over decades. When tunnel projects such as
Indias Tapovan-Vishnugad Hydroelectric
Project are considered, where a Double Shield
TBM was brought to a halt following a
massive influx of mud and water, the benefits
seem clear.
There are other barriers towards industry
acceptance besides time, however. Frode
Right: Industry
opinions on probe
drilling and pregrouting vary
widely, and are
often based on
the variables of
time, cost, and
experience
Right: Selecting
the right machine
type is key, as the
design of shielded
machines limits
the angle at
which drilling can
be done
Nilsen, CEO of veteran for Norwegian

tunnelling contractor LNS, mentioned one
important factor: I dont think its been
accepted in the TBM industry and has not
been taken seriously because of the cost.
Dean Brox, Lead Associate Tunnels for
experienced consultant Jacobs Associates,
agrees that while the cost may be higher
compared to some other methods, probing
and grouting may be the only viable option in
certain conditions. Probe drilling and preexcavation grouting are well proven risk
mitigation approaches to control or reduce
groundwater inflows. This approach is one of
the most expensive approaches to adopt for
the control of inflows (ground freezing is
typically the most costly). However, tunnel
projects that include downhill drives commonly
have specifications for 100% probe drilling
and pre-excavation grouting. This is a practical
approach given those tunnel constraints.
Despite the cost, Brox says he does

recommend probing and grouting when other
methods have been unsuccessful, or when the
tunnel constraints warrant it: We recommend
these methods after careful evaluation of the
project parameters and requirements. Cheaper
methods, which are normally considered first,
include gravity drain holes from underground
behind the face, or surface drill holes for
shallow tunnels.
Number 2: The Right Program and
Machine Type can make all the Difference
Though the industry view of probing and pregrouting tends toward the conservative, there
are multiple ways to reduce impact to time
and budgets while maximizing the benefits.
Sindre Log, Robbins Civil Engineer,
recommends the following methods to get the
most out of a continuous probe drilling and
pre-grouting program:
12/6/12
22:02
Page 44
PROBE DRILLING
is no way to seal the outer diameter of the
shield to the rock surface. This is because the
rock is too rough and has fissures, said Log.
Even with probing and grouting, the shield
design limits the angle at which the drilling can
be done, leaving the excavation face itself
untested.
If significant water is expected, the best
option may be a Main Beam TBM that does
not limit the use of probing and grouting. Any
waterproof lining and segments
needed could be set behind the
machine.
The All Conditions Tunneler (ACT) TBM developed by Robbins utilizes a retractable telescopic
In order to further optimize
shield to allow ground treatment in front of or close to the face
pre-treatment efficiency, Robbins
while providing the protection of a shield body
has also developed the All
Conditions Tunneller (ACT)
TBMa combination of a
Double Shield and Main Beam
TBM that removes the
conventional shielded machines
limitation regarding ground
treatment in front of, or close to
the face.
The ACT machine allows for
swift in-tunnel conversion
between an open and shielded
TBM via a retractable telescopic
shield. The design thus allows for
them from the critical path of the TBM
more rapid and comprehensive
process. Detailed planning should be done
probe drilling in an open
to coordinate the maintenance and cutter
configuration. The method can
changing stops to the probing intervals. As
also result in substantial cost
an example a daily maintenance shift could
savings, as the contractor can
be sufficient time to complete a grouting
choose between a full segmental
umbrella, with the correct TBM set up.
lining or a temporary lining with
Analyze drilling performance in detail:
shotcrete, rock bolts, and ring
To get the most out of probe drilling and
beams.
pre-grouting, detailed measurements of the
advance rates of the probe drilling and the
Number 3: It has been
grouting pressure should be done. These
Successful on Difficult TBM
measurements enable proper prediction of
the ground ahead of the TBM. The drilling
Projects
could be measured manually or
Though probe drilling and preautomatically with Measurement While
grouting have not yet been used
Drilling (MWD) systems, which are
extensively on TBM projects,
commonly used in D&B applications. The
successful examples can be
MWD system is used to analyze the rock in
found worldwide. Brox was
Probe drilling has
detail (hardness, water content, rock mass
involved at such a project, on
been done
properties, etc.) and can be used to generate
two Robbins Main Beam TBMs
successfully on
3D-models of the rock mass in order to
at Canadas Seymour Capilano
many TBMs,
decide on the rock support or for
Water Filtration Tunnels: 100%
including two
documentation purposes, said Log.
probe drilling (with minimum
Robbins Main
An adaptation of this type of system,
overlap) and pre-excavation
Beam machines at
called the DRIS system, was developed by
grouting were specified as part
Canadas Seymour
Nishimatsu Construction of Japan for use on
of the twin down drives of the
Capilano Water
three Robbins Main Beam TBMs in Malaysia.
Seymour Capilano tunnel
Filtration Tunnels
The 5.23m diameter machines, for the
project. This was due to the
Pahang Selangor Raw Water Tunnel, are
down gradient of the tunnel
water at the face. It is impossible to seal a
excavating high cover granitic rock using a
under high cover where there was a moderate
Double Shield - water will always flow in
successful program of continuous probe
risk of encountering significant inflows.
between the face and the location where you
drilling. The DRIS system calculates the rate
Fortunately the actual groundwater inflows
effectively grout behind the segments. If you
of advance using drill feed pressure, rotation,
were much less than originally anticipated and
have high inflows of water it is difficult, if not
and other variables, and also infers the rock
so very limited pre-excavation grouting was
impossible, to stop the water flow around the
quality based on the rate of penetration. All
required. Probe drilling was continuously
segments or effectively grout behind the
of the information is relayed via a wireless
carried out during TBM excavation, and while
segments. Whatever grout you pump in
connection for real-time viewing anywhere
it had an impact on progress in the early days,
behind the segments just washes out, as there
on the TBMs and at the surface.
once the crews became familiar with the
Plan and optimize the downtime for
maintenance and cutter changes to
minimize the downtime caused by
probing and grouting:
According to Log, proper scheduling may be
one of the easiest ways to reduce downtime
compared with current industry standards. To
efficiently perform probe drilling and
potentially pre-grouting in a TBM process, it is
essential to plan the interventions and remove
Choose the right TBM type:

Ultimately, choosing the right TBM type can
significantly cut time and cost. While the trend
in certain types of difficult ground is for
shielded hard rock machines, their use in some
conditions can create a false sense of security.
Though shielded machines offer the benefit of
a final segmental lining for the tunnel, the
operation itself is not water-tight. A Double
Shield TBM does not control the inflow of
12/6/12
22:02
Page 45
PROBE DRILLING
Left: An experienced work
force can greatly reduce
the negatives of probe
drilling and grouting, as
seen here at Malaysias
Pahang Selangor Raw
Water Tunnel
Below: Probe drilling and
pre-grouting offers many
benefits, and has been
proven, when used
continuously, to accurately
detect and treat poor
ground conditions such as
these, ahead of the TBM
equipment and procedures the work activity

became efficient, and was successfully
implemented with minimum impact to
progress.
Probe drilling and pre-excavation grouting
were also implemented at the Arrowhead
Tunnels in California with some success in
mixed ground conditions. The water transfer
project, located less than a kilometer from the
San Andreas Fault in conditions that included
water pressures up to 20 bars, had
engendered multiple excavation attempts
since 1994. An ultimate solution for the
project combined drilling and grouting with
drain holes for pressure relief, to decrease the
pressure gradient. Pre-excavation grouting was
done through between 6 and 17 splayed holes
from the face, in small cycles, to improve both
grouting and mining conditions. While an
extensive amount of grout and time were
expended during each boring cycle, the
program was ultimately successful and the
project was completed in 2008 (Fulcher & Bell,
2008).
Number 4: Knowledge Level is Key to
Success
As with many developments in the tunnelling
industry, probe drilling and pre-grouting are
seen from the view of risk sharing. One of
the most important aspects for effective
implementation is the requirement to have
clearly defined specifications and payment
provisions that will allow for fair compensation
to the contractor so he will not be reluctant to
accept the approach. Also, clear design and
environmental criteria need to be established,
so the execution of probe drilling and preexcavation grouting can involve the opinion of
the contractor and not just be directed by the
engineer. In some cases, for example, the
contractor may choose to accept moderate
inflows that are manageable and do not
impact excavation progress, said Brox.
Training in the operations of probe drilling
and pre-grouting will also necessarily lead to
greater acceptance. While there is some
training available at colleges that offer mining
and tunnelling degree programs, much of the
REFERENCES
Fulcher, Brian and Bell, Mike. The Arrowhead
Tunnels Project. Tunnels & Tunnelling
International, August 2008.
training for such operations is necessarily

hands-on and experience based. Probe
drilling and pre-excavation grouting requires
experienced workers in order to implement
the operations correctly and efficiently, along
with fair and clearly defined specifications,
continued Brox.
With an experienced workforce, the
negatives of probe drilling and pre-grouting
are greatly reduced. Such hands-on training is
currently being provided by Robbins on several
projects using a combination of classroom
instruction and jobsite operations for crews
who are not familiar with the methods.
Number 5: The Technology is not Static
As with all technologies, probe drilling and
pre-grouting are evolving methods. In order to
address the concern of increased downtime
during a TBM boring cycle, Robbins is working
on an R&D project that would allow
continuous probing while boring. Drills at

angles of 5 to 8 degrees would allow for
probing and grouting of the periphery on all
types of TBMs, including a modified Single
Shield TBM. Drilling could still be done through
the face when the TBM is not boring. The
benefit of the system is to reduce the overall
construction time. How much time can be
saved is depending on the extent of probing
and grouting and the capacity of the drilling
and grouting equipment. Though its not
possible to generalize, my estimates are in the
range of 20 to 30% savings in construction
time, said Egil Engesrnning, consultant for
Etech AS of Norway, who has partnered with
Robbins on the probe drilling R&D. While the
project is still in development, it shows promise
as the next generation of TBM probing.
Ultimately, the adoption of probe drilling
and pre-grouting on TBMs is something that
must be recognized as an overall benefit to the
industry in difficult ground conditions. For Log,
the advantages are clear: The technology is
well developed in D&B tunnelling, and it has
been field-tested for decades. This is
unequivocally the only proven way to
accurately detect and treat poor ground
conditions in front of the TBM.
TJ_0612_046_050.qxd:Feature
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RMS CRITERION
Validating Rock Mass Stre

Alex Lowson, Mott MacDonald, and Richard Bieniawski of Bieniawski
Design Enterprises validate the modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski Rock
Mass Strength Criterion as presented at the ITA WTC in Bangkok,
courtesy of the Thailand Underground and Tunnelling Group
GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS and some heartbreaking failures are the realities in the field
of tunnelling, leading to increasing
sophistication of analytical modelling and at
the same time a constant struggle for
sufficient funds and time for the desired site
characterization and design procedures.
Increasing scrutiny is needed to cross-check
the results of data collection and reassess
the design assumptions; particularly to
identify some misconceptions in the use of
rock mass strength criteria. This is

particularly important in view of a recent
report (Pells 2011) which listed no less than
41 major tunnel failures pointing out that
more than 85% were the result of
unexpected geotechnical conditions and
mistaken interpretations.
This paper presents a critical review of a
unique case history from the 1980s
featuring extraordinarily detailed site
characterization data collection and
Figure 1: Intact rock criterion for failure in triaxial compression for five rock
materials (Bieniawski 1974)
1
c
1
c
Siltstone and Mudstone
Norite
Validating the Modified YudhbirBieniawski rock mass strength criterion

The Yudhbir-Bieniawski Criterion,
introduced by Yudhbir et al. (1983) and
based on Bieniawski (1974), is a rock mass
failure criterion for use in numerical
modelling incorporating the RMR.
Originally, it was proposed as:
3 0.75
1
= 5.0 ( ) +1
c
c
3 0.75
1
= 3.0 ( ) +1
c
c
1
1
Siltstone
Mudstone
numerous design studies enabling the

development of a new and practical rock
mass strength criterion leading to a redesign
of a hydroelectric scheme using the current
technology of analysis and modelling.
Previous attempts to compare strength
criteria for rock masses (Edelbro et al. 2006)
proved inconclusive.
The paper consists of three parts: (i)
validating the Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski
strength criterion in comparison to the
Generalized Hoek-Brown criterion; (ii)
reviewing site characterization and design
procedures of a 1000MW Hydro-electric
Scheme representing the design practice
during 1980s; and (iii) redesigning the
underground caverns of that project using
the current technology and advances in
modelling. In the process, a lesson emerged
concerning the progress, as well as decline,
in the scope and procedures in the past
three decades of rock engineering practice.
0
0
0.2
1
c
3
c
0.4
0.6
1
c
Quartzite
0.2
3
c
0.4
0.6
Sandstone
where
(1)
2
3 0.75
1
= 4.0 ( ) +1
c
c
3 0.75
1
= 4.5 ( ) +1
c
c
1
0
0
0.2
3
c
0.4
0.6
0.2
3
c
0.4
0.6
where B is a material constant that depends

on the type of rock and is based on a curve
fitting to a set of tri-axial test results for
intact rock samples. Examples of this are
shown in Figure 1.
The criterion was based on a study of
case history data and fitted the cases
considered, however these were cases with
relatively good rock-mass quality, and for
RMR values below about 50 the criterion
gave a higher strength than the established
relationships between RMR and the Mohr-
13/6/12
20:41
Page 47
RMS CRITERION
Mass Strength Criterion

Coulomb parameters c and would yield.
These relationships are:
(2)
Work on the criterion has continued since

its introduction and a modified criterion has
now been developed which gives good
agreement with the Mohr-Coulomb
equivalents throughout the full range of
RMR values from 0 to 100, as well as with
field data. The Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski
Criterion (MYB) developed by the authors is:
the authors in this study is:
where:
(3)
modelling, including the Generalised HoekBrown (GHB) criterion. The new criterion
depends on three parameters: intact
strength, B a material parameter, and
RMR, a rock-mass condition parameter. The
GHB criterion similarly depends on three
parameters, intact strength, mi a material
parameter, and GSI, a rock-mass condition
parameter. In order to compare the criteria
the tri-axial strength data used to derive the
B values were input into the Rocscience
program RocLab. This program was
developed around the GHB criterion and
uses a standardized statistical approach to
deriving mi values from laboratory data.
The input data and the corresponding intact
strengths according to the two criteria are
shown in Figure 3 in dimensionless form.
Using these derived mi values the
strength criteria were then plotted to allow
a direct comparison between them in terms
of strength at failure, as shown in Figure 4.
In the plots GSI has been adjusted to get
the best correlation between the two

criteria. It can be seen that the criteria are
virtually identical if GSI is assumed equal to
RMR. However, we question the idea of a
rough guide that GSI = RMR. Although the
GSI is intended to be a quick easy way to
get modelling parameters by picking a
number from a chart, it is quite common to
find practicing engineering geologists
having serious reservations about GSI
values, because they can be quite subjective
and different geologists can come up with
quite different GSI values for the same rock
mass, and they will often be nothing like
RMR. On the other hand the derivation of
RMR values from inspection of an exposed
face, or to some extent from cores, is found
to be a much more reliable process: Skilled
and experienced engineers and geologists
can usually agree on the RMR of a rock
mass, and even if this means a range of
possible values there will usually be good
agreement as to what that range is.
Figure 3: Experimental data of intact strength versus two criteria of failure

Siltstone and Mudstone
3
2
1/ c
2
1/ c
Comparison of typical failure envelopes

given by the new criterion is shown in
Figure 2 for a sandstone.
Having compared the criterion with
Mohr-Coulomb equivalents, the next step
was to compare it with other criteria used in
Norite
Figure 2: Modified YudhbirBieniawski and Mohr-Coulomb

Criteria Compared
Siltstone
Mudstone
GHB Criterion: mi = 6.99
MYB Criterion: B = 3
Data
0
0
0.2
c = 50MPa
Sandstone: B = 4
0.4
3 / c
0.6
0.8
0.05
0.1
3 / c
0.15
0.2
100
Quartzite
RMR=90
RMR=70
RMR=50
RMR=30
RMR=10
c-phi RMR=90
c-phi RMR=70
c-phi RMR=50
c-phi RMR=30
c-phi RMR=10
80
1 (MPa)
60
2
1/ c
1/ c
40
Sandstone
20
1
Data
Data
MYB Criterion: B = 4.5
0
0
0
10
3 (MPa)
0
0
0.1
0.2
3 / c
0.3
0.4
0.2
0.4
0.6
3 / c
13/6/12
20:41
Page 48
RMS CRITERION
Figure 4: Comparison of Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski and Generalized HoekBrown Criteria
Siltstone & Mudstone: c = 40MPa
80
GHB: GSI=93
GHB: GSI=75
GHB: GSI=55
GHB: GSI=35
GHB: GSI=15
MYB: RMR=90
MYB: RMR=70
MYB: RMR=50
MYB: RMR=30
MYB: RMR=10
40
GHB: GSI=93
GHB: GSI=73
GHB: GSI=50
GHB: GSI=30
GHB: GSI=10
MYB: RMR=90
MYB: RMR=70
MYB: RMR=50
MYB: RMR=30
MYB: RMR=10
400
1 (MPa)
60
1 (MPa)
Norite: c = 250MPa
600
200
20
0
0
10
20
40
3 (MPa)
60
80
3 (MPa)
Quartzite: c = 200MPa
Sandstone: c = 50MPa
500
100
GHB: GSI=92
GHB: GSI=72
GHB: GSI=50
GHB: GSI=30
GHB: GSI=10
MYB: RMR=90
MYB: RMR=70
MYB: RMR=50
MYB: RMR=30
MYB: RMR=10
1 (MPa)
300
80
60
1 (MPa)
400
GHB: GSI=88
GHB: GSI=68
GHB: GSI=48
GHB: GSI=28
GHB: GSI=10
MYB: RMR=90
MYB: RMR=70
MYB: RMR=50
MYB: RMR=30
MYB: RMR=10
200
40
100
20
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
3 (MPa)
There are other reasons to favour the use of

RMR as the basis of a strength criterion: aside
from allowing a more quantitative assessment
of the basic condition of the rock mass, it
includes a way to account for two factors
which affect the amount of support that will
be required, and which will arguably have an
effect on the strength of the rock mass too.
These are groundwater inflow and
unfavourable orientation of discontinuities.
Groundwater inflow may be taken into
account in a numerical model if a coupled
model is used that will include for the
influence of water flowing towards a tunnel
opening. However, usually this makes little
difference to the model, and anyway the
reality will often be a semi-drained rock mass
with a trickle-down zone over the tunnel. This
may not affect a numerical model but it may
well affect a real rock mass, as it lubricates
every joint and washes out joint infilling in
many cases. Similarly, while there is not a
direct correlation between an unstable
sidewall resulting from tunnelling parallel to
the strike of a steeply dipping discontinuity
10
3 (MPa)
15
set, and the global strength of a rock mass in

a continuum model, there is still a relationship
between the orientation of discontinuities
and the strength of a rock mass. Using the
RMR correction for unfavourable discontinuity
orientation is not a perfect solution for a
modelling criterion, but it is arguably better
than ignoring this effect completely.
Based on the above reasoning, the RMR
can be used as input to both the Modified
Yudhbir-Bieniawski Criterion, or to the
Generalised Hoek-Brown Criterion. However,
there is an issue of the sensitivity of the
criteria to mi and B values. As shown by
Malkowski (2010), a change of 5 points of
GSI, leads to dramatic changes, increasing in
the values of the parameter mb by 20% and
the strength by 37%. Since often there is not
good triaxial data available, mi values are
simply estimates based on average values
from RocLab. But, what cannot be done is to
get a useable RMR value by adding 5 to a GSI
value estimated from a chart; even the use of
the charts for estimating GSI itself is
questionable. This was demonstrated in a
practical example of a case history in the next
section.
Storage Scheme site characterization
and design procedures
The Elandsberg Underground Pumped
Storage Scheme 1000MW is located in South
Africa in the mountains close to the Cape of
Good Hope. This unique and extensive case
study (Bieniawski 1978) included experimental
data of rock mass strength and deformation
test results, and independently determined
RMR and GSI values. This emphasizes the fact
that a common assumption nowadays of GSI
= RMR is not correct.
The data presented in Table 1 were derived
Figure 5: Distribution of Factors of Safety around the original cavern

configurations using the Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski criterion
13/6/12
20:41
Page 49
RMS CRITERION
from tests in exploratory tunnels and adits in
which wide ranging in situ rock mechanics
investigations were conducted. This involved
33 plate bearing tests accompanied by 39
Goodman jack tests, 13 large flat jack tests
and 13 state of stress measurements using the
CSIR triaxial cell. In addition, extensive
laboratory testing and geological mapping on
site were performed.
The original design featured a layout of
three underground caverns in a greywacke
rock mass located at 172m below surface.
Figure 5 presents modelling results of that
arrangement based on the new Modified
Yudhbir-Bieniawski criterion.
Note the contours of the factors of safety
FS in this figure, the significance of which is
that, based on the experience and practice in
designing underground mining openings and
pillars, the acceptable FS should be 1.5, while
for long-term use at least 2.0 and where
public access is contemplated the FS should
be over 2.5.
displacements are of the order of 12mm

which is very acceptable.
Lessons learned
It is important to emphasize that the design
of tunnels and caverns must not be limited
to rely exclusively on empirical approaches
but should be complemented by a
combination of analytical modelling, rock
mass classifications and in situ monitoring of
rock mass behaviour. This is what was done
for the re-design of the present case history.
Furthermore, because of unavoidable
uncertainties in the knowledge of rock mass
properties and quality, due to the
impossibility of testing large rock masses,
one must realize the need for design to
continue through the construction phase.
This project has shown that today's site
investigations may not be as extensive as
those in the past, because of time and cost
constraints, and therefore design procedures
should include cross-checking of the results
Table 1: Experimental Data from Project Elandsberg. Rock formation: Greywacke

R M R: 66 - 80, average 71
GSI: 47 - 58, average 54
RQD: 75 - 85
Uniaxial compressive strength of intact rock C (MPa): 67 - 228, average 148
Triaxial compressive strength tests on intact rock: B = 4
Rock mass modulus of deformation EM (GPa): 27.1 - 58.3, average 39.6 +/- 17.2
Intact rock modulus of elasticity
ELAB (GPa): 73.4 +/- 3.8
EM/ELAB : 0.59
Measured in situ stresses: 1 = 9.2 MPa (hor.) 2 = 5.6 MPa (vert.) 3 = 5.1 MPa (hor.)
Ratio: H / V = 1.84
It was concluded that the remarkable

detail of site characterization on this
project is seldom found today due to
restrictions in available time and costs.
Hence more attention needs to be paid to
cross-checking the input data for design,
the criteria and methodology used as well
as the assumptions employed. For this
purpose, the Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski
criterion proved very effective. In addition,
the overall design of the project could be
improved by introducing a single cavern
solution instead of a multi-cavern option,
which is addressed next.
Redesigning underground caverns
Distributions of factors of safety
around the re-designed caverns - A
design study of a "single cavern"
(generators and valves in one) was
performed involving two options: an oval
'egg-shape' cavern and a 'horseshoeshape' cavern, both 23.5m in span. In
addition, modelling of excavation
sequences for both versions was
undertaken. Figure 6 presents the results
for the best choice of a horseshoe cavern.
Distributions of displacements
around the re-designed caverns - Figure
7 presents the results of the distribution of
displacements around the redesigned
caverns. As will be seen, the maximum
Hoek-Brown criterion with the former being

much simpler to use and both criteria giving
similar results using RMR as input data. It
was further found that an assumption that
RMR = GSI is erroneous and each such index
must be determined independently in the
course of geological mapping. The authors
caution automatic accepting of "canned
software programs" without checking the
assumptions and the methodology for
analyses on the basis of "this is how others
do it".
Continuing the design through the
construction phase means that all the
observations made and data collected during
construction can potentially be used to verify
the design, and to fine-tune if appropriate.
This will include not just quantitative data
such as the usual RMR values and strength
tests, but also observations of the
effectiveness of the support system, practical
problems experienced, and details of any
modifications that field staff found necessary.
Not continuing the design through the
construction phase means that the design
will be based on assumptions made in the
design phase, often using very limited data.
This can result in unsafe support systems in
some cases, leading potentially to disaster.
An extreme example of what can happen
if a client takes the view that design only
happens prior to construction and is
thereafter immutable, was encountered by
one of the authors, A. Lowson, on a visit to a
Figure 6: Distribution of Factors of Safety by the Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski

criterion, RMR=71
and assumptions used in the design analyses

conducted.
In this investigation, the authors
introduced the Modified Yudhbir-Bieniawski
rock mass strength criterion and proved it to
be fully compatible with the generalized
project in Turkey, which must remain

nameless. In that case, the support designs
for a rock tunnel had been based on the Q
system, and the selection of support had
been based on Q values derived from the
most careful mapping of the face. However,
13/6/12
20:41
Page 50
RMS CRITERION
Figure 7: Distribution of Total Displacements around the re-designed caverns
arrangement instead of fine-tuning an

existing design was avoided.
It is hoped that this particular client no
longer sees design involvement during
construction as simply an avoidable cost.
REFERENCES
the Q system has no provision for accounting

for unfavourable joint orientations and
despite leaving one sidewall that was
obviously not stable to a designers eye, a
long section of tunnel in blocky rock had
been provided with support in the crown
only. Finally, a section of slightly poorer
ground was encountered, and 25m of tunnel
collapsed completely, following a normal
blast. Sidewall failure had run round the
outside of all the crown bolts and the whole
heading had collapsed; fortunately with
nobody in the tunnel. Following this, it took
over a month of forepoling with ribs to reestablish the heading. Yet, the Q values still
indicated support only to the crown. Since

this was unacceptable to the workforce, it
was then decided to use a support
arrangement two grades up in the series,
thus providing much heavier support
throughout - just to cure what were clearly
localised problems in one sidewall.
Following the visit, the client was advised
that the support system needed modifying to
suit conditions not foreseen in the design,
and a revised design was produced with a
pattern-bolted and lightly shotcreted sidewall
on one side only. There was no further
trouble with support in that tunnel, and the
cost of installing an overdesigned support
1. Bieniawski, Z.T., 1974. Estimating the

strength of rock materials. S. Afr. Inst.
Min.Met., Vol.74, pp.312-320.
2. Bieniawski, Z.T., 1976. Rock mass
classifications in rock engineering.
Exploration For Rock Engineering, A.A.
Balkema, Cape Town, pp.97-106.
3. Bieniawski, Z.T., 2011. Misconceptions in
the applications of rock mass classifications
and their corrections. Proc. ADIF Symposium,
Madrid, IngeoPres, no. 206, pp.40-51.
4. Edelbro, C., Sjlberg, J.,Nordlund, E.,
2006. A quantitative comparison of strength
criteria for hard rock masses. TUST, Vol.22,
pp.57-68.
5. Hoek, E., Carranza-Torres, C., Corkum, B.,
2002. Hoek-Brown failure criterion - 2002
edition. Proc. 5th North Amer. Rock
Mechanics Symp., Toronto, pp.267-273.
6. Malkowski, P., 2010. The use of studies
from mines and laboratories for
determination of the parameters in the
Hoek-Brown criterion. Archiwum Gornictwa,
nr. 11, pp.46-52.
7. Pells, PJN, 2011. Against limit state design
in rock. Tunnels & Tunnelling Int., February,
34-38.
8. Yudhbir, Lemanza, W., Printzl, F., 1983.
An empirical failure strength criterion for
rock masses. Proc. ISRM Congress,
Melbourne, Vol.1, pp.B1-B8.
Figure 8: Three stages of the excavation sequence for the construction of the re-designed cavern.
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TJ_0612_Products_052_053.qxd:Feature
12/6/12
21:57
Page 52
PRODUCT NEWS
Expanding intelligence in tunnelling

First introduced to the computercontrolled Sandvik DTi tunnelling
jumbos, the Sandvik iSURE tunnel and
underground excavation
management tool will now be also
available to Sandvik DT series jumbos
equipped with TCAD/TLOG (TCAD =
Angle, depth and hole position
instrumentation, TLOG = Data
collection) instrumentation/data
collection. The new release 6.5.0 will
offer a cost-efficient way to utilize the
benefits of a modern design tool
without investing in a new fullycomputerized drilling unit. At the
same time, the release will bring a
range of other new features available,
among them a pull-out analysis tool.
Sandvik iSURE software is a tool for
optimizing the tunnelling excavation
process for the best economy,
accuracy and profile quality in
underground civil engineering and
mining applications. The iSURE is
designed for the people on site: It also
offers an integrated approach, where
the tunnel line, theoretical profile
design, drill plan design and data
collection analysis are all combined,
with fast and effective edit and copy
functions.
With the iSURE, the whole project
can be managed in concert, not just
one tunnel at a time. This is done
through a project tree that collects all
plans related to a particular project.
One tunnel plan, in turn, combines a
curve table, tunnel profiles, drill plans,
lasers and data collection files, all of
which can also be controlled
separately. In addition, once good
design parameters are found and
defined, they can be imported into
other drill plans by few mouse clicks.
Sandvik iSURE consists of four
modules: Tunnel, Report, Analysis and
Bolting. Bolting is available for the
Sandvik DTi series jumbos only.
Compared to other similar
software, Sandvik iSURE offers one
main distinguishing benefit: it uses
the most critical point of the round
the end where the blasting initiates as the basis for the whole planning
process. The drill plan is thus
implemented to fit with the blasting
plane, meaning that the hole bottom
spacing and the burdens are adjusted
accordingly, and the used charge
defined and the cracking zone
examined.
The iSURE features a tool for
preparing and managing the blasting
plan. Based on information filled in,
explosives used in different parts of
the pattern, their relative strength,

degree of charge and fracture zone,
the total consumption of explosives
per round and the charge per delay
detonating at a specific time, can be
illustrated. This makes plan
modifications easy and adds to
smooth blasting and efficient
vibration control - a huge benefit
nowadays when more and more
tunnelling takes place in urban areas
and city centers.
The new release 6.5.0 brings most
of the iSURE features fully usable in
drilling rigs with TCAD/TLOG
instrumentation/data collection, in
other words to those users who do
not need the features of a fullycomputerized drilling unit, such as
automatic positioning, compensation
models, and automatic drilling of a
full round. Starting from the
beginning of the year, all new Sandvik
TCAD/TLOG jumbos will be delivered
with iSURE.
At the same time, iSURE 6.5.0
introduces a unique new feature for
process optimization: Blasting
feedback in the form of pull-out
analysis. The analysis combines
information on two sequential
rounds, accurately showing the pull
out of the round under investigation.
The results of the analysis are then
traced back to the drilling pattern,
meaning that the plan can be
modified accordingly if needed. This,
of course, significantly cuts excavation
costs and increases productivity.
The release includes yet another
practical tool for blasting
management. The charging table in
iSURE supports the same codes for
the explosives used in different holes
as the blasting vehicles.
iSURE 6.5.0 also introduces new
MWD (measuring-while-drilling) items
such as air flow, feed pressure setting
and rotation speed setting. Altogether
the iSURE supplies 19 different MWD
parameters, more than any other
similar software on the market.
Sandvik iSURE produces
comprehensive project
documentation and reports that are
valid for official purposes, with
authorities, or other parties requiring
exact and correct information. The
project documentation includes drill
plan information, pictures, sequences,
detonator map, charge map, charge
table, fracture zones, summary of
charge per delay, and hole locations,
directions, angles and depths. Data
can be exported in .csv format.
Communications partnership in
Papua New Guinea
Leading Papua New Guinea radio
communications company, TE (PNG), has
partnered with Mine Radio Systems (MRS)
Pacific to develop a market leading
communications service for the mining and
tunnelling sectors.
With TE (PNG)s strong support, combined
with the global experience of Mine Radio
Systems (MRS), TE (PNG) provides Papua New
Guinea with world class products and
services for the mining and tunnelling
sectors, says Graeme Corbett, Managing
Director, MRS Pacific.
Partnering with TE (PNG) has given both
companies the opportunity to expand their
current operations, increasing the
manufacture and deployment of their
advanced safety and communications
systems worldwide.
Our partnership with MRS, with their
wealth of technical expertise in the mining
and tunnelling arena and their solid
reputation, will further establish TE (PNG) as
the foremost company in the radio
communication field within Papua New
Guinea, says Bob Taylor, General Manager
TE (PNG) Ltd.
MRS maintains a commitment to the
development of technologies that enhance
the value of existing communication
infrastructures for mining and tunnelling.
Through this development and
implementation, MRS leads the way in
establishing communication networks
through the use of proprietary innovations
including Voice, Video, Data and Safety
applications.
TE (PNG) Ltd. supplies specialist radio and
communication products, service and
support to the Papua New Guinea market.
They have a modern radio communications
workshop in Port Moresby, staffed with
trained support techs, as well as a branch
office in Lae.
TE (PNG) success stories include; supplying
communication needs to the mining,
commercial and government sectors and
recently won the tender to implement the
GMDSS Project for the National Maritime
Safety Authority; and installing over 1,200
HF radio installations at remote Health
Centers throughout the nation and a control
station located in Port Moresby for the
National Health Radio Network.
TE (PNG) attributes their continuing
success to a highly professional, systematic
approach to every project and a client driven
philosophy that includes comprehensive
support after the sale.
A long standing commitment to PNG gives
the companies a unique window into the
local environment, a real advantage when it
comes to delivering high level, customer
focused, communication and safety products
and services in Papua New Guinea.
TJ_0612_Products_052_053.qxd:Feature
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Page 53
PRODUCT NEWS
Robbins progress in Nanjing
Cogemacoustic Fans
Over the last eighteen months specialist
ventilation product supplier for mines and
tunnels Cogemacoustic has delivered thirty
nine ventilation fans to Portugal ranging
from 22kW to 315kW and some 33km of
ducting from 700mm-2600mm diameter for
Hydro, Mine and Tunnel projects including:
1) The Venda Nova 3 Hydro plant awarded
by the power company EDP to the
consortium comprising MSF/Somague/MotaEngil/Spie Batignolles. It will be the largest
hydro electric power plant in Portugal in
terms of its installed capacity of 736MW.
Located in the municipality of Vieira do
Minho, the plant will be almost entirely
underground. Pictured is a triple stage 3 x
160kW supply fan, nominal diameter
1400mm with Variable Frequency Drives,
twin 1000mm diameter flexible ducting
tubes which are fed via a steel "Y" duct. For
this plant Cogemacoustic have delivered 16
supply and extraction fans of 22kW-250kW,
along with 20km of flexible ducting ranging
in diameters from 700mm-2200mm.
2) The Tnel do Maro, which is a 30 year
concession contract to design, construct,
widen, finance, operate and maintain the
32km long A4/IP4 road connection between
Amarante and Vila Real, which was awarded
to the consortium Autopista do Maro
comprising, Somague Engenharia and MSF.
The contract includes the 2 x 5.7km Maro
tunnel which when complete will be the
longest road tunnel on the Iberian Peninsula.
The winning consortia is driving the 102m2
section tunnel by drill and blast from the
west and has employed the contractor EPOS
to drive the tunnel from the east portal. For
this project Cogemacoustic has delivered
three 250kW fans with Variable frequency
Drive and 12km of ducting of
2500/2600mm diameter.
3) The Salamonde 2 207MW civil works
and construction contract for the
underground pumped storage plant on the
Cavado river which was awarded by power
company, EDP to the joint venture Texeira
Duarte/Epos/Seth. The project is one of
eleven in EDP's current waterpower plan.
The scheme consists of a central
underground cavern, a hydraulic tunnel and
several shafts and tunnels. For the 4.5km
tunnels with sections up to 110m2
Cogemacoustic are supplying six blowing
and extraction fans of 55kW-315kW,
together with flow and anti backdraft
dampers. Also included is 1000m of
2600mm diameter ducting.
Nearly 750,000 people currently ride the rails

daily on two existing metro lines in Nanjing,
Jiangsu Province, China. That number is
slated to dramatically increase with the
construction of several new metro lines
utilizing 40 TBMs, including four Robbins
EPBs. The rail routes have a firm completion
deadline of 2014, when they will need to be
ready for up to 40,000 visitors attending the
Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.
Robbins provided four 6.5m diameter EPBs
with mixed ground cutterheads for two
metro lines under construction. The two
pairs of EPBs are excavating Line 3 Lot 11
and Line 10 Lot 5, for the China Railway
Construction Corporation (CRCC) 13th
Engineering Bureau and 23rd Engineering
Bureau, respectively.
The two Robbins TBMs for Line 10 were
launched in December 2011 and February
2012, while the Line 3 machines were
launched in January and March of 2012.
Robbins is a special TBM manufacturer and
the quality is good here. We have used one
Robbins TBM previously in Chengdu, and
there was very good performance at the
Metro Line 2, said Li QuanShe, Nanjing Line
3 Project Manager for CRCC Bureau 23. At
the Chengdu jobsite, a Robbins EPB achieved
a project record of 129m in one week
through mixed ground.

Ground conditions on both Nanjing lines
include soft soil, silty sand, manmade
materials, small pebbles, and sandstone.
Shallow cover of 8 to 10m, a sensitive urban
environment, and strict settlement
requirements of less than 10 to 20mm are
requiring customized excavation methods.
The earth is quite soft so we are keeping
the thrust force very low (6,000 to 9,000
kN). The operator is also employing
continuous monitoring to maintain the
proper alignment and earth pressure, said
Jason Xiao, Robbins Project Manager. Foam
additive will also be used to make the
ground less sticky and reduce the required
torque to excavate the material.
As of May 2012 the Line 10 EPBs have
excavated over 600m and 500m of Line 10,
respectively. Advance rates are in the order
of 40mm per minute, while settlement has
stayed below the required limits. At Line 3,
the Robbins machines have excavated over
500m and 100m, respectively, with advances
topping 60mm per minute.
Construction of the 40.2km long Line 3
and the 41.4km long Line 10 is well
underway. The new subways are part of an
extensive plans to improve access across the
Yangtze River Basin with up to 17 rail routes
totaling 600km by 2030.
Rockmores new hammer

Rockmore International announces a new
DTH hammer in its Deep Hole series, the
ROK 500DH. The hammer is the first release
in Rockmores newly announced Deep Hole
series targeted to drill 140mm to 152mm
diameters. Designed to increase drilling
efficiency, the ROK 500DH incorporates
engineering advancements for drilling in
DTH applications such as geothermal,
exploration, and other mining and construction sectors. Unique drilling requirements
in such applications often demand holes exceeding 300m deep and include high
volumes of water, presenting great challenges for conventional DTH hammers. The
ROK 500DH has been designed specifically to handle such challenges by
incorporating new airflow and component design advancements, primarily in the air
ports of the wear sleeve and piston. The hammer is rated for use with large
compressors: 24.1 Bar at 25.2m3/min, however, it can accept greater air volumes and
pressures. The upper and lower hammer air chambers have been modified to achieve
optimum drilling efficiency. The advanced piston design also offers maximum blow
energy per stroke, allowing superior hammer and bit penetration rates at all times.
A new bit retention system alleviates broken bit heads falling to the bottom of
drilled holes when bit shanks fail. A new bit shank, the DH500, was developed,
eliminating the need for bit retaining rings present in conventional hammer designs.
The traditional foot valve has also been eliminated in the DH500 shank. Foot valve
breakages on DTH bit shanks are catastrophic since the hammer will cease to
function immediately.
The new ROK 500DH drills exceptionally fast in dry hole conditions as well as under
high water volumes exceeding 9.5lit/s flow rates at the hole annulus.
The 500DH take full advantage of Rockmores patented SonicFlow technology,
which optimizes airflow by simplifying and streamlining the air path to minimize
backflow and turbulence, thus delivering more energy to the piston. Optional back
reaming buttons on the top sub also contribute to increase hammer life.
TJ_0612_CONTACTS_054.qxd:Feature
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Page 54
contact US
Gary Tween
Tris Thomas
Managing Director
Tel: + 44 (0) 1622 720 631
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7973 205 638
gary@tunnellingjournal.com
Editorial Director
Tel: + 44 (0) 1622 720 631
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7812 011 139
tris@tunnellingjournal.com
contributorS
Kristina
Smith
Rory Harris
Steve Caming
Chairman
Mobile: + 1 (859) 321 3164
rory@tunnelingjournal.com
Publishing Director
Tel: + 1 (603) 447 1187
Mobile: + 1 (603) 662 6263
steve@tunnelingjournal.com
tunneling@roadrunner.com
Mark Piper
Peter Bell
Finance Director
Tel: + 44 (0) 1672 563 662
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7768 554 646
mark@tunnellingjournal.com
Director
Tel: + 44 (0) 1622 720 631
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7770 441 867
peter@tunnellingjournal.com
Kristina Smith has been writing

about civil engineering and
construction for over 15 years,
having started her career out on
site as an engineer.
Adrian
Greeman
Adrian Greeman has been
writing about international
civil engineering projects (in
particular tunnels, bridges
and highways) for the past
16 years.
Tunnelling
journal
Amanda Foley
North American Editor
amanda@tunnellingjournal.com
mands.f@hotmail.com
Daniel LeeBillinghurst
Sales Consultant
Tel: +44 (0) 203 239 6754
Mobile: +44 (0) 7818 422712
daniel@tunnellingjournal.com
Pete Beach
Peter Lawrence
Illustrator
Art Editor
TGS Media Ltd

PO Box 1261, Maidstone,
Kent, ME14 9HS, UK
488 Allard Hill Road,
Conway, NH 03818, USA
The publishers, authors and
printers cannot accept liability
for errors or omissions. All
rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced
in any form without prior
permission of the copyright
holder and the publisher,
application for which should
be made to the publisher. TGS
Media Ltd. ISSN Tunnelling
journal (Print) ISSN 2044074X, Tunnelling journal
(Online) ISSN 2044-0758
TJ_0612_extra_pages.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
22:29
Page 20
Tunnelling
June/July 2012
The international journal for the tunnelling industry
journal
SEE PAGE 6
SEE PAGE 26
SEE PAGE 43
TJ WORLD
NEWS
SFR LINING
DESIGN
ISSUES
PROBE
DRILLING
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
THE TJ WEBSITES
DAILY NEWS
SERVICE
MODERN DESIGN
CHALLENGES FOR
SFR SEGMENTAL
LININGS
SUCCESSFUL
TBM PROBE
DRILLING AND
PRE-GROUTING
EXPLAINED
THE SPARVO TUNNEL

MEGA TBM
THE FUTURE OF SEGMENTAL LININGS

VIEW FROM ACADEMIA
NATJ_0612_NAFNTCOVER_001.qxd:cover
11/6/12
20:27
Page 1
Tunneling
north american
June/July 2012
journal
STATE-OF-THE-ART AUTOMATED
SEGMENTAL TUNNEL LINER CAROUSEL
MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
and its proprietary molds to produce
over 100 segments each shift
SEE PAGE 5
SEE PAGE 17
DETAILS ON PAGES 20-21
MOLEYS BREAK
THROUGH
ARE WE
HAPPY YET?
CUTTING EDGE
ROUND UP
SPADINA PROGRESS
AND OTHER NEWS
FROM AROUND THE US
AND CANADA
CDM SMITHS MIKE

SCHULTZ TALKS
ABOUT ALTERNATIVE
DELIVERY METHODS
HIGHLIGHTS FROM A
SUCCESSFUL
PRESSURIZED TBM
EVENT IN MIAMI
12-05-23_150_ID003_eAz_Seattle_Tunnelling Journal NA_210x297mm_4c_oc_Fassung 02
h e r r e n k n e c h t A G | u t i l i t y t u n n e l l i n g | T r a f f i c t u n n e l l i n gU S A
Seattle : To p p er for m a nce tw ic e

over at Ca p ito l Hill .
For the extension of the underground city train in Seattle, Washington the so-called University Link the construction site teams from Traylor Bros./Frontier-Kemper JV celebrated
a double success with two Herrenknecht EPB Shields. With Togo and Balto ( 6,560mm)
the team crossed the target line at Capitol Hill in March and April 2012 respectively, three
months earlier than scheduled.
On the route from University of Washington, the TBMs excavated twin tunnels of 3.5
kilometers each beneath the busy Highway 520, under the Montlake Ship Canal and below
Seattles densely populated city center with its historic buildings in some parts. The EPB
Shields equipped with Herrenknecht technology mastered this challenge rapidly and safely.
Now, the city of Seattle is looking forward to having a quicker link between the university
and downtown, less traffic on the streets and better air.
s e a t t l e | u sa
PROJEC T D ATA
CONTRACTOR
S-560, S-561
2x EPB Shields
Diameter: 2x 6,560mm
Installed power: 608kW
Tunnel length: 2x 3,478m
Geology: Clay, silt
and sand
Traylor Bros. Inc.,

Frontier-Kemper
Constructors Inc.
Herrenknecht Tunnelling
Systems USA, Inc.
1613 132nd Ave E, Suite 200
Sumner, WA 98390
Phone +12534472300
Fax +12538639376
marketing@herrenknecht.com
www.herrenknecht.com
12-05-23_150_ID003_eAz_Seattle_TunnellingJournalNA_210x297_02_RZ.indd 1
23.05.12 11:18
NATJ_0612_COMMENT_003.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
22:02
Page 3
comment
Communication
During a recent browse on LinkedIn,
I read an interesting discussion on
the Aldea Services Group page that
had been prompted by a poll asking
What is the biggest risk on your
tunnel or underground project?
Interestingly, the consensus seemed
to be that communication (or lack
thereof) posed the biggest risk.
One engineer pointed out that in
his 25-years of experience working in tunneling he was not aware of
a "failed project" where communication was well established and
working throughout the project. And vice versa, a successful project
where communication has failed. A supplementary comment, was
that other risks that tend to show up on a risk matrix (technical,
geological, contractual, time program etc) are frequently the trigger
of communication breakdown. With well established and maintained
communication, serious problems normally find a sensible solution.
And its not just communication within an organization or between
project participants that is crucial. As Bob Goodfellow points out in his
column this month (p11), the tunneling industry could be doing much
more to promote itself in terms of communication with the public. Its
easy to overlook (or underestimate) how much impact a negative
reputation can (and sometimes does) have on the industry. Projects
such as the Alaskan Way Tunnel, in Seattle, and the Westside Subway
Extension, in LA, have suffered especially from such attitudes.
As this edition of NATJ was going to print, the unfortunate news of
a tragic fatal accident at the Lake Mead Intake No 3 Tunnel came in.
Thankfully, such occurrences are becoming ever rarer in the industry,
possibly demonstrated by the fact that the accident is such big news.
But that in itself highlights part of the problem. In terms of publicity,
tunneling disasters will always gain much more exposure than the
successes. There remains a definite need for an industry database or
resource that records the successes, which can be made available to
the media to draw on when reporting on tunnel projects.
Amanda Foley
contentS
5
11
12
The Insider
Goodfellow highlights the risks of bathtubs
17
Are We Happy Yet?

CDMs Mike Schultz discusses alternative
delivery approaches
18
20
22
Looking back on ARC

The recent GAO report on ARC examined
North American News

Project, contract & company news
LA Metros Measure R
NATJ talks to LA Metro about three of its
major upcoming tunneling projects
Cutting Edge 2012

Highlights from the conference in Miami
Company News
Career moves and company news
Above:
Alaskan Way
ramps up (p8)
Right: First
two drives
now complete
on Spadina
(p7)
Front cover
CSI Tunnel Systems utilizes its
state-of-the-art automated
segmental tunnel liner carousel manufacturing system and its proprietary molds
to produce over 100 segments each shift, which comprise each six segment, 24ft
diameter tunnel ring for the Euclid Creek Tunnel, in Cleveland, Ohio. The
precision segmental liners, reinforced with steel fibers, are manufactured by CSIHanson ECT JV using mold tolerances to 0.018 inches and perfected processes
learned from producing over 50 miles of segmental tunnel liners throughout
North America. McNally/Kiewit ECT JV is the prime contractor for the tunnel.
Pictured: Sea of segmental liners; each with a unique identification number
and traceable to production and inspection records, await deployment to
their permanent home 200ft below the bed of Lake Erie.
For assistance with the design and supply of segmental liners for your
project, please contact Leonard Worden, CEO, CSI Tunnel Systems, Tel: 800342-3374.
NORTH AMERICAN TUNNELING JOURNAL 3
SPADINA SUBWAY EXTENSION Toronto, ON
EUCLID CREEK
TUNNEL
PORT MANN WATER SUPPLY TUNNEL
Cleveland, OH
Vancouver, BC
With over 60 years of tunnelling experience

behind McNally Construction, we have
the depth of knowledge it takes to get the
job done.
Numerous projects throughout Canada
and the United States bear the McNally
trademark of quality workmanship. The
construction of the Euclid Creek Tunnel
in Cleveland, the Port Mann water supply
tunnel in Vancouver, and the extension of
the Spadina Subway line in Toronto are a

testament to the dedication and hard work
our people put behind every project.
We continually strive to set our standards
higher. Our certifications ensure that every
project is completed with a high standard
of quality, and that we perform our
processes safely while protecting the
environment.
A Weeks Marine Company
NATJ_0612_NEWS_005_008.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
21:43
Page 5
www.tunnelingjournal.com - breaking industry news first!
NEWS
Robbins EPB emerges in Mexico City

Mexicos largest TBM, a 10.2m (33.5ft)
diameter Robbins EPB, completed its
successful tunneling run on March 1st, for the
citys new metro Line 12. The machine, which
is being operated by the ICA, Carso and
Alstom consortium, excavated 7.7km (4.8miles) of tunnel in highly variable ground
including watery clays, cobbles, and boulders.
The tunnel alignment took the Robbins
machine to within meters of a 16th Century
church, sewer lines, building foundations, and
other structures. Real-time settlement
monitoring was rigorous throughout the
Clockwise from left: The Robbins

EPB excavated below Mexico City
while keeping settlement below
5cm (2.0in); Onsite First Time Assembly (OFTA) of the Robbins EPB was
accomplished in three months; The
Mexico City Metro Line 12 is the first
in a decade for the rapidly growing
capital; Top: The 10.2m (33.5ft) diameter Robbins EPB completed tunneling on March 1
project and the crew was diligent in

maintaining earth pressure during excavation.
A two-component back-filling system with
rapid hardening cement also aided in
settlement reduction. Settlement stayed
within the limits of between 2 and 5cm (0.8
to 2.0in) throughout the bore, said Ismail
Benamar, ICA Tunnel Manager.
The complexities of the densely urban
project location have been a hallmark of the
project from the start, when the machine
underwent Onsite First Time Assembly (OFTA)
from a shaft on a city street. OFTA has the
benefit of no pre-assembly, everything was
delivered directly to the site and assembled
here. The assembly went very smooth, and it
was a little over three months before we
started to turn the cutterhead and push the
machine forward, said Ron Jelinek, Robbins
Field Service Technician.
The machine was launched from a small
shaft in February 2010. It proceeded to break
through into seven cut and cover station sites
ranging from 150 to 190m (490 to 620ft) in
length. During each hole through, the
machine underwent routine maintenance and
was re-launched. Despite the numerous
intermediate stations and the time required to
walk through each station, advance rates
topped out at 135m (443ft) per week, and
averaged 400m (1,300ft) per month.
Upon completion, the 25.4km (15.8-mile)
Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro will be the
longest in the system. The Federal District
predicts that the new line will carry an average
of 367,000 passengers daily, making it the
fourth busiest rail route in the capital.
GTF complete third Queens

tunnel ahead of schedule
On May 29th, crews
working for the
Granite/Traylor/Frontier
Kemper (GTF) JV on the
MTAs East Side Access
project, brought one of its
twin 642-ton Herrenknecht
Mixshield TBMs to a halt
underneath the Sunnyside
Rail Yard in Queens seven
weeks ahead of schedule,
completing the third of four
tunnels the MTA is building
in Queens. The machine,
named T.E.S.S., will now be
temporarily entombed
underground until the
tunnel can be connected to
the busy LIRR Main Line
tracks above it.
The machine began

building the tunnel on
March 26, 2012 (see NATJ
April/May edition, page 11).
Trains using the tunnel will
be traveling eastbound from
Grand Central Terminal
toward Long Island. They
will use it to merge onto the
LIRR Main Line eastbound
tracks that lead to Jamaica
and Port Washington.
We are delighted to
complete this important
milestone, said MTA
Chairman Joseph Lhota.
Each piece of the project
that we bring in ahead of
schedule means we can
dedicate resources to those
parts of the project that

most need attention.
The completion of this
tunnel is another reminder
that we continue to make
tangible and significant
progress on this project
every day, said Dr Michael
Horodniceanu, President of
MTA Capital Construction.
We should never lose sight
of the first class work that
our contractors are
undertaking on this
extraordinarily complex
project.
13/6/12
21:43
Page 6
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Link megaproject
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Ph: 1.604.556.7225
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6 NORTH AMERICAN TUNNELING JOURNAL
13/6/12
21:43
Page 7
NEWS
Contractor outreach
for Hanlan Feedermain
A non-mandatory contractor outreach meeting has been called by the Greater Toronto
Areas Region of Peel, to review the entire
Hanlan Feedermain project. The meeting will
be held on Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 9am.
The Hanlan Feedermain is a 2.4m (7.8ft) i.d.
pipeline running from the Lakeview Water
Treatment Plant on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Mississauga, Ontario, approximately
14km (8.7-miles) northward to the Hanlan
Reservoir and Pumping Station. The project
is part of the Region of Peels 2007 Water
and Wastewater Master Plan.
The project is being designed by CH2M
HILL and MMM Group. The major tunnel
component is a 6km (3.7-mile) long, 3.6m
(11.8ft) diameter, TBM driven tunnel in shale
under major highways and rail bridges. In
addition, several additional shallower tunnels
of 2.4m (7.8ft) and 3.6m (11.8ft) diameter
are required for lengths up to 1.4km (0.8miles). The 6km (3.7-mile) tunnel segment
will be a separate contract from the opencut portions and shallower tunnel segments.
For more information email SouthHanlanWP@peelregion.ca or visit the project
website at www.hanlanwaterproject.ca.
NYCs Harbor Siphon gets going

Work is currently gearing up for an earlyJuly launch of a 12ft (3.6m) diameter
Caterpillar EPBM that will excavate the
9,460ft (2,883m) long New York Harbor
Siphon Tunnel. Contractor Tully/OHL JV
won the $300 million contract in June
2011 and selected Kiewit as sub-contractor
for construction of the 220ft long x 23ft
wide x 100ft deep (67m x 7m x 30m) slurry
wall TBM launch shaft on Staten Island and
the 24ft diameter, 80ft deep, (7.3m x
24.3m) receiving shaft across New York
Harbor in Brooklyn.
Designed by Hatch Mott MacDonald
(HMM) in joint venture with CDM Smith,
the new siphon will replace two existing

water siphons that need to be relocated to
enable dredging operations for the
deepening of the harbor channel. The
project is necessary to accommodate future
cargo volumes and a new generation of
cargo megaships in the Port of New York
and New Jersey.
The New York City Economic
Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is
managing the project on behalf of the New
York City Department of Environmental
Protection (NYCDEP) with Liro/Parsons
Brinckerhoff acting as Construction
Manager.
Holey-Moley breakthroughs
On Friday, June 1st, Moley the second of two
owner-procured 6.134m (20ft) diameter
mixed face EPBMs built by Caterpillar
Tunneling Canada for the Toronto Transit
Commission (TTC) broke through on the first
northern heading for the Southern Tunnels
Contract of the 8.6km (5.3-mile) long
Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension
(TYSSE).
The CA$279 million Southern Tunnels

Contract, which is being carried out by the
MKA (McNally Kiewit Aecon) Partnership, has
been split into four tunnel drives; two 1549m
(5,082ft) long north headings and two
1185m (3,888ft) long south headings (see
NATJ, Feb/March digital edition).
Good effort was rewarded with Moley
outperforming her counterpart on the later
stages of the drive achieving advance rates
over the three shifts of around 25m (82ft) per
day. The TBM arrived at the shaft wall on May
8th. A week was required before breaking
through to install the eye seal and reception
frames.
Holey, the first TBM broke through earlier
this month.
Work is now underway on the breakdown
and relocation of the two machines, which
are to be relocated to the second launch shaft
at the southern end of the new Sheppard
West Station. The machines will be relaunched south, towards the Spadina lines
existing Downsview Station with
approximately 1000m (3,280ft) of tunnel per
machine.
Within the completed tunnels cross-passage
construction, involving a series of hand mined
tunnels between the two bores, has now
commenced. These 3.66m diameter tunnels
will provide permanent access between the
two tunnels. The construction involves the

installation of a sophisticated propping system
to support the segmental liners before
excavating the passages.
The Toronto-York Spadina Subway
Extension (TYSSE), which features 6.7km (4.1miles) of EPBM bored tunnels and six
state-of-the-art stations, will be the first
subway in Toronto to extend over the Citys
boundary into the new corporate
developments within York Region one of
the fastest growing areas of North America.
The CA$2.63 billion extension, which is being
funded by the Government of Canada, the
Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto and
the Regional Municipality of York involving
over 100 different stakeholders runs in a
north westerly direction from Downsview
Station.
NEWS
13/6/12
21:43
Page 8
Alaskan Way breaks

ground in Seattle
On Wednesday, June 6th, a ground breaking ceremony was held in Seattle, Washington, to mark the commencement of the
launch pit for the SR 99 Alaskan Way Tunnel TBM.
The 58ft (17.7m) diameter EPBM - which
is due to arrive in Seattle early next year
will be as big as one of the city's famous
ferry boats. Therefore, its only fitting that
crews building the State Route 99 Tunnel
Project have started digging a Puget
Sound-sized pit where the worlds largest
diameter TBM will begin its historic journey
beneath downtown Seattle.
Gov. Chris Gregoire piloted an excavator
to remove the first shovelful of dirt from
the launch pit in the construction area west
of Seattle's stadiums. When completed
early next year, the pit will be slightly
longer than a football field and about 80ft
(24.5m) deep. We are making continuous
progress on replacing the aging Alaskan
Way Viaduct and today marks a significant
milestone, Gregoire said. I look forward
to a new and revitalized waterfront and

a safe new passage
through downtown
Seattle.
The TBM is being
manufactured by Hitachi Zosen, in
Osaka, Japan, and
will be roughly the
same size as Washington State Ferries'
largest vessel. Crews will test it later this
year, then disassemble and ship it to Seattle
in early 2013. It will be reassembled inside
the launch pit before it starts boring the
nearly two-mile-long tunnel in 2013.
The tunnel is scheduled to open to traffic
in late 2015. When it opens, the remaining
waterfront section of the viaduct will be
demolished. We are well on our way to
delivering the SR 99 project and tunnel on
time and on budget, said Washington
Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond.
Weve assembled a top-notch
team that is on the cutting edge
of tunneling technology and
project management. But dont
take my word for it: watch us
work.
Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) is
a joint venture of Dragados USA
and Tutor Perini Corp. Key members of the team delivered the
comparable 49.5ft-diameter
Madrid M-30 highway tunnel in
Spain. Local firms involved in the
project include Frank Coluccio
Construction and HNTB Corp.
The SR 99 tunnel project will
sustain more than 3,900 jobs. Of the firms

that have signed on with the state's contractor, Seattle Tunnel Partners including
sub-contractors, consultants and suppliers
85% are located in Washington state.
Excavating the launch pit is just one part
of the advance work leading up to the start
of tunneling next summer: At the site of
the tunnels north portal, crews are moving
utilities out of the way and will start building the TBM receiving pit and the north
portal operations building.At the south portal construction site, subcontractor Malcom
Drilling is currently installing the 100ft
(30m) deep secant piles that will form the
temporary walls of the launch pit. These
will be exposed as crews begin to excavate
the launch pit later this year. Between
South King Street and Marion Street, crews
are moving utilities and working to protect
the viaduct and nearby buildings from
ground settlement during tunneling.
These protections include wrapping sections of viaduct concrete with a reinforcing
fiber and building underground walls that
will limit ground movement when the TBM
passes below viaduct and building foundations.
Oahu conveyance tunnel progresses

A final alignment has been agreed for the
3-mile (4.8km) long 15ft (4.57m) diameter
Kaneohe-Kailua Tunnel, under the
Oneawa Hills, in Oahu, Hawaii.
The project, which is currently under
final design by Jacobs Associates
(scheduled for 60% completion in
August), is part of the Kaneohe-Kailua
Wastewater Conveyance and Treatment
Facilities Project, which is being
constructed by the City and County of
Honolulu to supplement an existing force
main conveying wastewater from the
Kaneohe Wastewater Pre-Treatment
Facility (WWPTF) to the Kailua Regional
Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)
beneath Kaneohe Bay Drive.

Tunnel construction will be staged from
the Kailua Regional WWTP and involve
the use of a hard rock TBM. Access and
retrieval points for the TBM will be at
vertical shafts at either end of the tunnel,
with controlled blasting possibly required
for construction of the shaft at the Kailua
Regional WWTP.
Approximately 95% of the route will
be excavated through un-weathered
basalt, therefore bolts, wire mesh and
steel bands will be used, as necessary, to
achieve structural stability for the
majority of the tunnel. A fiberglass lining
will result in a finished interior diameter
of up to 13ft (3.9m).
As the finished tunnel will convey
wastewater by gravity flow, it will be
inclined throughout its length toward the
Kailua Regional WWTP starting at a
depth of approximately 40ft (12m) below
ground level at the Kaneohe WWPTF and
ending at a depth of 82ft (25m) below
ground level at the Kailua Regional
WWTP. A new influent pump station
(IPS) will lift the wastewater from the
vertical shaft to the surface for
treatment. Tunnel design is anticipated to
be complete by the end of this year, with
a pre-qualification bidding process due to
commence in the first quarter of 2013.
Next-generation productivity
Atlas Copco Boomer E-series
Atlas Copcos Boomer E-series face-drilling rigs combine a complete

package of innovations and improvements in one amazingly productive
piece of equipment. Here are just a few of the reasons you should
upgrade your fleet with one soon:
Increased boom stability and stiffness permits a longer boom
extension, allowing for greater face coverageup to 35% more
coverage in face drilling and bolt-hole drilling.
New configuration of boom with double-rotation head on end
increases precision and cuts positioning time by 50%.
Upgraded Rig Control System (RCS) adjusts feed force to the
actual rock conditions for maximum penetration and improved
drill-steel life.
Atlas Copco Construction & Mining
800-732-6762
www.atlascopco.us
North American Tunneling Conference, Booth #704

June 24 27 in Indianapolis
NATJ_0612_Insider_010_011.qxd:Feature
11/6/12
20:40
Page 10
Beyond Tunnels
Our expertise goes beyond bored tunnels.
JACOBS SF.COM
Mind
Muscle
SMART FROM THE START, STRONG TO THE
FINISH. When you work with Black & Veatch,
you tap best minds and resources in the water
business to skillfully tackle your challenges.
Were building a world of difference. Together.
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Kansas City 913.458.3493
weknowwater@BV.com
Consulting Engineering Construction Operation I www.BV.com
We also deliver cut-and-cover and sequentially

excavated structures, caverns, portals, slopes,
and embankments. Anytime youre faced
with underground risk, Jacobs Associates is
your partner for design, construction management, and dispute resolution.
NATJ_0612_Insider_010_011.qxd:Feature
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Page 11
THE INSIDER
the
insider
Bob Goodfellow, PE, CEng, Senior Vice
President, Aldea Services LLC
The NAT Conference this year has the theme

Driving Value Underground. The theme refers to
the driving history surrounding the conference
location of Indianapolis, but also alludes to the
investors and users of the underground
infrastructure, as well as commercial partners
during design and construction that all seek
value from tunnel projects. One overriding issue
tunnels when there is no evidence in modern

tunnel construction to support such fears? Well,
the human brain is a curious and marvelous
organ. We can be oblivious of real dangers and
yet be physically incapacitated by groundless
fears such as shark attacks and house spiders.
For example an average of one person per
year in the US is killed by a shark, whereas over
Driving Value by
Improving Safety
that impacts everybody, from the public agency
director to the tunnel laborer to a member of the
public is that planning, design, construction and
operation must be carried out with safety as the
highest priority.
Anybody will tell you that tunneling is risky.
The majority opinion of the general public is
unfortunately that tunneling is not safe and
carries inherent risks to life, health and property.
My own view is that, while this may have been
true in the past, this opinion is not now correct.
Developments in technology and a change in
culture toward safety among the major
tunneling contractors have benefited the
tunneling industry greatly. The old macho claim
that a tunnel should cost a man a mile is now
thankfully a relic of history and so it should be.
Everybody has the right to go home healthy at
the end of their shift. That safety has become
the tunnel construction industrys number one
priority should be applauded and promoted.
The accident rate in tunneling is now slightly
lower than the average accident rate for all
construction. Our business has moved from
being the most hazardous branch of
construction to having no more accidents than
residential construction. A review of 3,496
fatalities investigated by OSHA over a five-year
period shows that only seven were attributable
to tunnel construction. Considering the
conditions and tasks that tunneling personnel
encounter and carry out on a routine basis, this is
a phenomenal achievement.
Why then are people fearful of the safety of
350 die by drowning in a bathtub and over

1,000 by drowning in natural water.
Notwithstanding the fact that Jaws is a better
movie than Killer Bath Tubs 3-D it is odd that
sharks engender so much irrational fear among
beachgoers when you are over 300 times more
likely to die in your own bathtub and a thousand
times more likely to simply go to the beach and
drown without the aid of a large carnivore. Of
course, this discussion assumes that you can get
to the beach without joining the over 35,000
people that die on US roads every year in traffic
accidents. It would appear that the human brain
is able to ignore logic and reason in the face of
certain emotional stimuli.
A similar type of irrational behavior in the face
of logic is being exhibited by some local officials
and parents in Beverly Hills to the proposed
Westside Subway Tunnel Extension in LA (see
page 12). It should be noted first that the
hazards associated with tunneling through gassy
ground that may contain abandoned and
unmapped oil wells in a seismically active area
are far from trivial. I am sure that these hazards
are receiving significant focus from the planning
and design team and will continue to do so from
the Contractors. However, objectors to the
alignment have produced a video containing
fireball explosions at Beverly Hills High. The LA
Metro official response of Its a little over the
top, and its unfortunate, is remarkably
restrained considering the potential harm done
to the project, Metros investment into important
infrastructure and their mission to bring public
transportation to a city that needs it more than

most other major cities in the world.
On a national level and despite some local
difficulties, the fact remains that the tunnel
industry should be proud of its recent record of
safety while improving infrastructure with
minimal impact to surface structures. The
general public should be made more aware of
these facts. Aware that tunnel construction is
significantly safer than historical accounts
suggest and also aware of how similar situations
to their local project have been overcome in
other locations with positive results.
In Miami at the recent Cutting Edge
conference on soft ground tunneling, safety was
described as an attitude thing; as an
education thing; and as an awareness thing.
Yes, I agree with all of the above. Project
participants and stakeholders must be vigilant
and must be educated about the hazards that
exist and what measures are being taken to
mitigate those hazards. New technology can
make people feel somewhat invincible and the
new-found safety of tunnel construction can
lead to complacency if not checked by rigorous
processes of risk and hazard analysis that identify
the major issues and keep them in the forefront
until fully mitigated. It is important that we as an
industry are open and honest with the public
and our clients as to the hazards that exist when
selecting alignments and when limiting or
selecting means and methods of tunnel
construction.
One final note on construction site safety
comes from a DOE investigation into nationwide
construction accidents in preparation for
construction at Yucca Mountain, which found
that 20% of all construction injuries occur within
the first month a worker reports to a new work
site; and 90% fall within the first 12 months.
Planning, training, experience and camaraderie
then are all important factors that allow workers
to go home healthy every day. Communication is
equally important both among the project team
and third party stakeholders and the public.
Safety must continue to hold a position of
priority so that everybodys goal of zero incidents
and accidents in tunnel construction can be
realized.
Work safely, travel safely and I look forward to
seeing you in Indianapolis at the NAT 2012
Conference.
NATJ_0612_LA_012_015.qxd:Feature
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Page 12
LOS ANGELES
LA Metros Measure R
The Crenshaw/LAX project, the Regional Connector Transit Corridor and the
Westside Subway Extension are the three biggest mass transit projects
currently being progressed by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (Metro). NATJ correspondent, Kristina Smith,
recently caught up with Metro to find out a bit more about these projects
Figure 1: Map showing Metros 30/10 transit expansion plans
126
Los Angeles County
San
Fernando
Valley
Ventura County
118
210
170
Arroyo
Verdugo
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
Orange Line Extension

East San Fernando Valley North-South Transit Corridors
Sepulveda Pass Transit Corridor
Westside Subway Extension
Regional Connector Transit Corridor
Gold Line Foothill Extension
Exposition Transit Corridor Phase 2
Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor
Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2 (alternatives)
Green Line LAX Extension
South Bay Green Line Extension
West Santa Ana Transit Corridor
101
134
405
Las Virgenes/Malibu
Central LA
210
C
Westside
Cities
10
710
10
San Gabriel
Valley
71
60
Pacif
H
57
ic
Oc
ea
105
110
K
Existing Metro Lines
Under Construction
30/10 Projects
San
Bernardino
County
91
L
Gateway
605
Cities
405
Orange County
South Bay
Cities
Artists impression of
one of the new Westside
Subway Extension stations
Torti Gallas and Partners Inc
Amtrak/Metrolink
NOVEMBER 05, 2008, was an exciting day

for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (Metro). On that
day the results of a ballot came through:
67.41% of voters said yes to a half-cent
sales tax, dubbed Measure R, which is
projected to raise $40 billion to be spent on
major new transit and highway projects over
the next 30 years.
People were willing to support the retail
tax because it will mean better journeys
around the city, with less reliance on cars,
and a reduction in gridlock. And for Metro,
it meant that several long-planned projects
could finally come to fruition.
We were very happy when Measure R
passed, says Robert Ball, Deputy Executive
Officer for the Crenshaw/LAX project, one of
the projects to benefit from the yes vote.
Measure R funds are to be used both for
direct funding and as collateral for long-term
bonds. Two of the major projects are
seeking federal funds from execution of full
funding grant agreements, while one is
actively negotiating a federal loan from
USDOT. Additional federal infrastructure
loans are being sought so that the authority
could have the opportunity to accelerate
construction on as many as 12 key mass
transit projects in 10 years rather than 30.
The Crenshaw/LAX project, the Regional
Connector Transit Corridor and the Westside
Subway Extension are the three biggest of
the 12 rail projects, and all three of them
involve tunneling.
Ask anyone at Metro what the main
challenges of these projects are, and they
probably wont be talking about the
tunneling. Because one of the biggest
challenges for Metro during the preconstruction phases is explaining the
tunneling process and what it means to
concerned residents and other stakeholders
as well as discussing the overlapping
general effects of the three projects that will
have concurrent construction phases.
On all three projects getting the right
project from the stakeholder perspective has
been a vocal concern raised by community
11/6/12
21:29
Page 13
Existing Metro Rail & Station

Metro Silver Line & Station
LA BREA
FAIRFAX
LOS ANGELES
N
BEVERLY
HANCOCK
PARK
PARK
LA BREA
6TH
Wilshere
Western
HAW
OLYMPIC
CRE
NS
WILSH
CENT
W
No
3RD
WILSHERE
FAIR
FAX
Exposition Transit Corridor

Phase 2 (approved alignment)
(under study)
Harbor Subdivision
ROSSMORE
HIGHLAND
Exposition Transit Corridor &

Station Phase 1(under construction)
The Crenshaw/LAX
Transit Corridor Project
KOREAT
additions are not because there have

Request for Qualifications (RFQ). The authority
been issues on MGLEE, says Crow, rather
received five Statements of Qualifications, with
MID-CITY
that the improvements are about adding
four of the five pre-qualifying. Request for
Below Grade LRT
FWY
SANTA MONICA
Aerial LRT
further redundancy into the system.
Proposal (RFP) is to be released early in June,
WEST
Expo/
ADAMS
La Brea
Expo/
Located
in
the
northern
part
of
the
after which the proposers will have around five
PALMS
Crenshaw
Expo/
Culver
La Cienega/
Western
City
Los Angeles Basin, the section of the
months to turn in their detailed technical and
MA Farmdale
Jefferson
RT
IN
CULVER
LU
TH
route
which
runs
down
Crenshaw
price proposals. One of the ways Metro is
CITY
ER
LEIMERT
KIN
PARK
GJ
RB
Boulevard is directly underlain by Young
seeking to encourage innovation is by allowing
BALDWIN
MARTIN LUTH
T
L
R
HILLS
E
IM
LE
Alluvium and below that Old Alluvium
Alternative Technical Concepts (ATCs). A
VERNON
of the Lakewood Formation, with peat
proposer, having gained approval on their
48TH
A
VIST
LADERA
LES
and
compressible
clays
anticipated
in
the
suggested ATC, may then incorporate any cost
NGE
A
HIEGHTS
54TH
Young Alluvium. The ground is classed
advantage to the price proposal they submit in
HYDE
SLAUSON
PARK
by
CalOSHA
as
gassy:
there
may
be
the fall. We then have to go through fairly
ST
WE
UTH
Methane and hydrogen sulfide present.
detailed evaluation, says Ball. If we find that
SO
RK
A
INGLEWOOD
P
FLORENCE
E
HYD
We
found
a
potentially
gassy
pocket
they are in a competitive range, we could stop
BE
AC
H
near Coliseum Street but not
there and award the contract as early as
WESTCHESTER
pressurized, which is good, says Ball.
January. If we feel we need to negotiate, we
MANCHESTER
Working in gassy or potentially gassy
will have Best and Final Offer negotiations and
HILL CREST
ground such as this should not be a
then award the contract.
MORNINGSIDE
ARBOR VITAE
PARK
particular challenge says Crow, since the
Metro will keep the ATCs confidential but
CENTURY
methods of working and appropriate
will pay a stipend to offset some of the costs,
LENNOX
LAX
equipment are set down in regulations.
which also allows Metro to own the technical
Hawthorne
IMPERIAL HWY
Equipment must be explosion proof and
details. Bidders can forfeit the $1m stipend if
Crenshaw
Aviation/LAX
good ventilation is required to maintain
they want to hold onto any information that
Mariposa
120TH
safe working conditions, should either
they may consider to be proprietary.
HAWTHORNE
ATHENS
gas be found present.
Once construction work begins next year,
The Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor will be the
The performance-based specification for the
minimising the impact of construction on the
first of the three projects to go out to tender. It
tunneling will require a pressurized face TBM,
community will become the main challenge.
can also claim another first: the contract to
but the choice of EPB or slurry will be left to
Metro has also implemented a project labor
build the $1.749 billion light rail line, funded
the contractor. For cross passages connecting
agreement and construction careers policy with
largely by Measure R, will be Metros first true
the twin tunnels, ground improvement will be
a percentage of the workforce designated from
design-build tunnel project. Crenshaw is a
required. This could take the form of
economically disadvantaged communities.
good candidate for design-build, says Robert
dewatering, permeation grouting, soil mixing
QUICK FACTS
Ball, Deputy Executive Officer for the project.
or jet grouting.
It is very similar to the Gold Line; we learnt a
Although this project might have lent itself
Name: Crenshaw/ LAX Transit Corridor
lot from that and we are fully confident.
to being split into two, Metro opted to let the
Overall project cost: $1.749bn
The 1.5-mile (2.4km) tunnel between
whole thing as one big package. We are going
Procurement: Design-Build
Crenshaw and 48th St runs under the middle of
out with a single design-build contract and we
Tunnels: 1.5-miles, 22ft diameter
Crenshaw Boulevard and doesnt pass under
are looking for contractor driven innovation,
TBMs: EPBM or slurry
any other tunnels or structures. There are also
says Ball. This approach also makes the
Progress: Four bidders prequalified; RFP to be
three cut-and-cover sections varying from
contract easier to administer and minimizes the
released in June; earliest contract award
1,000ft to 3,000ft along the 8.5-mile (13.6km)
interfaces that Metro have to manage.
January 2013
route, which allows for passenger interchange
December last year saw Metro release its
Designer: Hatch Mott MacDonald
with the newly opened Exposition Line at its
northern end and connects directly with the
Figure 2: The Crenshaw Boulevard tunnel and soil profile
Green Line at its southern end.
The Crenshaw Boulevard Tunnel includes
180
180
CL W 48th St.
Martin Luther King Blvd.
two underground stations, Crenshaw/King and
Retained Cut &
C
Coliseum St.
W 39th St.
Cut Cover
Cut & L
Crenshaw/Exposition and a possible third
160
160
CL
CL
588 426
Cover
Bored Tunnel
station at Vernon Street, which bidders will be
390
2592
asked to include as a bid option in their price
140
140
Cut & Cover
Bored Tunnel
Existing Ground
proposals during the procurement phase. The
900
3513
principal staging area the tunnel will be a site
120
120
Optional
Existing Ground
Vernon
next to Crenshaw/Exposition; that station also
MLK
Sta.
has an extra 450ft (720m) crossover structure
100
100
Sta.
which, added to its 390ft (624m) length, could
Crossover
& Expo
serve as a launch box for the TBMs.
80
80
Sta.
To line the twin TBM-bored, 22ft (6.7m)
60
diameter tunnels, Metro has adopted the same
60
approach as it did on MGLEE: a single pass
Fill
40
40
precast segmental lining with double gaskets
Sands
to ensure that neither water nor gases get into
Clays
20
20
Top of Rail
the tunnels. There are two adaptations this
Ground Water level
time round: a cross-bar connection between
00
00
the inner and outer gaskets on the radial joint,
360+00
370+00
380+00
390+00
400+00
410+00
420+00
430+00
440+00
450+00
designed to isolate any leakages; and seals on
Proposed Alignment Centerline SIA (feet)
the bolt connections on the radial joints. These
Light Rail (LRT) Alignment
& Station (under study)
Optional Station
At-Grade LRT
PICO
LOS ANGELES
LA BREA
WESTERN
10
ARLINGTON
405
WESTERN
VAN NESS
8TH
CRENSHAW BLD
LA CIENEGA
AVIATION
AIRPORT
PRAIRIE
LA BREA
MARKET
405
LA
TIJ
ER
A
SEPULV
EDA
WEST
LA BREA
90
RAMONA
HAWTHORNE
INGLEWOOD
NASH
105
105
1%
4.8
Elevation (feet)
405
11/6/12
21:29
Page 14
LOS ANGELES
A
ED
Regional Connector
Transit Corridor
110
ALIS
INO
FW
SAN
VEZ
Union Station
IAL
An
CESAR CHA
Los
ARD
N
BER
ERC
sR
gele
MM
CO
101
r
ive
101
AL
ALISO
AM
A
ED
TEMPLE
1ST
NT
AF
E
Little Tokyo/
Arts District
Civic Center
10
PLE
TEM
SA
TEMPLE
CIVIC
CENTER
MAIN
SPRING
BROADWAY
HILL
OLIVE
HOPE
HOPE
FLOWER
HOPE
FIQUEROA
Existing
Parking
Lot
Tf
Ground Surface
Existing
Building
Central Ave.
2nd St.
San Pedro St.
Elevation (feet)
af
Qalo
180
RA
NT
Existing
Parking
Garage
Prior Regional
Connector
Boring (Typ.)
320
300
280
260
Qal
R Track
Top of Rail
Geologic
Contact (Typ.)
Tunnel Crown
220
200
CE
Existing
Building
ED
Current Regional
Connector Boring (Typ.)
260
240
AM
280
AL
300
Prior Geotechnical
Boring (Typ.)
FLOWER
320
GRAND
1ST
ARTS
1ST
D
(177m) radius and then head west
2N
DISTRICT
towards the 2nd/Broadway station.
2ND
2ND
Just west of this station, the
LITTLE
TOKYO
3RD
alignment crosses beneath the Red
Line tunnels before curving round a
HISTORIC CORE
4TH
TOY DISTRICT
BUNKER
600ft (183m) radius, passing
Pershing
HILL
Square
through the 2nd/Hope station box
5TH
structure. Finally a straight run
CENTRAL CITY EAST
FINANCIAL
DISTRICT
down Flower Street ends at a
6TH
JEWELRY
reception pit in Flower Street, with
DISTRICT
7TH
the remainder of this leg into the
7th St/
H
7T
Metro Center
existing 7th/Metro station
8TH
FASHION
8TH
completed in cut-and-cover.
DISTRICT
N
BL
9TH
This first section of the tunnel
9TH
passes underneath the Japanese
Village Plaza, one of only three
OLYMPIC
Transfers
historic Japanese communities in
Metro Silver Line & Station
11TH
the US. Here, the specification will
SOUTH
PARK
& Station Phase 1
call for ground treatment, which
12TH
(under construction)
could take the form of permeation
Amtrak/Metrolink
Pico
PICO
At-Grade Segment
grouting, jet grouting or
Refined LPA Underground LRT
compensation grouting. There will
Proposed Underground Stations
Original LPA
also be other places where ground
modification is required, says Crow.
These include an area where the
The designers also used Midas GTS when
tunnel passes very close beneath a large LA
considering the interaction between the new
county storm drain in mixed face conditions;
tunnels and the existing tunnels of the Red
where it passes beneath ducts and pipes for a
Line. That analysis revealed the RCTC tunnels
central chilling system; and anywhere else the
could be excavated with negligible impact on
contractor needs it to meet Metros design and
the Red Line tunnels. We arent expecting any
performance criteria.
unacceptable movements, says Crow, But this
Setting the vertical and horizontal
is an operational railroad, so we will require
alignments has required sophisticated
instrumentation and monitoring of the tunnels,
modeling using MIDAS GTS from Metros
using state of the art methods.
designer Connector Partnership (a joint venture
The monitoring of settlement along the
between AECOM and Parsons Brinkerhoff)
route has been carefully specified. The
where the tunnel passes under the 4th Street
Connector Partnership has written a Building
Ramp foundation and the Red Line.
Protection Report, which identifies buildings
The ramp is supported on 18in (450mm)
that may require mitigation measures to avoid
diameter drilled cast-in-place concrete piles,
damage. The consultants analyzed 60 buildings
which splay out into the ground, with the two
and structures, identifying the four which
tunnels squeezing through the middle, with
require consideration of protection measures.
two sets either side. The designers used the
The monitoring system will combine data from
Midas GTS finite element program to model
the TBM, subsurface and surface to give real
the piles, the ground and to simulate the
time information on the impact of tunneling on
progress and operations of the TBM. The
settlement. The monitoring and reporting
results told the Connector Partnership that the
frequencies required will vary depending on
tunnels can pass through the foundations
the situation, with frequencies stepped up if
without ground movements and without
trigger levels are approached.
causing problems for the highway.
The Federal Government has yet to approve
its 50% funding of the project, with Measure R
Figure 3: RCTC profile from 1st & Alameda to 2nd St, through Japanese Village
contributing the other 50%. Metro intends to
go out with an RFQ this summer with the
release of the RFP by the end of the year.
The $1.34 billion Regional Connector Transit

Corridor (RCTC) project will make commuting in
downtown LA much easier. At present the
Blue, Gold and Expo lines all bring people to
the area but they do not directly connect across
the city center. The RCTCs twin bore light rail
tunnels will allow passengers to travel east to
west and north to south through Downtown.
The project will provide a quicker, more
convenient service for 90,000 passengers per
day and will have a beneficial effect on the
whole of Metros rail transit system both
present and future. This project will connect
Pasadena Gold Line from north to Long Beach
Blue Line in south and EXPO Line from west to
Eastside Extension Gold line in east.
The biggest technical challenge in designing
and constructing these tunnels is their location.
Running through a busy urban district, their
potential impact on existing buildings and
infrastructure must be analyzed and
minimized. There are shallow footings, deep
foundations, piles supporting a roadway
overpass foundation and sewers to avoid. At
one point the new light rail tunnels pass below
the Red Line tunnels with just 5ft (1.5m) cover.
Similar to Crenshaw/LAX, the specification
will call for a pressurized face TBM. Methane
and Hydrogen Sulfide could be present and the
equipment must be able to cope with its
appearance on the 1.9-mile (3km) route. The
tunnel lining specification will also be similar to
Crenshaw: single pass precast concrete lining
segments with double gaskets.
The TBM drive will start at the east end of
the tunnel, north of the 1st/Central Station,
heading down through a layer of mixed fill
into young and then old alluvium. Below that
is the Fernando Formation, which is
predominantly poorly bedded and cemented
massive siltstone with some interbeds of
sandstone and conglomerate. The ground
conditions are challenging when we start the
tunnels, says Girish Roy, Deputy Executive
Officer on the project. Once we dive down
into the Fernando Formation, the soil is pretty
good and we dont anticipate any problems.
Having passed through the 1st/Central
Station, which will be excavated from the
surface, the TBM will curve through a 580ft
South Central
Arena Station
240
220
200
180
QUICK FACTS
Name: Regional Connector Transit Tunnel
Overall project cost: $1.34 billion
Procurement: Design-Build
Tunnels: 1.9-miles, 22ft diameter
TBMs: Pressurized Face
Status: RFQ this summer; RFP by end of year.
Consultant: Connector Partnership (AECOM
and Parsons Brinkerhoff JV)
11/6/12
21:29
Page 15
LOS ANGELES
We have readily managed these ground
conditions, says Matthew Crow, Metros
Director, Project Engineering for tunnels.
Not only on the MGLEE, but the City of Los
Angeles undertook a $500 million sewer
tunnel program through both gassy and
potentially gassy ground with great ease.
MGLEE was not only a technical success.
Metro also introduced innovation in its
procurement and delivery methods for the
project.
The contract was a hybrid between
design-build and design-bid-build, with the
tunnels being 100% designed by the clients
designer. An Integrated Project Management
Office (IPMO) allowed more effective
communication between all the involved
parties, speeding up decision-making and
keeping the project on track and safe.
Metro has done a lot of work over the

years to address such technical
considerations, The ground is most
definitely safe to tunnel. As an
experienced tunneling client, with people
and knowledge that stretch back to the
beginning of the construction of the Red
Line in 1983, Metro is well placed to make
that judgment.
The authority also has solid evidence: the
successful delivery of Gold Line East
Extension (MGLEE) which included nearly
1.6-miles (2.6km) of LRT in tunnels and two
underground stations in potentially gassy
ground. Tunneling contractor, Traylor Bros
successfully broke through with two EPBM
machines in December 2006, with no
settlement issues, setting the scene for
future tunneling projects in Los Angeles.
and other stakeholder groups.

Of course, the technical challenges of
projects of this nature are not to be
underestimated. For instance, any tunneling
project in the Los Angeles area needs to
consider the possibility of the presence of
methane and hydrogen sulfide in the
ground. In the city, the highest
concentration of the two gases are most
likely to be found near the La Brea Tar pits,
which lie North of the intersection of
Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.
People remember an accident, which
occurred a decade ago in June 1995, a 40ft
(25m) deep sinkhole appeared on
Hollywood Boulevard, when the contractor
on one of the projects to construct the Red
Line was carrying out remedial works to a
tunnel.
Westside Subway Extension Project

Metro is taking a different approach to
procurement on the Westside Subway
Extension, a 14.4km (9-mile) project which will
extend the Metro Purple Line from the existing
Wilshire/Western station to West Los Angeles.
Rather than opting for Design-Build, as on
Crenshaw and the Regional Connector, Metros
planned contract delivery method is DesignBid-Build for the major elements such as the
tunnels and underground stations.
The reason for the differing procurement
method is the ground conditions: We have the
tar sands next to the La Brea Tar Pits, with
elevated levels of Methane and Hydrogen
Sulphide, says Crow. Are they challenges?
Yes. But they are challenges that have been
successfully tackled elsewhere.
The 22ft (6.7m) diameter twin bored rail
transit tunnels will generate a predicted 78,700
new daily trips, with seven new stations
located in major destination centers including
the Wilshire Boulevard Miracle Mile District,
Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood and
West Los Angeles. Metro estimates that the

total cost of the Westside Subway Extension in
year-of-expenditure dollars is $5.66 billion,
based on a revenue service date in 2022.
Metro is seeking federal funding through the
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) New Starts
Projects program to match local funds provided
primarily from the Measure R funding plan. In
accordance with the current FTA schedule,
Metro expects to receive a Record Of Decision
early this summer, followed by FTA approval to
begin final design by late Fall this year.
Currently, Metro is advancing preliminary
engineering to meet the challenges in dealing
with the unique gassy ground and tar sands
that will be encountered under Wilshire
Boulevard near the La Brea Tar Pits. During the
next design phase, Metros designer Parsons
Brinkerhoff will draw on and improve previous
designs, using pressurized-faced tunnelling and
segments that successfully controlled gas
intrusion and settlements on the MGLEE.
Although the tunnels and stations are likely
to be Design-Bid-Build, Metro is evaluating

opportunities for Design-Build for other
elements such as systems, trackwork and
ancillary facilities. The current contracting and
scheduling approach looks at splitting the 9miles (14.4km) into three tunnel segments,
with tunnel launch sites at Westwood/VA
Hospital [two stations] ; Century City [two
stations] ; and Wilshire/La Brea [three stations].
The schedule has also provided the
opportunity for Metro to develop Modular
Station designs (see illustration on p12), in
which standardized platforms, concourses and
equipment room layouts have been designed
to optimize the use of CAD Design (CAD/D)
and Building Information Modelling (BIM).
Modular Stations were introduced on
Segment 3 of the North Hollywood Extension
of the Metro Red Line that was opened in
2000. The advantages were proven to reduce
overall design and construction time, change
orders and efficiency from an operations and
maintenance perspective.
The current Westside Subway
Extension subway stations are
Hollywood/
Hollywood/
Vine
Western
Fourth Generation stations
HOLLYWOOD BL
Vermont/
that have been updated during
Hollywood/
Sunset
SUNSET
Highland HOLLYWOOD
Preliminary Engineering with
WEST HOLLYWOOD
Vermont/
SANTA MONICA BL
Santa
improvements using the latest
Monica
technology in equipment and
fire/life safety code
Vermont/
Beverly
requirements.
BEVERLY BL
HANCOCK
Transfers
& Station Phase 1
(under construction)
BE
SAN
NT
OD
BL
RE
BU
HE
ND
LS
WI
SANTA MONICA
CA
10
Expo/
Sepulveda SANTA MONICA FWY
WY
OF
L
EB
405
Colorado/
4th St
National/
Palms
Culver
City
La Cienega/
Jefferson
Expo/
La Brea Farmdale
EXPOSITION
LN
CO
LIN
Expo/
Olympic/ Bundy
26th St
Colorado/
17th St
VERMONT
WESTERN
KOREATOWN
PICO
VENICE BL
WASHINGTON
10
IEG
N
SA
PIC
OLYM
MID-CITY
ND
TA
BL
Wilshere/
Vermont
Wilshere/
Normandie
OLYM
PICO
SA
I
ON
Wilshere/
La Brea
PIC
Expo/
Westwood
WEST
LOS ANGELES
WILSHERE
CENTER
Wilshere/
Western
HAW
WO
ST
CENTURY
CITY
WINDSOR
SQUARE
WILSHERE
FAIR
FAX
WE
Westwood/
VA Hospital
OLYMPIC
MIRACLE
MILE
Wilshere/
La Cienega Wilshere/
Fairfax
LA CIENEGA
SUNSET
OF
UE S
EN AR
AV E ST
TH
Veterans
Administration
WILSHERE
Century
City
Westwood/
UCLA
BEVERLY DR
405
PARK
E
VIC
Wilshere/
Rodeo
CRE
NS
YD
RL
VE
WESTWOOD
UCLA

(approved alignment)
VINE
AM
NT
SA
ROSSMORE
FAIRFAX
ON
BEVERLY
HILLS

Recommended Alignment
& Station
LA BREA
B
ICA
HIGHLAND
SET
SUN

Phase 2 (under construction)
NIC
VE
CULVER
CITY
SANTA MONICA FWY
Expo/
Crenshaw JEFFERSON
Expo/
Western
Expo/
Vermont
Expo Park/
USC
QUICK FACTS
Name: Westside Subway
Extension
Project Cost: $5.66 Billion
Procurement: Design-Bid-Build
+ opportunities for Design-Build
Tunnels: 9 miles, 22ft diameter
TBMS: EPBM and/or Slurry
Status: Awaiting FTA Record
Of Decision and Approval to
Enter Final Design
Consultant: Parsons
Brinckerhoff
NATJ_0612_viewpoint_016_017.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
21:40
Page 16
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NATJ_0612_viewpoint_016_017.qxd:Feature
13/6/12
21:40
Page 17
VIEWPOINT
IS EVERYONE
HAPPY YET?
Michael S. Schultz, P.E., Senior Vice President, CDM Smith
I AM FASCINATED by the rapid changes that

we have seen and experienced in the tunneling industry, particularly within the last 10 to
15 years. Not only are we realizing rapid technologic advances that allow us to successfully
tunnel under conditions previously not attempted, but we are also seeing a shift to alternative delivery approaches in the way we
design, construct, manage and contract. I
must ask: Are we happy (or even satisfied)
with the way owners and other decision makers are contracting for design and construction? What lessons will we learn from current
projects? Will we be happy in the future and
settle on a just one approach, or is it more
likely we will see other approaches emerge?
The classic method often used was what
we call the design-bid-build (DBB) approach
whereby an owner would develop a project
through planning stages, possibly with its own
engineering staff, but more often with a consulting engineer with specialized experience or
bring about change in the way DSC claims are

handled on most tunneling projects. The use
of geotechnical data reports and geotechnical
baseline reports along with the incorporation
of these documents into the contract has become the standard of practice. Some owners
continue to evolve the way these documents
are integrated into their standard contract
forms and the way aspects of projects are
managed. Still, the identification, management and mitigation of risk during design and
construction are seen through very different
lenses by owners, designers, contractors, insurance companies, bonding companies, and
the public or other stakeholders. Recent research by McGraw-Hill Construction suggests
that more than half of surveyed owners rank
contractual risk as a high risk while engineers
and contractors do not.
A significant number of alternative delivery
approaches for contracting for design and
construction services have emerged with several variants possible at different stages. Design-build (DB) has recently become popular
and I believe has made both designers and
the contractors uncomfortable at times. Other
approaches are continually considered and we
may see the public-private partnership (PPP)
model become more prevalent. The entities
able to finance projects under the PPP model
Integrated project teams may bring the best practices to

difficult or risky projects, whether its tunneling or other
types of large civil infrastructure projects
knowledge. Once a projects scope and schedule could be determined, a design engineer or
team of engineers would be brought in to design the project and prepare contract documents for bidding. Contractors won these
projects by being the lowest priced qualified
bidder. The design engineer often served as
the owners agent and construction representative, overseeing the bidding and construction as well as assisting with the management
of the contract between owner and contractor. Was this the good old days? Some think
so. However, in the underground industry,
with the focus on ground-structure interactions and differing site conditions (DSC)
claims, a better way was needed.
The tunneling industry has collaborated to
will become the client in the future for both

the designers and tunneling contractors.
For the DB approach to be successful, project definition intended for the DB contractor
must be determined beforehand. Many owners accomplish this by incorporating the program management (PM) model, especially for
large programs with multiple DB packages or
contracts. The program manager often completes the conceptual or preliminary design
work (typically 25 to 30%, although this
seems to vary widely). During the bidding
phase, both the designer and contractor
spend considerable time and expense developing the design, means and methods of construction to provide a competitive cost
proposal. Once a project enters into construc-
tion, owners frequently hire a construction

manager that serves in the oversight role.
After all, the D partner in the DB team cannot oversee its managing partner on the B
side. Even on projects using the traditional
DBB approach, the design engineer is increasingly not providing construction management
services on projects it designs.
The current thinking by many public owners
appears to be that the entity that performs
the design has an inherent conflict with overseeing the construction and the contractor in
the traditional case of DBB. The concern
being, I guess, that if allowed to do so, the
D will hide design flaws that the construction manager would not. Apparently the loss
of the engineers background and knowledge
obtained during design is not valued as highly
during construction as the fear and distrust of
this potential cover up. The adversarial nature
with DBB contracts between owner, designer
and contractor now have expanded to include
the relationships between the owner, program
manager, DB contractor and construction
manager. The permutations on a large program involving multiple DB contracts of these
relationships and the need for interfacing between them can be a management challenge.
The new tendency is to establish integrated
project teams. Integrated project teams may
bring the best practices to difficult or risky
projects, whether its tunneling or other types
of large civil infrastructure projects. Alignment
of the team through sharing and adoption of
the vision, goals and objectives, priority and
performance of the project are necessary.
If I had to place a bet on the type of future
contracting approaches used in the industry, I
would bet on the use of more, and not fewer,
contracting approaches. Fewer projects will
use traditional DBB. Instead, owners will likely
continue to experiment with different approaches that they believe best meet their
needs. However, tunneling projects are specialized and risky; not the typical projects that
owners are comfortable with and/or have extensive staff and experience to manage.
The industry can, should and will influence
the way owners procure tunnel projects in the
future. If the industry wants to see change,
we can collectively affect that change, but
only after we reach consensus on the best
practices for tunneling contracts.
NATJ_0612_Arc_018_019.qxd:Feature
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21:16
Page 18
GAO FINDINGS
Lin
Bergen Line/Pascack
Valley Line
Canned over cost

overrun fears, ARCs
sinking has recently
been reviewed by the
GAO. Report by
Patrick Reynolds and
Amanda Foley
A YEAR AND A QUARTER AGO, New

Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, officially
canceled the largest public works project in
the US The Access to the Regions Core
(ARC) Mass Transit Project saying that the
state could not afford the potential cost
overruns of a commuter rail tunnel under the
Hudson River to New York. Construction was
already underway, three major tunneling
contracts were in the process of being
awarded and TBMs were on order. However,
funding agreements had yet to be fully
finalized and Christie decided there was a risk
of New Jersey being left to face the liabilities
alone if he stayed on for the ride. He didnt.
The scheme had sported an official baseline
cost estimate of $8.7 billion throughout 2008
and 2009. However, following a Federal
Transit Authority (FTA) reassessment of
financial risk (including higher costs for design
services, construction and risks to
stakeholders) in August 2010. The projects
lead sponsor New Jersey Transit (NJT) also
revised its projected cost estimates.
In response, Christie asked the ARC
Executive Steering Committee to check the
projections. The Committee reportedly came
back with estimates ranging from $11$14
billion. Many considered the $5 billion
maximum overrun figure far too high and
others countered with lower numbers, such
as $1 billion estimate from an independent
review. Despite the differing estimates, and
ongoing budget negotiations, Christie made
a prompt decision to call a press conference,
1-4
95
Kearney Yard
K
Y d
Midday Rail
Storage
li
Pa
ARC
Frank R. Lautenburg
Frank
urg
S
Secaucus
Junction
on
S
Station
sa
de
s
Secaucus
Se
ecaucus
c
Loop
Lo
oop
New Rail Line Connection

for Main/Bergen and
Pascack Valley Lines
Proposed Station Expansion
Proposed System - Surface
Proposed System - Tunnel
Proposed Rail Yard
1.0 miles
ew
Look
back on
Montclair-B
Boonton Line/
Montclair-Boonton
n Line/
Morristown
Gladstone Branch/
NorthEast Corridor/
Jersey Coast Line
North Jersey
195
SECAUCUS
0.5
Ri
ve
r
ain
Hu
ds
on
195
Ma
ain Line/Bergen
en Line/
Main
Pa
ascack Valley Line/
Pascack
Gl
adstone Branch/
Gladstone
Ra
aritan Valley Line/
Raritan
No
orthEast Corridor/
NorthEast
No
orth Jersey Coast Line
North
and on October 7th, 2010, declared he was

axing the project. The political and public
outcry that followed saw US Transportation
Secretary, Ray LaHood, get straight on a plane
to New Jersey and convince Christie to give
the project a two-week stay of execution
while federal and state transportation officials
studied options for salvaging some form of
the project. Christie remained unconvinced,
but agreed to the two-week period.
Transportation Deputy Secretary, John
Porcari, brought forward several proposals to
salvage some form of the tunnel. Each plan
was reported to include ways of minimizing
overruns and one eliminated the states risk
entirely through a proposed public-private
partnership. However, at a second press
briefing on October 27, Christie told
reporters: My decision has not changed. I
cannot place upon the citizens of New Jersey
an open letter of credit...There is no
opportunity for reconsideration. His decision
was final. ARC was dead and gone.
Canning such a massive public
infrastructure development sent shockwaves
through the construction and tunneling
sectors, as well as in the political arena. The
US Senate demanded that the numbers and
circumstances be investigated and the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) was
set to the task in early 2011. Recently, after
more than a year of reviews, interviews and
obtaining technical comments, the GAO
audit was completed and published.
In the GAOs findings, the $14 billion figure
touted by Christie doesnt appear anywhere
in the timeline of developed cost projections.
But the report does show that all the Fall
2010 cost estimates for ARC were well over
the $8.7 billion baseline. At that point in time
funding had only been agreed up to that level
and the federal government and Port
Authority had not yet agreed to give more.
The GAO does point out however, that the
reason that liability for any cost escalations
was left unresolved was due to the fact that a
final budget and full funding agreement was
still under negotiation.
Tu
nn
els
Penn Station
New York
Hoboken
Hobok
ken
1-78
MANHATTAN
JERSEY CITY
Scheme and baseline

Encompassing a new 9-mile (14.5km) long
twin-track railway a key feature of which
was to be a 3.4-mile (5.5km) long tunnel
below the Hudson River the ARC project
was conceived to address a forecasted 40%
passenger growth demand between New
Jersey and Manhattan by 2030. A major
addition to the regions transport
infrastructure, ARC had some critics, as rather
than terminate at an existing station, the
tunnels would lead to a new station cavern,
opposite Penn Station, under 34th Street.
However, according to the GAO, the
project would have provided significant
mobility benefits, helping to meet the
projected increase in travel demand by
doubling the number of daily peak period
trains, and significantly increasing daily trips
between New Jersey and Manhattan, while
reducing transfers and station crowding and
improving reliability of service.
The GAO stated that other project benefits
were more difficult to measure. The project
potentially would have generated economic
activity in the region in the form of jobs and
income, business activity, and increased home
values, but many economic effects were hard
to predict with certainty. The scheme was
also estimated to deliver environmental
benefits, principally in terms of air quality, due
to reduced trans-Hudson vehicle commutes.
The lead sponsor of the project, New Jersey
Transit (NJT), was supported by the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey (the
Port Authority). Both were to contribute to
funding the project, and top officials
constituted the members of the ARC
Executive Steering Committee. The remaining
funding was to come from the national level
primarily through the Federal Transit
Administrations (FTA) New Starts program.
Slightly more than half of the $8.7 billion
baseline estimate was earmarked to come
from a range of federal sources (Table 1). All
together, the federal share of 51.1% of the
baseline budget totaled approximately $4.45
billion. The Port Authority was down for $3
NATJ_0612_Arc_018_019.qxd:Feature
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21:16
Page 19
GAO FINDINGS
billion, or just over a third of the total budget.
The balance of $1.25 billion (14.4% of
budget) would be contributed by New Jersey
Turnpike Authority.
ARC runs aground
Cost estimates for ARC rose in the fall of
2010, during the process of final budget
negotiations and prior to the negotiation of
final federal funding agreements. In April the
$8.7 billion estimate was still in use by NJT.
However, by August, much higher estimates
ranging from 10.8 billion (low) to 13.7
billion (high) came from an updated FTA
risk assessment, which included a re-casting
of construction and other work costs, as well
as extra contingencies in regard to delay risks
in procurement, specifically contract awards.
Following feedback from NJT (who in turn
increased its own estimates to a range from
$8.7 billion to $10 billion), these FTA figures
were revised back down on October 4th,
resulting in an FTA estimate range of $9.7
billion (low) up to $12.4 billion (high).
Having heard concerns from NJT about
costs, Christie had called upon the ARC
Executive Steering Committee to investigate.
He received its report on October 7th and in a
press briefing the same day, said the
Committees best estimate was that the
total project cost would be no less than $11
billion and could exceed $14 billion.
The Committee recommended the project
be terminated, he said. The state cannot
afford to take on a liability that is at best an
additional $2 billion and at worst could
exceed $5 billion, Christie said.
Cost estimate growth
In reviewing the growth of the cost estimates
for the project, data compiled by GAO show
that the early, initial figures did not include all
project elements and produced cost estimates
in the $2.9 billion $3.6 billion range (2000
dollars), which it says is almost $3.7 billion to
$4.6 billion in 2011 dollars. As development
work advanced and number-crunching
became more comprehensive, the budget
accepted by FTA in August 2006 was $7.4
billion. The FTA acceptance of that figure let
the project pass into preliminary engineering.
NJT estimates up to late 2008, through the
environmental impact studies, kept to around
the same level, GAO reports. NJTs estimates
only lifted to US$8.7 billion in late 2009 and
into 2010 for the approach to the final design
stage. Federal numbers were always higher.
FTAs final risk assessment of 2008 delivered
an estimate of $9.1 billion for evaluation
under New Starts, although it had been
working in the $8.4 billion-$12 billion range.
By 2009, however, FTA had adopted the
same figure as NJT $8.7 billion as the
baseline, enabling ARCs entry into final
design. This figure did not include rail car
replacement costs, only cars needed in the
opening year.
Review
GAO was not charged with providing
recommendations from the audit. Neither
was it required to settle on a particular
budget number or range. It was just to
investigate and report. Therefore, there is still
a difference at the higher end of the cost
escalation estimates. In the end, the bigger
issue and what was clear in 2010, and
within the GAO report was the question of
covering the extra costs.
The GAO report states (based on interviews
with Port Authority officials) that although
NJT and the Port Authority had signed a
project agreement in 2009, as part of the
agreement was still under negotiation.

In summary, there is no indication within
the GAO report of what may have happened
if funding talks had continued. The report did
note that in the weeks preceding the projects
cancellation, the Secretary of Transportation
and the governor of New Jersey held
discussions on additional funding sources for
the project or a reduction in project scope.
Additional funding options discussed
included increased funding by the federal
government, New Jersey, and the Port
Authority; a federal railroad loan; or a publicprivate partnership contribution.
Christie obviously chose not to pursue
Table 1: ARC funding contributions on Baseline budget, April 2010

SOURCE
FEDERAL Total
- New Starts
- Flexible federal highway funds
- American Recovery & Reinvestment Act
Total ($ million)
$4449
$3000
$1319
$130
%
51.1
34.5
15.2
1.5
LOCAL
- Port Authority
$3000
34.5
STATE
- New Jersey Turnpike Authority
$1250
14.4
[Source: GAO]
Left: ARCs
scrapped
station cavern
design
To view or
download the
GAO report,
visit:
www.gao.gov
New Starts process, there was no

commitment of assistance from the Port
Authority in the event that the project
experienced cost increases. Indeed, Port
Authority officials told GAO that $3 billion
was its maximum the agency could provide to
the project, given the constraints of its
ongoing capital program.
Christie claimed that the final funding
agreement was likely to require additional
costs above the agreed $8.7 billion to be
borne solely by the state of New Jersey. The
GAO report states that liability for cost
escalations was left unresolved due to the
fact that a final budget and full funding
these discussions further and there can be

little doubt that canceling the ARC tunnel
project has helped shape the governors
profile as a rising Republican star and an
enforcer of fiscal discipline.
However, the GAO report has served to
revive media speculation that his decision,
which he said was about hard choices in
tough economic times, was in fact more
about avoiding the need to raise the states
gasoline tax, which would have violated a
campaign promise. Christie subsequently
steered the states earmarked ARC project
funds to its near-bankrupt transportation
trust fund, traditionally financed by gas tax.
NATJ_0602_CuttiingEdge_020_021.qxd:Feature
11/6/12
21:48
Page 20
session
briefing
e
d
A
:
th
day, 25
what a
Wednes
s home
g
in
r
b
,
is
r
T
g Edge
with
s Cuttin
s
e
c
all
c
u
s
ks go to
great
ur than
O
!
n
e
l
e
e
has b
irs, pan
sion cha enters
the ses
es
in
s and pr
member those who flew
y
r
ll
u
o
ia
c
,
)
e
orld
(esp
d the w
n
u
s!
r
o
r
o
a
it
from
exhib
e
h
t
d
n
sa
sponsor
o go to
anks als
h
t
e
l
ia
c
Spe
Lawrenc
t, Colin
a
v
o
L
k
o
Ric
rs wh
he othe
and all t
such a
ake this
o
m
d
e
lp
he
know wh
nt (you
e
v
e
t
e
a
w
e
gr
know
and we
you are
!)
a pint
owe you
CUTTING ED
The 2012 Pressurized TBM
Tunneling Conference, in
Miami, this April, was a
resounding success, here
are some of the highlights
r
nd: Afte
April 22
,
y
a
e
d
c
n
r
u
S
le fo
nd of ga
a weeke
rain, the
y
v
d hea
n
r
a
s
d
in
w
force fo
es out in
m
o
t
c
r
o
n
P
u
s
he
trip to t
a superb
roject.
P
l
e
n
i Tun
of Miam
chance
es had a
)
Attende
t (12.5m
the 42f
to tour
BM
necht T
Herrenk
citys
e
h
t
nder
boring u
al...
ping can
main ship
...big thanks go to
Bouygues Civil Works Florida, in particular
Louis Brais and Luz Weinberg for organizing
the trip and Pierre Pascual, Bernard Catalano
and Paul Trevisin for hosting the tour groups!
Monday, 23rd: Conference Chair, Rick Lovat,
gives a thought provoking Opening Address,
followed by Keynotes on Port of Miami (by
Louis Brais), Alaskan Way (by HNTBs Rich
Johnson & Dragados USAs Javier Varela)
and Slurry vs EPB (Markus Thewes).
sessions
Mondays
with some
continued
papers on
excellent
e
pport, fac
ground su
ing.
r
o
it
n
o
dm
control an
a
noon saw
The after
n
o
s
lk
ta
variety of
ditioning,
n
o
c
d
groun
isition and
data acqu
ck
ent of mu
measurem
ya
ollowed b
volumes; F
el
aired) pan
(deftly ch
n
&A sessio
debate Q
nd
a
n
io
t
a
r
pe
on TBM o
ntrol.
ground co
NATJ_0602_CuttiingEdge_020_021.qxd:Feature
11/6/12
21:48
Page 21
Tuesday,
24th: A g
reat sess
on Innova
ion
tions in T
BM techn
kicks the
o
logy
day off to
a fantast
start! Foll
ic
owing this
were four
highly int
eresting a
nd very tim
presentat
ely
ions on Hig
h Pressur
Compress
e
ed Air In
terventio
. and Hyp
ns
erbaric S
afety.
Thank
Goodf
s go
sessio
ns on T ellow for ch to Bob
airing
uesday
variet
two
a
y of op
inion p fternoon! An
Lining
resent
intere
System
ed wit
sting
s sess
debate
h
in
io
t
n; and
he Tun
Q&A s
a supe
nel
ession
level o
rb
, which
fp
saw an panel
some f articipation
ad
irst-ra
f
te disc rom the aud mirable
Confe
ience
rence
ussion
an
Chair,
from t
event,
Rick L
he pan d
giving
o
e
v
a
l!
due th
t, clos
anks t
e
o our S d out the
ponsor
s.
NG EDGE
Coffee breaks
(sponsored by
Arup), lunches
and Mondays
drinks reception
were all hosted in
the exhibit hall...
Cutting Edge 2012 was

organized in partnership by
NATJ and the UCA of SME,
a great team effort!
up of
rst-rate gro
...where a fi
tants,
ul
ns
ntractors, co
me
tunneling co
ca
rs
manufacture
da
an
owners and
o
tw
r a drink or
age
nt
together fo
va
ad
e taking
il
h
w
,
at
e
bite to
up with
ce to catch
of the chan
colleagues.
friends and
NATJ_0612_COMPANY_NEWS_022.qxd:Feature
COMPANY NEWS
11/6/12
21:32
Page 22
Mining Equipment makes

new locos
Mining Equipment has announced that the
firm is now manufacturing a complete line of
brand new diesel locomotives at its facility in
Farmington, New Mexico. We have been
rebuilding every make of locomotive for the
past 30 years, says Bob Pope, Founder and
President of the company. Weve seen the
good, the bad and the ugly and now we are
using our knowledge and experience to build
the most robust, simple, locomotives possible.
We know what customers want and need.
Planetary drives and wet disc brakes
highlight Mining Equipments 15-35t class
locomotives, making them extremely low
maintenance, thus saving time and money on
labor and parts. We also have locomotives
in the smaller 4-12t range, says Senior Vice
President, Matt Pope. These feature a
hydrostatic drive and heavy duty gear boxes.
The heart of the companys design
philosophy is centered around its custom rigid
bevel gear axle with planetary reduction
wheel hubs (final torque reduction at wheel),

featuring integral hydraulic applied wet disk
brakes and spring applied parking/emergency
brakes. Most of the companys new
locomotives also feature a hydrodynamic
three-speed transmission with lock-up torque
converter and engine exhaust brake and
integrated wet disk brakes.
The 25t loco can be used in underground
or surface mining, in tunneling or
construction projects. It can also be built with
various engines and drive components, all of
which effect speed, power and tractive effort.
Haulage capacity is contingent on locomotive
weight, horsepower and adhesion factors
such as track conditions.
Shannon & Wilson secure Ganse

Peggy Ganse, P.E., P.G. has
recently joined Shannon &
Wilson as a Senior
Associate, through
acquisition of her Denverbased company Tunneling

Solutions, Inc. She is based
in the Colorado office, and
will support the firms
tunneling and trenchless
markets across North
America. Ganse has 20
years of experience
designing, managing, and
performing geotechnical,
transportation and
tunneling projects for
public works infrastructure.
As a geological engineer
and engineering geologist,
Ganse specializes in
ground characterization
and design of rock and soil
tunnels in the water,
wastewater, and
transportation markets.
Ganse serves on the
Tunneling Committee of
the Association of
Engineering Geologists
(AEG) and is a founding
member of the Rocky
Mountain Chapter of the
North American Society for
Trenchless Technology
(NASTT).
Felice joins HNTB

HNTB continues
to enhance and
expand its
tunnel practice
with the recent
addition of
Conrad Felice
a tunneling
expert and
recognized authority in safety and
security of tunnels and
underground facilities with more
than 30 years of direct project
experience. Felice will be located in
HNTBs Seattle office.
The firm is excited for Conrad
to join the growing tunnel
practice, said Nasri Munfah, chair
of tunnel services.
Felice joins HNTB as a vice
president and technical director of
tunnel services. He has a
demonstrated expertise in
providing corporate leadership,
program and project management,
and technical engineering services
on tunnels and underground
structures, bridge foundations,
dam, pipeline, energy and marine
systems and other infrastructure
projects.
Felice is a member of the US
National Academy of Sciences, the
National Research Council
Committee on Geological and
Geotechnical Engineering, the US
National Academy of Sciences
Committee on Underground
Engineering for Sustainable
Development in addition to several
other professional organizations,
including the Transportation
Research Boards committee on
Tunnels and Underground
Structures.
Aldea announcement
Aldea Services recently
announced the addition of two
senior engineers to its staff.
Paul Headland, P.E., P.G., joins
the Maryland operation as the
Vice President of Geological
Services and offers over 20 years
of experience in tunneling and
mining. Paul is well known in the
North American tunnel industry
and has specialized expertise in
microtunneling and trenchless
design and construction as well
as ground behavior and
characterization for all types of

tunnels.
Mike Nuhfer, P.E., joins as the
Midwest Regional Manager,
based in Columbus, OH. Mike
has over 20 years of tunnel
design and construction
management experience. He
brings modeling and data
management capabilities as well
as knowledge and skill in the
design and construction
management of buried
infrastructure programs.
Paul Headland,
(left) and Mike
Nuhfer
This is an exciting time of

growth for Aldea Services. With
the addition of two experienced
and skilled engineers we
continue to provide high quality
services in a nimble and
responsive manner
for our clients,
said Bob
Goodfellow, Senior
Vice President.
Aldea offers
National and International
expertise in management of and
delivery of underground projects
of all types, including planning,
design, construction, and risk
management.
NATJ_0612_INSERT_p23.qxd:Feature
11/6/12
22:01
Page 23
Visit Us at NAT, Booth #307

and Enter to Win a New iPad!
Chicago, IL TARP
Columbus, OH, Wet Weather Program
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WMATA
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Delta Conveyance Program, CA
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Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel

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Delhi metro
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TUNNEL DESIGN GEOTECHNICAL RISK MANAGEMENT

rgoodfellow@aldeaservices.com | +1 (301) 355 9703 | www.aldeaservices.com

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The international journal for the tunnelling industry

TUNNELLING JOURNAL JUNE/JULY 2012

THE SPARVO TUNNEL

THE FUTURE OF SEGMENTAL LININGS

MAN VERSUS NATURE

Design challenges for SFR segmental

Synthetic fibres the viable

Waterproofing SCL tunnels

The TJ Linkedin Group drill & blast

TBM probe drilling and pre-grouting

Validating Rock Mass Strength

The future of pre-cast segments

12-06-13_159_ID186_eAz_VSM Seattle_Tunnelling Journal NA_210x297mm_4c_oc_Version A/Fassung 03

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But what about the soft side of

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Entrustment Agreement signed

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Japanese tunnellers bodies

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on developing skills on interfacing,

Bank Station shortlist

NEWS FROM THE WEB

the new Innovative Contractor Engagement

Arup wins Chile Metro work

25 TBMs for Delhi Metro

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The Bank and Monument Tube station

Ferrovial Agroman wins

Dr Bassett, a world-renowned expert in the

Year long delay for

Monitoring training courses

same EU directives to a significant extent,

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the

HS2 awards design contracts

To complete your whole.

SUBWAY (C LINE), ROME, ITALIA

Products used: MAPEQUICK CBS SYSTEM, MAPEBLOX T,

ANYONE WHO HAS DRIVEN in Italy knows

Bologna and Florence. It is in the Appenines,

The central ring of the cutterhead

Existing A1 autostrada has a more

Val di Sambro tunnel done

Tunnel cross section and (bottom) the

The circular tunnel shape is backfilled to

spoil removal system to vent any entering gas

The piled wall in the loose weathered debris

Galleria Sparvo/ Ital

CLEVER CONVEYING. SPARVO, ITALY.

Support for the worlds largest EPB shield.

The naked facts:

H+E Logistik GmbH

Grey sandstone with silt

Limestone breccia in clayey matrix

Clay, Sandstone, Limestone mixture

Limestone and marl with clay intercalations (inclusions)

transport arrangements of its own on multi

"We have to check the spoil quality here