International Conference and Exhibition on Trenchless Technology and Tunneling, 7th 9th March 2006, Hotel Sheraton Subang,

, Subang Jaya, Malaysia.

EARTH RETAINING SYSTEMS FOR THE SHAFT EXCAVATION OF SMART TUNNEL

Siow Meng, TAN; Chee Siong, LIM and Toong Woh, CHANG. SSP Geotechnics Sdn Bhd (sspg@sspsb.com.my)
ABSTRACT

This paper presents the temporary earth retaining systems used for the lateral support of deep shaft excavations for the SMART tunnel. The tunnel has a total of six shafts, one each at both ends of tunnel for TBM retrieval, and two shafts, namely North and South Junction Boxes, at the interface of cut and cover road tunnel merging into the main TBM tunnel, one 150m long shaft for TBM launching and one ventilation shaft. The deepest excavation was about 27m. This paper presents four shafts where excavation have reached the final level. The two shafts at both ends of the tunnel will not be covered as they are currently being constructed. The entire length of the SMART tunnel is in Kuala Lumpur Limestone formation which is famous for its high variation in limestone level and karstic features. In view of this, the retaining systems proposed should be highly flexible, robust and safe to cater for large variation in limestone level that could only be fully revealed during construction. This would minimise idling time and design amendment. The two main types of retaining wall adopted were cantilever RC wall and bored pile wall. The former was for location where rock level was not more than 6m deep. Else where, bored pile wall, either contiguous or secant, tied back by ground anchorages was adopted. Probing to determine the rock depth variation along the wall lines was performed using a steel beam before construction. This was useful to forewarn the need of design adjustment. Although certain variation in rock depth was anticipated, surprises were still encountered as the rock depth was revealed during construction. This paper presents the design concept of the retaining systems, the problems encountered during the implementation of the retaining systems for the four shafts, the experience learnt and the performance of the retaining wall.

INTRODUCTION

The proposed Stormwater Management And Road Transport (SMART) tunnel project aims to address the flooding problem as well as traffic congestion problem at Kuala Lumpur. A special report of the project was covered by T&TI (2004). The project consists of a 10km long, 11.8m internal diameter tunnel formed by two tunnel boring machines spanning across the eastern side of Kuala Lumpur in northsouth direction. The main tunnel alignment is superimposed on the Kuala Lumpur street map as shown in Figure 1. The excavation of four shafts out of a total of six have been completed. They are NJB and SJB (North and South Junction Boxes), NVS and SVS (North and South Ventilation Shafts). The depth of excavation was about 27m.

NJB NVS SVS SJB

Figure 1 SMART Tunnel Alignment and Site Location Plan

SITE TOPOGRAPHY AND SUBSOIL CONDITIONS

As shown in Figure 2, the alignment of the SMART tunnel is in Kuala Lumpur limestone formation which is well known for its highly erratic karstic features. Detailed description on geology of the site, features of the limestone and its engineering properties are presented in another paper by the first author for the same conference.
QUARTZITE & PHYLITE

SMART

LIMESTONE

NJB NVS SVS SJB

DESIGN CONCEPT

In the selection and design of the retaining systems, it was aimed to be highly flexible, safety and robust to cater for the large variation in limestone depth which would only be fully revealed during construction. It was hoped that idling time and design adjustment would be minimum.

GRANITE

Figure 2 Geological map (GSM, 1995)

During the design development stage, few options, namely diaphragm wall, secant bored pile wall, contiguous bored pile wall, sheet pile wall, cantilever RC wall and open cut were studied. Although it is the most economical temporary work solution, open cut

slope was ruled out due to the uneven rock profile making it impractical in construction planning. Further, there was space constraint. Diaphragm wall was not adopted as it is not cost effective and difficult to key into rock unless special method like toe pin is used. For the case where the excavation is deeper than the rock profile, the inability of the wall to key into rock will pose instability when the toe exposed. Furthermore, there is the risk of soil loss at the interface of the rock and overburden soil since diaphragm wall has difficulty to penetrate into rock to form a good cut-off. Sheet pile wall has been successfully used in deep excavation in Kuala Lumpur Limestone according to Chua et al. (1992). The sheet pile wall was driven to stop in overburden soil. The toe of the wall was stabilized by toe pin formed of H-piles installed in bored holes. This method should be economical provided the sheet pile and the Hpiles can be retrieved after the completion of the work. However, to enhance stability, bored hole for H-pile should be grouted. Furthermore, when the overburden soil thickness is deep, say more than 20m, large sheet pile sections that are not common should be used. It will be less cost effective. Bored pile wall, either contiguous or secant, is effective to deal with erratic rock profile. Bored piles are able to key in sufficient depth into rock. Although secant pile wall offers better watertightness to prevent ground loss, it was not attractive in the beginning due to very few contractors are available in Malaysia. Reinforced concrete (RC) wall is the most cost effective when rock level is not more than 6m deep and there is space to form the temporary cut for wall construction. For deeper rock level, contiguous bored pile Figure 3 Typical RC wall details (CBP) wall, tied back by ground anchorages was adopted. There were different designs for the RC and CBP walls for various rock depth, so is the ground anchor tie back. The standard details of the RC wall and CBP are shown in Figure 3 and 4.

Figure 4 Typical CBP wall and gap sealing details

Single size 800mm diameter bored piles at 850mm spacing were adopted. As contiguous bored piles are not overlapped, there are gaps between bored piles. The gaps are prone to water seeping and losing of soil material. Cement bentonite piles in two arrangements (Type A and Type B, Figure 4) were proposed to seal the gap. Cement bentonite piles shall be installed prior to the installation of bored piles so that better watertightness can be achieved. The design ground water table immediately behind wall was assumed would drop to 1/3 of the overburden soil thickness or excavation height measured from ground level, whichever is lesser, during each stage excavation. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to prevent water seeping via anchor holes as well as from the well jointed rock cut below the wall. The potential problem for dewatering is forming of sinkholes and ground subsidence.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SHAFTS

This section describes the implementation of the retaining system for the shafts, the experience learnt, and the performance of the retaining system.

NORTH VENTILATION SHAFT (NVS)

NVS is strategically located at the mid way of the SMART tunnel. NVS consists of two shafts, South TBM Drive shaft and North Drive shaft. It will serve as a temporary launching shaft for the north and south TBM drive and a ventilation shaft for permanent usage. The shaft is the pioneer work for the temporary retaining system of the SMART project. The layout of the temporary retaining wall for the shaft is shown in Figure 5. Figure 6 shows the subsoil profile from the boreholes where locations are indicated in Figure 5. From the borehole, the anticipated rock profile is not erratic and the thickness of the overburden soil ranges from 1.5m to 7.6m. The overburden soil mainly consists of sandy silty soil with some clay. As such, the CBP wall was designed based on the overburden thickness of maximum 15m.

Deep Depression Zone

RC Wall CBP Wall

Original CBP wall Relocated CBP wall

Deep Depression Zone

Tunnel

To establish the wall type to be used, probing Figure 5 Layout plan of NVS using 10m long universal steel beam was carried out along the wall. Deep depression of rock profile was detected at the NorthEast corner of the North Drive Shaft, and South-East corner and West side of the South

Drive Shaft. It was decided that CBP wall to be used for the shafts and RC wall to be used for the cut and cover stretch between the shafts. Figure 7 shows the as-built length of the bored piles. The rock is erratic which was not detected from the boreholes. The thickest overburden is about 34m, located at the west side of the South Drive Shaft. The rock level is about 20m at the North-East corner of the North Drive Shaft and South-East corner of South Drive Shaft.

Figure 6 Subsoil profile from borehole logs

A deep depression zone at the South Drive Shaft exists based on the as-built length of bored piles. This zone will intersect with the south wall of the shaft and long pile length is anticipated at this wall. To avoid encroachment of the pile toe into the tunnel crown, the wall has to be relocated to location shown in Figure 5. This decision was made after few original bored piles at the wall have been installed.
South Drive, Tunnel Crown

South Drive Shaft

North Drive Shaft

South Drive, West Wall

Figure 7 As-built retaining wall for NVS

The bored piles have to be re-designed due to the erratic rock profile. The design length of the piles was extended to cater for the overburden soil thickness of 34m for an excavation depth of 27m. Due to the constraint on pile size, two layers of bored piles were adopted at the deepest rock depression, at the West side of South Drive Shaft. The wall was tied back by nine layers of ground anchors. The CBP wall has to be tied back by anchors in the standard design. However, at the North-East of North Drive shaft, a second deep depression zone was detected which has unfavorable rock dipping down behind the wall. Long anchor length is anticipated. As such, internal corner strutting using universal steel beams was designed for this corner. The wall was braced by 5 layers of strut (Figure 8).

During the excavation, ground water seeped through the contiguous bored piles and the limestone. Water flow through the soil/rock interface and concentrated at the limestone depressions. The amount of water from one discharge point, which is at the North-East corner of North Drive Shaft, was estimated about 200 litre per minute (see Figure 9). With this amount of water flow, concern on the ground subsidence arised. Obviously, the gap sealing using cement-bentonite pile was not effective to reduce the water flow through the gap between bored piles. After some trial and error, fast set chemical grouting was successfully used to reduce the volume of the seeping water from the gaps. Some water springs were found seeping from the joints of limestone and inter-connected solution channels. To mitigate ground water loss, rock fissure grouting and cavity grouting were performed along the retaining wall facing Jalan Cheras road. Holes were drilled at certain spacing. When cavities were encountered, cement mortar or concrete will be pumped down to fill up the cavity. The drilling continued until reaching required depth which is 3m to 5m below the final excavation level. During drilling, if the loss of water from the limestone was significant, cement grout was carried out by descending stages. Packers are used to seal the hole at each grouting stage so that pressure can be built up to enable grout to permeate into the rock fissures or joints. The hole was then re-drilled and the grouting process was repeated until the required depth was reached. The spacing of the grout hole was adjusted based on the intake of the grout and where the rock is fracture.

Tunnel Crown

Figure 8 Corner strut at North-East Corner of North Drive Shaft

Figure 9 Spring of seeping water from CBP wall

Figure 10 Exposed fracture rock boulder

Most of the rock encountered was sound rock mass except at the deep depression zones where rock was heavily jointed (Figure 10). The rock cut was stabilised by rock bolts. The application of the rock bolts was assessed based on the dipping and join direction. All rock cuts were covered by shotcrete. In brief, the experiences learnt from this pioneer shaft are as follows: Limestone rock profile is difficult to predict from limited numbers of boreholes along the wall line. Probing is helpful to predetermine the rock level. When contiguous bored pile is adopted for deep excavation in limestone, a suitable gap sealing method is importance to minimise groundwater seepage through the wall. Bracing system and retaining system should be flexible such that they can be adjusted when significant rock depth variation is encountered. Limestone at deep depressions is the weakest points which are prone to seepage of ground water and subsequently cause ground subsidence or sinkholes. Rock fissure grouting and cavity grouting to sufficient depth should be applied prior to a deep excavation to minimize loss of groundwater.
CBP Wall

NORTH JUNCTION BOX (NJB)

N TBM Tunnel Toward North

NJB was the second shaft constructed. NJB is where the TBM tunnel merges with the tunnels for traffic and ingress-egress constructed by cut and cover method. With the experience learnt from NVS, few preventive actions were taken in the the temporary retaining system as follows: Detection of the rock profile by probing using a steel beam. Figure 11 shows the layout of the temporary retaining wall after probing. CBP wall was adopted at locations where deep limestone depressions were detected. Rock fissure grouting and cavity grouting were performed at the deep depression zone prior to excavation. This serve to form a cut-off to minimise seepage through the rock joints. High pressure jet grouting columns

RC Wall To NIE

CBP Wall CBP Wall

TBM Tunnel From South

Figure 11 Layout plan of temporary retaining wall for NJB

were used to seal the gaps between contiguous bored piles (see Figure 12). With the above precautious measures, the implementation of the retaining wall system was a lot more satisfactory than the NVS. Some pile toes were hanging above the rock mass as pile termination was misled by the material encountered at the toe. Such pile toes were strengthened by reinforced concrete mass (see Figures 13 & 14).
900mm diameter jet grouting piles CBP Piles

Figure 12 Typical gap sealing details with jet grouting piles

Figure 13 Exposed pile toe

Figure 14 Concrete mass to cover pile toe

Main Tunnel

SOUTH VENTILATION SHAFT (SVS)

SVS is the smallest shaft amongst the four. It is 28m x 42m in rectangular shape (see Figure 15). Even though the shaft is small, a 16m deep depression was found at the south-west side of the shaft. Other than that, the rock level is shallower than 4m deep. The contractor proposed a modified secant pile wall for the depression zone. The piles were 900mm diameter and spaced at 850mm. The piles were overlapped by 50mm so that there is no gap in between the piles. This eliminates the needs of using jet grouting columns to seal the gap.

RC Wall SVS Bored Pile Wall

Figure 15 Site plan of SVS

SOUTH JUNCTION BOX (SJB)

Similar to NJB, SJB is a merging shaft at the south at the existing Kuala Lumpur Seremban Highway. The layout plan of the shaft is shown in Figure 16. Modified secant pile wall was used for the three sides of the shaft whereas RC wall was adopted for another side. At the West side of the shaft, bored pile wall cut through the embankment slope of an existing road bridge. One stretch of the bored pile wall was running parallel to the wing wall of the bridge at a distance of about 8m. As such, ground anchors can not be used to tie the wall as they will hit the wing wall.

Wing Wall TBM Tunnel

Existing Road Bridge

RC Wall

Bored Pile Wall tied back by soil nails

To South Ingress / Egress

The use of corner strutting was Figure 16 Site plan of SJB assessed. However, it was rejected due to the unfavorable geometry of the shaft at the corner. Soil nails were finally adopted. They were arranged in five layers. The nails were 6m long and 150mm diameter. The estimated maximum soil retaining height H was 9m. The ratio of nail length to the H is 0.67. Figure 17 shows the cross section of the soil nailed bored pile wall. Commercial finite element software, namely PLAXIS, was used to analyze the behavior of the wall. Plane strain effective stress analysis with MohrCoulomb soil model was adopted. The bored pile wall was modeled based on Mindlins beam theory. From the analysis, the estimated working load of the nails was 45kN.

Figure 17 Typical cross section of soil nailed bored pile wall

Three pull out tests were performed on a preliminary soil nail and two working nails. The preliminary nail was tested to a maximum load of 135kN which is three times the nail working load. The maximum displacement recorded was 4.4mm at the peak test load. Two other tests were performed on the working nails to the maximum test load of 2 times the nail working load. Tested nails were acceptable. Figure 18 shows the condition of the soil nailed wall during excavation.

Figure 18 Soil nailed bored pile wall

CONCLUSIONS

The temporary retaining system for the shaft excavation was presented. From the experience learnt from the implementation and design of the retaining wall system, the followings are recommended: Limestone rock profile is difficult to predict from limited numbers of boreholes. Probing should be carried out along the wall to predetermine the rock level. Even in the smallest shaft of 28m x 42m, a deep depression of 16m was encountered while the general rock profile was less than 4m. Contiguous bored pile wall and modified secant pile wall can be successful retaining wall for deep excavations in limestone. The adoption of suitable gap sealing method is important for contiguous bored pile wall. Jet grouting columns are recommended. Bored piles can be overlapped instead of gap sealing with jet grouting. The bracing system for the retaining system should be reviewed after the installation of bored piles. This is important to achieve economical design and to suit the local site constraint. The retaining wall was braced by ground anchors in standard. Corner strutting and soil nails were used to retain the wall at localized area. Deep depression zones in limestone are weak points which are prone to seepage of ground water. Rock fissure grouting and cavity grouting for the jointed rock and cavities should be implemented prior to a deep excavation to prevent excessive loss of groundwater.

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REFERENCES

Chua T. S., Liang K. M., V. Ganeshan and Chong, T. S. (1992), A Deep Excavation Work in Kuala Lumpur Limestone, 2nd International Conference on Deep Foundation Practice incorporating PILETALK, Singapore, November, pp. 63 - 72. T&T International, Smart Solution to Kuala Lumpurs Flooding, May 2004, pg 16 pg 19.

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