TJ (June-July 17)

Tunnelling
www.tunnellingjournal.com June/July 2017
The international journal for the tunnelling industry

journal
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WORLD HONG KONG MONITOR

NEWS SCL REVIEW PROGRESS
HIGHLIGHTS FROM TJ LOOKS AT THE A ROUND UP OF
THE TJ WEBSITE’S CONSTRUCTION ALL THAT’S NEW
DAILY NEWS OF THE HONG IN THE FIELD OF
SERVICE KONG MTR’S SCL TUNNEL
PROJECT MONITORING
INNOVATION -
WHAT DOES
IT MEAN?
SMART SEGMENT
TESTING IN HONG KONG
MATERIALS DESIGN FOR
LININGS
Conquering
Connecting Norway by rail: 5 Herrenknecht
Hard Rock TBMs are on the move for 45 km
of new first-class rail tubes at the New
Ulrikentunnel and Follo Line projects.
Toughest
Biting its way through the Scandinavian stone,
the TBMs are facing the absolute hardness test
when dealing with up to 350 MPa rock strengths.
Equipped with excavation tools for such a
demanding mission, the Herrenknecht TBMs
will complete all their tasks.
Hard Rock
Massive geologies call for experi-
enced partners. Herrenknecht
is making headway through hard
rock – for over 822 km.
Contractors:
Follo Line: Acciona Infraestructuras and Ghella ANS
Ulrikentunnel: Skanska Strabag Ulriken ANS
Pioneering Underground Technologies
www.herrenknecht.com
contentS
5 Editor’s comment
6 Snapshots of
www.tunnellingjournal.com news
8 Innovation - distinguishing leaders from

followers?
Clients and their advisors want their supply
chains to bring innovative ideas to major
projects and programmes. But is that the
right place to be trying to innovate, asks TJ
14 The Shatin to Central Link success so far

Tom Barrett, Construction Manager with MTR
Corporation, and KL Lee, Dragages -
Bouygues JV Project Director, describe the
Shatin to Central Link Project focusing on the
new technology adopted
23 Monitoring Progress
Better ways of collecting and using data
on tunnelling projects are fast-forwarding
problem solving and decision making.
Though we’re still at the bottom of a
Top: One of two steep learning curve, some are already
Terratec EPBMs
that are to be
reaping the benefits
delivered to
Bangkok (p6)
30 Testing smart segments in Hong Kong
TJ looks at an innovative instrumentation
scheme implemented that evaluates the
Above:
Innovation in load distribution in segments during
practice (p8) erection and tunnelling and compares
design assumptions obtained by numerical
Right: Hong simulations.
Kong’s Shatin to
Central Link
Project (p14)
38 Materials design for tunnel lining
Dr Benoit Jones of Inbye Engineering looks
at materials design for tunnel linings.
Above right:
Monitoring in
action as used
on the
43 DABs – a preferred mechanism for
tunnelling projects?
TJ looks at why Dispute Adjudication
Bucharest Metro
(p23) Boards could be the preferred dispute
settlement mechanism for the
underground construction industry
Left: Setting up
a smart
segment as
trialled on the
47 Life-cycle assessments of rock bolts
Taking the example of rock bolts, this
article seeks to demonstrate the value of
Liantang Lung the life-cycle assessment method in a
Shan Highway
broader approach.
Tunnels in Hong
Kong (p30)
50 Contacts
TUNNELLING JOURNAL 3
editorScomment
More than just
a good idea?
OK, I admit it, I’m confused - whilst a really clever one earns the
again. It’s this word ‘innovation’ term ‘innovation’!
that’s causing my brain freeze. The Personally I’m leaning towards
root of my confusion is in trying to this view, and that to be classed an
distinguish between ‘innovation’ innovation, it really does have to be
and ‘a good idea’. verging on a game-changer of an
If nobody had ever had a good idea/process/product. What
idea, we’d have become extinct Transport for London (TfL) did
about 67 million year after the during the procurement of Bank
dinosaurs. Nobody ever said, “don’t Station is getting there for my
worry about it, this square wheel’s money. What they asked of the JV’s
fine,” somebody just realized a bidding for the work was a solution
round one worked better. Is that to its problem. What TfL wanted
innovation – or just a good idea from the end use of the asset –
born of an instinct to survive/thrive? Bank Station - was presented to the
As they say ‘Necessity is the JV’s, and they were told to work
mother of invention’ and some back from those requirements. They
humans just naturally seem to find just had to make sure their design
solutions easier than others. Maybe solved all the problems. Now that’s
that sums up why one person will innovative procurement that openly
become an engineer, and another encourages innovative design.
may become a banker. The engineer Personally, I like the more
will, by his or her very DNA, have a simplistic description by the robotics
natural leaning towards problem engineer, Joseph F. Engelberger,
solving through the use and who approaches the whole question
assimilation of learned knowledge,
experience, and lateral thinking. It’s
almost what drives an engineer -
why be one if you don’t want to
from a different angle, believing
that innovations require only three
things: 1) A recognized need, 2)
Competent people with relevant
‘ Maybe all
engineers have
at least some
solve problems? The banker will technology, and 3) Financial
more likely be driven by the need
for materialistic possessions.
support.
Now that puts me in mind of a
right to call
Maybe all engineers have at least certain gentleman in Los Angeles, themselves
some right to call themselves who’s truly innovative mind has very
innovators, just by their very nature? recently lead him straight to the innovators, just
According to that golden chalice door of the tunnelling world – and
of internet sourced, ever reliable who knows what he will come up by their very
information, Wikipedia, ‘Innovation’
is defined: as a "new idea, device or
method". However, innovation is
often also viewed as the application
with. More than just a good idea
I’m sure. He is after all, an engineer.
I’m going to sign off not with an
innovation, it’s not even a good
nature?
’
of better solutions that meet new idea, just a bit of common sense.
requirements, unarticulated needs, Can the two biggest tunnelling
or existing market needs. This is events in the world please have a
accomplished through more- chat with each other well in
effective products, processes, advance just to make sure they are
services, technologies, or business NOT held a week apart on different
models that are readily available to continents? Thanks in advance, it
markets, governments and society.” would be very much appreciated by
So, is innovation simply a more all of us!
laterally thought out ‘good idea’?
Are there levels of good ideas? A
simple one is just a ‘good idea’, Tris Thomas
NEWS FROM THE WEB www.tunnellingjournal.com - breaking industry news first!
built under the BMA’s long-term plan to

manage the severe flash floods that
currently plague the Thai capital during the
rainy season.
Shieldhall Tunnel reaches

half-way
May 3, 2017
Scottish Water’s 5km long Shieldhall Tunnel,
in the south of Glasgow, passed a
significant milestone yesterday when the
Herrenknecht TBM being driven by
contractor – the Glasgow Tunnel
Partnership, a joint venture of Costain and
VINCI Construction Grands Projets –
reached the half way point under Pollok
Park.
The £100M, 4.7m diameter tunnel will
The Dariali Hydropower Project in the Republic of Georgia is commissioned enable Scottish Water to improve water
quality in the River Clyde and tackle
TBM helps world’s first Baugesellschaft m.b.H., Società Italiana flooding. Tunnelling started last July and is
carbon neutral power plant per Condotte d’Acqua S.p.A., Itinera expected to complete later this year.
to complete S.p.A. Paul Kerr, Scottish Water’s capital
May 17, 2017 So far 61km of tunnel have been driven, investment general manager, said: “We are
In April 2017, a ceremony was held to celebrate which is about a quarter of the total volume delighted to have reached this milestone
the commissioning of the Dariali Hydropower of excavations required. half-way stage in the tunnel construction.
Project in the Republic of Georgia. The event The Brenner Tunnel has an overall cost of “The Shieldhall Tunnel team includes
marked the completion of the first carbon-neutral €8.8bn, 40% of which is funded by the EU some of the best and most experienced
hydropower project in the world. and the remaining 60% by funds made tunnellers in the world and they are making
TBM manufacturer, Robbins invested in the available by Italy and Austria (with Italy great progress with what is the biggest
project by gaining equity through supplying providing €2.65bn). project of its type Scottish Water has ever
tunnelling equipment and services in consortium undertaken.”
with contractor Peri. “Robbins understood the
risk in the tunnelling portion of the project and Normet to form JV in China
we were compensated for taking on part of the April 28, 2017
risk. Peri is a long-time customer, as we supplied a The Normet Group and JCHX Mining
TBM to them 15 years ago for a small project in Management Co Ltd have signed an
Georgia. It was great to be invited to invest and agreement to form a joint venture to
risk share on this project, and to work together manufacture and sell underground mining
again,” said Robbins President Lok Home. The equipment in the Chinese market.
5km long headrace tunnel for the power station The joint venture will initially focus on
was bored with the use of a 5.5m diameter manufacturing and sales of multipurpose
Robbins Main Beam TBM starting in February mining vehicles and related accessories in
2012. the Chinese mining market. This is an
important milestone in plans to expand in
Bids in for huge Brenner Terratec to deliver two 5.7m diameter the growing Chinese mining market.
contract EPBMs to Bangkok, Thailand The joint venture company will be
May 17, 2017 established to Daye, Hubei Province in
Five bids have been tendered for the largest Double EPBM delivery to China.
construction lot for the Brenner Base Bangkok “With this joint venture we aim together
Tunnel, Pfons-Brenner. The construction lot May 3, 2017 with our partner to provide state of the art
includes the excavation of the main tunnels In April 2017, TERRATEC celebrated the mechanized mining equipment which will
between Pfons and Brenner, about 9km of successful Factory Acceptance Tests of two improve productivity, safety and efficiency
exploratory tunnel and the emergency stop new 5.7m diameter tight radius EPBMs for our Chinese customers. This joint
and the cross-over at St. Jodok. In total, destined for the Bueng Nong Bon to Chao venture agreement is in line with Normet
about 50km of tunnel will be driven. The Phraya River Diversion Tunnel Project, in strategy to develop even stronger foothold
tenderers are: Bangkok, Thailand. in China and with an experienced industrial
• Impresa Pizzarotti & C. S.P.A., Implenia The ceremonies were attended by partner like JCHX this will happen faster,”
Österreich GmbH, Metrostav a.s., BeMo representatives of the Bangkok said Robin Lindahl. President and CEO of
Tunnelling GmbH Metropolitan Administration (BMA) and Normet Group.
• Strabag AG, Salini Impregilo Thai contractor Sino-Thai Engineering &
• Acciona Construcción, S.A., Impresa Construction Public Company Limited AECOM awarded Stonehenge
Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti – (STECON). technical support contract
C.M.C. di Ravenna Società Cooperativa Located in the south-east of Bangkok, the April 13, 2017
• Astaldi S.p.A., Ghella S.p.A., Oberosler 9.2km long Bueng Nong Bon to Chao Highways England has appointed AECOM
Cav. Pietro S.r.l., P.A.C. S.p.A. Phraya River Diversion Project is the third of to provide technical support in the
• Porr Bau GmbH, G. Hinteregger & Söhne four major flood prevention tunnels to be detailed design and planning application
6 TUNNELLING JOURNAL
www.tunnellingjournal.com - breaking industry news first! NEWS FROM THE WEB
process for the UK’s A303 Stonehenge Melbourne Metro bids Cross Yarra Partnership – comprising
scheme. AECOM will be Highways received Lendlease Engineering, John Holland,
England’s Technical Partner for the April 9, 2017 Bouygues Construction and Capella Capital
project, which includes proposals for a The final bids for the A$6bn Melbourne Moving Melbourne Together – comprising
2.9km long tunnel near Stonehenge. Metro Tunnel and Stations Public Private Pacific Partnerships, CPB Contractors, Ghella,
In its £15bn five-year Road Investment Partnership (PPP) have been received, and are Salini Impregilo, Serco and Macquarie Capital
Strategy – the biggest in a generation – being assessed by the Melbourne Metro Rail Their proposals include more than 100,000
the UK Government has pledged to Authority. The bids are from three shortlisted pages of detailed plans to build the nine-
upgrade the A303 corridor into a high consortia that include some of the biggest kilometre Metro Tunnel and five new
quality, high performing route. construction firms in Australia and around underground stations at Arden, Parkville,
The aim is to provide an enhanced link the world. They are: CBD North, CBD South and Domain.
between the M3 in the South East and Continuum Victoria – comprising At the same time, early works on the
the M5 in the South West, improving ACCIONA Infrastructure, Ferrovial Agroman, $10.9 billion mega-project have received
journeys for millions of people, and Honeywell, Downer EDI and Plenary formal planning approval, and will ramp up
additional schemes in the first road Origination over the coming months.
investment period include dualling the
A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester
and the A358 between Taunton and
Southfields.
As part of the investment, a £1.4bn
project has been proposed to improve the
single carriageway section of the A303 at
Stonehenge, and to assist in further
developing and delivering the scheme,
Highways England has awarded the
Technical Partner contract to AECOM, in
partnership with Mouchel and MACE.
The Technical Partner will be required to
develop the preliminary design for the
scheme, manage and lead on the
Development Consent Order application
for the scheme, and provide technical
assurance of the detailed design and
construction.
The eight-year contract, valued
between £40 and £50 million, has been
awarded under an open tender
competition.
Lower Thames Crossing

route chosen
April 13, 2017
The UK’s Secretary of State for Transport
has announced the preferred route for the
£4.4bn – £6.2bn Lower Thames Crossing,
a 3.2km long bored tunnel crossing under
the River Thames east of Gravesend and
Tilbury.
This announcement follows an
exhaustive review of options and extensive
analysis of more than 47,000 responses to
our 2016 public consultation.
The preferred route announcement
paves the way for the next stage of
development which will be to progress the
design and assessment of the preferred
route in more detail, as well as carry out
environmental surveys, more detailed air
quality and noise impact assessments,
further traffic modelling, and various
design challenges around, for example,
the junctions.
The new crossing will offer the improved
journeys, new connections, network
reliability and economic benefits that only
a new, alternative crossing location, away
from Dartford, can provide.
R&D
SHIFT
INNOVATION
TRIALS
MAJOR PROJECTS
IDEAS
RISK
PROCUREMENT
INNOVATION
R&D
COLLABORATION
MAJOR PROJECTS
FUNDING
CULTURE
INNOVATION RISK
INNOVATION –
distinguishing leaders
from followers?
Clients and their BACK IN 2012, a lot of time and effort was complicated for the project,” explains Mike
spent investigating how energy could be Moseley, who at the time worked for Rehau
advisors want their harvested from Crossrail’s 42km of tunnels and now, as construction lead for the
supply chains to bring which would run under central London. Heat Knowledge Transfer Network, plays a pivotal
created in the tunnels would be used to heat role in UK innovation platform i3P – of which,
innovative ideas to homes and businesses in the winter, and in more later.
the summer the tunnels would be cooled by The main reason this idea never made it off
major projects and using the surrounding ground as a heat sink. the starting blocks was timing. The tunnelling
programmes. But is It wasn’t a new idea. Rehau’s Tunnel Energy contracts had been let in 2010, and to create
Lining concept, where pipes are cast into and install modified segments would have
that the right place to tunnel segments, had already been trialled in required changes – and created more risk.
be trying to innovate, Germany and Austria. But it wasn’t right for The received wisdom has always been that
Crossrail. major projects are risky enough without
asks Kristina Smith. “It was a bit too late and a bit too adding to them with ‘innovations’. Indeed, a
INNOVATION
report by the Institute for Government on resource into R&D and even has its own challenges stemmed from the fact that
London’s 2012 Olympics, ‘Making the Games, laboratory. One of its latest inventions is self- innovation requires resources which can’t just
What Government can learn from London healing sprayed concrete, coming to a major be whisked up from nowhere when project
2012’ concluded that one of the big lessons project in London very soon. teams are delivering challenging, multi-million
for publicly-funded major projects was ‘Limit “To do R&D in infrastructure, you have to pound jobs.
Innovation’. John Armitt, who was chairman of spend a lot of money,” says Eddie, who has What Innovate18 did do was to create some
the Olympic Delivery Authority, is quoted as been Visiting Professor of Innovation & momentum, continuity and awareness. Last
saying: Tunnelling at Warwick University since 2015. year Innovate 18 morphed into i3P, the
“We on occasions resisted anything which “It’s not the sort of thing you can do for a few Infrastructure Industry Innovation Platform. The
was going to be too technically clever because thousand pounds. To invent a new type of UK’s Tideway project and others were looking
we couldn’t take the risks…It might sound dull concrete material costs hundreds of thousands to copy what Crossrail had done; they decided
being second but it’s often better.” of pounds.” that banding together and potentially working
Yet now clients are demanding innovation Eddie has pulled together a partnership of on innovations collectively was a more valuable
from their supply chains. Andrew 10 industry organisations to pursue some other approach.
Wolstenholme, who became Crossrail chief ideas which could potentially transform the Andy Mitchell, CEO of Tideway, is chair of
executive in 2011, introduced an innovation underground industry (see box p10). Called the i3P. Its 22 members include several clients
programme called Innovate18, partly in Innovative Technologies for Underground including Crossrail, the Environment Agency,
response to the failed attempt to introduce Infrastructure (ITUI), the group has set up a Network Rail, Hinckley Point C, as well as the
Rehau’s technology. National Grid has a R&D programme with funding from its tier 1 contractors from Innovate 18 and
LinkedIn page devoted to the theme, members and from the UK Government. consultants Arup, Atkins and CH2M. The
‘Innovation at National Grid’. While Eddie seeks step changes, others Knowledge Transfer Network acts as the i3P
EDF Energy says that innovation is one of argue that small innovations as well as big secretariat.
five guiding principles for the new Hinkley ones are important for moving the industry “Having the ability to look at problems
Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, UK. forward. In a major project environment, across a number of projects will be where the
“Innovation will be a permanent
feature of Hinkley Point C – it is
a cultural feature and a strategic
choice on this project,” says EDF
Energy CEO Vincent de Rivaz in
a blog. “There will be many
other innovations to come.”
In Los Angeles, transport
authority Metro created an
Office of Extraordinary
Innovation in 2015. Other
authorities have followed suit:
Houston Metro set up its office
of innovation last year; expect
more soon.
In response some contractors A large scale innovation would be the Extruded Tunnel Lining Machine
are busy creating new roles:
head of innovation, chief
innovation office, innovation manager. Costain changes that don’t cost too much to develop, benefits of i3P will come from in the future,”
and Skanska were early to the party, setting up or require too many trials or iterations are the says Moseley. “We may have an idea which
their innovation roles in 2008 and 2011 easiest to implement. could be of interest to someone like Tideway
respectively. Others are catching up. BAM Small was definitely the order of the day for but that would provide marginal benefit. If that
Nuttall appointed its first head of innovation in Crossrail’s Innovate18 programme. The idea could be shared across two or three other
May last year, and J Murphy & Sons in April this £14.8billion project invested £550,000 in organisations, then it would become viable.”
year. innovations or 0.003 percent of the project Currently the funding is via membership and
cost. Over 1,000 innovations were submitted should equate to around £0.75M to spend
What is innovation? to Innovate18 of which 400 were accepted, over the next three years. “It’s not a huge
If press releases are to be believed, innovation and 100 used on more than one project. amount but it’s enough to pump-prime a lot of
is everywhere. New products are ‘innovative’ Funding for Innovate18 came from the 16 little ideas,” says Moseley.
just because they’re new, a management re- tier 1 contractors who signed up to the For Tim Embley, group innovation &
organisation is an ‘innovative’ approach. One programme, who each agreed to commit knowledge manager for Costain, the joint
editor – not TJ’s - has banned the use of £25,000, with Crossrail matching those funds, approach of i3P represents a real step forward.
‘innovative’ in all news stories as he says it has which suggests that not all the available “From my perspective, I am delighted to see
been rendered meaningless. funding was deployed. Work by Imperial clients recognising the agenda and putting
For Colin Eddie, managing director of design College London, one of the academic effort behind it. What Andrew Wolstenholme
consultancy UnPS, innovation is about giant institutions which helped guide the did with respect to Innovate18 really unlocked
leaps forward. The man behind the programme, has suggested that the benefits the potential of the supply chain. Other clients
introduction of many new tunnelling from the innovations deployed range between looked at it and wanted to do the same.
technologies including steel fibre reinforced £3.5M and £5.4M. “Clients now recognise that through
concrete and laser measurement to control There were lots of challenges in trying to leadership they can encourage an environment
sprayed concrete lining thickness likes to think implement innovations on Crossrail, not least of collaboration between themselves, the
very big. the fact that the innovation programme started supply chain and create continuity across
UnPS puts a huge amount of money and four years into the project. Most of the contracts that delivers world-class assets.”
INNOVATION
Changing the (underground) world

Innovative Technologies for
Underground Infrastructure (ITUI)
is a partnership led by UnPS, part
1 Resilient tunnel
linings
This programme will investigate
3 Real time displacement
control using polymers
Expandable geopolymers,
offer a more efficient alternative
to compensation grouting. The
first ever trial took place in mid-
of the Morgan Sindall Group. Its advanced materials such as high- traditionally used for May on one of the UK’s Tideway
ambitions are not-at-all modest. performance fibre reinforced underpinning houses, potentially West sites
“We are looking for a paradigm composites and nano-engineered
shift in underground composites. It will look at using
infrastructure,” says Colin Eddie, these materials to develop
managing director of UnPS. extruded tunnel linings. The goal
The other partners in the group is to use thinner linings, which are
are Warwick University, where safer to install.
Eddie is Visiting Professor of
Innovation and Tunnelling,
National Grid, Force One, Brokk,
Tarmac, BASF, Uretek and MTC,
2 Disruptive
technologies
Working with MTC
the Manufacturing Technology (Manufacturing Technology
Centre at Coventry. Centre) in Coventry, researchers
With £25,000 of funding from the will look at alternative ways of
group and £85,000 from cutting through the ground such
Government body the as water jets, lasers, ultrasonics Trial looking
Engineering and Physical Sciences and plasma cutters. Combining at Real time
Research Council (ESPRC), ITUI has these methods with remote displacement
established PhDs which are controlled and robotic technology control using
looking to investigate some big promises reduced risk of accidents expansive grouts
ideas: and greater productivity.
Why innovate? For UnPS, the reasons are similar. “Many of

Having just presented some of Bouygues’ the things we have developed and that we
innovations for TBMs at last year’s British are looking at now are aimed at improving
Tunnelling Society Conference, someone safety,” says Eddie. “The only way you can
asked tunnel technical director Bruno Combe get to zero accidents is to eliminate the task
why Bouygues put so much money into R&D. all together or use a machine to do it.
For Combe the answer was obvious and Another big benefit is that it gives us
straight-forward: commercial advantage and helps us win
“We want to prosper in the tunnelling work.”
industry and our target is to have zero Part of UnPS’s commercial advantage comes
accidents on our sites. That’s the reason why from getting and keeping the right people on
we invest a lot.” the team, says Eddie: “We have a very
talented team that we need to keep
interested. Doing R&D is a way to attract and
retain good people. For a lot of my team, ATC JV of Alsto, TSO and Costain are
money is not the main motivation: they like using an automated drilling machine
being involved in big projects and R&D.” developed by Rowa, a world first
Around 40% of UnPS staff have Masters
qualifications and 5% have PhDs. wide tunnel fit out on Crossrail in joint venture
Persuading the Morgan Sindall Group with Alston and TSO, something that it
board to continue the investment in R&D is previously would never have attempted.
made easier by the UK Government’s R&D tax Wylie created the post of group innovation
credits scheme, which return some of a and knowledge manager and recruited
company’s corporation tax for genuine R&D Embley to it in 2008. Embley drew inspiration
activities. “The UK Government deserves from manufacturers such as BAE and Rolls
recognition for that,” says Eddie. “Tax credits Royce, concluding that R&D could not be a
are a real encouragement.” separate department but instead had to be
For Costain, an innovative spirit arrived with built into everyday activities.
CEO Andrew Wylie. He took the helm in late Costain looks to suck in ideas from
2005, as the contractor faced financial wherever it can, and has been busy sending
difficulties. employees, clients and suppliers on three day
Wylie’s strategy was to focus on fewer, ‘Innovation in Action’ courses in a bid to turn
bigger customers which meant broadening everyone into an innovator. Some ideas come
The Robotic arm used for disc cutter the services it offered to those customers and through research programmes - the company
changes on the Hong Kong’s Tuen finding new ways to do things. So today, for has links with 13 universities and has funded
Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link TBM example, Costain is carrying out a system- 14 PhDs since Embley arrived. Ideas are shared
INNOVATION
and developed within the business and with a firm that wants to do micro transit, similar Thames Water set up its eight2O Alliance in
partners through the Costain Innovation to Uber or Lyft but larger vehicles and priced 2013, after extensive discussions with its
Portal. below Uber and Lyft and take you point to supply chain. The Alliance, which will run for
Embley doesn’t believe that innovations point. These are the kinds of things we are 12 years, is charged with reducing spend by
have to be huge to be significant. One of the excited about.” 20% between 2015 and 2020 and helping to
most immediate ways to innovate is to share Though 3P may not seem such an meet customer service targets set by water
ideas across sectors, he says, often introducing extraordinary approach, Schank points out industry regulator Ofwat. Savings due to
clients who he thinks can cross-fertilize. But that LA Metro’s funding situation puts it in a efficiencies go into a Risk, Opportunity and
there is big stuff too such as the Rowa stronger position than most. In November Innovation fund which the Alliance can
automated drill rigs, developed to drill the 2016, LA’s citizens voted to continue choose to invest in new ideas which it believes
250,000-plus holes for services inside indefinitely with a half cent traffic relief tax will deliver further savings later.
Crossrail’s tunnel, improving both efficiency and add to that a half cent sales tax to fund Highways England has been using
and safety. transport improvements; a move known as frameworks for some time, the latest version
Measure M. being the Collaborative Delivery Framework
The Office of Extraordinary Innovation “Measure M funding in perpetuity means which it awarded in November 2014. The
Though it sounds like the name of a children’s we are in a better position to say ‘show us road authority has some ambitious goals for
fantasy movie, the Los Angeles Metro’s Office what you can do and come to us with your the framework: to reduce delivery time each
of Extraordinary Innovation(OEI) is not busy ideas’,” says Schank. “Many countries have year by half, then half again, by a quarter and
inventing hovering then by a further
walkways or quarter and to
teleporters. Its reduce cost by 4
function is two-fold: percent year-on-
strategic planning to year.
set Metro’s vision Thames Water’s
and goals for the alliance and
future and driving Highways England’s
partnerships with the framework are
private sector. founded on the fact
“Our problems TfL used the Innovative Contractor that there is a
here require Engagement (ICE) procurement programme of work
something a little approach at Bank Station ahead. Investment
extraordinary,” decisions are made
explains Metro’s chief today with the
innovation officer knowledge that they
Joshua Schank. “The traffic and the old infrastructure in need of repair and don’t can deliver value in the future, perhaps a few
congestion are the first or second issues on have identified funding streams to do it. It’s projects down the line. For one-off projects,
everybody’s mind. The transit system requires hard to get the private sector excited about run by a one-off organisation, the proposition
rapid improvement so it will take something taking on that risk. We have got a mandate is different.
extraordinary to deal with this scope of a from voters to build and repair our One idea for single projects comes from
problem.” infrastructure and the funding to do it.” Transport for London which is working on an
New CEO Phil Washington arrived in March Schank’s team of four is also charged with early contractor involvement approach, first
2015 and by October 2015, Schank – who changing the culture of its LA Metro applied on the Bank Station Upgrade (see TJ
formerly headed up think-tank the Eno Center colleagues. “Part of what we have been trying February/March 2014). Early is early – before
for Transportation in Washington -– was in to do is shift people’s mindset from identifying planning submissions – with the winning
the post. Washington came from Denver problems with the proposals towards figuring bidder having to look way beyond pricing a
where a 3P (public private partnership) deal out solutions for getting them implemented,” basic design to submitting ideas about how
had shaved a cool $300M of a transit says Schank. “If someone says ‘here’s this new the station’s performance and passenger
programme, by delivering the required service thing’, your instinct is to say ‘it won’t work’. experience can be improved in the long term.
on one track rather than two. Instead, let’s assume we want it to work.” None of these forms of procurement offer a
“It’s outcome-based procurement that we perfect environment for innovation yet. It’s
are pushing for, not only for major capital About procurement early days and we will see them develop as
projects but for new mobility opportunities,” LA Metro is not alone in thinking that new organisations themselves change the way they
says Schank. “At the moment we are almost forms of procurement are at the heart of any think and operate.
always looking at specifications, but we need innovation programme. Traditional forms of In the UK, there’s a feeling that a certain
to be looking at outcomes. That’s the shift procurement don’t, in general, encourage group of contractors and suppliers are pulling
that has to occur.” innovation. Even those that include a pain- ahead of the field. And when there’s plenty of
Metro has created an Unsolicited Proposal gain share mechanism only cover things that work around, the supply chain has more
Policy, encouraging companies to approach it impact on capital cost, not the cost in power to dictate the way that projects are
with ideas which must include – but are not operation or the service being delivered to the procured.
limited to – private sector funding. Since end user. Latecomers to the party will take a while to
February 2016, it has received 72 unsolicited Emerging forms of procurement aimed to catch up. “Innovation is a cultural change
proposals, 10 of those for major capital foster innovation are based around programme,” says Embley. “Companies are
projects for highways or transit. collaboration. This doesn’t refer to a general recognising that they can no longer nod and
“There are also things at the other end of spirit of co-operation but is more about say ‘yes, we do innovation’. There’s only so
the spectrum – small technology ideas that changing the way information flows, finding long you can say you are doing innovation
improve the lives of our commuters,” says the right means of incentivisation and goal- when you are not, before you lose market
Schank. “We are looking at a partnership with setting that addresses value to the end user. share.”
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PROJECT REPORT
The Shatin
Figure 1: Plan map of the entire
SCL project
success
Tom Barrett, Construction Manager with MTR
Corporation Limited, and KL Lee, Dragages -
Bouygues JV Project Director, give this
account of the Shatin to Central Link Project
focusing on the new technology adopted and
the challenges faced during construction
THE US$10.2BN Shatin to Central Link US$760M in Jan 2015, and finally the land which is under-laid by a layer of marine
(SCL) project, being built by the MTR US$53M Admiralty South Overrun Tunnel, deposit; beneath this is an alluvium layer
Corporation, involves the construction of under contract 1122, which was awarded which in turn overlays the Completely
17km of new underground railway as part to Vinci Construction Grands Projets in Oct Decomposed Granitic (CDG) formations and
of the strategic infrastructure development 2015. granite rock. The thickness of fill, marine
in Hong Kong. The new link is being Here we will focus on the complex works deposits and alluvium vary along the SCL
completed in two phases, namely the undertaken during the construction of the tunnels alignment.
11km Tai Wai to Hung Hom section, and first contract awarded, SCL1128 – the In total, on SCL1128, there are four, 6.5m
the 6km long Hung Hom to Admiralty South Ventilation Building to Admiralty i.d. rail tunnels to be constructed by TBM.
Section. Tunnels, which is using an array of The two eastern rail tunnels, at about 670m
The SCL is comprised of 60 Contracts in innovative tunnelling methodologies, in length, are stacked with the deeper Up
total, with 12 being major civil contracts. including the first use of Variable Density Track (UT) tunnel excavated through varied
Construction commenced in 2012 with the TBM technology in Hong Kong, in its geology with cover ranging from 20 to
Tai Wai to Hung Hom Section expected to completion. Due to the complexities 30m. The shallower Down Track (DT) tunnel
be in operation in 2019 and the Hung Hom SCL1128 was awarded under the Target is excavated with 6.5 to 10m of cover
to Admiralty Section expected to open in Cost form of contract. through the interface between the marine
2021. deposits and the fill material; as such old
Tunnel geology and layout seawalls, and junk dumped into the sea
Hung Hom to Admiralty The entire area is a low lying plain close to including WWII ordinance were unavoidable
The Hung Hom to Admiralty Section, has sea level made up of previously reclaimed increasing the risk significantly. The two
many complicated interfaces and issues to
contend with throughout its six-year
Figure 2: Plan of part of the Hung Hom to Admiralty section of SCL with the
construction. A dense urban environment,
SCL1128 TBM driven tunnels lying either side of the new Exhibition Station
limited space for construction, multiple
stakeholders and complex existing
structures are par for the course in Hong
Kong construction and not to be taken
lightly.
Hung Hom to Admiralty is comprised of
four main civil contracts. The first awarded
was Contract 1128-South Ventilation
Building to Admiralty Tunnels, which went
to Dragages-Bouygues Joint Venture in Aug
2014 for US$680M. Secondly was Contract
1121-Cross Harbour Tunnels, which was
won by the Penta-Ocean - China State Joint
Venture, in Dec 2014 for US$550M. Thirdly
was Contract 1123-Exhibition Station and
Western Approach Tunnel, won by the
Leighton - China State Joint Venture for
PROJECT REPORT
to Central Link
so far
Fig 3 and Fig 3b – East Geology
example with structures
western rail tunnels, each about 500m in • simple compressed air operating in a Mix-
length, are side by side excavated through shield mode rather than EPB, giving DBJV
varied geology comprising of granite and the option to re-launch the machine
CDG with cover ranging from 20 to 30m faster
One of the alternatives proposed at the The project team was aware of the
tender stage involved changing both the experience from the Klang Valley MRT
eastern UT and DT alignments. The deeper project in Kuala Lumpur, where the Variable
UT tunnel alignment was raised so that the Density type TBM (VDM) was used for the
transition zone between the CDG and first time to overcome the complex karstic
granite rock was minimized to reduce wear limestone geology. The VDM overcame
and damage to the cutter head tools. This in these issues using thicker and denser slurry
turn reduced the number of Compressed Air inside the excavation chamber to provide
Intervention (CAI), a high risk activity. improved face support. In light of this, a
Overall the DT tunnel alignment was VDM offered the flexibility of both a
lowered 0.5m to provide an increased Mixshield TBM and an EPBM.
margin to the confinement pressure design, DBJV considered these concerns and
this was critical due to the fact that the proposed the use of a VDM for the DT East
hydraulic gradient is affected by the Victoria drive, and the proposal was accepted by
Harbour tidal influences. The lower MTR.
alignment brought the TBM excavation Using the experience from Kuala Lumpur,
closer to an existing trunk sewer with a and previous TBM works in Hong Kong the
reduced clearance of 900mm, as such DBJV team, headed by Didier Jacques,
stringent monitoring was required. The General Construction Manager, and
maximum change in level on the DT was
2.5m lower than the original alignment
located near an existing flyover, due to an
old sea wall, which partially supports the
flyover.
Contract 1128 Background,
TBM Selection
then and now
During the tender stage the three deeper Contract 1128-Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter to Admiralty Tunnels is split east and west by
rail tunnels, the DT and UT West, and the the new Exhibition Station. The east section initially comprised a short 150m cut and cover
UT East, were specified to be completed by tunnel through a section of reclaimed land linking the immersed tube tunnels to the land
slurry Mixshield TBM (MS TBM) with the based tunnels. The construction of a large shaft to house the South Ventilation Building along
shallow cover DT East to be excavated by with an integrated new Police Officers’ Club and the eastern approach tunnels from the
EPBM. At tender DBJV highlighted four key ventilation building to the new Exhibition Station, is constructed under Contract 1123.
concerns in using an EBPM: A key change proposed by DBJV and accepted by MTRC was to excavate an early launching
• Risk of collapse/settlement due to shaft in the reclaimed land; this allowed the two eastern drives to be completed prior to the
inefficiencies in managing the excavation of the ventilation building shaft some 12 months earlier than planned. This was a
confinement support due to the complex crucial de-risking exercise to ensure that any unforeseen ground conditions or obstructions
geology and limited cover. Rock could be dealt with without causing overall programme delay.
transitions and sections containing The west section initially comprised a short 45m cut and cover tunnel linking Exhibition
boulders and rubble increase the risk of Station to the Fenwick Pier Street Emergency Access/Egress shaft and the western approach
sink hole formation; tunnels from the access/egress shaft to the extension of Admiralty Station constructed under
• risk of foam blowouts; South Island Line Project Contract 901-Admiralty Integrated Station and SCL Enabling Works
• likelihood the spoil could not conform to constructed by the Kier-Laing O'Rourke-Kaden Joint Venture. The cut and cover section also
the specified moisture content below provided provision for the future North Island Line (NIL) running tunnels.
25% to satisfy HK fill material The western launch shaft was replaced by a 'peanut' shaped shaft, to reduce the lateral
requirements, meaning that the tunnel support required, integrated with a novel TBM launch arrangement using both a concrete and
spoil would need secondary treatment; steel bell to apply the TBM load forwards through the concrete bell eliminating constraints
and and associated risks of large standard thrust frame system. Both improved safety on site.
PROJECT REPORT
Herrenknecht, the machine supplier,

developed some key adaptions to the VDM Figure 6: Mixshield and VDM chamber comparison
concept to take into account Hong Kong’s
geology, specifically granite to CDG
transitions and Marine Deposits.
The changes included increasing the main
drive motors from eight to twelve, installing a
jaw crusher inside the slurrifier box to deal
with the granite, increasing the slurrifier box
size to 6m3, along with minimising influence
to the confinement bubble via the slurrifier to
working chamber connections. Direct and
independent injection lines to the cutterhead
were designed for clayey ground conditions
and to regulate the bentonite injection ratio
and the control interface was simplified using
touch screen technology and automatic and
semi-automatic control settings.
to surface. Using a higher density slurry with

Figure 4: Working parameters for a VDM
a corresponding higher viscosity minimises
the risk of slurry egress as the higher
viscosity slows the liquid due to increased
shear making it relatively harder for the
liquid to reach the surface at the designed
confinement pressure. A graphic of this is
illustrated in Figure 4.
Material is transported from the
pressurised excavation chamber via a screw
conveyor similar to an EPBM. However the
screw does not act to reduce the support
pressure from the front like an EPBM, this is
due to the slurryfier box which is integral to
the slurry circuit and remains pressurised at
all times during operation. As the material is
discharged from the screw into the slurrifier
box it is diluted as it is mixed with slurry
from four injection pipes. It then passes
through a crusher and on to the Slurry
Treatment Plant at the surface.
Unlike a Mixshield TBM there is no dive
Figure 5: The general arrangement of the VDM with main components indicated
wall as this has been replaced with a screw,
as such a different form of communication
for the bubble pressure is required. This is
achieved using a pipe as depicted in Figure
6. The pipe has a non-return propeller which
constantly supplies slurry from the working
chamber to the excavation chamber to stop
excavated material getting into it and
blocking the communication, as such a
minimum bentonite feed volume needs to
be injected during excavation. Otherwise the
confinement control is the same as a
Mixshield TBM utilising a pressure regulation
system, in Herrenknecht’s case these are
supplied by Sampson.
High density slurry can be injected into the
excavation chamber from a holding tank on
the TBM back up supplied from surface, this
is used to fill voids and stabilise the face
around the TBM. The excavation face
density is measured using a radioactive
The VDM pressure is regulated through a pressurised densometer which tests a pumped sample
The VDM concept is the ability to work with air bubble to support the excavated face from the excavation chamber, the
a range of slurry densities to support and accurately. The VDM can thus utilise a information is then provided to the pilot.
stabilise the excavated face. Similar to a mix higher density slurry in locations with low During excavation some slurry is passed to
shield TBM, a designed confinement confinement or a high probability of a path the excavation chamber via the
PROJECT REPORT
communication pipe as previously discussed, mode that took the TBM to the lower cutter head delivered complete, also the
however there are also a series of slurry boundary of an EPBM where the density in gantries were pre-assembled. This not only
ports on the cutterhead similar to the foam the excavation chamber was limited to brings advantages to the assembly
injection ports on an EPBM, polymers can 1.50T/m3. Above 1.50T/m3 a full switch to programmes, but also improves the site
be added to the slurry to aid dispersion if EPB mode is required including foam safety with more works completed in the
required. The flow from the communication conditioning to prevent plugging inside the Herrenknecht factory in Nansha, China, not
pipe and the cutterhead ports makes up the cutter head and installation of a conveyor to mention quality control with more
total slurry directed to the excavation belt for spoil mucking out. welding completed in factory conditions
chamber - called the bentonite injection Due to the complexity and risk, it was rather than on site.
ratio - the flow is divided by the excavated agreed to use the Bouygues TP in house Mixshield TBM “Athena” was launched
material volume; this is selected by the Mobydic system of cutter head on her first drive, the 673m long East UT, on
operator based on the density readings from instrumented discs based on previous the 21st of March 2016 and averaged
the face. The higher the density face successful experiences on West Island Line 7.6m/day. The drive was successfully
readings the higher the flow of bentonite Contract 703. Hard material such as a rock completed on the 9th of July 2016 some
added, equally the lower the density the interface shows up extremely well as four weeks ahead of the target programme.
lower the volume of bentonite added. This green/red, with soft CDG seen as blue. Any After completing the UT, she was stripped
can be set semi-automatically through the hard/steel/concrete in the face will also be out of the tunnel and relocated to the
PLC or controlled manually by the Pilot. highlighted and allow the TBM crew to stop western tunnel launch site by barge. The
tunnelling for further discussion with senior West UT tunnel excavation commenced on
In practice management. the 8th of March 2017 and was completed
The two TBMs, S988 and S989, were As Exhibition Station excavation was yet on the 25th of May 2017, some 11 weeks
procured from Herrenknecht, with an to be completed and removal at Admiralty ahead of the target programme. She will be
external diameter of 7.41m, weighing in at Station was not possible, all the TBMs were disassembled for the last time in order to
around 400T. The Mixshield TBM, S988, designed to be stripped out from inside the excavate the final West DT tunnel, which is
with a drive power of 1280kW was named tunnel with a cast in-situ lining placed inside planned to commence in Sept 2017.
‘Athena’. The VDM, S989 with a drive the sacrificial shield skin. This necessitated VDM “Zhi-nu” started her excavation of
power of 1920kW, (to facilitate EPB mode) the procurement of four cutterheads and the East DT tunnel on the 23rd of August
was called ‘Zhi Nu’. Both were named as shield bodies with the components being 2016, and averaged 8.3m/day. The drive
part of a TBM naming competition amidst reused for each, as a value engineering was successfully completed on the 28th of
all primary and secondary students in Hong proposal the VDM main bearing and drive November 2016 some 6.5 weeks ahead of
Kong, organised by the MTR Corporation. will be installed in the West DT TBM in the target programme. The operation of the
Two different density modes of excavation order to accelerate the programme further. VDM required the pilots to adapt and
were proposed by DBJV; a Low Density All of the TBMs were delivered by sea enhance their piloting skills. Monitoring the
mode where slurry is supplied via the slurry using barges; this brought several key excavation chamber density and screw
circuit in the manner of a Mixshield TBM benefits, namely that the shields could be speed is critical to ensuring the face remains
(roughly 1.05-1.20T/m3), and a High Density delivered in halves with the tail skin and stable without losses to surface.
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PROJECT REPORT
Furthermore, it was found the slurrifier box

must be closely monitored; an increase in
pressure can indicate a blockage at the
crusher, which could cause damage to the
TBM if left unchecked.
Obstructions
Overcoming Steel H or reinforced concrete
pile obstructions during TBM excavation is
possible but very complex, time-consuming
and high risk due to repetitive CAI being
required for said removal and/or cutter
head repair. This is compounded when in
shallow ground cover and in close
proximity to major utilities and/or
structures such as highway bridges, box
culvert, trunk sewers etc., due to the
increased settlement caused.
The Contract Geotechnical Baseline
Report identified known obstructions
clashing with the tunnel alignment; Table 1
shows the pile foundation to be removed.
The most challenging pile removal was
associated with the Canal Road Flyover. A
specialised plant setup was utilised to
overcome the 4m headroom restriction.
The pile removal associated with the
Temporary flow diversion at Canal

Table 1: List of pile foundation to be removed Road Box Culvert
Location Obstruction to be removed Site Constraints undertakers were again asked to verify their
9 nos. of Dia. 600mm structures, as well as the Emergency
Percival Street Limited Space / Ordnance Disposal Unit (EOD) of the Hong
Bored Piles with 8mm
Footbridge Underground Utilities Kong Police Force.
casing
The concern regarding ordinance was
21 nos. of 18” Square Limited Space / especially valid. As recently as 2014 the
Canal Road Box EOD disarmed a 2000lb American bomb at
Driven Concrete Underground Utilities / Dry
culvert Happy Valley, a relatively short distance
Pre-stressed Pile Season Limited
from the tunnel alignments in Wan Chai.
6 nos. of 18” Square Limited Space / On discussion with the EOD, they stated
Canal Road the probability that the TBMs would hit any
Driven Concrete Pre- Close Highway Structures /
Flyover large ordnance was very low but that boxes
stressed Pile (raking) Height Restriction
of small ordnance had been lost into the
1 nos. of Dia. 600mm Limited Space / harbour during WWII.
Wan Shing Street A previous geophysical survey at Marsh
in-situ concrete bored Underground
Footbridge Road had yielded some indication of a
pile (abandoned) Utilities
possible sheet pile left in place next to a
Wan Chai West 24 nos. of Driven steel Storm Water Drain and some recent photos
Limited Space of some neighboring construction again
Treatment Plant H-Pile
indicated the possibility that some sheet
3 nos. of Dia. 500mm Driven Limited Space / piles had been left in place along the
Fleet Arcade Concrete Piles with Underground alignments. In light of this, multiple
19mm thick Casing Utilities methods, namely Borehole Magnetism,
Electromagnetism, Electric CylinderTM and
Cross Hole Electrical Resistivity Tomography,
Canal Road Box Culvert required a full Unforeseen Obstructions were progressed which confirmed that
diversion of the existing culvert flow Due to the criticality of the tunnelling works there were two obstructions at a depth
based upon the Hydraulic Analysis for not only to the Project opening date but between +3 to -25mPD within the TBM
both wet and dry seasonal conditions. also the main road networks and excavation profile.
This was to define the work sequence infrastructure on Hong Kong Island, At this point, the UT TBM drive was due
required to construct the pile removal exhaustive checking was required to ensure to arrive at the location within two weeks,
platform and reinstate that the possibility of encountering any with the later DT TBM arriving within a
The known obstructions were all obstruction was minimised. Aerial photo further two months. A trial pit was opened
removed, according to the planned records of the reclamation and and the storm drain diverted to confirm that
sequence, on time prior to the TBM developments were scrutinised, all a series of square concrete pre-cast piles
arrival. government departments and utilities with steel shoes were in place beneath the
PROJECT REPORT
storm drain. No record of these piles could have six supporting piles removed; and movement predicted by the structural
be found, however it has been hypothesised underpinning with new pre-bored H piles. A analysis.
that they were installed to avoid excessive pilecap and robust temporary steel
settlement to the storm drain during the supporting frame with an adjustable Conclusions
long process of consolidation in the hydraulic jacking system was put in place in Tunnelling projects evolve over time to cater
reclamation, as the drains were installed order ensure the TBM drives did not affect for the unforeseen, along with new
shortly after its completion. the structures. Throughout these works the technologies and ideas. We should
As the UT tunnel was excavated through a traffic flow had to remain constant. proactively examine new ideas and should
stiff CDG, DBJV proposed to disconnect the The jacking system provided control in do as much as we can to eliminate risk, not
two piles from the pile cap and then drive three directions: vertical, longitudinal and just to benefit the projects we construct but
through the piles with TBM. The UT TBM transverse effectively confining the structure to minimise the impact to all parties.
bored through both concrete piles during all work stages. Very minor The key changes, proposed by DBJV, to
successfully with both pile shoes recovered. movements were observed during all work the launch shaft to the east meant these
The bore through option was not viable for stages which were well within design tunnels completed 19 and 12 months
the shallow DT drive due to the presence of estimation and structures serviceability. The ahead of the tender programme, a
marine deposit and fill material, these would entire set up has now been removed with significant amount of time in which to deal
destabilise due to the TBM forces on the the flyover piers reinstated without any with any unforeseen adversity. There were
piles with a high probability of collapse. As impact to the traffic flow. also added environmental benefits as this
such, both the piles were extracted using a Hung Hing Road Flyover and Causeway drastically reduced the cut and cover
novel jacking method; this was completed section. Raising the East UT drive and
safely and in time to allow the DT TBM to Wan Shing Street lowering the East DT drive created real
pass. benefits from an engineering perspective,
Wan Shing Street was the most critical was the most critical TBM management and contract safety.
tunnel section as it had the shallowest tunnel section as it The adoption of the new mark of VDM
ground cover at circa 6.5m with the was a great success, as were the
adoption of the alternative alignment. Any
had the shallowest modifications made from the initial Kuala
obstruction encountered under Wan Shing ground cover at circa Lumpur concept. The tunnel was completed
Street had a great potential to cause slurry 6.5m with the adoption successfully within the predicted settlement
egress, excessive settlement or collapse and without damage to any third part
compounded by the undesirable geology
of the alternative structures or utilities. Most importantly,
making CAI impossible without significant alignment. Any there was no adverse impact to the busy
ground treatment. On top of this, twin obstruction encountered traffic of east Wan Chai, which is in excess
trunk sewers sit approximately 900mm of 115,000 vehicular movements every day.
below the TBM alignment, and although under Wan Shing The in-depth investigations allowed the
the design check proved there would be no Street had a great team to locate two sets of significant
adverse impact to the sewer pipe, the team potential to cause slurry obstructions to the east; further
wanted to minimise the duration the TBM investigations were progressed to the west
was loading these sewers. egress, excessive with no additional obstructions found. With
Although no foundations were expected settlement or collapse the shallow cover in the east, hitting these
in this area, it had been noted that other obstructions would have caused significant
works had recently progressed and that the
compounded by the problems for the TBM excavation with a
excavations used sheetpiles for temporary geology high probability of a collapse or worse.
support. As a result, additional geophysics It is also critical to ensure that the Slurry
deep trial trenches were excavated locating Flyover are separate bridge structures with a Treatment Plant procured does not limit the
more than 100 sheetpiles and steel longitudinal movement joint without a TBM advance as not only hard rock can
obstructions found clashing with the DT barrier between the traffic lanes. Any slow the TBM advance. The possible fines to
tunnel alignment. With the adoption of a differential vertical movement would create be encountered should also be reviewed
temporary traffic management scheme, all a longitudinal step between Hung Hing closely and it is suggested a conservative
left-in sheet piles were removed just prior to Road Flyover and Causeway Flyover; this view adopted to uprate the waste mud
the arrival of the DT TBM. As stated earlier could affect road safety for motorists. processing capability, this is after all a small
it serves well to check and check again, Extensive ground treatment was completed cost compared to full TBM tunnelling
including recent activities. to improve the stiffness of the ground in operations costs.
It should be noted that both the unforeseen order to limit movement for the at-grade The ethos of a ‘Can Do’ spirit allows
obstructions were located to the east section. As the foundation of the jacking MTRC to closely partner with the
affecting the two most critical drives. During system was affected by the TBM excavation contractors constructing the new lines in
the course of the east DT TBM excavation and was expected to move, an additional Hong Kong, DBJV being a prime example,
approximately 5T of odd steel parts were precaution was adopted above the ADMS adapting to changes and adversity whilst at
recovered from the STP belt magnet including and manual survey monitoring. The the same time taking on board value
ordnance (a shell and some shot), old ship hydraulic pressure was agreed to be kept at engineering to better secure the success of
nails, and plane parts, thankfully nothing too a safety margin as defined by the designer the projects be it justifiable from a safety,
large was encountered. to ensure the loading of the bridges are quality, programme or cost benefit view.
evenly distributed to the ground. This has been proven time and again during
Underpinning Better than expected settlement results the construction of the five major metro
During the course of the works, three because of the VDM, high quality ground projects from West Island Line, opened on
flyovers supporting major roads in and treatment and stringent control of the time in 2014, to Shatin to Central Link,
around the Cross Harbour Tunnel required jacking system limited the movement to the planned to open in two stages in 2019 and
underpinning. Canal Road Flyover had to CF to approximately 5mm or 8% of the 2021.
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MONITORING
keeping them hidden and the client trying to
Monitoring find out,” says Violo. “I think sharing

information is a good way to work.”
Cityringen’s segments
Though Violo had worked with TPC software
Progress
before, the Copenhagen project was the first
time he had used the Segment Tracker
function. The segments had to travel from
Northern Germany to Copenhagen, via two
ports; Seli DK worked with Tunnelsoft and
Dropbox to create a paperless tracking and
recording system that fitted with the
Better ways of collecting and using data on workflow and the sign-offs and checks
tunnelling projects are fast-forwarding problem needed all the way from factory to final
inspection and acceptance.
solving and decision making. Though we’re still Seli DK opted to use iPods to scan barcodes
on the segments and to take photos where
at the bottom of a steep learning curve, some are necessary, with scans taking place at different
already reaping the benefits. By Kristina Smith. points of the segments’ journey creating a
complete record for each segment when
installed. Looking at statistical information
AT THE START OF A TUNNEL DRIVE, while Bridge Associates’ Tunnel Information related to defects provides really useful
the TBM is still being assembled and the crew Management (TIM), Maxwell Geosystem’s information which can be used to make
is getting the feel of the machine, common Mission OS and Sixense’s Geoscope. changes and improve quality during the
sense tells us that there are likely to be more The next step will be to take the data tunnel drive, says Violo:
leaks than later in the drive. But could you say collected during the construction phase and “On a very long project you have employee
how many more leaks are likely? Twice as use it to help the owner operate and turnover, and the new people have to build
many, five times as many, ten times? maintain its asset more effectively. Hand-in- up their skills. For example, we could see
Seli Tunneling Denmark, now part of the hand with that approach will be a through the distribution of damage to the
Salini Impregilo Group, knows exactly what monitoring regime which continues from ring, there was a small increase in cracks
the impact of a tricky launch procedure was which coincided with
for the twin tunnels on Copenhagen’s new when the erector operator
Figure 1: Layout of Copenhagen’s Cityringen project
Cityringen line. Because it pinpointed every had resigned and his
leak and repair in the 15.5km tunnels with the deputy had replaced him.
help of data management software TPC from We could work out what
Tunnelsoft, part of the Babendererde Group. was happening, talk to
“We made our client very happy,” says him and provide extra
Valerio Violo, CEO of Seli Tunneling Denmark. training if it was needed.”
“There are 31km of tunnels; that’s a lot of Initial concerns among
segments and data to be on top of.” As well the workforce about ‘Big
as tracking the few repairs required, the Brother’ style monitoring
system allowed each one of the 22,500 rings were overcome when
to be inspected and signed off far faster than people realise the benefits,
usual and removed the need for huge says Violo: “When you see
amounts of paper records. from the data that there’s
But the data also told Seli DK something something that can be
about the launch process. “It proved that you improved, it’s very
need to launch the TBM in the best possible important to talk about it.
conditions,” says Violo. “We launched in a We show them the graph
very small shaft, the machine was not fully and we talk about it.
assembled, we had to mine half a ring, stop, Sometimes the operator
empty the buckets, stopping and starting all comes and ask us for the
the time. That can potentially decrease the graph because he wants
quality of the first few metres of tunnel. We to understand what
recorded a higher number of leakages in the happened at a certain
first metres, with numbers decreasing point. It’s a tool to help
substantially as we went on and improved our them to do a better job.
processes and completed the TBM “The old way of doing
assembly.”At their best, systems such as TPC construction through to maintenance. tunnelling is that the worker digs the tunnel
not only free up time for supervisors and Handing over construction data to a client and tries to hide the short cuts and mistakes
engineers to think, understand and act, they may seem like an unnatural thing for a from the manager, whose job it is to find
flag up problems early, reveal patterns of contractor to do. For Violo, who was where the mistakes have been hidden. This
behaviour and give pointers as to how things contractually bound to do so on Cityringen, way of working removes all that wasted
could be done better next time. There are it’s a positive move: “I think it’s good. We effort.”
several such systems around, with varying need to get as far away as possible from the Babendererde engineers began developing
focusses and functions, including London dichotomy of the contractor doing things and TPC (Tunnel Processing Control) software in
MONITORING
2004 and since its launch in 2005, it’s been integrate the two systems but that didn’t
TPC mobile application (top) and used on around 50 projects. Current projects happen this time. Instead we just linked
detailed condition report (bottom) include the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement them,” says Violo.
tunnel in Seattle, the LA Regional Connector,
Sydney’s Northwest Rail Link, Santa Lucia Glasgow Shieldhall
tunnel in Italy and the Semmering Base Tunnel Tunnel Information Management – TIM – is
in Austria. the brainchild of London Bridge Associates’
Tunnelsoft has made many improvements (LBA) Ken Spiby. “I’ve always been interested
to TPC over the years, with recent upgrades in the data we generate and how poorly we
including improvements to its mobile app to use it. We had been talking about this for
provide more functions, access to specific quite a long time but it took a while to
points of instrumentation via GIS (geographic develop the simplest, best-value solution.
information system) and enhanced security. “The basic premise of TIM is that if you
“Everybody wants to use their smart know what’s going on you can do something
phones for everything,” says Karen Simon,
marketing and sales for Tunnelsoft. “We are
the only ones that have programmed specific
apps for mobile devices. Our software is
probably the best on the market for using on
smartphones.”
The ability to use smartphones has all kinds
of benefits, says Violo. For instance, when the
crew needs input from a supervisor in the
night, the supervisor can check parameters via
their phone and may be able to provide a
solution and advice remotely, rather than
jumping into a car, having just woken up, and
driving to site. TIM is the brainchild of London Bridge
Another useful feature of the TPC system is Associates’ Ken Spiby (pictured on the left)
that alarms can be delivered through
smartphones. So, for example, on Cityringen, about it. In general tunnel projects are staffed
during stoppages the TBM operator would be by intelligent people who realise when there
alerted if the pressure in the bentonite tank are problems and work out what to do about
fell below a predetermined level; bentonite them. What TIM does is to get you there
was used to maintain face pressure during more quickly.”
stoppages. At the very least, using TIM saves time.
According to Simon some customers don’t Digital data from plant and machinery is fed in
expect to spend any time initially in setting up to TIM and linked to manually-inputted data
the software, which can be a problem for as things happen. Reports and alarms are
Tunnelsoft. This is a false economy of time, generated automatically and information can
though, according to Violo: be viewed on almost any internet-connected
“The set up time should not scare us, the device, anywhere and at any time.
more time we can invest in setting up, the All critical path tasks are given a code so
better,” he says. “When we recognised we that re-occurring issues are easily identified
needed more information in TPC, we added it and analysed.
in. For example, we asked for the frequency “Traditionally the shift engineer writes their
inverter on the machine to be available via the shift report at the end of the shift and then
phone.” distributes it, which means that the
Violo says that he will definitely use TPC management team gets the information at
and the Segment Tracker function again. One least 12 hours after the event,” says Spiby.
development he and his team would like to LBA developed the system with software
see is an automatic analysis of the defect data developers Commercial Applications
for the segments; in Copenhagen this was Company and piloted it on the National Grid
done manually. London Power Tunnels with the Costain-
Another development would be to Skanska joint venture. The initial version
integrate the instrumentation and monitoring focussed on EPB TBM production, with more
into TPC. “We started at the beginning to modules added subsequently: quality
Precision Liquid Settlement Array between the sensor at the point of

interest with a reference sensor.
Users have real-time access
RST Instrument’s Precision Liquid excavations, tunnelling and connected to a pressure and air through an internet connection on
Settlement Array provides grouting. compensation tube and an a PC and can also receive updates
wireless, real-time remote The arrays, which come in a electrical cable. Settlement is through email at chosen intervals,
monitoring of settlement and choice of three measurement measured by comparing the when used with an RST data
heave for applications such as ranges, are made up of a sensor changes in liquid pressure logger.
Teach Tomorrow,
buildings will be
me.
self-evolving.
Today, we design
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Have you taken my copy of

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MONITORING
London Bridge Associates’ Tunnel Information Management (TIM) system is

seeing widespread use on underground construction projects
management; open-face shield drives; sprayed points in the tunnel drive where
concrete lined tunnels; resource management; we need to do maintenance to safety-
and slurry machines. critical components such as lifting marshal and present all the
Chris Gannon, tunnel agent for the equipment or wear parts.” Particularly information from a tunnelling project.
Costain-Vinci Construction Grands Projets JV useful in Glasgow’s varied ground Information platforms initially developed for
on Scottish Water’s Shieldhall Tunnel project conditions, Costain-Vinci are using TIM to monitoring and instrumentation and
in Glasgow, is on his third project to make map production versus geological data. expanding to present other data too.
use of TIM. Prior to Glasgow, he used it on It’s important to communicate the system “There is always more and more data,”
the London Power Tunnels and the to the tunnelling team in a positive way, says Matthieu Bourdon, technical manager
Manchester Trunk Project in Eccles for says Gannon. “Naturally, people are of Sixense, formerly Soldata. “Now we are
United Utilities. defensive if they see that someone is asked to use data from different domains
“It’s a live system: the production team reporting on them all the time. It’s quite such as TBM data. It makes sense to have all
has live tracking of what the machine is interesting to see. We explain that we are the information in one place. If you’re
doing,” says Gannon. “It’s a very clear and reporting fact, not with emotion and the looking for volume loss from the TBM, you
precise way of monitoring and you can more information they feed into the reports, want to see what’s happening with
react to live situations. In the past we would the more factual it is, there’s nothing to settlements on the surface at the same
have been scrambling around with bar hide. time.”
charts and Excel sheets, now the “The skill of the engineering team is to As well as TBM data, Sixense has added a
information’s all there, captured and get the buy in of the supervisors and GIS module to its information management
presented. It takes massive pressure off the department managers.” system Geoscope which provides relevant
engineering team and allows us to go and LBA and Commercial Applications information from different sources linked to
build the tunnel.” Company are now developing their a particular point; that could include laser
TIM helps with safety management too, segment documentation system to cover scanning, ground radar and satellite
says Gannon: “It allows us to track key factory manufacture. Spiby has no monitoring. Other extra streams of data
immediate ambition to incorporate the come from environmental monitoring, such
processing of instrumentation and as noise and vibration.
monitoring data into TIM. Maxwell GeoSystems is currently re-
“Monitoring processing is already engineering the scope of its web-based
well-catered for by other parts of Mission OS platform. “We want to put
the market,” he says, “and we can control into the hands of our clients,” says
pull the processed results into our director Angus Maxwell. “The monitoring
system for holistic analysis and side is now completely configurable so that
reporting, without the need to the user can define any number of data
import the raw data.” objects with data fields and internal
“We don’t want it to get calculations. These can be part of calculated
too big,” says Gannon. relationships with other objects, including
“There’s already a vast predictions from numerical analyses.
amount of information that “Now we are focussing on linking
we put into it.” Each project construction data to our online shift
can choose the modules it reporting in the same way. With this in
requires and who can access place, our clients can design their own
which area of data. systems and adapt to any kind of data so
that it can be linked together in ways that
Expanding horizons are useful.”
Sixense, formerly known as Soldata, has an array of tools There’s still work to be done Maxwell mentions data from MissionOS
for monitoring data that work in Geoscope, shown here on what the best way is to shift reporting modules, data logged
MONITORING
machines such as TBMs, drill jumbos and

road headers, shotcrete information,
Addressable
borehole data and information from 3D
geological and numerical modelling Vibrating Wire
software such as Aranz Geo’s Leapfrog. “We
want to promote a machine learning type of
approach where we can evaluate
Interface
performance as we go along and learn from Geokon has launched a new Addressable digital addressing to accommodate up to 100
it in pseudo real time.” The new version of Vibrating Wire Interface, model 8020-30, sensors along one common cable. The pre-
Mission OS is now being used for the first designed to link vibrating wire sensors on a fabricated trunk cable has cable splitters
time in the UK on the Central Contract of single four-conductor cable, using the installed at locations close to the gauge
the Thames Tideway project. Modbus RTU (remote terminal unit) locations which contain the necessary
Sixense has ambitions to move beyond communication protocol over an RS-485 vibrating wire and thermistor circuitry to
the construction phase to integrate more connection. It can be used to reduce cable excite and read each sensor.
data across the while lifecycle of an asset. runs in multipoint systems, incremental Readings are accessed, or designated, by
Soldata’s name change to Sixense signalled a extensometers, and for applications where their unique Modbus addresses. Systems can
consolidation of the instrumentation and many sensor cables might compromise a be configured with sensor cables and trunk
monitoring part of the group with 10 other grout or cement bond. cables cut to length and moulded at Geokon,
companies which provide services in According to Geokon, the system features or they can be provided with connectors for
diagnostics and maintenance of assets and state-of-the-art signal conditioning and assembly in the field.
digital platforms.
“By becoming Sixense, we have lots of
different software in the company and the time and see its relation to other factors,” Value Enhancement Specialist Services
idea is to merge them together – software says Maxwell. Framework announced earlier this year.
for inspection, to review the site after “There’s an appetite from asset owners to Among ten firms in the framework, which
construction, project management tools,” link up construction monitoring with asset will work on station upgrade projects for
explains Bourdon. “And there are more management,” says ITM Monitoring’s bid the next seven to eight years, are two
digital platforms like Geoscope that could be manager Rhiannon Walker. “The reason we instrumentation and monitoring specialist
merged with it to provide a full picture of have not seen it happen is commercial. ITM Monitoring and Bedi Consulting, as
the asset through its whole life.” When contracts are procured, we are well as LBA.
There is an appetite among asset owners working initially with the project manager or “We will all work together during the
to have a more joined-up approach to cost consultants. As the project moves into design stage of a capacity upgrade, to
construction, we might incorporate all the right design elements
get novated to the main including monitoring to ensure that we
contractor. But when keep as many assets open as possible
the contractor has during construction and that we have an
finished the main works intelligent asset at the end of it,” says
and finished the fit out, Walker. “It is the first framework I have seen
the question is: who that ties together construction monitoring
pays for the asset and whole life asset monitoring.”
management
monitoring?” Analysts not engineers
Sixense at work in Paris, left, and on the Bucharest Metro, right “It’s been an ongoing Inevitably the march of Big Data, and our
discussion for years,” increasing ability to mine it and apply it to
capturing and using data. Speaking at the says Bourdon. “But there is always a projects will impact on the skills and
launch of Senceive’s new Nano and Nano+ contractual problem.” Sixense recently had resources required to run major tunnelling
wireless tri-axial tilt sensors in May, HS2’s to remove all its equipment from an asset it projects. “Resource-wise, it could certainly
asset management director Mark Morris had been monitoring for several years and mean that you have a smaller engineering
spoke of the project’s aspirations for a then reinstall it in order to monitor the team because you have more confidence in
“reliability-centred maintenance approach”; effect of a nearby development. “The keeping track of your tunnel dynamics,”
whole life costing and condition monitoring lawyers could not find a solution to keep it says Gannon.
would play an important part of the tender ongoing and transfer the contract to the There’s a question-mark over what the
process, he said. developer,” explains Bourdon. role of the junior engineer might be. If data
“I want the suppliers to provide kit with There are examples of continuity in some is being collected and processed
open architecture that we can plug and play parts of the infrastructure sector. Bridges for automatically, experience will be necessary
and put into the internet of things,” he said. example; Sixense installed a complex in interpreting and understanding it.
“Be innovative, be collaborative, come up monitoring system for design-builder Vinci It’s not surprising then that firms such as
with solutions and don’t stick to the Construction Grands Projets on the Arup are looking to recruit graduates with
prescriptive minimum for pieces of kit.” construction of the Rion Antirion Bridge in analytical skills and qualifications. “We need
Instrumentation and monitoring specialists Greece, leaving some of it in place after specialists within a project who are able to
have long argued that monitoring strategies completion to monitor structural elements manage Big Data and bring it all together
that encompass both construction and designed to deal with seismic events. so that its brought to bear on tendering,
operation would allow us to better Highways authorities, such as in the UK and assessing risk, to do analysis on a forensic
understand and maintain assets. “If you Romania, are also looking at global level,” says Maxwell. “Construction
leave the instrumentation in the works, you monitoring strategies. companies need analysts whose job is to
have the continuity, you can see how the This is one aspect that Transport for take all this information and use it to look
immediate performance deteriorates over London is trying to address through its for opportunities to do things better.”
MONITORING
Testing Smart Segments in

HONG KONG
Development and acceptance of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC)
segmental lining requires an accurate understanding of the performance of
the segments under real load conditions. An innovative instrumentation
scheme has been implemented at the Liantang Lung Shan highway tunnels
in Hong Kong to evaluate the load distribution in the segments during
erection and tunnelling and for comparison with the design assumptions
obtained by numerical simulations. X. Monin, R. Storry, and G. Steiner, all
of Dragages Hong Kong, A Maxwell, Maxwell Geosystems, and S. Sparrow,
Global Sensing Solutions, here present the development of the
instrumentation, the installation methods and initial data obtained.
AN R&D PROJECT was implemented by developer; one of the most important Instrumentation
Dragages Hong Kong and Bouygues Travaux development criteria considered was to be Instrumentation using conventional vibrating
Publics at the Liantang Lung Shan highway able to obtain data as soon as the TBM thrust wire strain gauges, multiplexer, datalogger
tunnels project in Hong Kong to study the pads are in contact with the segment and and battery would be impossible to embed in
structural behaviour of the steel fibre before the vacuum erector is removed. the concrete due to the size of the elements.
reinforced concrete segmental lining and to Literature studies indicated that previous The power consumption of vibrating wire
evaluate the distribution of loads in the segment monitoring schemes have not been strain gauges would require big batteries
segments in order to confirm design able to capture this window of data. Due to which are also not convenient to embed
assumptions used in numerical simulations. access restriction during segment erection, the within the segments. Collecting data through
A comparison between numerical and difficulty to plug cables to segments when the a multiplexor would also prevent synchronous
experimental results will be carried out to erector pad is still on the segment and also data reading at the frequency required.
assess the effectiveness of the adopted the inconvenience of having
numerical model in predicting the behaviour cables running in the tunnel
of segmental lining under a thrust load that can be damaged by the Figure 1: Foil strain gauges and strain gauge
simulating the effect of the TBM machine traffic (TBM, MSV, cable module (SGM)
during excavation. Monitoring data enabling bracket installation…),
a comparison to be made between wireless monitoring seemed
conventionally reinforced concrete and steel the most appropriate
fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) segments was technology to pursue.
also obtained for similar analysis. Other factors to be taken
The monitoring instrumentation was into consideration during
developed to record strain developed in the the development were the
segment due to the segment handling, TBM positioning of the
thrust and the annular void grouting/ground instrument components, so
loads. as not to adversely affect
Segment reinforcement ratio is generally the data obtained (i.e.
defined during design by the affecting stress distribution
grout/ground/TBM thrust loads hence, the within the concrete or
strain gauges were positioned where it was introducing artificial lines of
predicted that the maximum strain would be weakness within the
developed due to these loads. segment), together with the
Prior to the development of the monitoring frequency of monitoring
system several important criteria were defined and the duration of
which needed to be considered by the system monitoring.
MONITORING
Foil strain gauges (Figure 1) were while readings are being taken.
considered as they are resistive and can be 7 The data-logger batteries should last Figure 5: Principle stress trajectories
recorded at a higher frequency than 180 days (D-Cell battery with 8.5Ah
vibrating wire gauges. Such gauges are rating) with the logging schedule
commonly used for concrete testing and to envisaged.
monitor the performance of structures. 8 The 2Gb memory card can store nearly
However, these gauges are susceptible to 4 years of data at a sample rate of
variable signal loss in cabling and this is 1sample/10s.
why measuring vibrating wire instruments 9 Integrated Bluetooth wireless module
in the frequency domain is often preferred. with range up to 30 metres (line of
A new method which samples a resistor / sight).
capacitor time constant rather than simple 10 Data can also be retrieved via a USB
voltage allows conversion of analogue cable if necessary.
sensor direct to microstrain without being 11 All equipment is sealed against
affected by line losses. This new electronic moisture and corrosion.
arrangement requires much less power and
therefore a smaller logging unit and power
supply. As a result the system works on Figure 3: Segment cabling schematic
regular batteries (8.5Ah battery C cell size,
Figure 2).
An application was developed to
communicate with the datalogger via
Bluetooth and to download data. The
application also enabled the data sampling
rates to be configured on site and to
manually read temperature, battery
condition and strain gauge conditions.
Figure 2: Data logging module (DLM)
The key points of the custom

development were as follows:
1 The design used a very low-power
strain gauge coupled with an RS485
transceiver.
2 The sensor nodes comprised 3 x ¼ During the development stage a flexural The strain gauges (21no. per segment)
bridge strain gauges. test on a steel fibre reinforced concrete were located in the areas where the highest
3 The strain gauges were temperature beam was performed to confirm that the tension loads were anticipated (Figure 5) and
compensated. proposed strain gauge solution would two crack-metres were installed per segment
4 The strain gauges were wired directly to provide reliable results. The strain gauge on the intrados surface at location where
a nearby module containing signal module and three strain gauges were cracks could develop.
conditioning circuitry and embedded inside the concrete beam and Initially four segments of two SFRC
microprocessor. worked satisfactorily for the duration of lining rings and four segments of one
5 The wiring configuration was designed the test (Figure 4). conventionally reinforced lining ring were
such that there would be independent instrumented. However, two instrumented
channels providing redundant paths to segments did not function when they
all strain gauge modules. The system Figure 4: SFRC beam flexural testing arrived on site so ten instrumented
was designed so that there would be segments were used for field testing and
no single point of failure. In the event data collection.
that one of the digital strain gauges The monitored segments were located on
failed it would not impact the ability to the upper half of the lining ring to allow
obtain data from the remaining. One easier access (Figure 8) and at locations
additional channel was available to where the rock was foreseen to be good so
access the crackmeter data (Figure 3). allowing more rigorous testing.
6 Power to the sensor nodes is Figure 6 a. and b. show the arrangement
controlled by the data logger of the gauges relative to the thrust ram
component and are only powered contact points on the ring. Three sets of
MONITORING
so will not affect the behaviour performed with care in order to avoid
Figure 6a and b: Typical strain gauge arrangement of the SFRC around the strain direct dropping of concrete onto the
a. Circumferential strains b. Radial strains. gauges. strain gauges.
The monitoring f. Demoulding of the segment. Recovery
instrumentation comprised: of the crackmeter cables and cables in
• Seven groups of three strain the plastic box-out.
gauges. g. The instrumentation was again tested
• Seven Strain Gauge Modules. to check that all the components
• Two cables to connect the functioned correctly.
crackmeters at the external h. The instrumented segments were
surface and 2 cables to marked on the leading and trailing
connect the equipment to edges and on the intrados for
the datalogger cast within identification.
the concrete.
• One box embedded into the Lesson learned during installation
concrete to create the The environment in which tunnel lining
recess where the datalogger segments are fabricated is harsh for
will be installed (on site electronics hence, all electronic
Liantang). components need to be designed for
The installation procedure was physical and thermal robustness and
as follows: protected against water ingress.
a. Crackmeter lead-wires were The strain gauges need to be installed
inserted within plastic pipes to a high degree of accuracy if the data is
connected to the rebars to be meaningful; less than +/-5mm
with cable ties to protect which is less than tolerance usually
them during concreting. achieved in a precast yard (for rebar
Both ends were filled with placing for example). The strain gauges
silicone sealant. The part were eventually attached to the GFRP bars
against the mould was when the cage was inside the mould.
protected with a sponge. Placing concrete needs to be
performed with care to
three gauges were positioned to measure the avoid forceful dropping or
circumferential strains in the ring. Two sets Figure 7: Instruments mounted in-situ flowing of concrete
(SGM1 and SGM6) were arranged between directly onto the
the rams and one (SGM2) and a surface instruments.
crack meter were arranged at segment All cabling and
midpoint directly in front of the thrust rams. electronic components
These gauges were positioned at the middle need to be designed to
of the segment thickness to avoid resist vibration in a wet
circumferential bending moments. environment. The very
Four sets of three gauges SGM3, SGM4, strong vibration of the
SGM5 and SGM7 were positioned radially segment mould will affect
perpendicular to the circumference and in cabling and electronic
the centre of the ring. components if these are
not effectively fixed in
Instrument installation place.
A first stage of installation was done at the Some leakage into the
segment precast yard, where all the strain strain gauge module
gauges and strain gauge modules were (SGM) occurred during the
embedded in concrete. The datalogger and first trial due to a lack of
the crackmeters were installed at the site in b. Strain gauges were attached to the sufficient waterproofing.
order to avoid damage during storage and GFRP bars at the accurate locations In order to mitigate this risk posed, the
transportation. using a spacer measuring tool. The intensity of the vibration for these
As the SFRC segments only contain a position of each strain gauge was temporary segments was reduced. SGMs
small amount of conventional reinforcement checked and adjusted to the were suspended between rebar by wires
a frame was required to position and secure theoretical position with a tolerance of instead of directly attaching them to the
the strain gauges correctly and to train the ±5mm. steel rebar to avoid excessive shaking
wires to the position of the box out (for the c. The instrumentation was tested using during the vibration of the mould. The
data logger). The frames were constructed a PC to check that all the components SGMs were filled with foam to make
from 6mm diameter fibre glass bars which function correctly prior to concreting. them completely waterproof.
were tied with steel wires to the existing d. The two cables from SGMs and the
rebar (Figure 7). two crackmeter lead-wires were Installation second stage
The strain gauges were attached to the inserted into the plastic box-out which A second stage of installation was
fibreglass GFRP rods with steel wires and was filled with foam and wrapped undertaken on site before segment
plastic ties. The fibreglass bars have benefits with bubble wrap before concreting to erection. Here the crack meters were
over a steel frame as fibreglass has a similar allow easy extraction later. installed on the segment intrados surface,
elastic modulus to that of the concrete and e. Concreting of the segment was the instruments plugged to the data
MONITORING
logger and data logger sealed in the The ability to communicate with the data logger
recess in the segment. A Plexiglas plate
was bolted on top of the data logger wirelessly was very useful to check that the DLMs
module in order to protect it from the were functioning properly and to change the
erector vacuum pressure (around 1bar). configuration as necessary. Unfortunately, at
The crackmeter, adapter and crackmeter
wires were covered with duct tape on the Bluetooth baud rates data download times were
intrados surface to protect them from lengthy which impacted on the efficiency of this
damage that could be caused by workers
or the vacuum pad. A plastic cover plate
system. It is recommended that future systems use
was used in order to not impact the real time data transfer over wireless mesh networks.
Bluetooth communication signal.
Prior to DLM installation, the box-out to ensure that it was “reading” all • Find all available DLMs,
for the DLM was removed. Care was available SGMs and data could be • Check the DLM status,
taken to avoid damaging the cables which downloaded to the tablet. • Change the DLM configuration settings,
protruded from the concrete segment into Once the testing was completed the • Download data files from the DLM,
the box and were required to remain DLM lid was fixed and silicon applied • Modify the DLM polling schedule,
intact for connection to the DLM. The around the edges to provide a water • Commission the DLM.
data cables were then fed into the DLM resistant barrier. The ability to communicate with the
through a hole with a rubber grommet The last step of installation was to data logger wirelessly was very useful to
located on the bottom of the DLM box. screw the Plexiglas plate on top of the check that the DLMs were functioning
Once all the data and crackmeter cables DLM box. A foam gasket and silicone properly and to change the configuration
have been inserted and connected in the sealant was provided between the as necessary. Unfortunately, at Bluetooth
DLM, foam has been applied to the cable Plexiglas plate and concrete in order to baud rates data download times were
entry area and the lid screwed on top. The provide an airtight and watertight system. lengthy which impacted on the efficiency
foam expanded in the confined space to of this system. It is recommended that
form a protective barrier against the Application future systems use real time data transfer
environment. The original firmware allowed for 10- over wireless mesh networks.
The unit was powered by 2x8.5Ah “C second reading cycle. A tablet device with
Cell sized” batteries. Once switched on, bespoke application was used to access Test protocol
the DLM reads the internal configuration and download files from the DLMs. The The test protocol was predefined and
and starts operation. The DLM was tested application included the ability to: included several parties: construction,
COVER &
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MONITORING
survey and technical teams. 2) From day 3 to 15: one reading per predominantly in compression. Gauges at
The load test itself consisted of minute. the trailing edge responded most to the
increasing the jack pressure and 3) From day 16 to 30: two readings per day. grouting pressures.
maintaining the pressure at different In term of cracks, segments with
steps. In order to more precisely control Observations and conclusions conventional reinforcement displayed more
the pressure in the jacks the test was Sensors were installed on four rings within cracking (Figure 9) than the SFRC
done in static mode i.e. not in excavation the top hemisphere of the ring. One ring segments with the same magnitude of
mode and with the cutterhead not was conventionally reinforced and the load. This is reflected in the results where
turning and to avoid damaging the other rings were built with steel fibre the peak tension strains recorded in the RC
cutterhead and disc cutters, due to high reinforcement. In this paper we shall segment were four times those in the SFRC
contact pressures with the ground, the consider one segment at the 10 o’clock segment. The variation of strain with depth
cutterhead was retracted. The confinement position (Figure 7) and look at the within the RC segment was 1.5
pressure was increased in order to be able circumferential strains between the rams; a µstrain/mm whereas in the SFRC segment
to reach high jack pressure values, up to location of tensile strains. the strain was more evenly distributed at
7.5MN per pad. The monitoring device was designed to only 0.33 µstrain/mm and with lower
TBM data records including thrust loads record the first thrust of the jack on the tensile strain.
and jacks elongation were obtained by the segment and avoid
machines data logging system. cable obstructing the
Eccentricities and stepping between working area. Figure 9: Cracks on segment (TTR1172)
segments within an instrumented ring and The global analysis
between segments of the instrumented of the results shows
ring with the adjacent rings, were surveyed the expected
and recorded. behaviour of the
Another important parameter to monitor concrete at the
was the development of cracks at the location of the strain
surface of the segments. After each step gauges (tension
the instrumented segments were visually between and behind
checked and cracks, if any, recorded and jacking pads both
mapped. circumferentially and
The segment instrumentation logging radially). This tension
schedule was set to the following; decreases rapidly
1) First 2 days after erection: one reading towards the trailing
every 10 seconds. edges which are
The profile in Figure 10 shows that in the

Figure 8: Locations of instrumented segments with analysed segment shown early part of the thrust the tensile strain in
the conventionally reinforced segment
tracks that of the SFRC segment with
tensile strain over applied stress (bar) at
about 0.5 to 0.6. The lower values
correspond to the conventional
reinforcement. At peak thrust pressure
there is a rapid increase in strain in the
conventionally reinforced segment which
reduces as load is removed but not down
to levels expected for the thrust pressures
being applied. The stress strain behaviour
is indicative of concrete cracking. The data
further shows the extent of the cracking
with each gauge showing the same pre
and post failure characteristics to different
extents. The gauges were installed up to
300mm into the concrete and even the
deepest sensor shows the behaviour. This
suggests that cracks during installation
may have propagated well into the
reinforced area of the concrete. The cracks
appear very sensitive to differential
pressure between the two applied jacks
with clear spikes in tensile strains when
one or other jack was unloaded. This may
have stimulated deeper propagation of the
cracks.
The SFRC concrete (Figure 11) was
subjected to stresses 40% higher than the
conventional concrete (240bars) yet shows
no such propagation of cracks.
MONITORING
Figure 10: Conventional reinforcement Ring 1172 – Leading Edge Circumferential Tensile Strain (red) against rams thrust
pressure (blue) and grouting pressure (green) - (+ve tension)
Figure 11: Fibre Reinforced concrete re-inforcement 1170 – Leading Edge

Future considerations Circumferential Tensile Strain (red) against rams thrust pressure (blue) and grouting
The data has provided valuable pressure (green) - (+ve tension)
information on the dynamic
behaviour of RC and SFRC
segments during the installation
processes. Future projects may
benefit from attention to the
following:
• Finding mounting solutions to
avoid the use of additional GFRP
bars to attach the strain gauges.
• Minimise as much as possible
work to be done on site (i.e.
install at the precast factory) and
the interaction between workers
and monitoring devices.
• Increase robustness of devices
and cabling to avoid damage
during installation and
concreting.
• Increase the long term water
resistance of all the monitoring
devices.
• Employ remote wireless systems
rather than local Bluetooth to
check the status of the
monitoring from a computer at
the office.
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TECHNICAL
Materials design for

tunnel linings
In this article, Dr Benoit Jones of Inbye Engineering
looks at materials design for tunnel linings.
THE MANTRA OF THE MODERNIST it drives the design. It is quite common, polymers and sandwich panels, that are
MOVEMENT of the early 20th Century for instance, to design highway tunnels as lightweight, strong, stiff and resilient
was “form follows function”. In contrast, circular, or consisting of one or more (Ashby & Johnson, 2014). However, self-
Ashby & Johnson (2014) argue that often, circular arcs, when the space envelope is weight of a tunnel lining is not an
form is not particularly limited by the often closer to a rectangular shape. important consideration in and of itself.
function. A steel structure is likely to be Therefore, “form follows material” seems Making a tunnel lining lighter will only be
rectilinear, a concrete shell structure is to be the case for most tunnels, not “form beneficial if it reduces cost, either by
likely to be domed, a masonry structure follows function”. reducing volume of material used, or by
will be made of discrete blocks, will be Apart from the ability to withstand reducing the volume of excavation. In a
arched or will have limited spans. In civil stresses and control deformations to shaft or tunnel design, sometimes weight
engineering, as in product design and acceptable levels, features that are usually is a good thing as it counteracts uplift
mechanical engineering, we tend to considered are (e.g. ITA, 1988): pressures.
choose our materials first, then design a • Watertightness So what is important to a tunnel lining?
structure. In many cases it is not so much • Durability It needs to withstand compression, but
that “form follows function”, but rather • Fire resistance also shear and bending. It needs to have a
that “form follows material”. • Not harmful to people or to whatever is minimum stiffness to control
The concept of ‘materials design’ as transported by the tunnel, and non-toxic deformations, but flexural stiffness has a
pioneered by Professor Mike Ashby is to to the ground and groundwater knock-on effect of increasing the bending
turn this on its head. The designer thinks • Minimise carbon footprint moments when ground stresses are
about the desired form and features and • Buildability uneven or when the shape of the tunnel is
searches for the best material to achieve The first 4 in the list above are pretty non-circular. In order to make some broad
them. This is not a linear process, and much yes/no answers, where materials can generalisations, first we need to simplify.
there is interaction between the choice of be ruled in or out. It is not quite that Kuesel (1987) argues that axial stiffness
material, the loads and the form (Figure simple, since aspects such as of a tunnel lining is what allows
1). However, the difference between this watertightness, durability and fire redistribution of stresses in the ground,
process and the usual one is that the resistance could be provided by combining but flexural stiffness should be as low as
designer keeps an open mind about the more than one material, as we currently possible. For example, if the ground
material selection. sometimes do when combining concrete deforms the lining elliptically, Kuesel says
with sheet membrane that it is the axial stiffness that transfers
waterproofing. Also, durability the stresses and allows an equilibrium to
Figure 1: Conceptualisation of the design process
may depend on crack widths, be achieved. The flexural stiffness does
which depend on structural little to restrain ground deformations and
response. only serves to increase bending moments
Assessing the equivalent CO2 in the lining. As long as there are no voids
emissions of a material to provide behind the tunnel lining, Kuesel says a
its carbon footprint is not difficult lining cannot fail in flexure independent of
nowadays, though assessing the ground deformation.
relative importance of this Browsing the literature for moment-axial
compared to other factors, such force (‘M-N’) interaction diagrams gives a
as cost, requires some sense of typical loads in a tunnel lining.
assumptions. Usually these published values are for
ground and water loads and may ignore
Form and features of a tunnel Structural demands construction loads such as jacking loads
The form and features of a tunnel will The relationships between strength and from a TBM, which may be more critical.
depend to some degree on its function. weight density or between modulus of They also rarely show a lining that fails,
However, apart from requiring a minimum elasticity and weight density are critical to because they are usually describing
cross-sectional area (for a water or sewage the design of materials for many types of successful design. The majority of these
conveyance tunnel) or a minimum space products and structures, and have driven plot in the lower half of the M-N diagram,
envelope (for pedestrian or traffic tunnels), the development of modern metal alloys, as illustrated in Figure 2, where h is the
the form is not usually restricted such that fibre composites, technical ceramics, thickness of the lining, b is 1m length of
Figure 2: M-N interaction diagram showing typical zone of concrete tunnel lining designs
TECHNICAL
curved and not two straight lines).

Ignoring soil-structure interaction, if a
slimmer lining were used and h were
divided by 2, this would move a point in
the interaction diagram upwards as N/bhfck
would increase by a factor of 2. However,
M/bh2fck would at the same time increase
by a factor of 4, moving the interaction
from point A to point B in Figure 4,
effectively because we have reduced the
moment capacity of the section. However,
knowing what we know about soil-
structure interaction, as h is reduced, the
moment of inertia I of the lining reduces
dramatically as it is proportional to h3/12,
and we should expect M to reduce
significantly, perhaps to a point C.
In the other direction, designers often
find they are chasing their tails. When the
lining has insufficient moment capacity
one option is to increase the
reinforcement, but this is often undesirable
Figure 3: Stress distribution across the thickness of a tunnel lining if the designer is trying to design with
plain concrete or a particular dosage of
fibre reinforcement, and trying to avoid
the need for steel bar or mesh
reinforcement. So instead they increase the
thickness of the section to increase its
moment capacity. The soil-structure
interaction analysis is then run again, but
unfortunately the new, thicker lining has
higher bending moments, so the lining
needs to be made thicker still.
A reasonable conclusion from this
discussion is that if unreinforced or lightly
reinforced concrete linings are desirable,
improvements could be made to reduce
their flexural stiffness and thus reduce their
thickness. Historically, this has been
achieved by having radial joints in
tunnel, fck is the characteristic cylinder

Figure 4: Effect of reducing lining thickness by a factor of 2
strength of the concrete. N is the axial
(hoop) force and M is the bending
moment. The curve shown on Figure 2 is
the capacity of the section, in this case
plain concrete with no reinforcement, to
withstand a combination of M and N; as
long as design values of M and N plot
inside it, the ultimate limit state is ok.
Figure 2 shows that when we are in the
bottom half of the capacity curve, higher
hoop forces are beneficial, in that they
allow a larger moment to coexist. This is
because concrete is weaker in tension than
in compression, and when the hoop and
bending stresses across the section are
added together, as shown in Figure 3,
neither the design tensile strength nor the
design compressive strength can be
exceeded. For the more advanced readers,
note that Figure 3 assumes linear elastic
stress-strain behaviour to make things
easier to understand, whereas the capacity
curve in Figure 2 assumes a nonlinear
stress-strain relationship as recommended
in BS EN 1992-1-1: 2004 (hence why it is
TECHNICAL
segmental linings that are designed to High performance fibre-reinforced REFERENCES

articulate. In recent years, there has been cementitious composites (HPFRCC)
a trend towards using fewer segments HPFRCC contains polymer or metal fibres Ashby, M. & Johnson, K. (2014).
with stiffer joints that are almost always and exhibits strain hardening when Materials and design – the art and
staggered in the longitudinal direction, loaded beyond its initial peak. ECC is a science of material selection in
further increasing the flexural stiffness of special subset of HPFRCC. The steel fibre product design, 3rd edition. London:
the ring. reinforced concrete used for the Lee Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier.
An alternative solution would be to use Tunnel lining (Hover et al., 2015) was a
a different material. Clearly a material with kind of HPFRCC, as it exhibited strain Boughanem, S. (2014). Aspects of the
a better tensile strength will work better hardening behaviour after first crack. behaviour of engineered cement
as a thin lining that is flexible but has axial composites. EngD Thesis, University of
stiffness. This has led to research into new High strength-high ductility concrete Surrey.
materials for tunnel linings, such as (HSHDC)
engineered cementitious composites (ECC) ECC and HPFRCC have excellent Hover, E., Psomas, S. & Eddie, C.
by Morgan Sindall UnPS with the properties, and the increased ductility will (2015). Estimating crack widths in
University of Surrey (Boughanem, 2014), enable larger deformations and steel fibre-reinforced concrete. Proc.
and this will be discussed in the following distortions without failure, and the ICE Construction Materials, Ahead of
section. smaller crack widths will improve Print, DOI: 10.1680/coma.15.00019.
It is often the case that segment design durability. But what we really want is a
is driven by construction loads, in higher tensile strength. HSHDC has a ITA (1988). Guidelines for tunnel
particular the jacking forces, and not the high compressive strength > 150MPa, design. Tunnelling & Underground
ground and water loads in the permanent high ductility with an ultimate strain 3.7- Space Technology 3, No.3, 237-249.
situation. If linings really are significantly 4.8%, and relatively high tensile strength
thicker because of this, then perhaps we at 14.5MPa (Ranade et al., 2013). Ranade, R., Li, V. C. & Heard, W. F.
need to think about the way jacking forces All these cementitious composite (2015). Tensile rate effects in high
are transferred to the tunnel lining to materials could work as thin tunnel strength-high ductility concrete.
reduce material consumption, cost and linings. Their main drawback is the high Cement & Concrete Research 68, 94-
CO2 emissions. cement content (ECC has more than 104.
800kg/m3, HSHDC has approximately
New concrete tunnel lining materials 900kg/m3), which will increase cost and
increase the carbon footprint per m3 not work, but perhaps we should think
Engineered cementitious composite relative to ordinary concrete. However, if about how the construction and
(ECC) significantly less volume is needed, these installation method could be adapted to
Sometimes called ‘bendable concrete’, materials may be a better option. make them work and we may end up
ECC can sustain tensile strains of 3-7% with a better tunnel.
(Said et al., 2015). It is a cementitious Other materials
mortar containing small short polymer There may be other materials that could Conclusions
fibres, usually poly vinyl alcohol fibres 8- be used instead of cementitious We have looked briefly at a ‘materials
10mm long and 38 microns diameter. The materials. ‘Ashby charts’ (Ashby & design’ approach to tunnel linings, and it
fibres encourage growth of a large Johnson, 2014) are a fantastic tool for has potential to bring new insights on
number of microcracks with a specific finding materials with the material what materials may be suitable for tunnel
width of less than 50 microns. The first properties you are looking for. In the linings. A more detailed examination may
crack appears at quite a low tensile stress range of tensile strengths from 10- be worthwhile.
of about 2.5MPa and the ultimate tensile 100MPa, there are mostly metals and Fibre reinforced cementitious
strength will be around 4.6MPa. metal alloys. Assuming that these are materials have the potential to be as
Therefore, a thin ECC lining would not probably too expensive, the other ductile or more ductile than conventional
only provide a low flexural stiffness with a materials in this zone are polymers such reinforced concrete, and can have much
good axial stiffness, but it also provides as polyethylene, polypropylene and PTFE, higher compressive and tensile strength.
high levels of ductility. The small crack and glass fibre reinforced polymers. If this can lead to thinner linings, the
widths also allow autogenous self- It may seem that there are plenty of higher cost per unit volume may be
healing. reasons why some of these materials may justified.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR

I congratulate TJ and Prof Arnold Dix in publishing a comments to SSE at the meeting of 12th October,
very stimulating article on the outcome of the related to the provision of a concrete invert in the
Glendoe case and one which I hope will be widely headrace tunnel and the determination of the size of
read by tunnelling clients and contractors. There is the void and its propagation upwards (Paragraph 122
one point on which I’d like to comment. There is of Lord Woolman’s “Opinion”).
reference under the heading “Mistrust grows” to HSE
providing “advice on a mediation strategy”. I believe Yours faithfully
this should read “advice on a remediation strategy”.
HSE never sought in any way to influence the Dr Donald Lamont
relationship between SSE and Hochtief or to express a Head of Tunnel and Ground Engineering,
preference for the remedial works contractor. My HSE, 1989 – 2010.
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LEGAL
Dispute Adjudication Boards

– a preferred mechanism for
tunnelling projects? Ulrich Helm and Fabian
Bonke of the international
law firm Hogan Lovells
Tunnelling projects typically go hand-in- permanent five member Board. With the
hand with uncertainty, as even with a project having a total value of US$14bn, only International LLP here talk
thorough investigation the exact geological 13 disputes arose, of which 12 were settled us through why Dispute
conditions are unpredictable and during pre-arbitration. The use of DAB procedures
construction the design has to be adjusted received a boost in 1995 when introduced in Adjudication Boards could
to the actual ground conditions. These one of the FIDIC Books, which are today be the preferred dispute
adjustments can lead to additional costs and considered to be possibly the most
delays, thereby challenging contract frequently used contract forms for settlement mechanism for
administration and project management. As international infrastructure projects. Due to the underground
a consequence of the above, tunnelling is the popularity of these standard forms, DABs
prone to disputes. Construction contracts are now prevalent in construction projects construction industry
should thus provide a system for resolving such as tunnelling. According to the
claims and disputes on compensation in (fragmentary) data collected by the Dispute What are DABS?
order to avoid the escalation of the dispute Resolution Board Foundation (DRBF), almost DABs consist of one or three impartial
and to maintain good relationships during 3000 projects included Dispute Resolution experts, who are preferably experienced and
these long-term projects and beyond. Boards like DABs. This prevalence of DABs in highly trained engineers. In comparison to the
Dispute Adjudication Boards (DABs) are particular can be expected to further Engineer who has conferred decision-making
designed to serve this exact purpose. DABs increase in the tunnelling sector with the functions under the FIDIC Conditions of
aim to avoid the occurrence of disputes publication of a new FIDIC Book designed Contract, the DAB acts truly independently.
during construction and to promote the early specifically for Underground works (see our The Engineer, however, is subject to a conflict
resolution of disputes. latest article in the last Tunnelling Journal of interest: he is hired and paid for by the
In the tunnelling sector, DABs were first Issue April/May 2017). DABs are also Employer, being his agent in some cases,
made use of in 1987 in the Anglo-French recognised by the International Tunnelling while still being expected to act impartially
Channel Tunnel Project and consisted of a Association (ITA) for tunnelling projects. when deciding on disputes. This conflict of
LEGAL
interest created an element of scepticism disputes is generally at the discretion of the kinds of disputes conclusively.
towards the too strong role of the Engineer, DAB. It would normally be expected to One key strength is the focus on dispute
eventually leading to a shift of powers from conduct a hearing and possibly to request avoidance. With the availability of a – often
the Engineer to the DAB. The first edition of written submissions from both parties prior to permanent – DAB, disputes can be resolved at
the FIDIC Red Book still resolved disputes by this hearing. The DAB's decision should briefly an early stage which helps to save money and
written decisions of the employer's engineer, describe the matter in dispute, the relevant time and thus to maintain good project
whose decision was final and therefore could facts and the basis for its decision, particularly relationships. The parties are reluctant to take
only be altered by an arbitral award, without including the applied contractual provisions. tenuous or extreme positions in a dispute, as
an intermediary DAB. The 1996 Supplement Apart from dispute settlement, regular site that may result in losing their credibility with
to the FIDIC Red Book then introduced the visits should form part of the routine work of the Board members. Also, the reoccurring
option to reduce the Engineer's role to a – still the DAB. Good knowledge of the site, problem of aggregation of unresolved claims
important – first instance decision-maker experienced by actually visualising it, can be a is minimised since the DAB encourages the
while conferring the pre-arbitral role to the major advantage at a later stage when it parties to promptly refer disputes. Critics,
DAB. comes to disputes. Therefore, regular site however, cast doubt that DABs actually bring
DABs render temporarily binding decisions visits by the DAB can reduce the works for these advantages. Parties who are willing to
that differentiates them from Dispute Review reconstructing historical events later. The settle amicably would do this without a DAB,
Boards (DRBs) or mediators. DRBs render non- frequency of those routine site visits is highly and Parties that are not willing to settle will
binding advice on disputes and are more dependent on the actual project or the state not accept a DAB's decision and will
commence arbitration in any event. Without a
doubt, DABs do not always make a difference
One other great strength of DABs to a dispute. However, from our research and
is the vast technical expertise of its experience, there are a number of cases
where DABs provided for an adequate forum
members. DAB members are typically to find an acceptable solution to a dispute.
Even if parties are generally willing to settle
experienced engineers, who are amicably, they can disagree as to the exact
familiar with both the technical issues conditions of a compromise. Having an
unbiased and experienced Board render the
and best practice in the decision can ensure that settling is made
construction sector. easier for both sides.
One other great strength of DABs is
the vast technical expertise of its
prevalent in North America. Mediation is members. DAB members are
common across the globe and its use is not typically experienced engineers,
limited to only construction cases. A neutral who are familiar with both the
mediator attempts to identify and resolve technical issues and best
the disagreement between the parties, acts practice in the construction
as a communication channel between the sector. Limits, however, can
parties and may propose settlement be reached when it comes
solutions. If the parties, however, are not to legal and contract
capable of reaching an agreement the interpretation issues. These
mediator is not entitled to make a binding issues are preferably
decision. resolved by legal experts
who are specialised in
DAB appointment and routine construction law cases. The
operations dispute settling mechanism
The parties of a FIDIC Yellow Book-contract that the FIDIC contracts provide
can choose between a DAB consisting of one takes advantage of the respective
or three members. FIDIC recommends three organ's abilities and considers those
members when the project volume exceeds limitations. The Engineer works as a
US$25M. In this constellation, each party will first filter for disputes that do not inherit
normally select one member and the legal but technical problems. Many of these
chairman will be appointed by these two technical and/or less contentious issues can
appointed members. Sometimes the contract of it. As a guideline, the FIDIC Red Book already be resolved in this first step, when
will contain a list of people who can be provides for visits in intervals between 70 and both parties are satisfied with the Engineer's
appointed for the DAB. In this case the parties 140 days and additional visits during critical determination following the claim. Disputes
are obliged to choose a person from that list. phases of construction. During these site visits arising from the determination might then be
The DAB should be appointed as early as the DAB should be informed about the resolved by a DAB's decision. Thanks to the
possible, thus at the commencement of progress of the project, as well as existing or qualification of the Board members and their
construction, and should remain in existence potential difficulties. Additionally,the parties close involvement in the project there is a
throughout the lifespan of the project. Early would have the opportunity to bring forward high chance the dispute can be settled
appointment is key in order for the members issues that they consider as important to conclusively at this stage.
to detect problems on site and to become them. Furthermore, DABs are said to be relatively
conversant with the project. inexpensive. There have been surveys on the
The main task of a DAB is to resolve the Strengths and limits of DABs costs of DABs reaching the conclusion that
disputes that the parties refer to it. The exact Without a doubt, DABs have their strengths they only make up for 0.05 % to 0.3 % of
procedure for making a decision on these but cannot be a forum to resolve all different the total project costs. Usually costs of the
LEGAL
Figure 1: Comparison of the current of the claim, the Engineer makes an expires, the NOD is deemed to have lapsed
and new FIDIC books appropriate determination. When a party is and be no longer valid, leading to the
dissatisfied with the determination, it gives irrefutable presumption that both Parties have
CURRENT YELLOW AND RED BOOK notice to the other party of its intention to conclusively accepted the determination. Also
refer the dispute to a DAB, without being new is that Arbitration can only be
Dispute arising bound by a time limit. After its appointment, commenced within 182 days after the NOD
the DAB then renders a decision within 84 following the DAB's decision, but not before
Appointmentt of the DAB
Appointment days. In case of disagreement with the DABs the 28th day after the day the NOD was given
within 28 days decision, the party has to give a Notice of (even if no attempt at amicable settlement
Disagreement (NOD) to the other party within was made). The parties will on the one hand
DAB's decision
within 84 days 28 days. The Red and Yellow Books then benefit from streamlining the procedure. On
provide for a period of 56 days for a last the other hand, the parties will have to make
NOD within 28 days
attempt at dispute avoidance and amicable sure that they respect the time limits in order
settlement. Arbitration can subsequently be to preserve their own rights. The parties thus
Opportunity for amicable commenced under the rules of the require a well-organised contract
settlement, 56 days
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), management also while working with a DAB.
Arbitration without any time limits. Hereby, a party is not
entitled to bypass the DAB by directly Conclusion
initiating arbitration proceedings but the DAB In summary, DABs provide no "one-size-fits-
NEW YELLOW BOOK proceedings are rather a necessary all" solution. Especially complex legal issues
AND UNDERGROUND BOOK precondition. call for the expertise of contract lawyers and
(Differences To Current Book In Green) cannot be solved by a Board of technical
New FIDIC Yellow Book and FIDIC Book experts. The elaborated system provided by
Engineer's determination
for Underground Works FIDIC with a tiered dispute resolution
In particular the DAB procedure in the FIDIC mechanism partly avoids these limits by
NOD wi
within
ithin
thi
hin 28
2 days Yellow book has been criticised for different combining the DAB procedure with other
reasons, which will be addressed in the new forms of dispute settling such as arbitration.
Reference of dispute to the edition of the FIDIC Yellow Book (release Despite this limitation, the merits of the
DAB within 28 days expected in September 2017) and the new FIDIC's DAB procedure are notable. The Board
DAB's decision FIDIC Book for Underground Works (release members provide for high technical expertise
within 84 days of test edition expected in 2019/2020). allowing for an early resolution of a high
One point of criticism has arisen from the amount of disputes and even their avoidance
NOD within 28 days
fact that the DAB is appointed ad hoc, when at relatively low costs. Because of its close
disputes have already arisen. Thus, the involvement in the construction process, a
Opportunity for amicable challenging task of appointing the Board permanent DAB can anticipate contentious
settlement, 28 days
members appears in the midst of a dispute issues and ideally resolve them without much
Arbitration within 182 days and the Board members cannot assist in expenditure. Only few, legally complex
after second NOD avoiding disputes in the first place. Taking disputes are brought to arbitration, saving
account of these concerns, the new Books time and resources. Therefore the DAB
now set a greater focus on dispute avoidance. procedure was implemented in the FIDIC
This is illustrated by the addition of "Dispute standard forms as a crucial part of the
DAB will be shared equally by the parties. Avoidance" to the name of the Dispute provided dispute resolution mechanism. It has
These costs seem particularly low when Adjudication Board. As has been proven to be already proven to be successful in the current
compared to those expected in arbitration or successful in the FIDIC Red Book and FIDIC FIDIC Books and considering the
litigation and the loss of productive project Gold Book of 2008, the DAB is now improvements in the new FIDIC books will
time. In some cases, there is, however, no constituted as permanent instead of ad hoc have even more positive effects. It is however
alternative to arbitration or litigation and any and, therefore, remains in place until the important to note that the tight deadlines for
additional work by a DAB might cause works are completed. This is expected to have the assertion of claims and complex
unnecessarily incurred additional costs. As set a positive effect on dispute avoidance, as procedural rules require the parties to set up a
out, this might be the case if legal and prevention is only possible before a claim is well-organised contract management
contract interpretation issues arise. Or the made. The availability of informal assistance throughout the entire project.
dispute escalates to such an extent that the by the DAB to resolve disputes at an early
parties aim to reach a binding decision that is stage also supports dispute avoidance. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
also immediately enforceable against the Furthermore, it has been critically raised
other party. that the DAB procedure would take too long. Ulrich Helm is Partner and Fabian Bonke is
The FIDIC Books now provide for tighter an Associate in the Frankfurt Office of the
DABS IN THE FIDIC BOOKS deadlines for the whole dispute resolution international law firm Hogan Lovells
Current FIDIC Yellow and Red Book including the procedure in front of DABs. This International LLP. They are part of the
In the widely used FIDIC Yellow and Red Book will very likely apply to the upcoming Yellow Infrastructure, Energy, Resources and
DABs hold key role in their tiered dispute Book and the upcoming Book for Tunnelling Projects Group and frequently advise on
resolution mechanism. In short, the DAB is and Underground Works. Hereafter, a party tunnelling and other large infrastructure
deployed after a determination by the who is dissatisfied with a determination by projects. The authors particularly thank
Engineer and before arbitration commences. the Engineer, now has to give a first NOD to Ms Nora Stumpf for providing valuable
A typical procedure would be as follows: One the other party within 28 days. No longer support in drafting the article. The views
party considers itself entitled to additional than 28 days after this, the dispute has to be expressed in this article are solely those of
payment due to altered conditions and gives referred to the – already appointed, as it is the authors.
notice of this to the Engineer. If he approves permanent – DAB. If this period of time
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SUSTAINABILITY
In broad terms, the

tunnelling industry is
familiar with the need to
Life-cycle
improve sustainability. We
would all like to “tread
more lightly” in terms of
assessments of
our environmental
footprint. Indeed some
clients, such as London
Underground, are even
rock bolts
The life-cycle assessment (LCA) method is the study.
demanding that the based on the interdependence of relationships In general, each product can be said to interact
embodied carbon dioxide is within the environment. It is grounded in the with the environment throughout its whole life
premise that each product is linked to the cycle. However, the degree of influence
estimated and tracked as a environment not only by its inputs (material depends on each stage of the product’s life
project is developed and energy matter), but also its outputs (e.g. the main impact could be in the
(substances emitted into the environment production stages; other products may have
through the design stages. during production, consumption and disposal). the main potential impact during their
Carbon dioxide is believed The basic principle of LCA is the collection consumption stages or the disposal stages).
and evaluation of the inputs and outputs and Product life-cycles are variable in duration (e.g.
to be a major contributor to researching potential impacts of the product food does not usually exceed 2 weeks, but
system on the environment throughout its life- infrastructure may last tens of years).
global warming but it is cycle (Curran 2015, Klöpffer 2014). In LCA, the It should be noted that one product may
not the only or indeed the flows between the different product stages have several life cycles that can be compared
(source extraction, production, transport, and the LCA method can help to select the
most potent greenhouse storage, consumption and disposal) and the most environmental friendly option for that
gas. Similarly, global environment are mapped. The goal is to product. These variations may be caused by
determine and quantify all potential differences in production technologies, the
warming is not the only environmental impacts of the assessed differences in the use of the same product,
way in which humans can product. Typically, a LCA consists of four major differences in product disposal, etc.
phases:
have an impact on our 1. During the definition of goal and scope, the LCA amongst other approaches
world. A broader approach framework of the study is developed. The LCA methodology is formally supported by
Amongst other things, this includes a EN ISO 14040. This standard helps to make it
is needed to capture the description of the product system to be transparent. Thus the results are comparable to
full complexity of the studied, the system boundaries, the others; there is basic control of the used
functional unit and allocation procedures as information, and comparability of potential
environmental impact in well as impact categories. environmental impacts.
2. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is about If we compare a LCA study with a carbon
our assessments of tunnel collecting and analysing quantified data footprint study, the LCA is more
projects. Taking the related to extraction of resources from comprehensive because it affects more
nature and emissions caused by our environmental categories. An LCA can study
example of rock bolts, this processes (e.g. emissions to e.g. air and over 20 different environmental indicators at
article seeks to water, waste generation and resource once - issues such as toxicity, ozone, water
consumption). The whole life cycle is depletion, eutrophication, particular matter
demonstrate the value of included in a cradle-to-grave approach, in formation, acidification, hazardous waste,
the life-cycle assessment which all environmental burdens from the material depletion, metal depletion….and
extraction of raw materials through more.
method in this broader production and use to final disposal, In BREEAM, a LCA can score extra credits.
approach. including recycling, reuse, and energy This can help to achieve a BREEAM excellent or
recovery, have been included. BREEAM outstanding ratings. These credits are
3. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is available through the BREEAM section ‘Mat 01
By Dr Jana Kodymova, the estimation of potential environmental Life cycle impacts’. There are up to 9 points
impacts in terms of climate change, summer available, and another 6 BREEAM points can
Ostrava University, Dr smog, resource depletion, acidification, be obtained by assessing the material
human health effects, etc. The environmental impacts. Here the LCA may be
Alun Thomas, Minova, and environmental impacts are associated with supported by generic data (non-manufacturer
Markus Will, University of the environmental interventions attributable specific).
to the life-cycle of a product. LCA is also applicable to LEED certification
Applied Sciences 4. Interpretation of the findings, providing (building lifecycle rating credits). In total, one
Zittau/Görlitz conclusions and recommendations as well as can score 3 LCA credits in LEED. Credits can be
clearly stated assumptions and limitations of obtained for new buildings (or parts of
SUSTAINABILITY
buildings) by completing the life cycle assessment China). While it has been assumed that the Depletion), Global Warming, and Photochemical
of the structure and achieving at least a 10% galvanized steel bolts have a lifetime of 100 Oxidants. In the case of these three categories,
reduction in environmental impact of the main years, this is a highly questionable assumption the distinction between different product systems
building. As part of the assessment to achieve since the protective coating can be damaged differentiated by the different modes of transport
LEED certification and the LCA credits, no impact during transport and installation. For steel bolts is significant (the effect of transporting bolts by
category chosen as part of the life cycle to have a life-time of 100 years, they are often road transport over moderate distances is 7-15%
assessment can increase by more than 5% required to have multiple layers of corrosion more environmentally friendly than by long
compared with the baseline building. In the case protection. distance shipping). The lower impact of road
of LEED, the LCA study must comply with ISO Results of the characterisation underline that transport is mainly due to its 10 times smaller
14044:2006 to achieve the extra credits. composite GFRP shows less than 65% of distance than in the case of shipping in the
environmental impacts compared to steel. example. Obviously, the exact location of each
CASE STUDY: LCA for rockbolts Regarding the “material miles”, it is clear from project and the potential suppliers would affect
To illustrate, we can look at a study of the the graph that the biggest difference in terms of this calculation. However, the importance of this
environmental impacts related to a rock bolt. This negative impacts occurs within the categories of factor is clear.
comparison covered rock bolts for use in tunnels acidification and eutrophication. In the case of The concept of “food miles” was first coined
in Europe with the bolts sourced in China or these two categories, the impact of road by Prof Tim Lang in the 1990s and it is now well-
Europe. We considered two typical types of transport by truck within Europe is 50% lower established in consciousness. Similarly in the
permanent rock bolts: galvanized steel bolts and than in the case of shipping from China. The construction industry, we may need to start
GFRP bolts. It was assumed that both bolts were tunnel project was located in Scandinavia. thinking about “materials miles” as an important
anchored with resin cartridges. Furthermore, we can observe the differences aspect in enhancing project sustainability. In this
LCA is different to other approaches of within the Mineral Discharge category (Abiotic study, we applied a transport model based on
environmental assessment since it is a relative Ecoinvent 2 data. The shipping distance was
approach based on a functional unit and specific calculated only from the port and to the port,
Figure 1: The life-cycle stages of a
to the system boundaries. The functional unit is a because the marginal distance from the port to
rock bolt considered in this study
description of the quantified performance of a the place of installation was negligible (less than
product system. It is used as a reference unit, 1% of the total impact) and therefore the cut off
meaning that all environmental impacts are PRODUCTION PHASE rule was applied. Average distances for shipping
related and broken down to this functional unit. 20,000km and 2,000km for trucks were
The study works mainly with data
In our case, the functional unit used is: from Ecoinvent which are altered assumed. This difference in the overall impact is
1m of rock bolt, 100 years life-time by BREF documents also visible in the following chart, where
[environmental impacts per (1m*100a)] individual impact category was normalised1 for
This functional unit was chosen in order to allow PHASE OF easier interpretation:
comparability with other studies. PRODUCT TRANSPORT LCA analysis can give us an insight into the
All life cycle stages shown in Figure 1 have The study worked with two variants: individual life cycle stages (production, transport
been considered in the study, with particular 1. Transport by shipping service and maintenance) as shown in Figure 4.
from China
focus on production and installation processes, 2. Road transport by truck
The figures show that the dominant influence
where original data has been used. Foreground within Europe on the environment is the production of the
and background processes, in particular transport product (rock bolt). When the product is
processes, have been modelled with help of INSTALLATION AND transported by ship, the transport of product has
generic data based on the Ecoinvent database MAINTENANCE OF a significant influence on the environment.
(version 2.2). If no process data have been THE PRODUCT However, when the product is transported by
available, we estimated with expert judgements This phase includes the drilling of a lorry, then, from the point of view of the
bore hole and rock-bolt installation
or used process data from equivalent processes using polyester resin capsule environmental impact, the installation phase is
or products. or cement mixture more dominant than the transportation.
We assessed the environmental impact using The original study had a wider scope and also
the CML (Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen compared rock bolt and GFRP bolt. It is known
Leiden) methodology. This methodology uses the
midpoint impact categories, meaning that the
Figure 2: The characterisation of a rock bolt - shipped from China and
degree of environmental impact is expressed in
Europe (midpoint category, CML method)
different impact categories (toxicity, ozone, water
depletion, etc.). However, no damage on areas of
protection such as natural ecosystems, human
health or resources is modelled. The indicator
results in each impact category are expressed
relative to the reference substance causing the
same degree of environmental impact, i.e. the
global warming potential of methane is
described relative to carbon dioxide in CO2-
equivalents. The study presents results as impact
category indicators and the normalised results.
Results of the study

When we compared the product systems based
on the functional units of "one metre rock bolt
with a lifetime of 100 years”, we estimated the
impact as shown in the following graph (for the
cases of steel bolts produced in Europe and
SUSTAINABILITY
Figure 3: Normalised results rock bolt - shipping from China and Europe (9 of them are certified on the European level)
(midpoint category, CML method) and another 12 EPD labels are at the stage of
precertification at present. The majority of the
registered and pre-certified products are simple
products, such as basic chemical substances,
furniture and construction materials.
In general, construction/building materials are
experiencing a boom in EPD labelling in
accordance with EN 15 804 – Building
sustainability – Environmental product
declaration (EN 15804, 2012).
Conclusions
In conclusion, the LCA method offers an
excellent way to assess the broad environmental
impact of a construction material, covering the
whole or part of its life-cycle, as required. This
gives a much more comprehensive picture of the
impact than, for example, an assessment of just
the embodied carbon dioxide. However, this
requires more effort and there is a need for
that there is a high risk of damage during manufacturers to provide more data to databases
transport and installation in the case of rock Figure 4: The share of the individual such as Ecoinvent. While manufacturers can
bolts. In contrast, GFRP exhibits very good long- life-cycle phases in the overall impact assist in the period up to transport to site, users
term durability. Therefore, in practice, if GFRP has (midpoint category, CLM method) need to provide their own assessment of
a longer lifetime, it will have even lower transport, application and disposal, since these
environmental impact. are project specific conditions.
LCA is also a dynamic method that penetrates
General application of LCA other tools/methods that can be used in the
The LCA method is currently considered to be tunnelling industry such as BREEAM, LEED,
one of the most promising tools to facilitate carbon footprint, sustainable buildings or
putting the principles of sustainable development different types of environmental labelling of
into practice. However, the adoption of this products. The method can be applied to any
method varies from country to country. product used in any type of tunnel. In the
As an example of best practice, in the example shown, various rock bolts sourced from
European countries, the LCA method is usually various locations were assessed. This LCA
used in environmental labelling (mostly for highlighted the strong negative impact of the
environmental labelling of EN ISO Types I and III). transport distance – i.e. in general high
Label Type I is in accordance with EN ISO 14024 – “materials miles” have a negative impact on
Environmental labelling and declarations (ISO environmental impact. In this particular case,
14024, 2000) and with the National GFRP bolts were found to be the most
environmental labelling programme of individual sustainable option, all aspects considered.
countries. The National environmental labelling Hopefully, in the future, the tunnelling industry
programme establishes two kinds of the will increase the sophistication of its analysis of
environmental labelling Type I – an environmental impacts by using tools like LCA
environmentally friendly product (at a national and driving down the environmental impact will
level) and EU Ecolabel known as European flower be seen as equally important as reducing
(at an European level). In the case of Type I financial costs as projects are developed.
labels, LCA is usually used in the creation of The authors would like to thank everyone
product's directive (standard). The producers involved in the original study on rockbolts, in
need not create a specific LCA for their product; particular, Adam Janicek from Minova.
they just have to demonstrate compliance with
the relevant product directive. REFERENCES
Type III labels comply with EN ISO 14025 –
Environmental labelling and declarations (EPD) – Curran, Mary Ann (2012): Life Cycle
The environmental product declaration (ISO Assessment Handbook: A guide for
14025, 2006). If a producer wants to obtain this Environmentally Sustainable Products. John
Wiley & Sons.
type of label, they have a complex LCA study
made for their product, and based on this study, Budavari et al. (2011): Low Resource
materials for EPD are prepared. Therefore, in this consumption buildings and constructions
case an LCA study is the key instrument, and by use of LCA in design and decision
making
must be created and verified for each individual
product. In the Czech Republic, 27 valid EPD Klöpffer, Walter and Grahl, Birgit (2014):
labels on the national level are currently certified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A Guide to
1
Best Practice. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH &
The essence of the normalisation is relating the indicators of the impact category to the set Co. KGaA
reference values. The impact category indicators are divided according to the set reference
values which are set with regard to European countries. (Budavari, 2011)
contact US
Gary Tween Tris Thomas Amanda Foley
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Tunnelling
www.tunnellingjournal.com June/July 2017
The international journal for the tunnelling industry

journal
WORLD HONG KONG MONITOR

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM TJ LOOKS AT THE A ROUND UP OF
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north american June/July 2017
journal
MIXED CHALLENGES
AT BLACKLICK
FORGING AHEAD WITH THE TBM DRIVE
ROSIE BLACKLICK SHOTCRETE
ASSEMBLED FORGES AHEAD INNOVATIONS
ROBBINS UNVEILS A VIEW DOWN NATJ REVIEWS
ROSIE, THE FIRST THE GANTRIES OF THE RECENT SHOTCRETE
CROSSOVER TBM TO HERRENKNECHT TBM WORKS THAT HAVE
BE USED IN THE US, BEING USED TO BEEN USED IN NEW
PREMIERING ON THE CONSTRUCT THE YORK ON
OHIO CANAL MIXED FACE TUNNEL UNCONVENTIONAL
INTERCEPTOR TUNNEL OPENINGS
comment contentS
All in a month
It’s funny how one month can bring such good news for some,
8
and such bad news for others. May 5th saw New York Governor
Andrew M. Cuomo and Congressman Jerrold Nadler announce a
major milestone for the Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project
with the issuance of a Request For Proposals for a Tier II study. The
move will hugely bolster the likelihood of the execution of the
cross-harbor freight tunnel, a significant section of the project.
The tunnel will play a huge part in the removal of a staggering
1,800 trucks from the streets of New York per DAY, moving the
freight onto a more convenient, and environmentally friendly rail
network.
Meanwhile on the west coast, on May 25, not such great news,
as the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)
Board of Directors withdrew its share of the funding of a
proposed $3.2 billion, 4.9-mile tunnel to extend the 710 Freeway
from its current terminus to Pasadena – pretty much killing the 4 North American News
Project, contract & company news
project in its tracks.
The 710 Freeway has history. Being a major conduit for truck
freight traffic coming up from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long
6 The Insider
Bob Goodfellow mulls over the issue of
innovation, and how best to encourage and
Beach it has always garnered opposition from Pasadena. Indeed nurture its use
protests lead to its abandonment in the 1960s, with the Freeway
subsequently and rather abruptly ending between El Sereno and
Alhambra. This of course led to an inundation of traffic, both car 8 Mixed challenges at Blacklick
With the TBM fully launched, the team on
Blacklick Creek Sanitary Interceptor Sewer
and truck onto the areas surrounding streets.
Ironically, both tunnels have one major thing in common; they is preparing to tackle a whole host of
different ground conditions. Kristina Smith
are both there to get heavy, slow traffic – and all of the serious
caught up with contractor, designer and
environmental issues that go with it - away from people. In the
construction manager to ask about the
case of New York, by taking truck freight and placing it on rails, challenges ahead.
for LA, just by getting the traffic moving again.
So it is sad to see LA taking something of a backwards step in
confronting this issue. And the truth is, in 15 years time when the 14 Shotcrete Innovations in the US
Andy Thompson, Vice President of Mott
MacDonald in New York, and Frank
people of New York are enjoying their cleaner air and less
congested streets, the people of LA will be going through the Townsend, Vice President of Operations for
whole process again, until one day they have no choice other specialty contractor Superior Gunite, discuss
innovations and issues when using sprayed
than to build the tunnel….time wasted indeed.
concrete for the installation of permanent
Tris Thomas structural linings for non-uniform openings
14
NORTH AMERICAN TUNNELING JOURNAL 3

NEWS www.tunnelingjournal.com - breaking industry news first!
Milestone in Cross Harbor

Freight Project
percent – with most freight arriving by rail at

points west of New York and relying on
trucks to reach their final destinations. It costs
as much to move goods from New Jersey to
Manhattan as it does to move them 500
miles or more in some other areas of the
On May 5th, New York Governor Andrew M. economic growth for generations to come,” United States. In the next 20 years, freight to,
Cuomo and Congressman Jerrold Nadler Governor Cuomo said. “After generations of from, and through this region is expected to
announced a major milestone for the Cross neglect, New York is once again building for increase by at least 37 percent – beyond the
Harbor Freight Movement Project with the the future, and by investing in world-class capacity of our roadways, putting a lid on
issuance by the Port Authority of a Request transportation projects across the state, we economic development.
for Proposals (RFP) for consultants to conduct drive economic activity and help make our The Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel would
the Tier II Environmental Impact Study and great state even greater.” help reduce congestion on roads and bridges,
complementary advanced planning and Congressman Jerrold Nadler said, “The improve air quality and reduce asthma, as
engineering work. Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel project, which well as allow better movement of emergency
The Tier II study will thoroughly explore the I have supported for more than 30 years, will vehicles and buses. It would greatly decrease
execution of a cross-harbor freight tunnel, finally connect the New York metropolitan the cost of goods and of doing business by
identified in Tier I as one of the solutions to region to the national freight rail grid by improving the efficiency and cost of freight
alleviate severe traffic congestion, reduce removing trucks from our streets and diverting delivery. It would also create a necessary
dependence on aging roads and bridges, and them to the underutilized rail network. It will redundancy in this critical transportation
solve the region’s freight problem by finally change the way we move goods throughout system, thereby fortifying a national security
connecting New York City directly to the our region for the better, with economic, vulnerability. The Cross Harbor Rail Freight
national freight rail grid. The tunnel would environmental, health, safety and cost saving Tunnel would remove 1,800 trucks from New
run between an existing rail yard in the benefits for millions of people.” York Harbor crossings per day or half a million
Greenville area of Jersey City to connect with New York City is the only major city in the trucks per year.
existing rail infrastructure in Brooklyn. The world that is not directly connected to its The Port Authority and the Federal
Port Authority has committed up to $35 country’s national freight rail network. Highway Administration completed a draft
million for the study and has available up to Without this key rail link, more than one Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement that
another $35 million for further design and billion tons of freight move through the was published in November 2014, and
engineering greater New York region each year primarily following public hearings, stakeholder review
“New York leads the nation in tackling the by truck, with truck congestion adding an and comment, a Record of Decision for the
largest and most complex infrastructure estimated $2.5 billion annually to the cost of Tier 1 was issued by the FHWA in January
challenges head on, and this project will delivering goods to consumers and 2016. The Tier II study will also evaluate an
identify an innovative, 21st century solution businesses. Trucks transport about 90 percent enhancement of the existing railcar float-
to streamline congestion and support of the freight, while rail handles only 2-3 barge operation.
McNally/Kiewit JV scoops Doan Valley Tunnel

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer connections between the tunnels and allow the District to meet Clean Water
District (NEORSD) Board of Trustees has shafts, connections to existing culverts, Act regulations by creating a network of
approved the award of the Doan Valley consolidation sewers, near surface storage tunnels to hold the combined
Tunnel contract to McNally/Kiewit DVT structures, rehabilitation of existing flows after rainfall events and deep
Joint Venture in the amount of culvert, and modifications to existing tunnel dewatering pump stations to
$142,320,000.00. regulators. The project will also require convey the flows to the recently
The contract comprises of coordination with other ongoing tunnel upgraded wastewater treatment plant;
approximately 10,000ft of 18ft inside contracts. The Euclid Creek Tunnel and the Dugway
diameter combined sewer overflow Doan Valley is the third of eight tunnel Storage Tunnel (the first two tunnels to
storage tunnel, approximately 9,200ft of projects which make up NEORSD’s $3bn, be built for the program) will be capable
8.5ft inside diameter conveyance tunnel, 25-year Project Clean Lake program of storing 117M gallons of wastewater
seven shafts, two adits and other which began in 2011. The program will between them.
4 NORTH AMERICAN TUNNELING JOURNAL

www.tunnelingjournal.com - breaking industry news first! NEWS
Robbins unveils first US Crossover TBM

‘Rosie’ – the 30ft (9.26m) diameter XRE (or
Crossover) TBM that Kenny/Obayashi Joint
Venture will use to construct the Ohio Canal
Interceptor Tunnel (OCIT) – is now fully
assembled and ready to be tested before
shipping to the city of Akron this June.
The Robbins Company hosted local media
and project executives at its facility in Solon,
Ohio, on May 25 to unveil the $12 million
machine, which is a cross between a hard
rock shielded TBM and an EPB. Present were
Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan, Robbins chief now be disassembled and shipped 25-miles Cuyahoga and Little Cuyahoga rivers and
engineer Dennis Ofiari, and David Chastka, south to the site, with mining expected to comprises 6,240ft (1.9km) of TBM driven
Project Engineer for the Kenny-Obayashi JV. begin before the end of the summer. The tunnel that will be lined with a one-pass
Project representatives from DLZ, Parsons and TBM will be launched from a portal site and precast segmental liner. It will convey dry
McMillen Jacobs Associates were also on will excavate its first several hundred feet in weather sanitary flow by gravity to the Little
hand. soft ground before switching to hard-rock Cuyahoga Interceptor (LCI) sewer and be
Rosie – named after Mary Rose Jacob, an mode for the remainder of the drive. capable of storing up to 25 million gallons of
Akronite who began building aircraft wings The $184 million OCIT tunnel is the largest combined sanitary and storm flows during
at Firestone Aircraft during World War II, component of Akron’s $1.4 billion mandated wet weather events. Work is due to be
when she was a junior in high school – will program to control overflows into the finished by the end of 2018.
Nicholson consolidates regional offices

Nicholson Construction recently Vice President of the company’s construction in the southern half of
consolidated several of its offices to former Midwest Region. France and has previously held
form two new main regions. The Nicholson’s Eastern Region will leadership positions for the company
Central Region, led by Dan Thome, include offices in Pittsburgh and in the French West Indies and South
will include offices and shops in Salt Newark and will be led by Stephane East Asia.
Lake City, Denver, Chicago and Bourillot, a 25-year veteran of The company's Special Projects
Kalamazoo. In his 17-year career with Soletanche Bachy, Nicholson’s parent group, led by Luca Barison, will
Nicholson, Dan has held many company. Stephane most recently was continue to bid and construct larger
positions, including his most recent as responsible for all of Soletanche’s projects across the country.
Cuomo announces Metro votes to cease

plan to combat crisis funding for 710 Tunnel
at Penn Station On May 25, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority
On May 23, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced an (Metro) Board of Directors unanimously approved a motion to end its
aggressive action plan to address New York’s transportation share of the funding of a proposed $3.2 billion, 4.9-mile tunnel to
challenges starting with the near-term crisis at Penn Station and the extend the 710 freeway from Alhambra to Pasadena.
ripple effect it will have on the entire transit system. With derailments The vote diverts roughly $700 million in funding earmarked for the
and cancellations at Penn Station resulting in costly delays for millions tunnel project to other local street-improvement projects.
of travelers, the Governor’s plan provides both short and long-term While the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has
solutions to address the chronic failures at the station. Each workday, the final say on the tunnel, by removing its share of funding Metro
more than 600,000 people travel through Penn Station, which is has effectively killed the project, thus putting the 45-year battle over
owned by Amtrak and the federal government – more than triple the extension plans for the 710 freeway back to square one.
facility’s designed capacity. Amtrak is proposing repairs that would The 710 freeway is a major conduit for truck freight traffic coming
reduce the number of trains at Penn Station by about 20 percent up from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. As the freeway was
during peak travel times and as a result, commuters searching for being built in the 1960s, protests from South Pasadena delayed
alternative methods of transportation will crush an already completion, resulting in the freeway ending at Valley Boulevard on the
overburdened subway system and clog roads and bridges. border between El Sereno and Alhambra. Since then, trucks and other
Cuomo’s plan focuses on three parts: 1) Develop an immediate plan traffic coming off the freeway has inundated those communities.
for the Penn Station summer crisis; 2) Recommend viable long-term Attempts to extend the freeway to connect with the 210 Freeway in
management solution for Penn Station and turning it into a 21st Pasadena have been repeatedly stymied by opposition from South
Century transit hub with Farley Train Hall and the Gateway Tunnel; 3) Pasadena, Pasadena, and neighboring cities that didn’t want another
Challenge MTA to modernize the New York City subway system and freeway slicing through their communities. Several years ago, Caltrans
increase the number of trains at peak periods to relieve crowding and proposed putting the connecting segment underground to avoid
reduce delays. disrupting those cities, but still met opposition.

the
insider
Bob Goodfellow, PE, Senior Vice
President, Aldea Services LLC
technologies that have been used for many
INNOVATION? years elsewhere in the World, and even in the

US, but are not accepted practice for particular
projects. Most owners do not see a benefit for
COMPLICATED? them in innovation unless there is a significant

financial saving. There is little incentive to
innovate and take risks that owners see as
unnecessary.
INNOVATION IS A curious thing. We talk of observations of other successful projects, It is all too easy to label an owner’s dissent
innovation being the lifeblood of the future of alongside discussions with suppliers, to look and resistance to change as ignorance. But we
our industry. We talk about innovation as the forward and think of innovative ways to solve should not confuse ignorance with reasonable
theme of conferences and celebrate our firsts problems using the products that these caution. The engineering representatives of our
and our new developments. We should always suppliers provide. Specialty contractors are industry must learn better ways to
celebrate the innovative designs, construction experts, often in a narrow field, and use this communicate the value of innovation to our
techniques and materials we use to meet the highly-specialized expertise to develop their owners. We should also honestly represent the
objectives of owners. But as a wise man once practice beyond currently accepted standards. risks so that non-technical owners can make an
said: “who knew innovation in underground They do so from a position of deep knowledge informed decision with all the available
construction could be so complicated?” and an understanding of basic principles, evidence presented. Otherwise, they may feel
I take part in many discussions about allowing them more comfort with the higher that they are being led towards an answer that
innovation and the benefits and the risks risk profile associated with this innovation. is not in their best interests.
involved. Value engineering proposals may Owners are the bank in this process. They Technical innovation needs budgets for
suggest new applications or entirely new pay for the project to be built and ultimately research and development - with the
processes or materials. A design-build team’s gain the benefits of successful innovation while opportunity to take risks. The global budget for
alternative technical concept might use an idea also frequently accepting much of the risk scientific research and development is almost
for a project in the Far East and apply it to a when things don’t go so well. The owner is US$2 Trillion. As a critical applied science for
project in the US for the first time. Proposals, most frequently seen as a force that is resistant the preservation of our civilization, I would
ideas and questions on innovation and the risks to innovation. They are also the least technically hope that there is a way to direct some more
and benefits of these innovations are knowledgeable of all project participants and of this funding into the underground industry.
widespread and growing. therefore must be convinced that the To this end, a potential gamechanger is on the
One benefit of a globally integrated business innovation serves their interests and that the horizon: SpaceX.
is that innovations made in one part of the relevant risks are both identified and are able to Where SpaceX can change the game on our
world can spread quickly. Of course, one be managed appropriately. behalf is in their ability to just try things – like
disbenefit of a globally integrated business is This brings us to the final faction, the building a tunnel in their own parking lot.
also that innovations spread quickly – and Engineers. Engineers represent the owners, but Simply observing what they will do next is
perhaps are suggested for projects and also act as an industry advocate and the most fascinating, but provision of guidance and
applications before they are understood reliable gateway to get innovative ideas direction is possibly even more exciting. By their
completely. In tunneling, our industry contains included into projects. Engineers have a big own admission, SpaceX have no idea what
separate factions; and each has a role and responsibility to the industry and need to keep they are doing. But they are really smart
responsibility for innovation. These factions up to date on technical developments in design people, unburdened with conventional
provide a push and pull to the innovation and construction. To fulfil their critical role, they thinking. With a brief education in tunneling
process. This is ultimately helpful to fully vet must have the technical knowledge and and a fresh viewpoint, there is no reason why
solutions that drive the industry forward. expertise to judge when innovations can be SpaceX could not make a giant leap forward.
Technical innovation in our business is often applied to their projects. To do this, they must In time we shall see what they are able to
driven by equipment and material suppliers also be able to communicate with suppliers achieve. Whether SpaceX hits the 90%
who are commercially compelled to constantly and contractors, including specialty contractors, reduction in cost, or a lesser but still significant
strive for improved and more efficient products. to fully understand the innovative material, goal, I for one hope that they are able to make
They have by far the largest research and method or equipment. Finally, the engineer this leap. Think of the projects that would get
development programs and budgets and are must be able to communicate to the owner the green light if tunnels could be built
constantly using this budget while seeking an the benefits and the risks associated with the substantially cheaper than currently possible.
edge on their competition. innovation proposed. With a good attitude towards innovation’s
Contractors looking for their own The difficulty of this final step should not be benefits and risks, and some carefully injected
commercial edge use past experiences and underestimated. There are many applicable funds, how complicated can it be?

T
Tunnel
unnel | T
Trenchless
renchless | Geotechnical | Geostructural | Construction | Engineering & Design | BIM
AJ McGinn: 315.434.8885 | Ike Isaacson: 414.395.3180 | Gregg Sherry: 303.703.1405 | Alan Howard: 303.703.1405 | Nancy Nuttbrock: 281.994.7993
Creating Space Underground - Coast to Coast

www.brierleyassociates.com
www.brierleyassociates.com

BLACKLICK
Mixed challenges
AT BLACKLICK
BLACKLICK CREEK SANITARY INTERCEPTOR SEWER
Client: City of Columbus
Contractor: Blacklick Constructors
(Michels/ Jay Dee LLC)
Designer: EMH&T with AECOM, Aldea, Eagon
and associates and HR Gray
Construction Manager: Black & Veatch with iTunnel inc, Hatch
Chester, Dynotec, HR Gray and Prime
Procurement: design-bid-build
Notice to Proceed: May 2016
Completion: 2020
Cost of construction: $109m, including 15% contingency
With the TBM fully

launched, the team on
Blacklick Creek Sanitary
Interceptor Sewer is
preparing to tackle a
whole host of different
ground conditions.
Kristina Smith caught up
with contractor, designer
and construction
manager to ask about the
challenges ahead.
THERE ARE AROUND 240 wells within a

quarter-of-a-mile of the alignment of the
new Blacklick Creek Sanitary Interceptor
sewer in Franklin County, Ohio, and 610
within a half-mile radius. The water table
here lies just 10 feet below the surface and
much of this largely rural population rely on
wells for their water supply.
“That number of wells within the project
corridor led us to put a lot of focus on con-
PAC in use
Figure 1 – The Blacklick alignment

BLACKLICK
The TBM lowering shaft
trolling the water inflow into the tunnel generally speaking, how well it will exca- the sewer will also take wastewater from the
when specifying the machine,” says Mike vate.” Jefferson Water and Sewer District and the
Keller, partner of lead designer EMH&T. The Since it may encounter water pressures of City of New Albany. (FIG 1)
specifications set a maximum limit for inflows over 4 bar, the small-diameter EPBM has a 50 “New Albany is one of the fastest growing
into the heading and shaft of between 10 foot-long (15m) shield to accommodate a hy- areas for technology manufacturing so the
gpm and 30 gpm depending on the location. perbaric man lock, should it be required for need to support that ongoing growth is im-
To make life more interesting for contractor interventions to the cutter head. portant,” says Keller. “There’s a lot of eco-
Blacklick Constructors, a joint venture of “We are most concerned about the soft nomic and regional benefit in the project.”
Michels Corporation and Jay Dee Contrac- ground portions. If we were to encounter a The City of Columbus is funding the $109M
tors, Inc, the ground conditions along the boulder or boulder field and the cutterhead construction costs through a low-interest
4.5mile (7.2km) route are extremely variable. suffered significant damage, we would have loan from the Ohio Water Pollution Control
The TBM can expect to encounter silt, sand, to do an emergency intervention,” says Whit- Loan fund.
gravel, cobbles, boulders, clay, decomposed man. “The permeability of the ground is For the design team, one of the challeng-
shale, weathered shale, unweathered shale, greater than 10-3(cm/sec)2 which would pre- ing aspects was co-ordination. “As well as a
and any combination of these, with changes clude a free air intervention.” number of different designers, the process
occurring frequently. Over 34,000 cobbles was multi-jurisdictional; we had to interact
and 1,000 boulders ranging from 1 to 6 ft Serving a growing community with lots of different stakeholders to co-ordi-
(0.3 to 1.8m) are expected within the tunnel The new sewer will serve a 27,000-acre nate the overall design,” says Keller.
face along the alignment. (11,000 hectare) area in the Northeast of Planning for the Blacklick Creek Sanitary In-
Blacklick Constructors is using a Franklin County, one of the region’s fastest terceptor Sewer began back in 2006, but the
Herrenknecht EPBM to create the 10ft (3m) growing areas. The population here, which project stalled in 2009 due to the global fi-
ID tunnel. “We chose Herrenknecht because reached 2 million in 2015, is now no longer nancial crisis. In 2012, the City of Columbus
they offered the most attractive solutions to concerned only with farming and rural life; asked EMH&T to dust off the designs and
some of the challenges,” says Ed Whitman, new office developments, light manufactur- move it on to final design stage.
project manager for Blacklick Constructors. ing facilities, data centres and master planned The traditionally procured design-bid-build,
“We went with the machine we thought communities are now part of the mix. lump-sum fixed price contract was awarded
would be the most efficient for this job. The sewer, which largely runs under the to Blacklick Constructors, LLC in early 2016,
“We intend operating in EPB mode for the Reynoldsburg New Albany Road, will tie into with the Notice to Proceed following in May
soft ground portion of the alignment. When an existing 66inch (1.7m) diameter sewer just that year. Having started on site just after
we get to the shale sections, we will have to south of Blacklick Ridge Boulevard (see map). that NTP date, Blacklick Constructors have to
find out how the ground behaves to deter- From here it will head North and will connect date constructed two shafts at the launch
mine the appropriate method. At this stage, to the Rocky Fork Diversion in the future, point of the TBM run, and is close to com-
we are uncertain whether the shale will swell, once that has been built. As well as serving pleting the first of two intermediate shafts.
flake, be dusty, sticky, expand in water, and North eastern areas of the City of Columbus, The Herrenknecht machine arrived on site

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Photo courtesy of Nicholson Construction Co
. . . industry news as it happens!

BLACKLICK
January 12 and by mid-May was 450 feet

(137m) into its drive, fully assembled. “Ac-
cording to the GBR, we have encountered al-
most all the variety of geologies we are
supposed to be expecting throughout the
drive,” says Whitman. “So far the TBM has
been working very well, with no surprises.”
Blacklick Constructors used Shaft 1, 25
feet (8m) by 50 feet (15m) and the adjacent
manhole 12, which is 20 feet (6m) by 35 feet
(11m) (see map). The connection tunnel be-
tween Shaft 1 and Manhole 12 was initially
going to be constructed by cut-and-cover,
but in the event was hand dug.
“The starter/tail tunnel runs under a fairly
busy road and when we got here and looked
at it we decided there would be too much
traffic disruption including emergency vehi-
cles, and too many problems due to multiple
buried utilities including (2) 35 KV power
lines, so we opted to do a hand tunnel,” says
Rich Houghton, Construction Manager at
Black & Veatch which leads the Cities man-
agement team.
The TBM was assembled in Shaft 1, with
blind rings installed through the shaft which The TBM being lowered and readied for launch in the starter shaft
were removed once the back end of the
TBM’s ancillaries was clear of the shaft. 14,000 feet (4270m) into the drive, involve der, but this approach was abandoned.
Muck was extracted through Manhole 12 multiple structures: a shaft which connects to “We had a problem finding someone who
during the first 400 ft as the machine existing sewers which flows into a drop shaft could do the welding of the curved rebar
launched. with a vortex structure and dissipation pool ladders,” says Keller. “We calculated that we
“This operation was not very efficient be- at the bottom, connected itself to the main could go with full fibre design and seems to
cause Manhole 12 was not designed for pro- tunnel by a smaller diameter tunnel. be working out pretty well.”
duction, it was intended to install the Blacklick Constructors is drilling Shafts 2 “For a sewer, steel fibres are a better prod-
manhole structure,” says Whitman. “We had and 3 but hasn’t decided yet how Shaft 4 uct than rebar from a corrosion standpoint,”
to modify the shaft to make it large enough will be constructed. “We are planning to do says Houghton. “It’s likely that the tunnel
to serve the TBM launch, but whereas a ring a preliminary investigation, drilling around will last a lot longer than if it had been rein-
typically needs 3.5 to 4 muck boxes to do the shaft in June to get a better idea of how forced traditionally. And there are also less
one push, we could only fit one locomotive to tackle the current ground conditions,” breakages during installation.”
and a muck box in the shaft.” says Whitman. “Then construction will start As well as ensuring that the City of Colum-
However, Whitman points out that the first later in the summer”. Nonetheless there has bus’ design team were convinced and sup-
few hundred feet of a drive are typically slow been discussion from the City on redesigning portive of the steel fibre reinforced concrete,
anyway as the miners got up to speed with this shaft for future connections. the team had to apply for a special waiver of
how everything works. “Towards the end we Meanwhile the contractor will construct a the American Iron and Steel provisions to use
were able to do five or six rings a shift, de- bulkhead at the end of the tail tunnel be- fibres which are currently manufactured out-
spite the impediments, so it worked out tween Shaft 1 and Manhole 12, construct side the US.
pretty well,” he says. the Manhole 12 structure, and restore the
Blacklick Constructors elected to use loci’s top of the shaft so that the area can be used Over 100 boreholes
and muck boxes, rather than conveyors, to as storage for the tunnel segments. The biggest challenge for the constructors is
bring the muck out simply due to the restric- the same as for the designers: how to en-
tive size of the tunnels. “We generally prefer Fibre reinforced segments sure the local residents’ wells remain suit-
conveyor belts because they are more effi- The segments travel around 350 miles ably charged whilst mining through difficult
cient but in this case there were not a lot of (560km) to site from where they are manu- and changeable ground.
options,” says Whitman. “Once we install factured by Technopref. By mid-May 1,400 In a bid to mitigate this risk, EMH&T con-
the ventilation into the tunnel, there isn’t rings had been case and 500 were on site or ducted a wide-ranging geotechnical investi-
much room for anything else. We also had to installed. gation programme on behalf of the City.
procure custom muck boxes and locis.” “They are high quality segments and the The programme comprised vertical and in-
Mining Equipment provided the locis, finish is really good,” says Houghton. “The clined auger drilled borings, rotosonic
switches, muck cars, segment cars and venti- way they insert the fibres into the mix using drilled borings, groundwater monitoring
lation equipment. “We have a long-standing a conveyor seems to work well.” well installation, hydrogeological investiga-
relationship with them,” says Whitman. “If The segments are reinforced with Bekaert tion, downhole geophysics loggings, geo-
we don’t have it ourselves and we need to Maccaferri’s Dramix 5D high-strength steel fi- physical probes, a geophysical pilot study
buy it, we typically go through them.” bres which were designed for structural ap- and a large scale geophysical study.
The intermediate shafts, Shaft 2 at 5,000 plications. The original specification called for A total of 107 bore holes were drilled,
feet (1500m) into the drive and Shaft 3 at a mix of steel fibres and a curved rebar lad- 100 along the final alignment. “The design-

BLACKLICK
The TBM gantries with diving operation and to control the decom-
segments being delivered pression process, but is training up its work-
force to do the work on the cutter head.
This type of intervention would be made
even more challenging due to the small di-
ameter of the machine. This is something the
designers thought long and hard about be-
fore deciding to increase the specified size of
the sewer to a minimum 10ft (3m) I.D; since
this tunnel is tying into the 66inch (1.7m)
sewer it didn’t need to be any bigger than
that to accommodate the flows.
Due to the subsurface conditions and hy-
drogeology, we wanted to use an EPBM and
we evaluated everything from 9 feet up to
14 feet diameter machine,” says Keller. “We
bid it with the opportunity to build a 10 ft
(3m) or 12 ft (3.7m) diameter finished tunnel
to provide flexibility for the contractors.”
“The size of the tunnel does restrict some
of the available muck removal methods but it
isn’t much different than the conventional
methods used in tunneling decades ago,”
says Whitman. “Space is very limited, if you
need to upsize a pump on the machine, per
ers have done an extensive investigation tors and key personnel from other jobs. say, it is difficult because there’s not much
campaign and we have lots of borings and “The unions are really good to work with on room to fit it in, but that’s just another chal-
information to go through,” says Whitman. that aspect as well,” comments Whitman. lenge of the job.”
“But there’s always a level of uncertainty: a To deal with the changing ground condi- Miners must also be on the alert for the
boring only gives you the geological conditions, the contractor has chosen Tungsten presence of gases, as some of the boreholes
tions at that location, but the sections in be- Carbide Insert Pressure Compensated Mono indicated the presence of methane and sev-
tween borings might hold surprises.” Block Disc cutters that perform in the di- eral others contained carbon monoxide.
It’s the transition points that will be inter- verse geologies as the main cutting tools. In “We have to plan ahead and have contin-
esting says Whitman. Here the miners will addition, and based on the contractor’s pre- gencies for every anticipated problem,” says
be switching between soil conditioning vious experience, it is using additional pre- Whitman, adding: “The bigger problems you
agents: surfactant-based where the ground cutters manufactured by Japanese supplier have are often the ones you hadn’t antici-
is sticky or polymers where high volumes of Starloy, as face cutters and overcutters to pated.”
water is encountered. Project engineer Dr. protect the cutterhead further. Some $750,000 has been put aside to deal
Ehsan Alavi, whose Ph.D. research was fo- “State-of-the-art engineering and tremen- with potential groundwater issues; 10 mobile
cused on soil conditioning and cutterhead dous effort has put in place under the super- water tanks have already been purchased
wear in EPB tunneling, will be on hand to vision of Dr Alavi to armour the cutterhead with a plumber on hand and a well company
advise and instruct the crew on judicious for the diverse geology in this project,” says which could drill new wells if necessary as
use and adjustment of soil conditioning reg- Whitman. some of the existing ones are shallow or
imen in different geologies. Should an intervention be required in a semi-shallow. “It’s important that we are as
The area’s geological history provides an soft ground section with high water pres- responsive as possible to the residents,” says
explanation of the many variations along the sures, the first choice would be to limp to the Houghton. “We have to ensure that people
tunnel run. First the bedrock, which includes nearest safe haven: one of the two interme- are back with water within 24 hours.”
Cuyahoga Formation, Sunbury Shale, Berea diate shafts. If that wasn’t possible, grouting Diligence will be the order of the day for
Sandstone, and Bedford Shale was eroded ahead 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12m) in front of the entire drive, not only because of the
and weathered by a river system. Then came the TBM would be the next step, says Whit- groundwater issues but also because the
the glaciers, filling the valleys created by the man.” If that’s not possible, we would likely road they will be tunneling under is one of
rivers with glacial material which includes have to resort to grouting the face in to per- the busiest in the County. “We have to be
large cobbles and boulders as well as form an emergency intervention and repair extremely vigilant to ensure we don’t have
glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine soils. the damaged tools to get to the next safe any volume losses,” says Whitman.
The predominant bedrock along the haven.” If all goes to plan, the TBM should break
alignment will be the Sunbury Shale, ac- A last resort would be to work under com- through into the reception shaft in 17
counting for around 46% of the drive. The pressed air. Hence the manlock and facilities months’ time, around December 2018. The
TBM should pass through five sections of at ground level which can accommodate hy- project is well ahead of contractual mile-
the shale, alternating with softer ground. perbaric workers and physicians, and a DART stones, says Whitman, which required the
Blacklick Constructors is fortunate to have (Diver Attendant Recompression Trans- connecting tunnel between Shaft 1 and
experienced miners in its crews, some of portable) vessel which could be used to Manhole 12 to be complete by July this year
whom came from the OSIS Augmentation transport divers from the cutter head to a hy- and the launch to be done by September.
and Relief Sewer (OARS) project which was perbaric chamber on the surface. Blacklick “It is a challenging project but we think
finishing as this one began. The contractor Constructors has employed a specialized we can make it a great job and finish early,”
has also been able to bring its TBM opera- commercial diving company to oversee the says Whitman.

JOBS DONE WELL
For more than 50 years, Kiewit has built
some of the most complex tunneling and
underground projects in North America. At
the heart of these projects is a workforce
dedicated to industry-leading safety
performance and unmatched quality
excellence. From the unique, complex projects
we build, to the committed professionals who
design, engineer and construct them, Kiewit
ensures the ordinary is always extraordinary.
Kiewit Infrastructure Co.

302 South 36th Street, Suite 400, Omaha, NE 68131 | (402) 346-8535
KIEWIT.COM
Underground connections
What if you could rely on a global network of experts
who can bring an innovative approach to your
underground needs?
Mott MacDonald is your solution.
Mott MacDonald has engineered more than 1,600

miles of tunnels worldwide.
tunnels@mottmac.com
www.mottmac.com
Image courtesy of the San Francisco Public Utilities

Commission / Photographer Robin Scheswohl

NEW YORK
SHOTCRETE
Innovations
HISTORICALLY, PERMANENT concrete lin-
ings for underground structures have been
Andy Thompson, Vice President of Mott MacDonald
installed using form and pour methods, but in New York, and Frank Townsend, Vice President of
the use of shotcrete or sprayed concrete for
structural linings is becoming increasingly
Operations for specialty contractor Superior Gunite,
common. Although cast in place methods discuss innovations and issues that have been
are well proven, they do have their down-
sides, especially where non-uniform shapes encountered when using sprayed concrete for the
are required. installation of permanent structural linings for non-
Although form and pour methods can be
used for virtually every combination of uniform openings in underground construction
shapes and spaces, there are drawbacks to
its use especially when non-uniform cross
sections and junctions etc. are required. De-
signing and installing custom built form-
work is time consuming and depending on
project logistics can cause pinch points in
the schedule. As Clients strive to manage
the scarce capital they have to manage ex-
isting and build new facilities, designers and
constructers are increasingly being chal-
lenged to minimize the excavation and lin-
ing quantities. This brings new challenges to
the use of cast in place concrete due to the
complex nature of the shapes being de-
signed.
The use of shotcrete or sprayed concrete
for the installation of the permanent struc-
tural lining for non-uniform openings is a
well-established process, but in the last few
years the boundaries of its use, especially in PAC in use
the US have been stretched. Mott MacDon-
ald in conjunction with Superior Gunite
have been at the forefront of expanding the achieving consolidation, compaction, and a use of lattice girders to support the steel re-
use of this application method in the under- uniform distribution of the concrete con- inforcement and assist in controlling the
ground environment. stituents. profile/geometry of the tunnel cross section
The end product is a one half inch, minus and is applied in layers to build up the con-
Freeform concrete Portland Cement Concrete (PCC), capable crete thickness of the final linings. Rein-
So what are the benefits of the use of of achieving conventional and high forcement in such applications is usually
freeform concrete linings, how do they dif- strengths, while maintaining or exceeding small bar diameter (five or less) and well-
fer from shotcrete final linings, and what required end properties by design. Materials spaced out, to minimize the opportunity for
are the potential drawbacks? are pumped wet to the nozzle where air is shadowing of the shotcrete around the
Freeform concrete, also referred to as added at high pressure to achieve the re- girders and rebar.
Pneumatically Applied Concrete (PAC), as quired spray pattern and high velocity for It requires a high level of application skill,
developed for use on many of the major the concrete application. This application workmanship, and a rigorous quality control
capital projects under construction in New mimics ACI 506 and sites the ACI specifica- process. It is also increasingly being installed
York, involves the application of structural tion as a reference. using robotic spraying, which therefore lim-
concrete utilizing high velocity pneumatic How is this different to a shotcrete final its the finish that can be achieved to that of
projection from a nozzle as the means for lining (SFL)? A typical SFL lining involves the a nozzle finish. For example, a typical se-

NEW YORK
in the US
quence for SFL may include: (1) installation
of lattice girders at 5ft centers with a rebar
Complex Tunnel
network lined heavy,
reinforcement mat placed against the water- using PAC. and in most
proofing membrane at the extrados side of cases steel forms
the girders, and partial spray- that have limited flexi-
ing of the lattice girders; bility in final position, PAC
(2) shotcreting of an in- finds its most effective uses.
fill first layer be- The benefits the use of PAC brings
tween the include no need to engineer, fabricate,
lattice girders; install and remove a form system in a re-
(3) shotcreting stricted underground space, which means
of a second force- the forms are also not going to block the
layer; (4) instal- ment and tunnel during concrete placement opera-
lation of rebar re- against PVC or tions. Scaffolding is needed, but typically
inforcement on the spray applied waterproof- there is a need for scaffolding for rebar in-
intrados side of the lining; ing membranes. It is applied in stallation anyway, and in any case scaffold-
and then (5) installing a final layers and can be hand finished to ing is lighter and easier to transport and
shotcrete layer to provide the achieve any standard required, including install than a form system. PAC can be used
minimum cover over the reinforce- textured architectural finishes. It does how- with or without waterproofing, be it sheet
ment. The number of shotcrete layer instal- ever require highly skilled nozzle men and membrane or spray applied, although en-
lations would depend on the total design support crews to ensure a safe and high hanced QC will be required for sheet mem-
thickness of the final lining. quality finish is achieved as well as an ex- brane systems especially in overhead
Freeform concrete or PAC, by contrast, is tremely rigorous quality control process both applications to ensure the membrane is tight
utilized with the same rebar design that before application and during. against the substrate.
would be used for a form and pour lining PAC excels in tunnel applications where PAC has been successfully used for cav-
and no specific provisions need to be made conventional forming methods are difficult erns, wyes, cross passages, vent shafts, air
to accommodate its use. It can be used logistically as well as costly to construct. plenums, inclined escalator shafts, TBM
around extremely heavy and congested rein- Where conventional methods use large, crossovers and tunnel junctions, all of which
are locations that render uniform linear ap-
plications vulnerable to customization re-
Typical example of PAC lined structure quirements. In these locations, PAC affords a
monolithic placement process to be utilized
while allowing the Designer and Contractor
to achieve the needed variations in conform-
ing to the ever changing conditions of a
project, which would not otherwise be
achievable with a fixed forming system. For
a tunnel system PAC is an ideal placement
method for the many and varied geome-
tries.
While PAC is extremely versatile it is not a
process that can be used in all locations, for
example, repetitive uniform TBM lining oper-
ations are better served using a traditional
form and pour approach as the rate of
placement of PAC can never equal that of a
form.
As noted above the use of PAC requires a
rigorous Quality Control Process. For exam-

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NEW YORK
PAC is typically used with a waterproofing

membrane which can either be a PVC or
spray applied. In both cases a layer of mesh
is installed approximately 1 to 2 inches
away from the waterproofing and hung on
the waterproofing suppliers proprietary an-
chor system. This mesh is spaced off the
waterbarrier using bulsters to help hold the
membrane back and to give the shotcrete a
surface to grip against. This enables over-
head applications to be undertaken with lit-
tle difficulty. Where a PVC membrane
Preconstruction vertical (a) and overhead (b) test panel system is utilized, all waterbarriers used as
part of the waterproofing sectioning system
are equipped with re-groutable hoses to en-
Pre-construction field trial sure adequate embedment of the waterbar-
PAC mock-up and hand riers with the PAC. After the concrete lining
spraying of vertical walls has gained its 28-day compressive strength,
grout is injected through the re-groutable
hoses to fill any voids between the water-
barrier and the PAC final lining.
Similar to form and pour and shotcrete
final linings, contact grouting is required
when PAC is used to fill any voids between
the waterproofing membrane and the con-
crete final lining. This contact grouting is
not limited to roof sections only, but also a
radial and more frequent distribution of
grouting ports and pipes around the crown
and above the spring line. This was imple-
mented with the injection of low viscosity
cementitious grouts between the final PAC
lining and the membrane to ensure a tight
Encapsulation around reinforcement, embed- contact between the initial and final lining.
ments and encasement of a waterbarrier (on
right lower side) Application examples
This method of concrete placement has
ple when PAC was introduced to a recent tically and horizontally – were identified and been used in many different applications in-
project in New York it became clear that ad- installed together with any embedded ele- cluding a 30 inch thick 60ft SEM tunnel
ditional measures would need to be in- ments required for the final lining together constructed through frozen ground (see
cluded in the Quality Control process, both with the waterproofing system. All nozzle- two pictures below):
to ensure a safe and high quality installa- men were required to demonstrate their
tion, but also to satisfy the requirements of ability to completely encapsulate the rebar
the New York State Building Code (NYSBC). and provide the requisite compaction of
The NYSBC includes requirements that need concrete required prior to the use of PAC
to be met to permit the installation of shot- being authorized for use in the permanent
crete as a structural component. These re- works. Once the mockup had been sprayed
quirements include #5 rebar as the sections were cored and saw cut to demon-
maximum size of rebar to be used, a “6 strate that the encapsulation had been
inch” minimum rebar spacing and a prohibi- achieved.
tion on the use of full contact lap splices. During production operations regular
Crucially, however, the NYSBC includes a testing of the design mix was undertaken,
provision for a waiver to these requirements but limited testing of the finished product
should the designer be satisfied that full en- were performed. The nature of the applica-
capsulation of the designed rebar can be tion method, plus using experienced ACI
achieved. So to satisfy this requirement the Certified nozzle men, ensures that shadow-
following process was put in place. ing and voids are dealt with as the shotcrete
In addition to vertical and overhead test is being placed, due to the close proximity
panels for proving the shotcrete mix design of the nozzleman with shooting from the
to be used, a full size preconstruction nozzle taking place mostly from inside the
mockup of the lining was required to be un- reinforcement. Coring through the finished
dertaken, utilizing the approved mix designs product was minimized and was typically
and the equipment proposed for use in the undertaken in early applications only, using
works. Working with the designer, the most “sacrificial” additional rebar to check the
heavily congested rebar sections – both ver- encapsulation.

NEW YORK
It has also been used for the creation of an

inclined escalator shaft
Client benefits
For the Client the benefits of using the PAC And also used to
method are mainly associated with schedule form circular
and quality. This method is synonymous with columns as part
ACI 506R-16 Guide, using an ACI Certified of a ventilation
nozzleman in the underground which is not plenum
currently a requirement by ACI.
As no forms are used, there is no need to
go through a drawn out process for their de-
sign, fabrication, delivery installation and re-
moval. As such, the PAC method can be used
throughout the duration of the project, en-
abling the final lining to be installed relatively
quickly after excavation. This can enable fol-
low on contracts to enter into these com-
pleted sections for access or for completion
work earlier than would be the case with a
form and pour lining. In addition, the lack of
forms means there is no blocked access
routes through the area to be lined, although
the scaffolding required to install the control
wires and to undertake the concrete place- no waiting until the form is struck to discover, reality the most practical method of con-
ment may cause some blockage, it is of a far voids, honeycombing etc. these are fixed as crete placement. The PAC method though
lesser duration. the work progresses with PAC, thereby mini- offers a viable alternative placement
The finished space is not now limited by mizing the need to go back and undertake method for use in non-uniform cross sec-
the need to build and install forms. Continu- remedial works in completed sections of tun- tions, shafts and other areas where the in-
ously changing cross sections can be devel- nel. In fact, the PAC method is often used to stallation of a form would be problematic. It
oped that minimize excavation, lining rectify areas where problems have been en- is certainly not a panacea and requires a rig-
thickness and schedule as the PAC method countered with the use of formed concrete. orous engineered approach to the design of
can be used to match the lining to the space the structures and methods to take advan-
requirements and the challenge is now back Summary tage of its flexibility and quality benefits.
with the designer to economize on these ele- Form and pour concrete will continue to be The challenge moving forward is to take ad-
ments knowing that PAC is a tool in his ar- the prime method of placement of final lin- vantage of this method to provide efficient
mory. ings in underground structures. For repeti- and economic designs that take into, and
With regard to Quality the finished product tive lining operations such as lining a TBM accept the limitations and benefits of the
can be seen as the work progresses, there is tunnel over several thousand feet this is in PAC placement method.

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Tunnelling

www.tunnellingjournal.com June/July 2017

The international journal for the tunnelling industry

WORLD HONG KONG MONITOR

Pioneering Underground Technologies

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Figure 11: Fibre Reinforced concrete re-inforcement 1170 – Leading Edge

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Materials design for

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