Tunnelling in the Himalayas: Risk assessment and management for tunnelling in extreme geological conditions Ian Mcfeat-Smith IMS

Tunnel Consultancy Ltd., Hong Kong SYNOPSIS: This paper draws upon experience gained from a series of major tunnel projects undertaken in the Himalayas and several others worldwide that identify specific engineering risks being encountered in extreme geological conditions in developing mountainous terrain. A state of the art Risk Management Plan and Matrix is presented and used to demonstrate appropriate methodology for identification and management of such hazards and risks as well as appropriate mitigation measures to be undertaken for effective control of the works. Experience is drawn from a series incidents encountered in major rock tunnels where severe access constraints, unstable and snow bound portals, large water inflows, silt flows, rock bursts, squeezing ground, wide fault zones, hard abrasive quartzies, schistose metamorphic rocks, soft youthful sandstones have been, and are currently being excavated by drill and blast, roadheader, open type and double shielded TBMs. Means of minimizing such risks and their impact on contracts are identified together with improved practices for the Indian Tunnelling Industry. Indicative international costs for tunnelling in such conditions are also provided. 1. INTRODUCTION The Himalayas, as described by Panthi (2007) covers some 594,400 m2 with altitudes varying from 100 m up to 8,848 m above sea level and weather conditions varying from alpine snow and ice covered ridges to sub-tropical hot weather in the Southern planes and deep valleys. Increasing population trends and urbanization in India and Nepal are creating enormous pressure in the Siwaliks and lesser Himalayan zones for water related resources including hydro-electric power, irrigation and drinking water, as well as for road transportation. Needless to say modern tunnelling methods, materials and plant are in considerable demand for such infrastructure however the area is subject to tectonic uplifting as well as rapid erosion by several major river systems. Hence the steep mountain slopes and roads are experiencing debris flows, avalanches and rock and soil slope instability particularly during the monsoon season. As a result access is difficult and road closures not uncommon. Also portal works and site camps often need protection from such unstable elements. The rock types are predominantly young sedimentary and metamorphic rocks often giving rise to major tunnel stability hazards by means of: poor rock quality; deep weathering; high schistosity, shearing and faulting; high rock stresses causing

rock bursts and deformation; and large water inflows. Overburden cover for tunneling projects can be as high as 2,000m, for the recently tendered Rohtang Road tunnel project for example, but more commonly varies up to 1,200-1,500m for many of the Indian HEP headrace tunnels. Rock tunnelling by means of roadheader is being carried out in soft youthful sedimentary rocks such as the low strength Shivalik Sandstones for the Subansiri HEP project in the Assam Province; whilst drill and blast has been favoured for HEP projects such as the Parbati HEP Project Stage II in the schists, phillites, quartzites and other massive metamorphosed rocks found in the Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim Povinces as well as for the Lower Marsyangdi HEP Scheme, in Nepal for example. Several attempts at the application of open type TBMs in such conditions have led to abandonment of the works due to severe water inflows and associated problems in the case of the Dulhaste HEP project in Kashmir, and to large delays due to silt flows, rock bursts and associated contractual constraints on the Parbati HEP project. Undeterred, and under pressure to meet huge increases in demands for power, and having gained experience from these challenging conditions, the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) of the Indian Government will soon let a contract to World Tunnel Congress 2008 - Underground Facilities for Better Environment and Safety - India construct the 16km long Kishanganga HEP headrace tunnel to be driven by TBM in similarly extreme conditions. The writer draws from personal experiences gained from most of these projects as well as from worldwide applications of TBM tunneling in similar terrain. 2. RISKS FROM VARIABLE ROCK MASS QUALITY Whist long sections of massive sedimentary rocks occur in the Assam Province for example most tunnels are encountering highly variable and inconsistent rock mass conditions. Goel et al. (1995) describes hazards on the 4.75m diameter Maneri-Uttarkashi tunnel driven by drill and blast in quartzitic and metabasic rocks as including: problems of tunnel face collapse, with or without heavy ingress of water, cavity formation and large tunnel closures leading to buckling of steel ribs on account of squeezing ground. The absence of advance knowledge of the frequently changing rock mass and ground water conditions and, therefore, the inability of the tunnelling engineers to modify the construction method and support system was responsible for these problems. Panthi (2007) identifies the directional behaviour of thin bands of very weak and deformed

rocks including sheared mylonites intercalated with stronger, better quality rocks such as gneiss and quartzite i.e. mixed face conditions, as giving rise to severe stability problems. 3. RISKS FROM WEATHERING AND MAJOR FAULT ZONES The combination of active tectonic movement and complex climatic conditions in the Himalayas enhance deep weathering effects along weakness zones and, according to Panthi (2007) triggered tunnel collapse at the pressure shaft on the Khimti Project at a depth of over 100m. Similar effects were found by the writer on Casecnan Project in the Philippines where weathering effects along inclined shear zones promoted the collapse of the raise bore at about 150m depth resulting in the abandonment of the entire surge shaft. Tunnelling across major fault zones is hazardous in terms instability arising from variability of the geological conditions from soft mylonitic materials to hard boulders, the possibilities of encountering squeezing ground; and the continuity of such zones and hence their being linked to large surface water sources. Fault zones expected in the Rohtang Tunnel are expected to be as wide as 600m for example. However they are less likely to be encountered unexpectedly and the opportunity exists to investigate and even drain these by drilling long directionally controlled cored boreholes up to about 1km long. In the writers opinion responsibility for conducting such site investigation (SI) rests fairly and squarely on the shoulders of Clients. Advance open hole probing is not an adequate substitute for such SI. 4. STRESS INDUCED RISKS 4.1 Rock bursts At Parbati cracking sounds followed by spawling and bursting occurred in a zone with overburden cover of 650 to 1000m rather than in areas of maximum cover. Rock bursts occur in areas of high insitu stress suddenly and dramatically posing serious hazard to miners near the tunnel face. The frequency of such incidents in a single drive can vary from 10-30 or more. Severe injuries and fatalities can be expected in drill and blast tunnels due to the intensity of labour required at the face and some events occur as major rock falls or as large overbreak above the immediate face causing damage to plant such as jumbos, and roadheaders if in use. The main impact of these is the loss of life, demoralizing of tunnel crews, delays and associated costs. The impact on TBM drives is substantially less as the TBM shield takes the impact, although close support (say steel sets at 0.5m intervals) may be required for open TBMs and gripping problems can be expected. 4.2 Squeezing/convergence

Convergence, or tunnel strain in terms of the percentage tunnel wall displacement/ tunnel radius ( %), is related to the ratio of the rock mass strength ( MPa) relative to the insitu stress (p). Figure 1 shows tunneling problems in terms of squeezing for different levels of strain. Table 1 after Hoek (2001) shows the severity and amount of strain monitored in a series of Indian tunnel projects. Large to severe convergence in drill and blast tunnels is controlled by the installation of pre-reinforcement such as umbrellas of horizontal