October/November 2019

The International Journal for the Tunnelling Industry

TUNNELLING JOURNAL OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019

www.tunnellingjournal.com

Return to Russia...
Page Page Page
08 Brenner Base 26 The road 36 A TBM first
Tunnel to cleaner for Nepal
TJ visited the Italian tunnelling Breakthrough
portion of the TJ explores the seven months
route to report on strides made thus ahead of schedule
progress. far in reducing despite challenging
emissions Himalayan
underground. geology.
Tunnelling Journal 1
 GRAND PARIS EXPRESS, FRANCE

TOGETHER WE
BUILD MORE THAN
CONNECTIONS
By 2024 at the end of project phase 1, Société du Grand Paris,
12 construction companies and 19 Herrenknecht state-of-the-art
TBMs will connect the Parisian underground metro network
with the suburbs. Grand Paris Express provides an exceptional
opportunity to train the next generation of engineers and pushes
innovation forward.
herrenknecht.com/grandparis

Client:
Société du Grand Paris
Contractors:
Bessac
Bouygues TP
Demathieu Bard
Eiffage GC
Implenia
NGE / NGE GC
Pizzarotti
Razel-Bec
Salini-Impregilo
Soletanche Bachy France /
Soletanche Bachy Tunnels
Spie Batignolles
Vinci Construction

2 Tunnelling Journal
 Contents
Editor’s comment – page 5
News from the web – page 6

08
Brenner Base Tunnel: Italy’s story
The Brenner Base Tunnel is an epic project which
will create a high-speed rail connection from Italy to
Austria. Kristina Smith visited the Italian portion of the
route to report on progress.

18
A Return To Russia
40 Years after boring the Original Severomuysky
Service Tunnel, Crossover TBMs take on Tunnel No. 2,
Desiree Willis of the Robbins Company reports.

15 minutes with…Alan Boden – Page 24

26
The road to cleaner tunnelling
There are general concerns over the harmful effects
of exposure to gases and particulates generated
by diesel-powered machinery during tunnelling
construction. TJ explores the strides made thus far in
reducing emissions underground, and the tenacious
move towards battery-electric technology and its
implications. By Munesu Shoko.

30
A review of Tunnel Segment Gaskets -
Part 2: Standard Gaskets and testing
Mike King (MK Tunnelling Limited) and Steve Casey
(Casey Consulting) take a look at what many would
regard as the typical, or even industry standard,
gasket detail, and the testing requirements often
specified on a typical project.

36
A TBM first in Nepal
In April 2019, Nepal’s first TBM broke through on the
12.2km Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project
(BBDMP) headrace tunnel. Prof. Dr. Krishna Kanta
Cover Caption: In 1979, Panthi, Department of Geoscience and Petroleum,
Robbins supplied a Double Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Shield Tunnel Boring (NTNU), reviews and evaluates the geological
Machine (TBM) for the conditions, performance of the TBM, and the achieved
Severomuisky Service Tunnel, progress on this landmark project.
where crews eventually
persevered after years of Stuva Preview – Page 42
tunnelling in incredibly
difficult geology and Contacts – page 44
challenging site conditions.
The 15.3 km long railway and
service tunnel make up the
longest tunnels on the Baikal-Amur Mainline Railway
in Siberia. In 2019, Robbins is set to return to Siberia
with two 10.79m diameter Crossover (XRE) TBMs that
will bore the 15.5 km long Severomuisky Tunnel No. 2.
Find out more on page 18.
www.tunnellingjournal.com
Tunnelling Journal 3
 ALWAYS
ADVANCING www.terratec.co

ARGENTINA’S AGUA SUR

In recent years, TERRATEC’s order book has demonstrated significant growth around the world. In
Argentina, two 4.66m diameter TERRATEC Earth Pressure Balance Machines (EPBM) are currently being
deployed by Italian contractor CMC di Ravenna on a 13.5km-long tunnel that will carry drinking water
from the newly expanded General Belgrano Water Treatment Plant to the city of Lomas de Zamora.

The tunnel is a key component of the multi-billion-dollar Agua Sur system that is being built by
Argentina’s national water company AySA. It is the country’s largest water infrastructure project in 40
years and will provide fresh water to 2.5 million inhabitants in the southern region of Buenos Aires.

TUNNELLING SOLUTIONS WATER

4 Tunnelling Journal
 GUEST COMMENT
Political and
engineering
challenges
In September I was lucky enough to visit the
Italian side of the Brenner Base Tunnel project
and enjoy an insight into some of the engineering
challenges that this huge project presents. You
can read the report on page 8.
Arriving at the town of Fortezza in Italy, at the
south end of the project, I was reminded of the
political challenges that cross-border projects
such as this one present. Tunnels link communities
and countries – in the case of the Brenner Base
Tunnel, Innsbruck in Austria and Fortezza - but
that is rarely an easy thing to do.
Fortezza also has a German name, Franzenfeste,
as do all the towns and villages in this region. What
I hadn’t appreciated until I visited is that South
Tyrol was part of Austria until just after World War
One. Though Italian is the official language here,
the most recent census shows that there are more
German-speaking people in Fortezza.
Cross-border projects introduce a whole host
of additional considerations and risks due to
differences in forms of contract, local insurance
rules, health and safety legislation and – not
least – culture. Language can be a risk too; one
supplier tells me that he had to learn Italian in a
year because this was the only language accepted
contractually and on site, with no exceptions
made.
When Brenner Base Tunnel SE (BBT), the client
body overseeing the project, was formed all the
projects were handled collectively. It was a truly
Italian-Austrian affair. However, a recent change in
the organisation of BBT has split the project into
two, with the Austrian side of BBT managing the
Austrian projects, and the Italian side managing
the Italian ones. A large Italian flag flies proudly at
the entrance to one of the two sites I visited.
This perhaps reflects a wider pattern in Europe
as borders reappear in a bid to stem migration.
The Brenner Pass, where the current Brenner
Railway and the A22 highway cross the border
from Italy to Austria, has been the scene of clashes
in recent years as Austrian government forces
One supplier tells me that he had to learn
Italian in a year because this was the only
language accepted contractually and on site,
with no exceptions made.
closed the border for a short time, meeting with
protests from people on both sides.
Locally, it seems that people are largely
supportive of the Brenner Base Tunnel project.
Yearly open site events attract hundreds of visitors
over several days and site tours conducted every
Friday are booked up for the foreseeable future.
There are one or two older people in Fortezza
and the surrounding area who think that the project
is costing far too much money. And not all the
incoming construction workers are welcomed with
open arms; two of the men working on one of the
TBMs have marks on their faces from a fight with
locals.
Given the changes taking place in Europe right
now, there’s no way of knowing what the political
situation will be in nine years’ time when the
Brenner Base Tunnel opens. I hope the tunnel
will make the headlines for positive reasons: as
an amazing engineering achievement; a way to
bring communities closer together; and a means
of moving freight and passenger underground to
reduce environmental impacts.
Kristina Smith
Contributing Editor
Tunnelling Journal 5
 BREAKING INDUSTRY NEWS
TBM Nancy Breaks Salini Impregilo Enters
Through on Sydney Metro Norwegian Market
15/10/2019
Sydney Metro’s new 15.5km of 6m i.d.
twin railway tunnels between Chatswood
and Marrickville are now 70 per cent
complete as tunnelling reaches the heart
of the city deep under Martin Place.
TBM Nancy, one of five Herrenknecht
machines being used by tunnelling
contractor, John Holland/CPB/Ghella on
the project, has arrived at the new Martin
Place Station, 28m under Sydney.
After just 11 months of tunnelling,
22km of Sydney Metro’s tunnels are now
finished.
Since launching in October 2018, TBM
Nancy has tunnelled 6.8km via the new
metro stations at Waterloo, Central and
Pitt Street.
TBM Nancy will spend a few weeks
undergoing maintenance before being
re-launched to complete the last 1.3km
section between Martin Place and
Barangaroo.
The five Herrenknecht TBMs building
the railway tunnels are purpose built,
with four double-shield, hard-rock TBMs
designed to bore through Sydney’s hard
sandstone, whilst a mixed-shield slurry
TBM will excavate the under-Sydney
Harbour ground conditions.
Currently two TBMs are delivering the
6.2km from Chatswood to the edge of
Sydney Harbour, whilst two are travelling
8.1km from Marrickville to Barangaroo.
The fifth TBM is boring twin 1km long
tunnels under Sydney Harbour.
The schedule sees the tunnelling
contract conclude in 2021.
John Holland/CPB/Ghella was awarded
the $2.81bn contract in June 2017.
6 Tunnelling Journal
16/10/2019
Salini Impregilo has entered the
Norwegian market for the first time
with the signing of a €388M civil works
contract to upgrade a 13.6km section of a
rail line between the towns of Nykirke and
Barkaker south of Oslo. Salini Impregilo,
which heads a joint-venture with Impresa
Pizzarotti & C with a 51% stake, won
the contract from Bane NOR, the state-
owned company responsible for Norway’s
railway infrastructure.
Under the terms of the contract, set to
be completed by 2022, Salini Impregilo
and its joint-venture partner will design
and build a double-track line, including
two bridges, three tunnels totalling some
5km in length, and a station near the town
of Skoppum.
The project is on the Vestfold Line, which
is being modernised to reduce travel times
and increase railway passenger capacity.
Once completed, travel time between Oslo
and Tønsberg will be about an hour, with
a frequency of up to four trains an hour in
either direction.
TfL Launches Public Consultation For Bakerloo
Line Extension
16/10/2019
Transport for London
(TfL) has invited public
views on the most
detailed proposals yet for
an extension of London
Underground’s Bakerloo
line. The extension would
require some 17km of
tunnel, in a twin 8.5km
length between Lambeth
North and Lewisham, via
Elephant & Castle, Old
Kent Road and New Cross
Gate. Currently Slurry
TBMs are envisaged for
the majority of the lines as they run
through Chalk, although between
Old Kent Road 1 and Lambeth North
the tunnels will transition from Chalk
into the Lambeth Group and then into
London Clay, so EPBMs will become
the method of choice.
Now that TfL has decided on the
preferred location of the proposed
Western Sydney Metro
Seeks Contractors To Bore
50km Of Tunnel
22/10/2019
The New South Wales Government
has begun its search for suppliers
capable of building more than 50km
of new Metro railway tunnels that will
connect Parramatta and the Sydney
CBD by way of the Western Sydney
Metro. These will be the longest
railway tunnels ever built in Australia,
in what is expected to be the biggest
tunnelling contract awarded in
Australian history.
Early works will soon begin on
Metro West, with seven station
locations confirmed at Westmead,
Parramatta, Sydney Olympic Park,
North Strathfield, Burwood North, Five
Dock and the Bays Precinct.
Construction work will begin
next year, commencing at the Bays
Precinct, to prepare the site for major
tunnelling works. It is envisaged that
TBMs could be in the ground by 2022,
with the line operational in 2030.
stations and shafts, there is a better
understanding of the alignment of the
tunnels. TfL’s tunnel route proposals,
which include a shorter, quicker
route between Lambeth North and
Elephant & Castle, are included in this
consultation for the first time. The
consultation will close on Sunday 22
December 2019.
INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
UNCOMPROMISED ACCURACY
SANDVIK DT1132i
The new Sandvik tunneling drill rig with automatic drilling functions and boom positioning.
Equipped with the new RD535 rock drill, new Alpha360 bits and GT38 rods, Sandvik DT1132i has
more rock drill power to reduce drilling time.

Explore Sandvik DT1132i

ROCKTECHNOLOGY.SANDVIK

Tunnelling Journal 7
 Brenner Base Tunnel:
Italy’s story
There are two major tunnelling contracts on the
Italian side of the Brenner Base Tunnel which, when
complete, will run for 55km under the Alps between
Innsbruck in Austria and Fortezza in Italy in two
8.1m diameter tunnels. Both contracts are hugely
impressive – for different reasons.
On the €324m Isarco River Crossing contract, a JV
led by Salini Impregilo and Strabag must mine below
a river, a local main road and a national highway,
through soft alluvial soil with a high water level.
There’s a whole array of ground treatment underway
to make the ground safe to tunnel through. “It’s a
geologist’s dream,” says Maurizio Ferrero, who leads
the geology and geotechnics team for client Brenner
Base Tunnel SE (BBT).
The €993m Mules 2-3 contract, which stretches
for 22km of the route and encompasses the Trens
emergency station and access, is a study in logistics.
Three TBMs, for Brenner Tunnel Contractors (BTC),
led by Astaldi and Ghella, are mining towards the
border with Austria, deep below the Alps, while in the
other direction, tunnels advance with drill and blast.
A complex conveyor system sorts excavated rock
so that some is used in the underground concrete
batching plant, some goes to make segments and the
rest is deposited around the disposal site, the base of
a wide valley.
Mules 2-3 was let as a design-bid-build contract,
in contrast to the Isarco River Crossing which is
design-build. “On the Isarco River Crossing, there
Instead of
creating
cofferdams and
re-directing
the river, Salini
Impregilo/
Strabag’s solution
to get the tunnels
under the Isarco
River is to freeze
the ground from
these four huge
shafts.
8 Tunnelling Journal
The Brenner Base Tunnel is an epic
project which will create a high-
speed rail connection from Italy to
Austria. Kristina Smith visited the
Italian portion of the route to report
on progress.
is huge complexity in a small area. It was better that
the contractor designed the project because of the
many risks that had to be taken into account,” explains
Antonio Voza, who has worked on the Brenner Base
Tunnel project for seven years, latterly overseeing
Mules 2-3 for BBT. “For the Mules 2-3 lot, the difficult
part is the logistics and organisation.”
The new line will run in two tunnels, connected
every 333m by a cross-passage. There are three
emergency stops along the route, 24km of which is in
Italy, including the one at Trens.
In addition to the two running tunnels, there is a third
exploratory tunnel which is being constructed ahead of
the main tunnels at a depth 12m below them. As well
as providing insight into the approaching geology, this
tunnel is used to transport muck and materials during
the construction phase and in operation will be used
for drainage.
The Isarco River Crossing: a valley transformed
Looking down onto the site of the Isarco River
Crossing project, this once-green valley is overrun with
construction equipment and activities, squeezed in
between a railway line on one side of the valley floor and
the two roads on the other. Most striking are the four
large elliptical shafts, two either side of the Isarco River.
 BRENNER BASE TUNNEL: ITALY’S STORY

Brenner Base Tunnel

The Brenner
The 55km-long Brenner Base MAIN STATION
Base Tunnel runs
Tunnel will carry trains from INNSBRUCK PORTAL INNSBRUCK PORTAL TULFES
from Innsbruck
Innsbruck in Austria to Fortezza AMPASS
in Austria to
in Italy, running underneath
SILLSCHLUCHT
Fortezza in Italy.
BYPASS INNSBRUCK

the Alps to provide a faster CIRCONVALLAZIONE FERROVIARIA DI INNSBRUCK The Isarco River
Crossing contract
route than the existing line EMERGENCY STATION INNSBRUCK
runs from
AHRENTAL FERMATA DI EMERGENZA INNSBRUCK
which winds up and down the Fortezza to just
mountainsides. From 2028, when PADASTERTAL
EMERGENCY STATION ST. JODOK
FERMATA DI EMERGENZA ST. JODOK
beyond the point
the new line is now expected to WOLF
where the two
tunnels Bifurcate.
open, passengers will be able to ST
RIA
AU LIA
EMERGENCY STATION TRENS
ITA FERMATA DI EMERGENZA TRENS The Mules 2-3
make the journey in 25 minutes contract runs
compared to 80 minutes today. LEGEND PORTAL on from there to
On completion the Brenner Main Tunnels
MULES FORTEZZA the border deep
Base Tunnel will link to the beneath the Alps.
Exploratory Tunnel

12.7km Inn Valley Tunnel, Rescue Tunnel

boosting its overall length to Connecting Tunnels AICHA

AICA

64km. This will make it the Access Tunnels

longest railway tunnel in the Bypass Innsbruck

MAIN STATION
FORTEZZA

world, overtaking the Gotthard

Tunnel at 57km, says client
Brenner Base Tunnel SE (BBT).
One of the main goals of
the Brenner Base Tunnel is to
shift freight from road to rail.
Currently three-quarters of the
traffic traversing the Brenner
Pass between Austria and Italy
travels by road, causing pollution,
congestion and nuisance to
residents. The existing railway line
has steep gradients and curves,
limiting speeds and limiting the
weight a locomotive can pull.
There are four main tunnelling
contracts, two in Austria and
two in Italy. Starting from the
Innsbruck end, a Strabag-Salini-
Impregilo JV is delivering the
€380m Tulfes-Pfons lot; a JV
of PORR, G. Hinteregger &
Söhne Baugesellschaft, Società
Italiana per Condotte d’Acqua
and Itinera are constructing the
€966m Tulfes-Pfons lot; Astaldi,
Ghella, , Cogeis and PAC have
the €993m Mules 2-3 lot; and
Salini-Impregilo-Strabag JV with
Consorzio Integra and Collini two CEOs, September marked a
Lavori are constructing the €324m new approach in the management
Isarco River Crossing. of the overall programme of
The tunnel is part of a much works, explains Julia Gruber,
bigger vision, the Trans-European communication specialist on the
Transport Networks (TEN-T). Italian side:
It is an important link in the “In the beginning we tried to
Scandinavian-Mediterranean apply common BBT laws, for
Corridor (SCAN-MED), which will things like tenders and health
run from Finland and Sweden in and safety. This was our biggest
the North to Malta in the South, challenge, to unify everything. We
passing through Denmark, realised it was not the best way,”
Germany, Austria and Italy. says Gruber. “Now Austrian tenders
Funding the tunnel has been are based on Austrian law and
challenging. The European Union Italian ones on Italian law.”
has provided €4.7bn with Austria Once the Brenner Base Tunnel is
and Italy providing the remainder complete, there are still high-speed
of the cost, currently reported at lines that need to be created at
€8.38bn. either side. In Italy, plans to build
BBT, which is overseeing the the tunnels for the high-speed line
construction of the tunnel, has from Verona to Bolzano to connect
recently gained two new CEOs. with the Brenner Base Tunnel are
On 18 September 2019, Martin progressing. However, heading
Gradnitzer became the Austrian North there is likely to be a bottle-
CEO and Gilberto Cardola the neck in Germany, as plans for the
Italian one. high-speed line heading on from
Though there have always been the tunnel have met with resistance.

The executive design, drawn up by BBT, saw the
tunnel constructed in the dry, with the Isarco River
diverted in two stages with cofferdams to contain
the excavation. However, both the winning bidder
Salini Impregilo-Strabag JV, and the second-placed
contractor, proposed ground freezing instead.
This solution is seen as a better for the environment
and has been promoted enthusiastically by BBT on this
basis, through video and other media. “It is not necessarily
cheaper or faster. This was done more for environmental
reasons,” says Ferrero. “This solution was appreciated by
BBT and by the general public. The fishermen pay a lot of
attention to the conditions of the river.”
The initial solution would have been technically
challenging too, explains Ferrero, requiring at least
12 wells and a barrage of pumps to lower the water
table by 20m. “Pumping between one and two cubic
metres of water a second is not an easy thing,” says
Ferrero. Installing the diaphragm walls and anchors in
the ground, which is thick with boulders, would also
have been difficult, he adds.
The Isarco River Crossing contract covers just a
short section of tunnels, 6,4km. Around half of this
length is through rock and the remainder through
the soft ground of the valley floor. The 3.1km-long
rock section to the tunnel portal by Fortezza has

Tunnelling Journal 9
10 Tunnelling Journal

already been excavated and is now being lined. In the
rock sections of tunnel, the lining is only reinforced
in the invert; in the soft ground, the whole lining is
reinforced.
Before any soft ground mining could take place, a
whole array of ground treatment has been employed.
Where the cover to the tunnel is less than 15m,
vertical jet grouting from the surface has been
deployed. For cover deeper than that, grouting from
within the tunnel is needed.
Italian specialist Ripamonti is supplying a range of
drills to this contract – as well as to the Mules 2-3 lot
next door. Evidence of the difficulty of jet grouting
in this ground lies around the site: huge pieces of
boulder with tubular shapes gouged out of them.
Ripamonti supplied water-powered down-the-hole
Wassara W120 hammers for the vertical jet grouting
and is currently supplying Wassara W100 hammers
for the horizontal jet grouting from within the tunnels.
For the horizontal holes for the ground freezing,
Ripamonti is providing a bespoke solution which it
helped to develop:
“They are using a Wassara W80 water down-
the-hole hammer in combination with a special
overburden ULTRAMAXBIT system developed by
MITSUBISHI for this particular site,” says Rimpamonti
managing director Ambrogio Ripamoniti. “The lost
ring bit has a special design that allows you to close
the casing once you reach the end of the hole,
meaning that there is no water – or very little - inside
the casing.”
The ground freezing around the Isarco River is due
to begin in January 2020. Pipes have already been
installed from one of the shafts, out under the river,
works beginning for a second one in mid-October.
Freezing the ground to prevent the flow of
groundwater will require the use of both liquid nitrogen
and brine, explains Ferrero. “The general rule is that
you can use brine when the groundwater is moving
at a speed of 1m per day. With Nitrogen, you can have
groundwater speeds of 8 to 10m per day. Here, the
underground water flows at 15 to 16m per day.”
This meant that preliminary ground consolidation
BRENNER BASE TUNNEL: ITALY’S STORY
– which started in April 2019 – was required first As the two main
tunnels cross
using cement injections through tube-a-manchettes,
beneath the River
all the way round the anulus area of the tunnel. The Isarco, they each
consolidation was designed to reduce underground split into two
water flow rates to between 8 and 10m a day, after with one branch
which the soil would be frozen with liquid Nitrogen linking into the
existing line from
and then maintained with brine. Fortezza station
Brine is a better longer-term solution than liquid and the other
Nitrogen, explains Ferrero, because the brine is continuing on the
circulated in a closed system, whereas the Nitrogen high-speed route.
dissipates and must be replaced with more gas,
meaning more lorry movements and more cost.
Testing that the initial consolidation has reduced
flow rates sufficiently is quite challenging, says
Ferrero, because there are no standard tests. However,
tests have been carried out and the results were good
enough to convince BBT and the contractor that the
permeability had been sufficiently lowered (The target
was 5 x 10-6m/s with the results ranging between 3
and 7 x 10-6m/s.
High water pressures
Another feature of the Isarco River Crossing is that the
two lines split at this point, becoming four. Two will link
up with the existing railway line at Fortezza, so that trains
can switch between the old and new lines as required,
while the others continue as a high-speed line.
This means that, as the tunnels approach the two
shafts on the North side of the river, they must enlarge
before the split. Here, specialist contractor Crezza is
installing precast formwork segments to create the
growing cross section. Each precast element has a
rebar frame cast into it which are then combined with
more reinforcement in-situ.
This was a more cost-effective solution than
procuring bespoke formwork but has not been
without its teething problems. Initially, the additional
reinforcement was installed at ground level and the
whole thing lifted into place, but this method proved
problematic, says Ferrero.
“It was very difficult to install without damaging
the waterproofing layer,” he explains. The two layers
of Mosconi waterproofing are installed on top of a
Tunnelling Journal 11
 Excavated rock geotextile blanket with welded seams and valves for
from the Mules post-grouting should any leaks appear at a later stage.
2-3 contract
comes to a
So now the wall reinforcement is installed first in
huge site at situ and the precast sections and their reinforcing
Hinterrigger elements carefully lifted up and slotted in. The
where it is either contractor is using F6 concrete which Ferrero
used in concrete
describes as “almost self-compacting in nature”.
to make precast
tunnel segments Elsewhere on site, workers are approaching what
or deposited Ferrero deems the most challenging section of this
across the valley project: the section where the two tunnels must pass
floor. under the two roads.
“In the area under the highways, we face granular
soils with sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders and a
water level that is 15m above the crown of the tunnel,
meaning that there is a 25m head of water at invert
level,” says Ferrero.
Inside the two tunnels, a Soilmec machine is
applying jet grout into the ground, with cement
injections to follow on. Around 11m ahead is
consolidated with advance lengths of 7-8m taking
around one month to construct. One tunnel is a little
ahead of the other and seems to be draining most of
the water, says Ferrero, as the other is far drier.
In about 15 to 20m from this point, the tunnels will
be directly under the road. The SS12 national road
carries 40 percent of Europe’s North-to-South traffic
so it is imperative that this route is not disrupted.
“We have an extensive monitoring system, over
one-thousand points,” says Ferrero, “We constantly
monitor deformation, water pressures, the pressures
acting on the lining and check that they are consistent
with the design forecast. If they are not, we have three
Three levels of interventions planned.”
Herrenknecht
machines are now Mules 2-3: logistics, logistics, logistics
mining towards
the Italy-Austria
The Mules 2-3 lot – initially considered as two
border under contracts but tendered as one – accounts for the
the Alps where lion’s share of the Brenner Base Tunnel on the
they will meet Italian side. Though most of the 22km is being
their Austrian
constructed with three TBMs, the geology demands
counterparts.
This is one of the that a short section to the South of the lot must be
two main tunnel built traditionally using drill and blast. As well as the
TBMs, which are numerous cross passages between the two main
10.65m diameter; tunnels, this contract also includes the creation of an
the smaller
exploratory
access tunnel to the emergency station (see diagram).
tunnel TBM is “The biggest challenge is the logistics,” says
6.82m diameter. Federico Amadini, a geotechnical and tunnel
12 Tunnelling Journal
engineer at SWS Engineering which is employed by
BTC. “We are running three TBMs at the same time,
alongside three excavation faces with drill and blast,
which means that you need a good fresh air supply
and water at the face, trains to feed the TBMs and
conveyor belts to muck away the excavated materials.
You need to guarantee production and there are only
two access points.”
In the very early stages of design, a second access
tunnel was considered. But this was abandoned
following public consultation.
Vehicles access the underground site through the
Mules adit, whereas trains bring in segments and take
out muck via the Aica tunnel. Construction of the Aica
tunnel started a decade ago; this 10.5km stretch of
the exploratory tunnel breaks away from the line of
the main tunnel close to the boundary with the Isarco
River Crossing lot, running along the mountainside
to a site in Hinterrigger where the excavated rock is
either deposited or used to make tunnel segments.
As well as the exploratory tunnel and the Mules
access adit, a short section of the two main tunnels
within the Mules 2-3 lot, was also constructed earlier.
There were two reasons for this, explains Voza.
First, there was a political will to start construction
works, even though funding had not been totally
secured. Second, this short section is the point
where the tunnels cross the ‘Periadriatic seam’, one
of the biggest fault lines in the Alps. Tackling this
geologically challenging section early made good risk
management sense.
The site at Hinterrigger is a 230,000m2 valley floor,
temporarily rented from the owner. “The contractor
proposed locating the production plant here,” explains
Voza. “It has a production capacity of 42 rings a day,
with seven segments in each ring.” Precast company
Isocell Precompressi operates the 30,000m2 plant,
half of which is covered.
The segments are traditionally reinforced with a
rebar cage, with the addition of glass fibre at the
segment corners, aimed to reduce damage during
transportation. The fibre glass reinforcement has not
totally prevented cracks across corners, says Voza, but
it has reduced the number and stopped them from
propagating across the segments.
One of the over-arching principles in the design of
the Brenner Base Tunnel, is that additional steps must
be taken wherever possible to prolong its life, with
a target design life of 200 years. “It was one of the
concepts set down in the initial project scope,” says
Voza. “It means that we increase the factor of safety
by two wherever we can.”
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Tunnelling Journal 13
 Marti Technik For instance, the segments for the main tunnel have
conveyors double gaskets, cast-in place, to guard against water
bring excavated
material from
ingress. And an inner lining will be cast on top of the
three TBMs and lining segments in some locations, says Voza, for
two drill-and- example if there has been difficulty achieving the right
blast tunnels build quality or in fault zones.
to a logistics
The concrete mix for the segments varies,
node, where
the material depending on the conditions in the ground. In some
is directed areas there is aggressive ground water requiring
to a number additional additives to the concrete mix. “Here you
of different see the importance of the investigation tunnel,” says
locations.
Voza. “We know if we need to change the mix design
or not.”
Safety on many fronts
Zipping round the tunnels and cross passages in a
white Fiat Panda, meeting trucks and other vehicles,
it is evident how many tasks are underway at a variety
of work fronts. For Voza, this presents the biggest
challenge on this particular lot:
“Safety is a very big challenge,” he says. “We have
very many different types of works and very many
different subcontractors. New people come all the
time.”
The biggest hurdles to changing behaviour are
cultural, explains Voza. There are groups of workers
from the same family, or from the same village,
who have learnt their ways of working from older
colleagues. It can be difficult to persuade them that
they should work differently.
The intensity of work on site has been compounded
by BTC’s compression of the programme. The initial
design saw the works delivered in nine years; BTC
proposes to do it in seven.
There are two main ways that BTC has managed
to cut time from the programme. The first is to start
mining with the TBMs around 2km earlier than initially
planned. The second is to optimise the logistics.
Mining more of the tunnels with TBMs saves time,
but it means that BTC must redesign the Trens
Emergency Station – which is where the machines
would have been launched. “With the original design,
the emergency station and the cross passages
14 Tunnelling Journal
were all to be constructed using drill and blast,”
says Amadini. “Now the main tunnels are made
with segmental linings, we have to majagre ri hold
the segments while we break through for the cross
passages.”
In addition to locating the segment plant at
Hinterrigger, BTC has improved the logistics flow by
creating more connections, for example between
the emergency adit, the two main tunnels and
the exploratory, to allow for more efficient traffic
management.
The lifeblood of the logistics is a complex conveyor
belt system, 66km long in total, supplied by Marti
Technik, which brings spoil from all the excavation
fronts to a logistics node at the point where the
Mules adit meets the main tunnels. Where each belt
comes into the node, there are switching systems that
allow the rock to be moved to be sent to its desired
destination.
Some Class A material is sent via the access adit
to an above-ground crushing plant at the Mules site
to then be returned to the underground concrete
plant. Other Class A material goes to Hinterrigger for
the precast tunnel segments. Class B and C rock also
goes to Hinterrigger to be deposited.
This was a challenging job for Marti Technik on a
several fronts, says the company’s area sales manager
Stephan Portner, who looks after this project. “There
are the technical challenges of building such an
installation that is capable of handling the required
material flows on site and there are is the commercial
element too.” Meeting both these challenges can only
be done with years of experience, says Portner.
The system incorporates an existing 12km-long
conveyor which was delivered by Marti Technik back
in 2009 when the access tunnel from Hinterrigger
was constructed. Into this 5.6m-diameter tunnel had
to fit an additional, larger, conveyor, as well as two
rail lines. Installing a second conveyor line provided
redundancy over the whole length.
One of the biggest technical challenges was the
logistics node point, where the material is sorted and
re-directed. The space required for other installations
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16 Tunnelling Journal

such as ventilation and piping, and for project traffic,
meant that the conveyor switch systems had to be
built on tailor-made platforms.
Both the Mules access adit and the Aica exploratory
tunnel have small horizontal curves in their alignment.
“Running conveyor belts on curves requires the
installation of the boosters at the right point and
site-based experience,” says Portner. “The theory will
tell you one thing, but you have to understand how
things work on the job site, otherwise there will be
problems during operation.”
As for the challenge of delivering the most suitable
and reliable system at the lowest possible cost,
Portner says: “We have a good stock of second-hand
material and we are well-organised. By using second-
hand equipment and finding innovative technical
solutions, we can deliver major projects like this at a
competitive price level.”
Making good progress
BTC started tunnelling works in December 2016,
beginning with the tunnel which branches off from
the Mules access adit to the emergency station at
Trens, using drill and blast. The 3.8km-long tunnel is
due to be complete by 2022.
In January 2017, the contractor began to drill and
blast the first section of exploratory tunnel heading
North from the earlier-constructed section around
the Periadriatic fault, starting the two main tunnels in
March that year. After 0.6km of the exploratory tunnel
and 0.8km of the main tunnels, the construction
mode switched from drill-and-blast to TBM.
Meanwhile, heading south on the other side of the
fault section, drill and blasting of the two main tunnels
began in April 2017 with breakthrough expected at the
middle of next year. The tunnellers were approaching
a section at the end of the lot, where the tunnels
enlarge before the Isarco River Crossing section. The
rock here is very homogenous, with an almost perfect
profile created by the blasting.
The tender allowed the contractor to choose the
type of TBM. BTC chose a double shield machine
BRENNER BASE TUNNEL: ITALY’S STORY
rather than a single shield one. “They said that a The most
double shield would allow them to best manage the challenging
section of this
differences in materials,” explains Voza. “A double contract is just
shield can act as a single shield or double shield way. beginning. Salini
Single shield excavation can be used where ground Impregilo/Strabag
is softer, with all the force pushing on the rings. must consolidate
the ground from
Double shield mode uses lateral grippers where more
within the tunnel
confident of the quality of the rock. as it digs under
“The performance of the machines has a major national
demonstrated that this was a good choice,” says Voza, highway and local
consulting his phone to check on the performance main road.
of the TBMs. The project is using Tunnelsoft’s
TPC system to collect and manage data. The best
production is 16 to 17 rings a day, with an average of
12 to 14 rings.
The Herrenknecht TBMs launched in April and May
2018. As of early October, the main tunnel TBMs
which are 10.7m in diameter, were 1.5km through
their 14.5km journey to the Italy-Austria border under
the Alps. The exploratory tunnel, 6.8m in diameter,
was further ahead at around 6.6km in.
In regular ground it is only the exploratory tunnel
TBM that probes ahead, every 150m. “We spend at
least a day every week doing that,” says Amadini. As
the machine approach more unpredictable ground,
the two main TBMs will drill ahead too.
“Every TBM has two drills: one mounted on
the erector and one in a fixed position,” explains
Ripamonti, which is supplying the probe drills for
the TBMs. “The second one is more powerfull and
they use it to do probe drilling at a depth of 150m.
We chose water down-the-hole hammers to do this
because of the possibility of encountering high water
pressures while drilling. An air-powered system would
not work under these conditions.”
Ripamonti has also designed and developed a
system for drilling bolts from the back of the TBM,
especially for the Mules 2-3 project.
Now the TBMs must travel further and further under
the Alps, with an overburden of over 1,000 metres at
the deepest points of the tunnel. If all goes to plan,
they will all reach the border with Austria by 2022.
Tunnelling Journal 17
 R N T O R U S S I A
A RET U
40 Years after boring the Original Severomuysky Service Tunnel, Crossover
TBMs take on Tunnel No.2, Desiree Willis of the Robbins Company reports
Above: The In 1979, a 4.56m diameter Robbins Double Shield
original 4.56m TBM was delivered to bore the Severomuysky
diameter Double
Shield machine
Service Tunnel, a 15.3km long railway through the
was supplied to remote mountains of Siberia that would run parallel
the Ministry of to the main railway tunnel. The incredibly difficult
Railroad Transport geology featured more than 100 fault zones, severe
of the USSR in
water inflows and squeezing ground, and resulted
1979, and was the
first TBM to be in 14 years of TBM tunnelling. Crews battled harsh
imported into the weather conditions, supply shortages, and more
country. during the journey.
Forty years later, a new tunnel is on the horizon.
The second Severomuysky Tunnel is planned to
increase cargo carrying capacity by more than six
times in the region. The largest global anthracite
producer, Sibanthracite Group, is taking on the tunnel
construction with management by VostokCoal
Management Company. The companies, owned by
Dmitry Bosov, aim to increase coal transport by up
to 100 million tonnes per year through the addition
18 Tunnelling Journal
of the second tunnel. Their plan is to tackle
the region’s notoriously challenging ground
conditions with the latest generation of TBMs—
two 10.37m diameter Robbins Crossover (XRE)
TBMs designed for excavation in mixed ground
and fault zones. Other aspects of the supply
include a continuous conveyor for muck removal,
rolling stock, spare parts, and cutting tools.
Crossover XRE technology, as manufactured
only by the Robbins Company, implements
aspects of both hard rock Single Shield and EPB
machines, and may be the key for tunnelling in
the difficult conditions, which are expected to
be similarly complex although not identical to
the first tunnel. The reinvolvement of Robbins
in a key Russian project gives the opportunity to
look at lessons learned during TBM tunnelling in
adverse ground and the new technology vying to
conquer it.
 A RETURN TO RUSSIA

uysky
The Severomnnel
Service Tu
The first Severomuysky Tunnel and its service
tunnel were originally constructed as part of the
4,324km long Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) Railway
and as the longest of 21 total tunnels on the route.
The BAM Railway traverses Eastern Russia and
Eastern Siberia, and was originally conceived and
built as a strategic alternative to the Trans-Siberian
Railway to the south. The Trans-Siberian Railway
runs along the border with China and was seen as
militarily vulnerable. At the same time, the Russian
Government very much wanted to open up other
areas of Siberia for cargo and coal transport.
The Severomuysky tunnel is located in a
mountainous, largely unpopulated region 300km
east of the northern shore of Lake Baikal, the largest
and deepest body of fresh water on earth. The area
is known to be seismic with about 2,000 earthquake
events recorded per year.
The weather is similarly harsh, with winter often
lasting 220 days of the year. January, the coldest
month, averages just -28.4 degrees Celsius,
while July is the warmest month with an average
temperature of 14.9 degrees Celsius. Permafrost
covers much of the area.
Logistically speaking, the area was highly remote,
with spotty radio and communications services,
and the nearest railway stockyard was a distance of
1,100km from the jobsite. Between the stockyard
and the site was an unpaved mountain road that
made transport of large construction equipment an
arduous process.
The tunnel path
passed directly
through a rock mass
characterized by
moderately stable to
unstable granitic rock.
In tectonic zones, the
material varied from
fissured to fractured
to crushed with
gravels and debris.
Fault zones ranged from a dozen centimeters in
width to more than 800m wide and were often filled
with fine material and running sands. Rock tested at
up to 170MPa UCS, and the maximum overburden
of 1,300m meant that squeezing ground was a real
possibility.
When the standard Double Shield TBM was
launched in August 1979, the contractor—the
Ministry of Railroad Transport of the USSR—knew
that they faced challenges, but nothing could
prepare them for the level of adversity facing them
on the service tunnel, which also served as the pilot
for the tunnel.
The Robbins machine—the first ever TBM
imported into Russia—was launched from the east
portal and a second 4.5m diameter non-Robbins
open gripper TBM followed from the west portal.
The ability to conduct geological testing was
limited in the area and so the fault zones were not
characterized to their full extent. Aerial surveys were
conducted during tunnel construction to map some
of the fault zones ahead of tunneling.
At an early stage probe drilling became mandatory
on both headings to verify ground conditions
ahead of the TBMs. Inrushes of water began at the
west portal, where the non-Robbins Double Shield
became stuck and required a massive dewatering
operation as well as the sinking of an intermediate
shaft. The east portal soon followed suit, with typical
water inflow rates measuring between 200 and 280
l/s. A catastrophic flood occurred that inundated the
tunnel with 2,000 l/s, requiring extensive dewatering
operations. Temperatures in the tunnel were
subject to high fluctuation along with the water
temperatures, which ranged from a frigid 2
degrees Celsius to a

TBM Assembly
Management:
The crew at the
Severomuysky
pilot tunnel faced
heavy water
inflows, more than
100 fault zones,
and multiple
bypass tunnels
over the course of
tunnelling.

Tunnelling Journal 19
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20 Tunnelling Journal

thermal 42 degrees Celsius.
Tests of the water showed that pH ranged from
6.7 to 10, and that much of the groundwater
contained fluorine and radon, both of which are
known to be corrosive to concrete and metal.
Each time water inflows occurred, they also carried
fine material into the tunnel invert, resulting in a
massive cleanup effort. Blowouts of fine material
through the telescopic joint and tail shield were
frequent.
Crews often worked in knee-deep, cold water
and because of this shortened their working
schedule to four hours per day. Crew members
were provided with waterproof work clothes and
camel wool undergarments that were typically
used by divers to combat freezing conditions.
Despite the conditions, the Robbins TBM
passed through several fault zones ranging from
2 to 15m wide without stoppages. Many fault
zones were successfully treated with chemical
grouting, polyurethane or clay-cement paste.
These techniques were used in conjunction with
forepoling to create a pipe umbrella in the area of
grouting. Other fault zones were more complex
and bypass tunnels had to be excavated to free the
TBM shield multiple times.
At the West portal, three non-Robbins TBMs
were ultimately procured—another open gripper
machine and lastly a shielded machine meant to
tackle the largest fault zone. This largest zone of
approximately 800m in width was characterized
A RETURN TO RUSSIA
TBM Launch: The
first Severomuisky
Main Tunnel and
its service tunnel
were originally
constructed as part
of the 4,324km
long Baikal-Amur
Mainline (BAM)
Railway and as the
longest of 21 total
tunnels on the
route.
as extremely unstable, and ultimately none of
the machines were able to tackle it. The Robbins
machine stopped its excavation after boring
approximately 6.7km and was removed from shaft
2 in 1993, having achieved a best month of 308m
and a best day of 19.2m. Ultimately a section of
severely faulted ground at the pilot tunnel had
to be excavated through hand mining and drill &
blast methods. The tunnel went online in 1997. The
Severomuysky tunnel, excavated by drill & blast,
encountered many of the same problems as well
as water pressures up to 30 bar. After long years of
excavation, the tunnel went online in 2003.
The SECOND nnel
ky Tu
Severomuys
Now, 40 years after the original Double Shield
machine was delivered for the service tunnel,
Robbins is again playing a role. The second
Severomuysky Tunnel, clocking in at 15.5km long, is
needed due to limitations on carrying capacity on
the current BAM railway through the area. Currently
16 million tonnes of cargo are carried through
the existing Severomuysky tunnel but the Russian
Government wants to increase this to as much as
100 million tonnes per year.
Dmitry Bosov’s Sibanthracite Group will
undertake the challenging construction through the
Severomuysky Ridge, a mountain range in Buryatia
and part of the Stanovoy Highlands, which separates
the basins of the Upper Angara and Muya Rivers.
Tunnelling Journal 21

TBM Belt Conveyor: The Severomuysky machine in rock mode, utilizing a belt
conveyor for muck removal.
TBM Screw Conveyor: The Crossover XRE in EPB mode, utilizing a screw conveyor
in soft to mixed ground.
“The second Severomuysky tunnel will solve an
important problem - it will increase the capacity
of the BAM Railway in the direction of the Far East.
The second Severomuysky tunnel is located in one
of the most geodynamically active areas of our
planet - on the north-eastern flank of the Baikal rift
zone. The region is characterised by high seismic
activity, difficult geological and hydrogeological
conditions, all against the backdrop of a harsh
climate (the summer period lasts only 80-100 days,
temperatures from + 39°C in summer to -58°C
in winter). The construction work on the portals
is complicated by the presence of permafrost as
well,” said a representative of Sibanthracite Group.
Sibanthracite Group chose Crossover technology
for a number of reasons, geology being chief
among them. “A Crossover type tunnel boring
machine was selected for tunnelling due to the
fact that the construction of the tunnel will be
carried out in difficult heterogeneous geological
conditions (from unstable waterlogged soils to
hard rock). The Crossover is able to operate in two
modes: Open mode - used while boring in hard
rock formations, and closed mode (with earth
pressure balance) - used when boring in unstable
water-logged soils,” said a representative of
Sibanthracite Group.
“I was a young engineer working at Robbins
when this first TBM was delivered so it is a
22 Tunnelling Journal
special honor to bring this new technology to
the second Severomuysky Tunnel in Siberia,” said
Robbins President Lok Home. “Robbins has signed
contractual documents to engineer and supply
Crossover TBMs for the new parallel rail tunnel—
these machines are made to bore in highly variable
ground conditions while maintaining good advance
rates. We hope to again prove TBMs are the better
choice over Drill and Blast when difficult ground
conditions are to be encountered.”
ine Design
Unique Mach
The lessons learned during the first Severomuysky
tunnel—the importance of probe drilling,
consolidation grouting, and preventing a shielded
machine from becoming stuck in fault zones or
squeezing ground—are all part of the Crossover TBM
solution. The machines will be designed for varying
water pressures—ranging from 5 to 20 bar—but
will include some commonalities. They will feature
Water Inflow Control, a system that seals off each
TBM and creates a safe working environment while
dewatering and consolidating ground. Sealable
muck chutes and multiple rows of main bearing
seals can effectively hold back high water pressures.
The machines will feature probe drill ports and
capabilities for 360-degree probe drilling ahead
of the excavation face, while the Robbins Torque-
Shift System will enable the machines to get out of
sticky situations. The Torque-Shift System consists
of multi-speed gearboxes capable of operating
at high RPM/low torque in hard rock or low RPM/
high torque when moving through difficult ground.
The cutterheads will be fitted with 20-inch disc
cutters that can be changed out with mixed ground
cutting tools if necessary. The machines will also be
designed with a belt conveyor in hard rock mode
that can be switched out with a screw conveyor
when crossing into soft ground.
NING
TUNNEL PLAN
With some of the project details still to be worked
out, Sibanthracite Group is looking to the latest
technology for assistance. “Given the uniqueness,
risk and increased level of responsibility of the
project, as well as the complexity and multiphase
nature of the project, we are looking at designing the
crossing using building information modelling (BIM)
technology,” said a representative of Sibanthracite
Group. “This will achieve positive effects including
increased interaction between all participants,
reduced time and cost associated with managing
the project, and accurate data stored in the model.
We will be able to consolidate all of the information
about the object accumulated at the research,
design, construction and operation stages into a
single database, and we will be able to access any
of this project information in case of emergency
situations.” Construction of the new tunnel is
expected to begin in 2020 and take five years.
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Tunnelling Journal 23
 15 minutes with

Alan Boden
Alan Boden/Director/Alan Boden Tunnelling Ltd

32
Presently working on various projects with Jacobs as a Tunnel Advisor.

Alan Boden has worked in the tunnelling industry for over 40 years on
projects in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, China,
Canada, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Initially with UK contractors and 25
years with supervisor -client organisations on international projects such as:

n Lower Thames Crossing, London, as Tunnel Delivery Lead (2018-19)

n Projects in and around Hong Kong as Executive Director with AECOM
(2015-18)
n Various projects in Hong Kong with MTR Corporation Ltd (2011-15)
n Toronto-York Spadina Subway (TYSSE) as Principal with Delcan Corp (2008-11)
n From 1993 to 2008 on SMART, Penchala and PUTRA LRT in Kuala Lumpur, DTSS in Singapore, MRTA Blue Line in
Bangkok, Jubilee Line Extension Project in London and from 1978, after graduating from Nottingham, to 1993
worked for Donelon, Fairclough Tunneling (AMEC) and CV Buchan.

What is the best project you have
worked on and why?
Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Link
It was a privilege to be Tunnel Advisor
on this remarkable project and observe
a great project team overcoming the
many problems they faced. The largest
TBM in the world at the time, saturation
diving for cutterhead interventions,
cross passages constructed with
pipe-jack TBMs from within the main
tunnel, the pioneering use of robotics
for cutterhead inspections and for
changing cutters. But for day to day
responsibility and involvement, TYSSE
was the best project for me personally.
Fronting up the project in various
industry forums to test procurement
strategies, construction logistics and
packaging options. And we were
successful with a number of initiatives
including the first use of SEM in that
part of the world. I was part of a good
team that I helped bring together and I
was very proud to receive an Employee
Recognition Award from the client,
TTC.
Toughest project you have worked on
and why?
It’s tough to single out just one tough
project but my wife will remind me
we experienced many sleepless and
disturbed nights in Kuala Lumpur with
incidents of sinkholes and inundations,
often late at night during weekends.
Admiralty Station Expansion (Contact
901) with MTR was extremely difficult
but very rewarding. What was achieved
on that project expanding the existing
station to a four-line interchange
alongside and beneath the busiest
interchange in Hong Kong without any
planned, or unplanned, closures of
the system, was a credit to everyone
involved.
What 3 innovations have most
changed the tunnelling industry over
the last 10 years and why?
I’ve witnessed the birth and the
development of Closed-Face TBMs
during my career and the most recent
innovation of Variable Density TBMs.
During each advancement the safety
and efficiency of tunnelling has
improved and the boundaries have
been pushed ever further allowing
tunnels to be constructed where they
could not have been conceived in the
past or only by using compressed air
with the inherent risks that exposed
workers to.
PCs are standard issue today and
these and all their continually changing
applications have changed the industry
immensely. On my first job on site at
Don Valley we were considered very
lucky as we had a programmable
computer which was the size of a
record-player.
Total stations and GPS have
transformed tunnel surveying. As a
Site Engineer much of our time was
spent surveying, doing wire-drops at
weekends and using Weisbach triangles
to transfer lines bearings underground.
Much as these innovations have
transformed and improved our
industry, I do lament the fact that we
have lost many things as a result. Less
and less are tunnel faces exposed,
there is so much to be gained by
observing the face. We have become
so reliant on PCs and spreadsheets, all
the disciplines involved in self-checking
manual estimating worksheets and
survey calculations have been lost.
What significant technological or
contractual changes do you expect to
see in the next five-to-ten years?
Artificial Intelligence and robotics
used for remote tunnel operations to
minimize health and safety risks and

24 Tunnelling Journal
improve efficiency. The contractor on TMCLK led the way
with robotics and thanks to his start this will continue to
be improved upon. And TBMs will become even bigger
although we must be approaching the limit.

What are the most frustrating issues facing today’s

tunnelling industry?
Attracting young talent and the best engineers and
developing a truly diverse workforce.

What would you be if you weren’t a tunnelling engineer?

I always wanted to be professional footballer but as a
vertically challenged goalkeeper that was never going to
work out neither was being a rock star as I’m tone deaf.
I can’t imagine not being involved in tunnelling but I’ve
always liked numbers so I guess I would probably be an
accountant.

What major challenges does the tunnelling industry face

in the future?
Its credibility with high profile projects over-running and
over budget. The industry continues to do itself no favours
in this regard.

What gets on your nerves at work?

We have grown so dependent and reliant on the internet
so I get very wound up when I can’t access e-mails or
there are IT issues which prevent me doing everyday tasks.
I hate waste and time-wasting, especially my own, so I am
very intolerant when faced with connectivity issue.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

In 1979 many of my colleagues at Don Valley (Sheffield)
had arrived back from working on MIS (Modified Initial
System), the first subway in Hong Kong. They all said
I should “go work in Hong Kong as the tunnelling was
impressive, the lifestyle was good and my wife could work
as a teacher”. With this in mind I always thought about
working abroad but it wasn’t until 16 years later that I
embarked on an international career, initially to Kuala
Lumpur, where my wife eventually taught for 14 years, and
finally to Hong Kong, where we were based for 5 years. So
I’ve got to say a big ‘thank you’ to my colleagues from Don
Valley; that was good advice!

What advice would you give to someone at the

beginning of a career in tunnelling
There are many experienced consulting organisations,
but my advice is, early in one’s career, work for a well-
respected and capable contractor to get a good grounding
in the industry and be given responsibility. Understanding
the value of work, the efficient use of resources, bringing
your section in on time, within budget and making sure
you are fairly paid for the work you have overseen. What
you learn with a contractor, even if only for a short time,
will stand you in good stead for the duration of your
career. That said, given my response to the previous
question, I would also advocate working abroad. That
was definitely great advice for me and it transformed my
career. Sadly Hong Kong is going through some problems
presently which is a great shame, but it will recover and
it will remain a construction mecca and there are many
other tunnelling centres around the world where one can
gain experience.

Tunnelling Journal 25
 The road to cleaner tunnelling
There are general concerns over the harmful effects of exposure to gases and particulates
generated by diesel-powered machinery during tunnelling construction. TJ explores the
strides made thus far in reducing emissions underground, and the tenacious move towards
battery-electric technology and its implications. By Munesu Shoko.
Underground construction work is associated limits for various substances, including CO, NO and
with health risks from various exposures, including NO2 under existing legislation came into effect in
carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NO) and August 2018. However, Donald Lamont – a former
nitrogen dioxide (NO2), among other gases. Large Health and Safety Executive tunnelling inspector in
amounts of gases are generated from various the UK, who chairs the BS 6164 Committee and sits
machines deployed during tunnelling construction. on the European Standards Committee for ENs 16191
To give an idea, diesel engine exhaust emissions are and 12110 – explains that there is a derogation from
recognised as a category 1 human carcinogen by the implementation in underground workplaces till 2023.
International Agency for Research for lung cancer. Explaining why stringent emissions factors are
Recent cancer burden research estimates that there put in place in the tunnelling industry, Lamont
are almost 650 deaths per year from all workplace says, because tunnellers work in an enclosed
exposures due to engine exhaust emissions in the UK environment, they are much more affected by
alone. contamination than factory workers, for example.
Diesel-powered machinery, which is used In factories, local exhaust ventilation can be used to
extensively in tunnelling construction work remove fumes, but that’s not possible in tunnelling.
processes, produces CO, NO, NO2, various Clive Hannaford, managing director of Clayton
hydrocarbons and particulate matter. Despite the Equipment, a leading locomotive manufacturer
health implications, these machines remain in operating in tunnelling, mining, industrial and
widespread use in the tunnelling industry as mucking mainline rail sectors, says guidance is provided
out technology, split between conveyor systems, by BS6164, the 2011 edition of which is currently
rail bound mucking cars and tyred vehicles, among in final review. “The revised BS6164 requires a
others. significant reduction in all emissions, which could
Proving that reducing vehicle emissions is high on prevent the use of diesel powered locomotives
the agenda, the implementation of revised exposure altogether. Diesel locomotives still could be used,

26 Tunnelling Journal

but only if significant ventilation
is in place, which adds to the
installation and operating costs
and is often not possible in small
diameter tunnels,” he says.
So, what has the industry
done in response to the call for
significant reduction in emissions
in tunnelling equipment?
Hannaford tells Tunnelling Journal
that all new diesel locomotives in
the UK and EU must now be EU
Stage V compliant. Depending on
the engine size, this could include
Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC),
Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and
Selective Catalytic Reduction
(SCR) emission control.
A DOC is an aftertreatment
component that is designed to
convert CO and hydrocarbons
into carbon dioxide (CO2) and
water. A DPF is a filter that
captures and stores exhaust
soot to reduce emissions from
diesel vehicles. An SCR is an
advanced active emissions control
technology system that injects a
liquid-reductant agent through a
special catalyst into the exhaust
stream of a diesel engine.
To meet these exhaust gas
regulations, Dirk Fasthoff,
director for tunnelling projects at
Bergmann Maschinenbau GmbH
& Co. KG, says the company’s
tunnelling machines are delivered
exclusively to customers in
emissions level 5. The mandatory
use of particle filter systems is
fulfilled in all products and the
pollutant limits are thus complied
with. Bergmann also uses
particularly efficient drive systems
in its machines, which means that
the installed engine power can
be kept low. This leads to cost
savings in the ventilation of the
tunnel construction sites.
Bergmann is also one of the
companies championing the use
of idle shutdown technology
in diesel engines. This is a
particularly important feature
in the quest to reduce vehicle
emissions, not only in tunnelling,
but across an array of other
industries. To give an idea, it is
estimated that each year in the
United States alone, trucks and
heavy-duty vehicles consume
more than 22,8-million litres of
diesel fuel and gasoline without
even moving. Construction
machines can often be idling
for as much as 40-60% of its
operating time. This puts a strain
on both the environment and the
wallet.
Going Electric?
Meanwhile, electromobility in
tunnelling equipment is gathering
pace. It offers reduced or zero
emissions from machines, while
significantly lowering noise levels.
According to Lamont, some
tunnelling equipment has been
dual powered for years – diesel
for travelling and electric power
for working.
Of course, hybrid power
systems are necessary to provide
the most flexibility for the machine
when there is a higher demand
for power or where there is a
lack of electrical infrastructure
available. But overall, the future
of the industry is leaning towards
electrification with cleaner, quieter
and more efficient machines,
which not only is better for the
environment, but also supports
customer success.
At Bergmann, preparations are
in full swing for expansion in the
electric sector. A case in point
is Bergmann’s presentation of
its Dumper 1005 E, an electric
vehicle for auxiliary tasks in tunnel
construction. The company also
used Bauma 2019 to present an
electric dumper – with a payload of
4 tonnes – which is to be included
in the portfolio as a serial vehicle for
the first time next year (the second
electrically powered vehicle after
the Bergmann 1005 E).
“Relevant tests are currently
THE ROAD TO CLEANER TUNNELLING
being performed on the new
powertrain with an electric drive
using a Bergmann 2040 as a
function prototype. However, the
future serial model will be more of
an original configuration than an
electrified variation of the diesel
vehicle. In addition to the latest
lithium-ion battery technology
with performance-related power
management, the vehicle’s
equipment will also include
an onboard charger,” explains
Fasthoff.
Clayton Equipment has been a
world leader in battery-powered
locomotives, with its first emission
free locomotive built in 1940.
“We can supply emission free,
electric locomotives across the
whole product range, from 1.75 Bergmann’s 5025
HK Plus tunnel
to 135-tonne,” says Hannaford. dumper comes
Locomotive types include battery with a 260 hp
(lead acid and lithium), hybrid, engine with a 25
Hybrid +, diesel, 3rd /4th rail and tonne payload.
overhead line, and a range of
Opposite: At
rubber tyred locomotives for steep Bergmann,
gradients (up to 10%). preparations are
Lamont is of the view that in full swing for
mining in general is moving expansion into the
electric sector.
more quickly towards low/zero
emissions than tunnelling. A case
in point is Epiroc’s launch of its
new generation battery-driven
machines last year, which can
also be deployed in tunnelling.
Epiroc first launched its first
battery electric machines in 2016.
In November 2018, the company
unveiled its new generation range
as part of its target to offer a
complete fleet of underground
equipment as battery electric
Tunnelling Journal 27
 versions by 2025.
Epiroc’s battery-driven
underground loaders, trucks and
drill rigs comprise the 14-tonne
Scooptram ST14 Battery loader,
the 18-tonne Bommer E2
Battery loader and the 42-tonne
Minetruck MT42 Battery truck, as
well as a mid-sized drilling family,
including face drilling, production
drilling and rock reinforcement
rigs.
Per Lindberg, CEO of Epiroc,
says the new machines will
create a number of benefits for
underground applications globally,
including improved health and
safety, reduced greenhouse gas
emissions and lower operating
costs.
Clayton “We at Epiroc want to help our
Equipment can customers boost productivity,
supply emission-
enhance safety and cut emissions
free, electric
locomotives – all while lowering total cost of
across the whole operation. Our second generation
product range, battery vehicles take us towards
from 1.75 to a sustainable future with less
135-tonne.
dependency on fossil fuels,” says
Lindberg.
“We are leading the change
towards sustainability in
underground mining and
construction through battery
electric. The result is safer and
healthier underground working
environment. This contributes
to a sustainable future and a
smaller environmental footprint.
It is a power change that changes
everything,” adds Lindberg.
A major talking point in this
range is the Minetruck MT42
28 Tunnelling Journal
Battery truck, said to be the largest
battery-operated vehicle of its
nature on the market. It is a 100%
fossil-free Minetruck, based on
Epiroc’s proven MT42, for both
underground mining and civil
construction applications.
Being zero emission, the
Minetruck MT42 Battery means
zero exposure for the operators
to diesel particulates, and toxic
gases such as nitrogen oxides
(NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and CO.
“Being fossil-free, Minetruck MT42
Battery makes the difference when
it comes to carbon footprint and
greenhouse gases. Being a zero
emission machine, the Minetruck
MT42 Battery minimises the need
for ventilation in underground
applications, and is designed with
operators’ well-being as primary
focus,” says Lindberg.
Beyond the environmental
benefit aspect, the Minetruck MT42
Battery also delivers benefits in
terms of economy, productivity
and cost of maintenance. It is
optimised for productivity in
many ways. The drivetrain has
been optimised to reduce losses
and the number of components.
On this truck, one high power
electrical motor is connected to
each axle. The electrical drivetrain
provides greater speed on grades,
both up and down the ramp.
Hydraulic functions are powered
from a separate auxiliary motor
that delivers hydraulic power
on demand. Extended battery
autonomy is achieved through
energy regeneration and high
energy density battery design.
From a maintenance point
of view, the Minetruck MT42
Battery electrical drivetrain has a
considerably reduced number of
components, service points and
moving parts. Engine, transmission,
cardan shafts and their related
spare parts are now a thing of the
past. This results in longer service
intervals, lower parts consumption,
higher uptime and lower running
costs.
Battery development
Over the years, the development
of new battery technologies has
been relatively expensive, but the
cost of energy storage systems
such as lithium-ion batteries is said
to be steadily decreasing, making
electromobility a more financially
attractive option in tunnelling
equipment.
Normet, well-known for its
underground operation concepts,
used Bauma 2019 to showcase
its battery electric vehicle
architecture, which includes
the latest lithium-ion battery
technology with a fast charging
capability. High-torque electric
motors provide instant torque
and efficient operation without
any emissions. The first machine
unveiled is the Spraymec 8100 SD.
Normet’s SmartDrive is a new
technology that uses latest long-
life industrial grade lithium-ion
battery technology suited to harsh
environments in underground
mining and tunnelling. The
batteries can be charged at any
time from typical underground
AC-sockets. For demanding
operations, optional fast chargers
can charge batteries quickly during
operation or a break; there is no
need for costly battery swapping.
Built-in energy recuperation
technology maximises the storing
of regenerative braking energy
during downhill and deceleration.
In addition, efficient hydraulic dual-
circuit oil immersed brakes provide
additional braking power when it is
needed.
Caterpillar is another leading
manufacturer championing the use
of lithium-ion battery technology
in its underground offerings. In
April 2018, the Underground
Mining group within Caterpillar
Inc. shipped a proof of concept
battery electric load-haul-dump
(LHD) loader to a mine site located
in Canada.
The test machine is a proof
of concept for packaging and
performance of a lithium-based
energy storage solution Caterpillar
plans to bring to the LHD market.
The Cat R1300G proof of concept
is not necessarily a final design
that will go to market. After testing,
Caterpillar will launch a full-
fledged new product introduction
programme that follows a more
in-depth, rigorous design and
validation process.
“Our customers are planning
for deeper working environments
with very high ambient rock
temperatures where ventilation
costs are pivotal to making working
underground viable,” says Jay
Armburger, product manager with
responsibility for underground
technology. “One means of

reducing ventilation demand is
through electrification of mining
and tunnelling equipment.”
With over 250 patents in the
electric drive and energy storage
fields, across its other product
ranges like the D7E dozer,
F-Series asphalt pavers, 794 AC
and 795F AC large mining trucks,
the recently introduced 988K XE
wheel loader, and even microgrid
technology, Caterpillar has fully
integrated electric drivetrain
technology and components to
bring to underground machines.
The programme started with
a full production study and data
analysis of the diesel machine
in order to set a baseline. Once
this was accomplished, the
transformation of the R1300G to
a battery electric proof of concept
began. The modifications included
removing the engine, transmission
and torque converter, and then
reconfiguring the engine end
frame to accommodate the
battery boxes and electric motors.
The result is a battery electric
powertrain driving a conventional
and mechanical drivetrain (drive
shafts and axles).
The R1300G proof of concept
is an older machine without
the benefit of efficient electro-
hydraulics. As a result, it will drive
worst case scenario loads on the
batteries. Of course, the design
of the new loader will enhance
battery life through the use of load
sensing hydraulics driven by piston
pumps such as those on the new
Cat R1700. The less refined proof
of concept machine will yield solid
understanding of heat generation
and cooling needs, performance
criteria, space claim and safety
considerations in the day-to-day
operation of the machine.
With the help of several
customers who have visited the
proof of concept and operated
it at the proving grounds,
Caterpillar is getting feedback
to help drive the programme
forward. Armburger says all of the
customers who have visited the
machine agree that pursuing a
system that is rechargeable on the
machine is the right path forward.
“Caterpillar is focusing on fast
charging of the batteries on the
machine such that an operator
can take a quick break and come
back to a charged machine. In
addition to developing the LHD
itself, the programme has been
prototyping a robust charging
station. The technology behind
the charging station is said to be
unique to Caterpillar and uses Cat
components and technology,”
says Armburger.
As with all new product
introductions, Caterpillar will
listen to its customers and put
new designs through their paces
before releasing a machine. “The
chemistries and technologies
behind battery development
are evolving rapidly. Change is
inevitable, and the development
team will continue to evaluate
these changing technologies,”
adds Amburger.
Elsewhere, Sandvik has over the
years been one of the pioneers
of battery electric machines
for underground application.
Sandvik’s electric loaders with zero
diesel emissions and lower noise
reduce the need for ventilation
and improve underground
working conditions.
To further capacitate its
technical prowess in battery
electric technology, Sandvik this
year announced the acquisition of
Artisan Vehicle Systems, a United
States-based manufacturer of
battery powered underground
equipment. The company’s core
technology is battery packs,
electric motors, power electronics,
software and control systems.
“I am pleased to see the
strategic acquisition of Artisan
so soon after the opening of
THE ROAD TO CLEANER TUNNELLING
Sandvik’s state-of-the-art Battery
Electrification Innovation and
Development Centre in Turku,
Finland, in 2018. It is in line with
our ambition to be leading in the
market for battery electric vehicle
solutions,” says Lars Engström,
President, Sandvik Mining and
Rock Technology.
Despite the fast-paced
developments in battery
technology, Lamont argues that
lithium-ion batteries have got
their downside. He reasons that
lithium-ion batteries are a fire
hazard and emit toxic fumes when
on fire, while they also depend
on relatively scarce metals in their
construction.
“Underground equipment is
robust with long lifespans, thus Sandvik has over
the years been one
the replacement of diesel with
of the pioneers
battery power will take time. There of battery electric
are obvious savings on ventilation machines for
costs with battery power,” says underground
Lamont. application.
The same view is shared by
Hannaford, who says although
there is a market perception
that lithium batteries are the
answer to a clean tunnelling
industry, there are significant
safety considerations that have
to be put in place before a piece
of equipment with a lithium
battery can be used in a tunnel.
“As such, lead acid batteries are
still the leading technology for
locomotives at this time, as they
deliver the most cost-effective
and safest solution,” concludes
Hannaford.
Tunnelling Journal 29
 A review of Tunnel
Segment Gaskets -
Part 2: Standard
Gaskets and testing
Part 1 in this trilogy of articles on tunnel gaskets
looked at the basic materials available for a
segmental tunnel lining gasketing system. In the
second part, Mike King (MK Tunnelling Limited) and
Steve Casey (Casey Consulting) take a look at what
many would regard as the typical, or even industry
standard, gasket detail, and the testing requirements
often specified on a typical project. Some of the
long-established concepts and perceptions are
examined, so that with an additional understanding
of “why” certain approaches are taken, projects
will be better armed to make decisions on the best
course of action to verify the effectiveness of their
selected gasket, and to challenge or modify testing
to suit their specific requirements, circumstances and
arrangements.
Standard gasket arrangement
For many years now waterproofing of precast
concrete segmental linings has been achieved
through the use of a single line of a synthetic rubber
material, glued into a groove towards the extrados
face of each segment (see figure 1). The material
would typically be Ethylene Propylene Diene
Monomer (EPDM) as discussed in the first part of
these articles. Although this concept has been an
established and familiar feature over the full careers
of many of us, and therefore appears to be as old as a
watertight Ark, it has actually only been a recognised
practice for about 35 years.
The basic concept is to provide a window frame
of impermeable material around every segment into
which energy can be stored through the construction
Figure 1: Single
process. As we saw in the first article, the energy
gaskets on stored can vary through material specification and
segmental lining selection, but a simple relationship of “the greater
30 Tunnelling Journal
the energy stored, the better the water seal” can be
assumed on the basis that a durable material has
been selected. The positioning of the gasket across
all longitudinal and circumferential joints so that they
align with the adjacent gaskets, allows for an efficient
energy storage system that can be installed as part of
the ring build process.
Over the years, the testing developed to
demonstrate that the selected gasket profiles meet
the design performance requirements have been
cultivated through necessity and ingenuity. Among
the most common of the now familiar and established
tests are:
n Assessment of long-term relaxation (or the
measure of loss of stored compression energy)
n Water pressure (resistance) test
n Assessment of load for gasket compression (initial
load-deflection relationship)
n Potential for concrete spalling (define the edge
distance)
This article briefly examines each of these to
encourage further consideration on what exactly
a project needs to verify, and to provide food for
thought to challenge current standard approaches
and to modify testing and achieve greater certainty
that the gasket will meet the performance objectives
over the full design life.
Long-term relaxation
The materials used in the manufacture of elastomeric
tunnel gaskets permanently deform under constant
force (creep), which under the compression
experienced by gaskets within a confined space
results in a time-related reduction in the force
required to maintain compression. The reduction
in compression force (stored energy) equates to
a reduction in the water sealing capability. In the
first article this was discussed in terms of combined
Stress Relaxation and Compression Set. Elastomeric
materials such as EPDM exhibit an approximate
linear reduction in the compression force with
logarithmically increasing time. In other words, the
rate of creep is significantly greater earlier in the life of
the compressed material.
Stress relaxation in an elastomeric material is a
combination of physical reaction and chemical
reaction, with a large proportion of the physical
relaxation taking place very quickly. Significant
relaxation can take place over a matter of days or
even hours. The chemical reaction will dominate over
a much longer term, although the physical relaxation
will also continue.
The rate and quantum of relaxation varies with
material type and formulation, but as an example we
might see up to 10% compression force reduction
within the first few hours, with the next 10% taking up
to a month, and a further 10% over 10 years or more.
Figure 2 shows typical results from earlier studies by
Professor A W Birley at Loughborough University,
commissioned by VIP-Polymers.
The material reaction rates of many man-
made materials follow an Arrhenius relationship
that accelerates reactions at elevated temperate,
and this can be used to extrapolate performance
under normal operating conditions. Prediction of

the material performance over the typical design
life of 100 to 120 years is accomplished through
accelerated testing over a period of about 100 days.
The empirical Arrhenius relationship concerning
temperature dependency of reactions will contain
some uncertainty over the accuracy of the prediction
of loss of stored energy. How this is currently
accommodated, and how the relaxation value itself
is considered, will be discussed below where we
compare the working pressure with the test pressure.
Water pressure testing
A water pressure test provides data on the gaskets
ability to seal against raised water pressures for a
combination of gaps (distance between the ideal
position of concrete joint faces) and offsets (relative
lateral position of gasket cross-sections). They
are commonly performed using purpose made
machined steel test rigs in the laboratory, applying
the water pressure to a confined internal volume
(see figure 3). The test rigs have the flexibility to vary
gasket offsets and joint gaps to reflect real world
segment casting and ring build tolerances, and the
test set-up can also reflect “X” joint (coincident
longitudinal and circumferential intersection of
four segment corners) and “T” joint (coincident
longitudinal and circumferential intersection of two
segment corners and an adjacent segment face)
arrangements.
On occasion, concrete blocks have been cast
for use instead of the steel rigs. The advantage of
this type of test is that it would more accurately
represent the action of the gasket cross-section
interacting with the concrete and the effectiveness
of the glue used to secure the gasket in place.
However, it is generally considered that the steel
surfaces offer a conservative arrangement as there
is likely to be less friction between the gasket base
and the steel, more deformation when the gasket
is partially compressed, and hence a lower sealing
capacity. Steel rigs can also be manufactured to
tighter tolerances so that this uncertain variability is
not overly influential or even double-counted in a
test set-up. A concrete test rig arrangement is also
more likely to have the potential to contain defects
and the test may therefore be testing concrete
quality rather than the gasket itself.
There are a number of associated issues to
consider in the water pressure test set-up that
tend to be given scant consideration as the testing
A REVIEW OF TUNNEL SEGMENT GASKETS – PART 2
has come to be considered to be routine. We will Figure 2: Typical
stress relaxation
consider each of the following:
with time
n Tolerance of the gasket and the groove
n Selected test gaps and offsets
n Test pressure compared to working pressure
Gasket and gasket grove tolerances
The manufacture of both the gasket and the groove
within the segments will have tolerances associated
with them, and these can potentially have a minor
effect on the compression load, and hence the
sealing capability. They are normally accounted for
by inclusion in the test gap, but let’s consider the
options to that approach.
Typical ranges for tolerances on depth and width
for the groove in the concrete depend on the
standard used, but might be as follows using the
British Tunnelling Society Specification, and slightly
tighter to DAUB (ITA-IATES):
n Gasket groove depth: +0.5/-0.0mm
n Gasket groove width: ±0.5mm
For the gasket itself, Classification E1 of ISO 3302-
1:2014 for a typically sized product requires the
following, but these tolerances will vary by product
size:
n Gasket cross-section depth: ±0.5mm
n Gasket cross-section width: ±0.8mm
There are obviously a large number of variations
in the dimensional combinations and how these
might impact upon the different tests. To achieve
Figure 3: Gasket
“T” joint water
pressure test
apparatus
Tunnelling Journal 31
 conservative results for the different water sealing
and compression tests we would require a selection
of smallest gasket and largest groove, along with
the largest gasket and smallest groove. All of
these would be very difficult to achieve and would
themselves have related tolerances unless multiple
samples were manufactured, and test specimen
selection based upon precision measurements.
The assumption for water pressure testing is
therefore that the samples will simulate the mean
gasket dimensions within the nominal groove. The
tolerance variations of gasket and groove can to a
certain extent be accommodated within the test gap
as detailed below. This is not a perfect arrangement:
n The load-deformation curves for gaskets are
typically “S” shaped and interpretation of the
tolerance effect combined with the variable gaps
represented in the test and the material creep
under different loads is more complex than a
first glance suggests. Changing the physical gap
instead of changing the confinement (gasket
size compared to groove size) will have a minor
impact on the gasket compression characteristics
but this is more practical and likely to be
conservative.
n The inability to practically take into account
all tolerance effects is a disadvantage adding
to uncertainty, and this uncertainty will be one
aspect of the “load factor” used to define the test
pressure.
Selected test gaps and offsets
This is an aspect that sometimes causes great
debate amongst the different contracting parties,
but the result is often a requirement to test at
10mm offset and about a 6mm gap. Surely all
projects are not the same?
Let us first consider the offset. This number will
often be taken from the specification requirement
for ring build quality for segment or ring lipping.
Some people might even consider the cumulative
effects of the mould positional tolerance for the
groove relative to the intrados face of the segment
(the only place where you can measure the lipping
in the erected ring) to maximise this number. Now,
consider that the ability to compress the gasket (to
develop the stored energy) is also influenced by
the internal structure of the extruded gasket – the
relative position of the voids and internal “struts”
within the gasket cross-section. It is therefore
clear that before the water pressure test set-up
is defined, some knowledge of the gasket load-
compression characteristics at different offsets is
also required. In the majority of cases larger offsets
result in a lower compression load, but there are
gasket sections on the market that have lower
compression loads (at a set gap), at smaller offsets
than the maximum lipping that might be accepted
in the tunnel. The moral of this being, bigger is not
necessarily better (or conservative in this case).
The more complicated number to agree on is the
test gap – the distance between the ideal concrete
faces. Practically, it can be more appropriate to
consider the distance between the bases of the
grooves depending upon the test rig being used,
but let us stick to the gap between concrete
32 Tunnelling Journal
faces for our discussion purposes. Similar to the
derivation of an offset, it is possible to calculate
a theoretical gap by considering the following,
remembering that many of these numbers “double”
as they apply to both concrete faces in the Works,
and some might be mutually exclusive:
n The groove depth tolerance
n The gasket profile (height) tolerance
n The profile of the concrete joint face in two
directions/planes – the possible “gap” that is left
after first contact between the concrete faces of
two segments
n Build tolerances such as joint gaps in the
circumferential joint, plane and allowable
circularity tolerance (ovalisation) affecting the
longitudinal joint
n Ring deformation under load causing longitudinal
joint rotation
n Concrete strain under load (finally, a beneficial
effect – at least at the deepest sections).
The next question to ask is “can all of these tolerances
occur at the same location in the built tunnel where
the water pressure is the highest?”. Obviously, the
answer to this is “yes, they can”. However, statistically,
it does seem unlikely. We will have to leave it up to
the individual project to decide if this can occur on
their project, the importance of the water sealing, and
also how this might somehow be combined with the
factor of safety on test pressure discussed later. The
relative cost of being slightly conservative in gasket
selection is small. It is also likely that if an existing
profile is selected, it will more than meet the water
pressure testing requirements, continuing a successful
history of water sealing. It is therefore suggested
that the current approach of combining all relevant
tolerances is the right approach and a 5-6mm test
gap suits typical casting and build tolerances these
days.
The future may change all of this. With cast-in
gaskets some tolerance issues, essentially relating
to the groove, disappear because the cast-in gasket
forms its own groove during the manufacturing
process of the segment. However, for linings with
fewer segments and for larger tunnels the result
would be to increase some aspects of the gap
calculation. So, let us not be complacent about the
test gaps we have used in the past by accepting what
was done last time. Challenge any conservatism
inherited if there are changes to the gasket and the
installation processes. Think about what becomes a
potential area for variation and is therefore important
in a pressure test, and consider how tunnel size and
segmentation impact on some of the key aspects of
joint gap.
Test pressure compared to working pressure
Many people adopt a factor of safety of 2.0 on the
working pressure to define a test pressure without
understanding the background to this. The BTS
Specification for Tunnelling includes this requirement
and it is a reasonably conservative approach as will
be shown, but certain circumstances may alter the
applied factor, or conditions/materials may force a
change.
In general terms the load factor can be considered
 A REVIEW OF TUNNEL SEGMENT GASKETS – PART 2

to be made-up of two components – an allowance

for gasket relaxation over its design life, and the
inclusion of other uncertainties such as how a
laboratory test represents the long-term gasket
performance in the tunnel, and some tolerances not
explicitly included in the test. In reality, both may vary
across different projects and the use of a single factor
of safety for all circumstances could be reconsidered.
The assessment of long-term relaxation has been
covered earlier in this article and has the effect of
reducing the compression load (stored energy) to
approximately 65-70% of its initial value after 120
years. This can be considered to have been translated
into a factor on the working pressure for test
purposes of 1/0.65 = 1.538.
In addition, there will always be other
uncertainties, such as the impact of the assessment
of groove and gasket tolerances as discussed earlier,
and for an Ultimate Limit State water pressure test,
a load factor of 1.3 was considered to be reasonable
under general design codes used at the time.
Combining the two factors discussed provides an
overall factor of 1.538 x 1.3 = 2.0. This has not been
changed or challenged following the introduction of
Eurocodes in Europe. Obviously where the relaxation
of the material can be shown to be other than 65%
of the initial compression force over the defined
design life, and uncertainty is judged to be different
from normal circumstances, a revised overall load
factor could be argued.
All of that being said, why do we impose a load
factor on the test pressure to represent gasket gasket (100mm or 200mm depending upon the Figure 4: Typical
relaxation, rather than reducing the load in the gasket referenced standard) in a groove, which is deformed test set-up and
result (Courtesy of
by increasing the test gap? It is, after all, the opposite under a measured load (see figure 4 for a typical VIP-Polymers Ltd)
of what we do for gasket and groove tolerances arrangement and plot). The result will obviously be
where we increase the gap. Apart from “that was dependent on the designed gasket cross section and
what we did last time”, it is probably the best of material formulation.
two imperfect approaches, and is in itself another There is some inconsistency in the approach
aspect of uncertainty. The consequences of reducing taken by different suppliers concerning the end
compression load by increasing the gap are that: restraint used in the test, and many documents that
n The non-linear relationship observed in the load- might be consulted for guidance are silent on this
deflection curve makes interpretation inexact particular issue.
n A significantly larger gap would also change the Let us first consider a test with unconfined ends
stiffness of the gasket “laterally” (in the direction of and ask the question “in the manufactured window
the water load) in a manner not measured by other frame arrangement, where does the air in the voids
testing. This has already partially occurred due to go under compression?”.
the gap increase to account for tolerances, but Recent testing by VIP-Polymers has been
these are relatively small changes compared to the undertaken using samples with vulcanised rubber
gap increase required to represent a 35% loss in film sealed ends. This test mitigates the impact of
compression force plus uncertainty factors. air escaping from open ends, although it does not
reflect fully the slight Poisson’s ratio constraining
However, there is another aspect that might be effect that would occur for the confined gasket
beneficially taken into account. As noted previously, in the tunnel. Closing the ends of the gasket for
the relaxation of the gasket varies with time with a these tests was typically done with the use of
relatively large percentage occurring very quickly. standard rubber joining film to ensure the minimum
This could be used to argue for a lower test pressure thickness of film was used to close the ends, and
combined with a test set-up being completed at a to further ensure that the additional rubber used to
defined time before the water pressure is applied. seal the ends had a minimal effect on the results of
the load test.
Load-deflection testing Figure 5a and 5b shows two samples of gasket
The compression load required to fully compress arrangement tested as an open ended gasket and
the gasket within its groove is required for several with the film seal applied. The difference in the load
reasons, which might include the assessment of test results between “open” and “closed” was an
connections, or an attempt to predict the required increase of 8% load for the closed ends arrangement
gasket edge distance to avoid spalling (see next for type 5a. The difference between the load test
section). The traditional test uses a limited length of results for type 5b was an increase of 12% load for

Tunnelling Journal 33

Figure 5a – Open
and closed end
gasket sample
(single row of
holes)
Figure 5b – Open
and closed end
gasket sample
(double row of
holes)
the closed end arrangement reflecting the increased
load resulting from the additional row of holes. The
gasket section can therefore be seen to have an
impact on the result.
Load deflection testing on previous projects has
shown that using steel plates to confine the sample
ends can result in compression loads increasing by
up to 100% (S. Swartz et al 2002) – albeit using a
very stiff gasket in this example. This test could be
argued to be unpredictable over the air seal at the
gasket ends, although the result achieved appears
to demonstrate a very good seal in this case. In
addition, the Poisson’s ratio effect of fully restraining
the gasket longitudinally, particularly on short test
pieces, was recognised as providing a conservative
result. Although there is some longitudinal constraint
experienced by a gasket on a segment, this is
exaggerated in short pieces confined by stiff end
plates, and could potentially over exaggerate the
effect on the compression load.
In reality, the truth probably lies somewhere
between 12% increase and the 100% previously
reported, but the load to full compression is unlikely
Figure 6 – “T”
section load/
compression test
set-up
34 Tunnelling Journal
to be the result obtained from
an open end test used by some
suppliers. This is an excessively
broad range that is not much use
to a designer, and more data is
needed. However, it is clear that
the ends need to be closed in
order to get a realistic, real-world
result.
We are therefore left with the
dilemma of how to apply these
results to any normal “open” test
that has been - and will probably
continue to be in the future –
carried out. Perhaps the answer
is just that we must specify a
closed end test arrangement to be
undertaken if we really believe this
number will be important in our
design.
We also need to consider the
impact of “hard spots” created
through the manufacture of
the gasket corners. This will be covered in more
detail in the next article, but for now, consider that
the compression load testing of a “T” junction, as
shown in figure 6, would be more representative
of conditions in the tunnel close to a joint. Tests
on straight sections (sealed) would provide data
for the majority of the gasket length. Both of these
issues are currently under-represented in the test
method commonly adopted, and any numbers used
in calculations that rely purely on an open, straight
compression load test should therefore be viewed
with scepticism.
Potential spalling and edge distances
The distance between the segmental lining extrados
and the closest edge of the gasket is a feature
as important as the water sealing capacity of the
gasket itself. Failure of the concrete by cracking
or spalling compromises the whole waterproofing
system. This dimension not only influences the
successful waterproofing of the tunnel, but also
affects the bearing stresses on concrete faces, the
bending moments that develop in the lining under

load and the tensile bursting forces at the joints.
This is a typical dichotomy in tunnel design – we
want a large distance for one reason, and a small
distance for another.
Spalling of the edge concrete or cracking as
a result of gasket compression for a glued-in
gasket could completely compromise the gasket
performance. It is a distance that is rarely tested
for a specific project, and the distance has often
simply been defined based upon the geometry
used on previous projects. As far as this goes this
is normally acceptable. Wary customers might also
remember to check if the previous project using the
same gasket included the use of segments with the
same strength concrete, whether it was steel fibre
reinforced or not, and whether the groove depth
was the same.
When a project does perform a specific test, the
typical arrangement is simply a load compression
test as discussed earlier, but undertaken within a
concrete block, or a double line of gaskets within
two blocks representing 4 edges. Comments
concerning the gasket and groove tolerances, and
the confinement of the gasket ends made above
would also affect this test and careful specification
and measurement of exactly what is being tested is
required.
Finally, consider that none of the laboratory
compression testing actually measures the
horizontal force that the gasket imposes on the
A REVIEW OF TUNNEL SEGMENT GASKETS – PART 2
sides of the gasket groove, which is a significant
component in the development of stresses leading
up to spalling or cracking of the concrete. So, any
calculations undertaken are actually likely to be
based upon spurious, possibly un-conservative,
assumptions and underestimated loads, which
leaves us with a need to test, refer to previous
tests, or ideally have a successful similar project
already in the bag. Given these options, specific
and well specified testing or reference to use on
a previous project appears to offer a lower risk of
issues developing during construction compared
to a calculation based upon a line load test.
References
1. BTS Specification for Tunnelling (Third Edition). Thomas Telford
2. Recommendations for the design, production and installation
of segmental rings (10.2013). Deutscher Ausschuss für
unterirdisches Bauen e. V. German Tunnelling Committee (ITA-
AITES)
3. ISO 3302-1:2014. Rubber – Tolerances for products – Part
1: Dimensional tolerances. International Organization for
Standardization
4. S. Swartz, H. Lum, M. McRae, D.J. Curtis, J. Sharma. “Structural
design and testing of a bolted and gasketed pre-cast concrete
segmental lining for high external hydrostatic pressure”: North
American Tunnelling 2002
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GASKETS
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No project is the same so whether we supply an off the shelf
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Tunnelling Journal 35
 Project Fa
ct File
Name: B

A TBM first
he
(BBDMP ri Babai Diversio
), Nepal n Multip
urpose
Client: G Project
overnm
(DOI) en t of Nep
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artment
Contrac of Irriga
tor: Chin tion

in Nepal
Nepal B a Overs
ranch (C eas Eng
OVEC N in eering G
Headrac epal) roup Co
e Tunne . Ltd.
l: 12.2km
Geolog of 4.3m
y: Siwali i.d tunn
el
k rock fo
Method rmation
: TBM, R of the Him
Gripper obbins 5 alayas
.06m dia
meter D
Lining: ouble Sh
In April 2019, China Overseas Engineering segmen
Precast
Hexago
ield
ts) nal segm
Group Co. Ltd. Nepal Branch (COVEC TBM lau
ental rin
g (350m
m thick
nch: Oc
Nepal), using Nepal’s first TBM - a 5.06m TBM bre
tober 20
17
akthrou
gh: Apri
diameter Robbins Double Shield - defied l 2019

the notoriously difficult geology of the Himalayas

to break through seven months ahead of the TBM
movements that occur frequently in the Himalayas
schedule on the 4.3m i.d. 12.2km Bheri Babai cause rock masses to be fractured, faulted, sheared
and deeply weathered (Panthi, 2012 and Panthi and
Diversion Multipurpose Project (BBDMP) headrace Basnet, 2019). Tunnelling through these numerous
tunnel for the Government of Nepal’s Department zones of weakness, fractures and faults is a regional
reality (Panthi, 2006), and the majority of long tunnels
of Irrigation (DOI). Prof. Dr. Krishna Kanta face severe instability problems and considerable
construction challenges (Panthi, 2009). The selection
Panthi, Department of Geoscience and Petroleum, of the right type of construction methodology
Norwegian University of Science and Technology is crucial to their successful completion so that
uncertainty and risk associated with geology, delays
(NTNU), critically reviews and evaluates the in construction completion, and cost overruns can
geological conditions, performance of the TBM be kept under control. The use of drill and blast is
very much the method of choice in the Himalayas.
excavation, and the achieved progress on this The experience in the use of TBMs has however
not always been particularly promising in the region
landmark project (Sengupta et al, 2008 and Panthi, 2009). However,
there are exceptions….
Due to the relatively new tectonic setting of
the Himalayan region, its rock formations vary The BBDM Project
considerably, consisting of the young sedimentary The BBDM Project located in the south-western part
sequence of the Siwalik to the higher Himalayan of Nepal (Figure 1) is a multipurpose project that
Crystalline rock formations. The active tectonic aims to divert 40m3/s of water from the Bheri River
(a tributary of the famous Karnali
River) to the Babai river. The main
aim of the project is to irrigate some
60,000 hectors of agricultural land
in the district of Banke in Nepal.
In addition, the project aims to
generate electricity with an installed
capacity of 48MW, which will
guarantee the supply of 395GWh
of continuous energy. Therefore,
this project is of significant national
importance.
The civil structures of the project
are divided in three different
segments consisting of:
1) The Headworks structure
consisting of a diversion barrage,
intake and settling basins
2) The 12.2km long headrace tunnel
3) The construction of a surface
penstock and semi-underground
Figure 1. Location map of BBDM Project with geology of Nepal
powerhouse

36 Tunnelling Journal

Since it was impossible to have an intermediate
construction adit of a relatively short length, the
excavation of the headrace tunnel using drill
and blast was found to be unrealistic. In this
circumstance, the use of TBM excavation was
the only real option left. Past attempts at the
use of TBM excavation in the Himalayan region,
particularly in India and Pakistan (Sengupta et al,
2008; Panthi, 2012 and Stein, 2016) have faced
numerous challenges associated with geology and
logistical management which caused considerable
construction delays and cost overruns. Therefore,
at an early stage there was real doubt and no little
concern about the successful performance of a
TBM on the headrace tunnel at the BBDM project.
Geology along the headrace tunnel
Geologically, the project is located in the Siwalik
rock formation of the Himalayas (Figure 1). The
Siwalik rock formation borders the Himalayan range
for more than 2,000km from East India to West
Pakistan. The Siwalik rocks are relatively young
where their ages vary between 14 million years to
as young as two million years old (Upreti, 1999).
Generally, the Siwalik rock formation is sandwiched
between the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) at the
north and Main Frontal Thrust (MFT) to the South. It
is the MBT, a major Thrust system along the entire
Himalayas, which separates the young sedimentary
rock formation of the Siwalik from lesser Himalayan
rock formations where meta-sedimentary and
crystalline sequences of relatively good quality are
found. The Siwalik rock formations can be divided
into the lower, middle and upper Siwalik formations
(Gautem and Rosler, 1999 and Upreti, 1999). In
general terms, the Siwalik rock formations are
buried beneath the cover of the Southward tilted
(over-thrusted) lesser Himalayan meta-sedimentary
rocks along the MBT. Being sandwiched between
two active tectonic thrusts, the
rock mass of the Siwalik formation
is weak, highly deformed, folded,
and often fragile, easily erodible
and porous. Tunnelling through
the Siwalik rock mass is in general
challenging except for where areas
of bedded and massive sandstones
are met (Panthi, 2006).
The rock mass along the BBDM
headrace tunnel alignment belongs
to the lower Siwalik (LS) rock
formation consisting of fine to
medium grained grey sandstones
A TBM FIRST IN NEPAL
and silty, sandy and calcareous mudstone; and Figure 2.
the middle Siwalik (MS) rock formation consisting Longitudinal
cross-section
of medium to coarse grained grey mica rich profile of the
sandstones with an intercalation of siltstone and headrace tunnel
mudstone. The middle Siwalik (MS) formation is showing varying
gradually overlapped by the conglomeratic to sandy geological
condition (Re
conglomeratic facies of the upper Siwalik (US) rock
drawn from
formation. The headrace tunnel of BBDM project Bhattarai, 2019)
passes through the tilted anticline and syncline
Siwalik rock formation sequences as indicated in
Figure 2.
The headrace tunnel crosses the Bheri Thrust (BT),
which is among the two tectonic contacts found
within the MBT and MFT at the project area (Figure
2). Therefore, it was envisaged during planning
that extreme care should be taken during TBM
excavation through this thrust (BBDMP, 2015).
TBM Performance
The 5.02m diameter Robbins double gripper
shielded TBM, which was equipped with 33 no. 17
inch disc cutters and had a cutterhead driving power
of 1,980KW with maximum torque of 3,475kNm at
4.5RPM was used for the excavation of the headrace
tunnel. (Shrestha, 2019). The TBM was equipped
with two sets of ring-mounted drills, which can
cover 360 degrees at the periphery and the center
of the tunnel. The probe length that can be drilled
using these drill rigs consisted of many tens of
meters (Bhattarai, 2019). These drills are used for
installing drain holes and for the injection of grout
Figure 3. Tunnel
to control excessive water inflow from the water
excavated using
bearing zones. The TBM was equipped for the drill and blast
continuous follow-on installation of the 350mm method lined with
thick hexagonal pre-cast concrete segments. TBM sprayed concrete
excavation started from a 150m long drill and blast (left) and TBM
assembly outside
tunnel lined with lattice gridders with a one meter of the headrace
spacing with a thick layer of sprayed concrete tunnel portal
(Figure 3-left). (right).
Tunnelling Journal 37
 TBM excavation commenced in the middle of
October 2017. In TBM tunnelling, the first 500m of
excavation is generally considered as a trial operation
where the crews get acquainted with the local
geological conditions and the operation of the TBM
itself. However, in the case of the headrace tunnel
excavation at the BBDM project, the crew gained
experience very quickly and after just one month of
Figure 4. Monthly TBM operation, the tunnel excavation advance gained
estimated and substantial momentum (Figure 4).
actual TBM As described earlier, the rock formation sequences
excavation
progress of the
along this tunnel alignment consists mainly of
BBDM headrace medium to fine grained sandstone, mudstone, and
tunnel. siltstone in beds of series of intercalation. These rocks
38 Tunnelling Journal
are young, with low to medium strength and are
perfect for excavation by TBM if no stability problems
associated with high rock stresses and substantial
ground water ingress are met. This was the case for the
most part of the BBDM project excluding some tunnel
stretches where challenges were experienced. During
the signing of the contract, it was estimated that the
average TBM excavation would be around 550m per
month. However, the average monthly TBM excavation
progress achieved was mostly above the targeted
550m per month (Figure 4).
Indeed, there were only two months where the TBM
excavation was less than estimated, which was the
first month of TBM excavation, and in February 2019
when the TBM excavation was nearing completion.
The record progress of 1063m was achieved in the
month of August 2018, which itself is a record for TBM
excavation in the Himalayan region.
Challenges associated to TBM excavation
Tunnelling challenges through the tectonically active
Himalayan rock mass are associated with:
1) instabilities caused by squeezing due to the presence
of a weak and highly deformable rock mass
2) rock bursts due to the presence of a brittle rock
mass
3) tunnel collapses caused due to the presence of
tectonic faults and weakness zones where the rock
mass is highly altered, sheared, weathered and
fractured.
 A TBM FIRST IN NEPAL

The potential for meeting water

bearing zones at these weakness
and fracture zones from where
excessive water inflow and tunnel
collapses may occur is also
relatively high (Panthi, 2006).
According to BBDMP (2015)
some of theses instabilities were
expected to be met through
the headrace tunnel excavation,
excluding excessive water inflow,
which was not considered to be a
great threat.
Considering the relatively high Figure 5. Water ingress at chainage 1175m (left) and at chainage 1337m (right).
rock cover (exceeding 600m)
between chainage 2000 to 3000m, it was thought
that some rock spalling might occur, but in practice
no such instability happened, which was a huge
relief for all parties involved. It is interesting to
note that the sandstone and mudstone sequences
(dominated mainly by sandstone) at this tunnel
stretch were found to be of a relatively high quality
which could sustain the in-situ stresses.
However, although water ingress was expected
to be of a minimum, substantial water inflows were
met at two locations in the headrace tunnel, which
naturally led to excavation challenges of their own
(Figure 5). The extent of leakage amounted to 65
and 75 litre per second at chainages 1175m and
1337m, respectively. Since the rock mass was of
fairly good quality, no significant stability problems tunnel hampered remedial works. The water ingress Figure 6.
were triggered due to water ingress, which was here was controlled by grouting polyurethane Squeezing
mechanism (left)
dealt with by substantially reducing the TBM through a 16m long probe hole drilled from the and a bypass
excavation rate so that safe tunnelling could be crown of the headrace tunnel. constructed at
continued. chainage 8588
On the other hand, instability caused by Concluding remarks (right).
squeezing (plastic deformation) due to the The headrace tunnel excavation using a TBM at the
presence of a weak and highly deformable rock BBDM project was very successful even though
mass was encountered at chainage 8588m where there were real concerns about the success of TBM
the front shield of the TBM became stuck on 15th excavation through the Himalayan rock mass at the
October 2018. Up until chainage 8400m, the TBM early phase of the project. As the BBDM project is
tunnel was in a direction almost perpendicular to one of several “National Pride Projects” currently
the bedding plane. However, after this chainage the under implementation in Nepal, the successful
strike of the bedding plane suddenly changed to use of the TBM here is a significant step forward
almost parallel to the headrace tunnel alignment. for the technique in this region and will certainly
This tunnel chainage is almost at the boundary increase confidence in the future application of TBM
between the lower and middle Siwalik rocks. technology.
It looks like extensive folding and twisting had Therefore, the lessons learned at this project
occurred in the past, which forced the bedding will be of paramount importance for the future. In
plane to change direction to such a magnitude. conclusion the successful TBM excavation achieved
In addition, the rock mass belonging to the at BBDM project may be explained by the following:
Middle Siwalik “A” formations, especially the 1. A comprehensive engineering geological
upstream segment of the tunnel, was found to be investigation was implemented during the planning
more micaceous with increased schistosity. The and design phases of this project, which led to
micaceous and schistose sandstone and mudstone a better understanding of the rock mass and
with some water ingress had caused the rock mass structural geological conditions prevailing at the
to become slippery as well as squeezed due to its project area.
reduced strength (Figure 6). 2. The selection of the right type of TBM equipped
The TBM was successfully released from this with the necessary drilling rig for probe drilling
stuck position after 8 days of hard work. A short and injection grouting, and the right approach in
bypass tunnel was constructed from the window in selecting the contractor and its crew members
the telescopic shield of the TBM, which was then helped considerably in gaining this success.
used to access and free the cutterhead. In addition 3. Teamwork between the different stakeholders and
to this, the cutterhead jammed for the same reason good strategic planning play an important role in
at approximate chainage 8606m, but additionally the successful completion of long tunnels through
inflows of water from the left-crown of the TBM challenging geological condition. Serious planning,

Tunnelling Journal 39
 The 12.2km Bheri flexibility in decision making and the right approach
Babai Diversion
Multipurpose
to logistics and good coordination and teamwork
Project (BBDMP) between all stakeholders played a crucial role in its
headrace tunnel successful and timely completion.
lined with a 4. In addition, the greatest geological factor for
hexagonal
this success may also be due to the fact that the
segmental ring.
headrace tunnel did not cross any serious large-
scale tectonic contacts where the rock mass is
intensely fractured presenting serious shear and
weakness zones, which may well be the case
in other areas. It is noted here that the whole
headrace tunnel length at BBDM project passes
through only the Siwalik rock formation consisting
of relatively repeating sequences of rocks such as
sandstone, mudstone and siltstone.
Therefore, the author emphasizes that a careful
review, a sufficient engineering geological
investigation, a correctly thought out approach in
deciding the tunnel excavation method, a well-
planned logistic management system, and a holistic
approach in selecting a quality contractor during the
bidding period have been vital in the completion and
success of this project.
Acknowledgement
The author is thankful to the BBDM project for
arranging a wonderful visit to the project and
providing necessary documents needed while
writing this manuscript. The author is especially
thankful to the deputy head of this project Er. Tulasi
Ram Bhattarai and Er. Jagadiswar Man Shrestha for
historical photographs of this project. The views and
opinions expressed in this paper are of authors own
excluding the one duly cited in the manuscript.

References
BBDMP. 2015. Geotechnical baseline report (GBR). Section 4D of the contract for the construction of the
headrace tunnel to Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project, 111p.
Bhattarai T. R. 2019. Possibility of TBM tunneling for the infrastructure development of Nepal and lesson
learned from Bheri Babhai Diversion Multi-purpose Project (BBDMP). Presentation notes of the Nepal
Engineering Associate talk program in Pokhara, Nepal on 19th May 2019.
Gautem P. and Rosler W. 1999. Depositional chronology and fabric of Siwaliks group sediments in central
Nepal from magneto-stratigraphy and magnetic anisotropy. Journal of Asian earth sciences, vol. 17,
pp.659-682.
Panthi K. K. 2006. Analysis of engineering geological uncertainties related to tunnelling in Himalayan rock
mass conditions. Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Doctoral theses at NTNU 2006:41.
ISBN 82-471-7826-5.
Panthi K. K. 2012. Evaluation of rock bursting phenomena in a tunnel in the Himalaya. Bulletin of
Engineering Geology and the Environment, vol. 71(4), pp. 761-769.
Sengupta S. K., Saxena P. K. and Baksi S. S. 2008. Tunnel boring machines in India – experience, prospect
and challenges. Proceedings: Worls Tunnel Congress 2008, pp. 1544-1551.
Shrestha J. M. 2019. Lesson learned from Tunnel Excavation by TBM in BBDMP & Scope of TBM in Nepal.
Presentation notes of the Nepal Engineering Association (NEA) talk program in Hetauda, Nepal on 18th
July 2019.
Stein E. 2016. Evaluation on the stress induced brittle failure along the headrace tunnel of Neelum Jhelum
HPP, Pakistan. MSc thesis at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim,
Norway, 100p.
Upreti B. N. 1999. An overview of the stratigraphy and tectonic of the Nepal Himalaya. Journal of Asian
earth sciences, vol. 17, pp. 577-606.

40 Tunnelling Journal
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mail: info@global-tunnelling-experts.com

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Tunnelling Journal 41
 STUVA Expo and STUVA Conference
26 – 27 November, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
STUVA e.V. has been organising scientific conferences for more than 50 years. STUVA’s conferences are held bi-
annually, in late November/early December on odd years, and have become a fixed date in the calendar of many
national and international tunnelling experts.
Traditionally, the event is hosted in a large German city with a metro system in operation or under construction.
The conference covers recent developments in all fields of underground construction with special focus topics, e.g.:
new technologies, design, construction, maintenance, economic issues, safety and risk during construction and
operation, contractual issues from tendering to awarding, etc.
The event lasts three days; international experts will present on the
first and second day. The third day is reserved for excursions to local
construction sites and other interesting locations.
Since 1997 the STUVA Conference has been accompanied by the largest
international branch event worldwide, the trade fair STUVA Expo. For all
the latest information visit: http://www.stuva-expo.com

Vorläufiger Hallenplan Halle 5.1 /

Vorläufiger Hallenplan Halle 5.1 /PreliminaryPreliminary
Floor Plan Floor
HallPlan
5.1Hall 5.1
F159 F157 F155 F153 F150 F139 F137 F136 F134 F132 F131 F130 F119 F116 F114 F112 F110
Amberg Senceive MS Technik MTS DESOI 3 RuS WIWA InnoTrans AFTES PPS GSR
5 4 5 5 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 5

Gang / Aisle F
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 8 5 4 4 5 5 4 9 5
Systemair 3 Gotth. Kn. ADCOS Langmatz Imersys 3 ÖZKAN Gerh. Geißel Hailo
F149 F148 F147 F145 F143 F142 F141 F140 F126 F124 F122 F121 F120 Patrona KLEIN
E159 E157 E152 E151 E150 7 SMT E136 E134 E131 E130 F106 F102 Vössing Eingang /
Bauer E119 E116 E112 7 entrance
Obermeyer ACO DSI Underground SBEV PORR Deutschland Bergmann MAT Bauer Spezialtiefbau Belloli Eplass Arsan BPA
5 5 9 4 10 E139 4 5 9 5 5 4 4 E110 5
Treppe / stairs

Gang / Aisle E Ausgang /

exit
5 4 5 5 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 4 6
Palmieri Pini Swiss BROKK AST Hydrowork W&F Kern Tunnel- YEP Deilmann H. AVE Putz- BabEng Hölscher Minova Nolta Rascor
Dätwyler BUNG technik SA E126 E122 meister E120 MAI
E149 E148 E146 E145 E144 E142 E140 E129 E127 E124 E121 E109 E106 E102 E100
D159 D157 D156 D154 D153 D152 D150 D139 D136 D134 D131 D119 D116
HECO James Rockmore Krampe H. VMT Huning HaBe SANDVIK Glotzl CREG 3 GHH SSF Safe KEMROC DMI
5 Hardie 4 4 5 4 7 9 6 5 6 D130 5 Exit 5 D111 9 Dr.
Spang
Gang / Aisle D D110
Catering

4 4 4 4 4 4 9 4 4 4 4 9 5 10 7 Karl
WBI fischer- SZ Prysmian Hodapp Optimas Robbins isolera Fogmaker AGRU Schön.
werke CTS SWECO
D149 D148 D147 D145 D144 D142 Herrenknecht 7 7 Schüssler D127 D126 D124 D122 Max Bögl 7 D109 D103 Ed. Züblin 7 D100
C159 C158 C157 C155 C154 C153 C137 C136 C134 C132 C119 C113
ITC Bekaert Danish F. Friedrich Elkuch TROLEX HBI Liebherr baumhüt Intermetr. Albatros MC Bauchemie
4 4 4 Ischebeck 4 4 C150 9 C139 6 4 4 4 4 C130 9 5 10 C111 7
Mapei
Gang / Aisle C
5 5 ZPP 4 5 4 5 13 5 4 4 5 5 5 5
MAI ILF Engineers Ingenieure GTA IMM Ernst Aero-X 3 TPH Renesco Tradecc Bauverlag FOGTEC HAMM Ing. Gebauer WEBAC C100
C149 C146 C145 C144 C142 C140 C129 C124 C123 C122 C120 C109 C104 C101
B159 C147 B154 B153 B150 B139 B135 B132 B130 B119 B110
Treppe / stairs

B157 B136 Keller B114

Tsurumi TOBSTEEL DÜRR AUSTRIA BayKa Hochtief Implenia STM Minroc EPIROC EDR GmbH Grundbau NAUE Söndgerath
5 5 8 5 10 10 4 4 8 5 5 5 5

Gang / Aisle B
4 6 5 6 8 4 8 4 4 6 4 5 5 4 6
Sch. A. RAWIE Adolf Bochumer FIDES DVP SBM EJ Maxam CDM
MAB Würth TROX Schöma 7 Zetcon Eisenh. 7 Eingang /
B149 B147 B145 B143 B141 OSMO B129 B127 B126 B124 B121 Korfmann B109 B104 B100 entrance
A159 A157 A156 A155 A153 A152 A151 A139 A138 A136 A134 A132 A131 A119 A114 A110
Clariant 3 3 QSG 3 Sigrist Wecand Haber SYTEC PROTAN NLT Aus. BASF H+E 3 SWIBOX
4 4 4 4 5 4 4 A150 4 5 Tech 5 4 4 A130 5 5 5 5

Ausgang /
Gang / Aisle A exit
Heide 4 4 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Pumpen 3 KIG Böhm SIKA SFB Wettertechnik KSE ankox Bauernfeind F. Willich
A149 A147 A146 A144 A142 A141 A140 A129 A126 A122 A120 A109 A104 A100

Wasseranschluss Säulen in der Messehalle zugelassene Aussteller reservierte Fläche

water supply columns in the fairhall admitted exhibitors reserved floorspace

42 Tunnelling Journal

Exhibitor Booth No.
A. RAWIE GmbH & Co. KG B147
A.S.T. Bochum GmbH E144
ACO Tiefbau Vertrieb GmbH E157
ADCOS NV F143
Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG B145
AECOM Deutschland GmbH B124
Aero-X AG C140
AFTES - L’Association Française des Tunnels et de Gerhard Geißel Maschinenbau GmbH F121
l’Espace Souterrain F114
AGRU Kunststofftechnik GmbH D109
Albatros Engineering GmbH C119
Amberg Group Ltd. F159
Anbaufräsen PC GmbH B132
ankox GmbH A109
ARSAN KAUCUK PLASTIK MAKINA SAN. ve TIC. A.S. E116
ave Verkehrs- und Informationstechnik GmbH E122
Avesco AG D139
BabEng GmbH E120
BASF Construction Solutions GmbH A119
BASF Performance Products GmbH A119
BAUER MAT Slurry Handling Systems E134
BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH E131
Bauernfeind GmbH A104
Baugeologisches Büro Bauer GmbH D130
baumhueter extrusion GmbH C134
Bayerische Kabelwerke AG B153
Bekaert Maccaferri Underground Solutions BVBA C158
Belloli SA E130
Bergmann Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG E136
Bochumer Eisenhütte
GmbH & Co. KG B127
Böhm Fertigungstechnik Suhl GmbH A140
BPA GmbH E112
BROKK AB E145
Bulteck A138
BUNG Ingenieure AG E140
Carl Hamm GmbH C109
CDM Smith Consult GmbH B100
CFT GmbH Compact Filter Technic A130
Clariant SE A159
CREG TBM Germany D134
CTS Cordes tubes & seals GmbH & Co. KG D142
Danish Fibres A/S C157
Darda GmbH E145
Dätwyler Sealing Technologies Deutschland GmbH E149
Desoi GmbH F131
Dibit Messtechnik GmbH F153
Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Gebauer Ingenieur GmbH C104
DMI Injektionstechnik GmbH D111
“Dr. Spang Ingenieurgesellschaft für Bauwesen, Geologie KLEIN GmbH F102
und Umwelttechnik mbH D110
DSI Underground Austria GmbH E152
DU Diederichs Projektmanagement AG & Co. KG B124
DÜRR Group GmbH B154
DVP Deutscher Verband für Projektmanagent
in der Bau- und Immobilienwirtschaft e.V. B124
Ed. Züblin AG
Direktion IU Tunnelbau C111
EDR GmbH B130
EDR Software GmbH B130
EJ Deutschland GmbH B109
Elkuch Bator AG C154
Epiroc Deutschland GmbH B132
EPLASS project collaboration GmbH E119
Ermaks Mühendislik F122
Ernst & Sohn, Verlag für Architektur und
technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG C142
F. Willich Isoliersysteme GmbH & Co. KG A100
STUVA EXPO AND STUVA CONFERENCE
Exhibitor Booth No.
FAMA Srl F114
FIDES DV-Partner
Beratungs- und Vertriebs-GmbH B126
fischerwerke GmbH & Co. KG D148
Fogmaker International AB D122
FOGTEC Brandschutz GmbH & Co. KG C120
GEODATA Group E152
GHH Fahrzeuge GmbH D131
GLÖTZL Gesellschaft für Baumesstechnik mbH D136
Gotthard Knödlseder Bohrtechnik GmbH F147
GSR Spannring GmbH F110
GTA Maschinensysteme GmbH C145
H + E Logistik GmbH A114
Ha-Be Betonchemie GmbH D150
HaBer-Tech GmbH A136
Hailo-Werk
Rudolf Loh GmbH & Co. KG F120
HBI Haerter AG
Beratende Ingenieure C137
HECO-Schrauben GmbH & Co. KG D159
Heide-Pumpen GmbH A149
Herrenknecht AG C150
Hochtief AG B150
Höcker Project Managers GmbH B124
Hodapp GmbH & Co. KG D144
Hölscher Wasserbau GmbH E109
Huning Umwelttechnik GmbH & Co. KG D152
HydroWork GmbH E142
ICT – Prozesstechnik GmbH A139
ILF Consulting Engineers Austria GmbH C147
IMERYS Metalcasting Germany GmbH F140
IMM Maidl & Maidl
Beratende Ingenieure GmbH & Co. KG C144
Implenia Construction GmbH
Tiefbau - Tunnelbau Deutschland B139
InnoTrans 2020 F116
intermetric GmbH C132
Ischebeck, Friedr. GmbH C155
isolera GmbH D124
ITC SA C159
James Hardie Europe GmbH D157
JES Elektrotechnik GmbH A139
Karl Schöngen KG
Kunststoff-Rohrsysteme D100
Keller Grundbau GmbH B119
KEMROC Spezialmaschinen GmbH D116
Kern Tunneltechnik SA E127
KIG TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS A141
Korfmann Lufttechnik GmbH A130
KrampeHarex GmbH & Co. KG D154
KSE-LIGHTS GmbH A120
Langmatz GmbH F141
Liebherr-France SAS C136
LKAB Wassara AB F147
LUDEWIG Evaluation GmbH B124
MAI International GmbH C149
MAPEI GmbH C100
Max Bögl Stiftung & Co. KG C130
MAXAM Deutschland GmbH B104
MC-Bauchemie Müller GmbH & Co. KG C113
Mining Equipment Ltd. F148
Minova CarboTech GmbH E106
Minroc Bohrausrüstungen GmbH B135
MS-Technik Vertrieb & Service GmbH F139
MTS PERFORATOR GMBH F137
NAUE GmbH & Co. KG B114
Exhibitor Booth No.
Nolta GmbH E102
Northern Light Techologies, Global Digital Solutions A131
OBERMEYER Planen + Beraten GmbH E159
Optimas Solutions D127
OSMO-Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG A150
ÖZKAN DEMİR ÇELİK SANAYİ A.Ş. F124
Palmieri S.p.A. E148
Patrona Versicherungsmakler GmbH F106
Pini Swiss Engineers SA E146
PORR GmbH & Co. KGaA
Tunnelbau E150
PPS GmbH F112
PROTAN A132
Prysmian Kabel und Systeme GmbH D145
Putzmeister Concrete Pumps GmbH E121
QSG Verkehrstechnik GmbH A151
Rascor Construction Chemicals GmbH E100
REDPATH DEILMANN GmbH E124
Renesco GmbH
Abt. Marti Geotechnik C124
Rockmore International GmbH D156
Rowa Tunnelling Logistics AG E130
Rücker + Schindele Beratende Ingenieure GmbH F130
SafeExIT A/S D119
Sandvik Mining and Construction Central Europe GmbH D139
SBEV Stadtbahn Europaviertel Projektbaugesellschaft mbH E151
SBM Mineral Processing GmbH B121
Schauenburg MAB GmbH B149
SCHÖMA Christoph Schöttler Maschinenfabrik GmbH B141
Schulte Strathaus GmbH & Co. KG A120
Schüßler-Plan GmbH C139
Senceive Ltd F150
SIGRIST - PHOTOMETER AG A139
SIGRIST - PHOTOMETER GmbH A139
Sika Deutschland GmbH A129
SMT Scharf GmbH E139
Söndgerath Pumpen GmbH B110
SSF Ingenieure AG
Beratende Ingenieure im Bauwesen D130
STM Srl - SVILUPPO TECNOLOGIE MECCANICHE B136
Sweco GmbH D103
Swibox AG A110
SysBohr GmbH F147
Systemair GmbH F149
SYTEC SP. Z.O.O. A134
SZ Schacht- und Streckenausbau GmbH D147
The Robbins Company D126
THOST Projektmanagement GmbH B124
TOBSTEEL GmbH B157
TPH Bausysteme GmbH C129
TRADECC NV C123
TROLEX Ltd. C153
TROX GmbH B143
Tsurumi ( Europe ) GmbH B159
“tunnel - Internationale Fachzeitschrift für Tunnelbau
Bauverlag BV GmbH” C122
VMT GmbH
Gesellschaft für Vermessungstechnik D153
Vössing Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH E110
Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau AG E129
WBI GmbH D149
WEBAC-Chemie GmbH C101
Wecand Enterprise Co., Ltd. A138
Wettertechnik GmbH A122
WIWA Wilhelm Wagner GmbH & Co. KG F119
ZETCON Ingenieure GmbH B129
ZPP Ingenieure AG C146
Tunnelling Journal 43
 Contact us
Tris Thomas
Editorial Director
Tel: + 44 (0) 1892 522 585
Mobile: + 44 (0) 7812 011 139
tris@tunnellingjournal.com
Tunnelling Writer since 1999
Amanda Foley
Contributing Editor
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amanda@tunnellingjournal.com
Tunnelling Writer since 2000
Mark Piper
Finance Director
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mark@tunnellingjournal.com
Tunnelling Industry since 1998
Steve Caming
Director
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stevencaming@gmail.com
Tunnelling Media since 2001
44 Tunnelling Journal
Gary Tween Daniel Lee-Billinghurst
Managing Director Sales Director
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Mobile: + 44 (0) 7973 205 638 Mobile: + 44 (0) 7818 422 712
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Tunnelling Media since 2000 Tunnelling Media since 2001
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Tunnelling Writer since 2010
Tunnelling Media since 2012
Rory Harris Peter Bell
Chairman Director
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rory@tunnellingjournal.com peter@tunnellingjournal.com
Tunnelling Industry since 1987 Tunnelling Industry since 1984
Michael Hooker Pete Beach
Art Editor Illustrator
Now Incorporating World Tunnelling
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 DRIVEN TO THE CORE

OVERCOME
THE UNEXPECTED

Galerie des Janots

La Ciotat, France
3.5 m Robbins Main Beam TBM

CONQUERING CAVERNS

Crews triumphed over voids, groundwater, and two

uncharted caverns while boring the 2.8 km long
water tunnel Galerie des Janots in La Ciotat, France.

therobbinscompany.com

Tunnelling Journal 45
 October/November 2019

www.tunnelingjournal.com

Coping with
the pressure
North American Tunneling Journal 1
 DEMANDING CONDITIONS
DEMAND JENNMAR.
Jennmar has been the innovative leader in ground control for the mining industry for
more than forty years. Over the past decade, our growth has led us to above ground
for structural buildings, implementing the same vigor and detailed processes. Our
Jennmar Civil arch systems, girders, liner plates and Impact Resistant Laggings® are
backed by experienced engineers and technicians who are with you every step of the
way, from initial consultation to qualified instruction and on-going technical support.
And, of course, our customer service is second-to-none. That’s something we’ve always
demanded of ourselves.

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American E A D QUA
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Journal • (412) -96 3 -9 071 • PI T T SB U R GH, PA US A • W W W. J EN N M A R .CO M
Comment
Too good to be true…?
Contents
News from the web - page 4
Although it is encouraging to see the technical The Insider - page 6
evaluation of bids become more prevalent in

08
the choice of a contract winner, the fact is, the Under Pressure
lowest bidder is still, predominantly king. The hard rock TBM which has recently holed through
This always puts me in mind of the famed on New York’s Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel
astronaut and statesman, John Glenn, Jr. who was equipped to cope with huge water pressures.
has the legendary quote attributed to him, Kristina Smith caught up with owner and contractor
“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept to find out if it did.
crossing my mind—every part of this rocket
was supplied by the lowest bidder.”
Thankfully for Glenn, Jr, things worked out
just fine in his amalgamation of lowest bid
parts. And the truth is, in tunneling, things
do by and large also work out fine, and that’s
because almost exclusively the players within
the industry are extremely capable, diligent,
and competent.
But, the question has to asked, why
would you put yourself in a position where
you would feel anything less than 100%
confident in your project team before you
even start by choosing a wildly low bid? To
clarify, sometimes bids are so close that the
difference between lowest price winner and
second place could purely be a matter of
15 minutes with...Sanja Zlatanic - page 14

16
the choice of a more expensive technique,
NOT blatant cost cutting. These close call
Monitoring the changes – Part 1
awards are valid situations where you just What trends are emerging in the tunnel monitoring
accept somebody has found a different way industry in North America? What opportunities
lie ahead? In the first part of this year’s two-part
of performing a task for less money than you
monitoring roundtable, NATJ gathered the opinion
have. Alarm bells should, however, ring when
of five industry experts.
there is huge discrepancy between ‘winning’
lowest bid and second.
By choosing a crazily low bidder you must
already have concerns about whether the
contract is deliverable under such a pricing
structure. Surely we all know this often paves
a path to the courts with claims and counter-
claims ricocheting from every wall en-route.
Although it would be hard to ever describe
a TBM or drill & shoot as ‘hurtling’ through
the ground as Glenn’s magnificent space
craft did through the atmosphere, it would
be comforting to know that the lowest bidder
constructing your project was capable of
bringing your machine, and your project,
home safely, on time and on budget. For
sometimes, a bargain is definitely too good to
be true!

Tris Thomas

North American Tunneling Journal 3


Metro backs proposal for new eight-lane Eight teams to
immersed tube Massey Tunnel
Metro Vancouver has backed a task
force’s recommendation to replace the
tunnel was instantly rejected on the
grounds of it costing some four times
aging George Massey crossing, in British
Columbia, Canada, with a new eight-
lane immersed-tube tunnel.
Originally, the four-lane, 629m
(2,065ft) long George Massey Tunnel
– a 60-year-old highway traffic tunnel
located approximately 20km (12.5-miles)
south of Vancouver – was to be
replaced by a CA$3.5bn, 10-lane bridge,
but this plan was scrapped by the new
NDP provincial government in 2017.
In June 2019, a preliminary List of
Options was developed along with an
Evaluation Framework that reflected the
principles, goals and objectives required
in assessing options and selecting
a preferred option. An engineering
services contract was awarded to COWI
North America to provide support.
In July, the Mayors’ Task Force
endorsed a short list of six options,
focused on addressing congestion and
providing attractive options for transit
and active transportation. A deep bored
Artists impression of the new eight-lane George Massey immersed tube crossing
Sound Transit abandons light rail tunnels
for Ballard, West Seattle
Sound Transit board members have
abandoned ideas for a $450 million
tunnel into Seattle’s historic central
Ballard neighborhood, a $200 million
bored tunnel through West Seattle’s
Pigeon Point neighborhood, and a fully
elevated trackway in Sodo that would
have blocked light-rail travel during
construction, due to fears of rising costs.
Politicians on the 18-member board
have entertained dozens of alignment
4 North American Tunneling Journal
NORTH AMERICAN NEWS
compete for
RiverRenew tunnels
that of most of the other options.
The October announcement from
Metro Vancouver will now direct the
NDP government to start work on an
eight-lane immersed-tube tunnel. The
eight lanes include six lanes for regular
traffic – three in each direction – and
two more dedicated to transit, along
with a multi-use path. Cost estimates
for the new plan vary greatly, on the low
end at CA$3.5 billion (the same price as
the bridge that was already in the works)
to $5 billion.
The timeline for the new tunnel
includes eight years of work, with at least
three years of environmental assessment
and five years of construction. The
timeline to build the 10-lane bridge
was less, as much of the environmental
assessment work had already been
done.
The new endorsement now paves
the way for public consultation to take
place.
concepts since 2016, when voters
passed the $54 billion ST3 tax measure
to expand regional rail and bus services.
The agency promised West Seattle
stations in 2030 and stations from
south downtown to Seattle Center and
Ballard by 2035.
Transit CEO Peter Rogoff is warning
that construction inflation jumped by
one-fourth just since 2016, so hard
choices lie ahead.
On August 20, Alexandria Renew
Enterprises (AlexRenew) received
Statements of Qualifications from eight
teams in response to its Request for
Qualifications for the tunnel system
design-build contract that is the key
component of its RiverRenew program,
in Alexandria, Virginia. The teams
submitting Statements of Qualifications
(SOQs) were:
n Archer Western Construction, VINCI
Construction, BESSAC JV (Designer:
AECOM Technical Services)
n Clark Construction Group, Guy F
Atkinson Construction, Michels
(Designer: COWI North America,
Arcadis US)
n Dragados USA / Halmar International
JV (Designer: Mott MacDonald)
n Kenny Construction, Ulliman Schutte
(Designer: Parsons)
n Kiewit Infrastructure, McNally
Tunneling JV (Designer: McMillen
Jacobs Associates, Wade Trim)
n Lane Construction (Designer: Brierley
Associates)
n Obayashi, Jay Dee Contractors
JV (Designer: Hatch Associates
Consultants, Freese and Nichols,
Schnabel-SWS)
n Traylor Bros, J F Shea Construction
JV, Corman Kokosing (Jacobs
Engineering)
In July 2018, AlexRenew and the City of
Alexandria announced their joint plan
to remediate a portion of Alexandria’s
sewer system, built in the late 1800s.
The program includes construction of a
deep tunnel system – consisting of the
Waterfront and Hooffs Run tunnels –
that is approximately two miles long, as
well as new sewer infrastructure that will
connect the tunnels to the existing sewer
system. The plan also includes upgrades
to AlexRenew’s Water Resource Recovery
Facility to pump and treat wastewater
collected in the tunnels.
The tunnel system has an estimated
construction cost of $293 million. The
schedule stipulated by Virginia State Law
requires that the tunnel system and other
controls be in place by July 1, 2025. The
project schedule shows an RFP being
issued in early 2020 with construction
starting in early 2021.
 A LWAY S
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North American Tunneling Journal 5


Bob Goodfellow, PE, PEng, President, Aldea Services Inc.
Who doesn’t like a good debate?
Debate is a central part of our lives. I
refer not simply to the inevitable political
debate in a democratic system, but to
the questions and answers that go on all
around us every day. Croc versus shark?
DC versus Marvel; the ’85 Bears defense
versus Ray Lewis’ Ravens? Whose turn is
it to feed the dog? These are the eternal
debates that shape all of our lives. At
work, too, debate is a critical function of
successful projects and companies.
High performing teams depend on
disagreement and debate to eventually
come up with the right answers or best
answers. We can learn from the greatest
here, whether it is Abraham Lincoln’s
team of rivals, or Winston Churchill’s
wartime cabinet and the legendary
arguments between Churchill himself and
Lord Beaverbrook. Arguing your point,
amid the cut and thrust of a vigorous
debate, should lead ultimately to the best
solution.
It is in the political arena where debate
is most evident as each candidate tees-
off on the others in a staged contest.
In US politics at the moment, there
are multiple rounds of TV debates as
seemingly hundreds of candidates
seek the Presidential nomination of the
Democratic Party for an election in the
distant future of November 2020. The
debates are long; but with the number
of candidates, the opportunities for clear
and detailed explanation of a candidate’s
position is very limited. There is barely
disagreement on many issues and then
a few items when there is genuine
disagreement, leading to vigorous
discussion and sides being taken.
The limited debate gives only a small
window into how these proposed
solutions might be implemented.
Implementation is the key issue here.
Arm-waving pronouncements only get
you so far.
Unlike politicians, those at the sharp
end of tunneling must be ready to
respond quickly and effectively to any
number of different issues that arise.
Tunnellers must bring to bear all their
experience and all forms of debate –
from calm reasoning to yelling loudly
(depending on the audience) to find,
discuss and then implement solutions to
those same issues. All the time, tunnelers
6 North American Tunneling Journal
THE INSIDER
work as if their reputations and their
company’s fortunes depend on the
outcomes of these debates and actions.
That is because, guess what, they might
do!
Reputation and the respect of your
peers is currency in the tunnel business.
This respect (as with everything in the
tunnel industry) is hard won and can be
easily lost. Preparation is the key. With
knowledge and experience, coupled with
preparation comes successful debating.
The ability to argue and think on your feet
is a valuable skill that is useful in many
project scenarios.
There are difficult issues and discussion
to resolve on most tunnel projects. I am
a strong proponent of using the arena
of a risk workshop to host these debates
and other potentially difficult discussions
about design reviews, submittals reviews,
changed conditions, delays, and other
complaints and matters that arise.
Anybody just carrying out a meeting every
3 months to make sure the contractual
requirement for risk management is being
met has both missed the point and is
missing out on the substantial benefits
that this process can bring when used
actively by both sides to address and
head-off issues that have been identified.
I prefer to conduct these sessions by
setting the rules of the road and then
beginning a debate and allowing the
parties to argue out their preferences.
This is done with the expectation that,
with a collection of experienced voices
that exist in every project team, an answer
will be found that will minimize the
impact of identified risks to the project.
The back and forth of these debates are
fascinating and quite thrilling to be part
of. But these debates also carry inherent
risk of the commercial consequences. I
desperately try to keep the commercial
issues out of the room during risk
management debates – but it is difficult
if not impossible to do so completely.
Indeed, knowing constraints and red
lines for either party is important. It is
equally important to know who has the
contractual responsibility to implement
whatever solutions come up in discussion
because they will ultimately have the final
word on implementation.
These debates also have an impact
on teamwork. The mantra of “teaming
through risk management” that I first
heard in Las Vegas on the Low Lake Level
Pump Station project depends on the risk
discussions leading to increased respect
between the members of the project
team. This form of teaming is much
more relevant and effective in benefiting
the project than a kumbaya session.
Back to politics and a famous moment
in history from the UK Parliament. This
gives us a classic lesson on how to
debate and react to an argument. In
1978, the extremely mild-mannered
Member of Parliament, Geoffrey Howe
was part of the opposition. He rose in
Parliament to criticize the activities of
then Government Cabinet Member,
Dennis Healey. Healey later described
the attack as feeling like he had been
“savaged by a dead sheep.” This well-
mannered but pointed verbal lashing
really began the process of defeating the
Government in the election the following
year. The put-down retort is even more
famous and is a great example of how
holding a debating position (whether in
politics, or on a project) does not need
to be personal. Nor does arguing a point
need to poison a relationship. Howe and
Healey were, in fact, good friends who
merely disagreed on policy. They both
argued their points vigorously, with great
skill and determination. That is how a
proper debate should be conducted.
Our work is difficult with extremely
high stakes for all those involved. But fun
is there to be had if you can be prepared
to work, laugh, argue, laugh again,
and work out issues based on mutual
understanding and respect for those
individuals around the table. Everybody
has their corporate and contractual
position to defend of course. As has been
said in this column many times, however:
the work is hard enough; can’t we have
some enjoyment along the way?
Given what we have learned about
the value of debate in project life, my
advice would be to promote constructive
debate and argument within your
teams. Maybe it helps to create an
office debating society. Math is great
for engineers – but there is nothing as
satisfying as a good debate.
JOBS
DONE
WELL.
For more than 50 years, Kiewit has built some of the most complex tunneling and

underground projects in North America. We have the capabilities to self-perform soft

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construct them, Kiewit ensures the ordinary is always extraordinary.

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| KIEWIT.COM

North American Tunneling Journal 7

 Under Pressure
The hard rock TBM which has recently holed through on New York’s
Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel was equipped to cope with
huge water pressures. Kristina Smith caught up with owner and
contractor to find out if it did.
The Robbins hard rock TBM designed to mine the
2.5-mile (3.8km) Delaware Aqueduct Bypass Tunnel
was making headlines before it had even cut through
an inch of rock. Designed to construct a tunnel
beneath the Hudson River, the specification called
for a machine that could withstand 435 psi (30 bar)
of water pressure.
With the drive now complete, we know that
the machine did not have to face quite such high
pressures – the 435 psi included a 1.5 factor of safety
– however, joint-venture contractor Kiewit-Shea did
have to contend with pressures of up to 250 psi (17
bar) during mining.
“I would say many of us have a new-found respect
for water. I can tell you, I was fearful when I first got
here. Crazy-high water pressures and the possibility
of 1,000 gpm flows had me at the edge of my seat,”
says Kiewit-Shea tunnel superintendent Aaron
McClellan. “Now I don’t feel this way, I have more of
an understanding and respect for how it can really
hamper your job and your men and women.”
When the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection (NYDEP) tendered the
tunneling contract back in 2014, it provided bidders
88 North
North American
American Tunneling
Tunneling Journal
Journal
with two different designs: one for a TBM-mined
tunnel, the other using traditional drill and blast.
“The tunnel length was on the cusp, so we decided
to let the market make the decision,” says Ted
Dowey who was the design project manager for
NYDEP. “We got three bids, the two TBM bids were
the lowest.”
The fact that the TBM holed through in August,
with no major incidents or accidents, vindicates that
decision.
30-year leak
The original Delaware Aqueduct, completed in
1944, carries water 85 miles (137km) from several
reservoirs, under the Hudson River to the City
of New York. It is a vital piece of infrastructure,
supplying half the city’s water on a typical day.
NYCDEP has known that the aqueduct is leaking
since the 1990’s, when a worker at a power plant
by the river spotted water squirting out of the river
when it was at low tide. After various tests, NYCDEP
concluded that the water was coming from the
aqueduct.
Back in the 1940s, engineers had countered
 UNDER PRESSURE

problems due to faults in the

DELAWARE
BYPASS
bedrock by reinforcing a section TUNNEL
Newburgh Wappinger

of the tunnel where it ran through

Aqueduct Bypass
De
law
are West Branch
Aq Reservoir
faulted ground, applying a triple ue
du
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50 Miles
lining of concrete, steel and (from City Hall)

Cattssk
The Water for the Future program has been initiated
to address leaks in one of the two main aqueducts
concrete. However, the steel lining

ill Aq
that supplies drinking water to New York City and
other upstate communities, the Delaware Aqueduct. NEWBURGH
did not extend quite far enough.

ue
Together, through engineering repairs and innovative du
ct
conservation, we will enjoy the safe, clean, Bypass

NYCDEP ascertained that around reliable drinking water for generations

Tunnel West
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to come. Existing
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95 percent of the leaks are coming W
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from areas just outside either end Surface
CONNECTICUT
CONNE
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Expression Reservoir 25 Miles

of the triple-lined section with WAPPINGER
Existing 900’ (from City Hall)

ctt
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edu
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million litres) a day being lost.
Reservoir
Reserrvoir

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Bypass New Shafts
The solution to the leaking Tunnel East
Shaft 6B Leak & Bypass

aqueduct is to construct a bypass Bronx

tunnel, to run between two

an
Existing

att
Aqueduct

nh
YOU ARE HERE H
new shafts at either end of the

Ma
700’ Queens
2.5 mi.
leaking section. Kiewit-Shea’s
New York City's
$707m- contract also includes the Water Supply System
Brooklyn

Staten
construction of two drill-and-blast
Catskill / Delaware Watershed Area
Croton Watershed Area
IIsland
sland Rivers and Reservoirs
Catskill Aqueduct and Tunnels
Croton Aqueduct
New York

connection tunnels at either end to Delaware Aqueduct and Tunnels

County Borders
State Borders
Bay
Atlantic Ocean

connect to the structurally sound NYCDEP/BCIA/AJ 1/13

portions of the existing aqueduct

to permanently convey drinking water around the to do tunnels for over 100 years.”
leak. Schiavone constructed the two shafts, one
Like its predecessor, the new tunnel will have a near the town of Newburgh and the other near
triple lining – precast concrete segments, a steel Wappinger, using drill and blast to depths of 900
interliner with lightweight backfill behind it and ft (275m) and 700 ft (213m) respectively. With the
an inner reinforced concrete shell. This time, the shafts completed by March 2016, Kiewit-Shea
designers have made sure that it extends far enough: moved in to start blasting out a bell chamber at the
the interliner is four times longer than the original bottom of the Wappinger shaft from which to launch
one, extending all the way through the fault zone the TBM.
and beyond. “Separating the two contracts worked well. The
Tunnelers constructed the original aqueduct, BT-1 (shaft) contract finished on time and the
which is in the Guinness Book of World Records transition finished before it was supposed to,” says
as the longest continuous tunnel, using drill and Dowey. “We had a year in the tunnel contract for the
blast. Records from that project helped inform the contractor to procure a TBM.”
design and planning of today’s tunnel, with workers
reporting groundwater inflows of 2,000 gpm (7,570 Coping with water
litres per minute). The maximum inflow during the Given the expected water inflows, the Robbins
modern tunneling effort was 300gpm, says Dowey. machine was designed with several additional
“With the aligment being 900 feet deep, and half features to help cope with the water. Ability to grout
of it lying under the Hudson River, there was far ahead of tunneling was an important one, with 16
less geological data than you would get with, say, positions through which the contractor could drill,
Steel liners on
a metro tunnel that is 50 feet deep,” comments although mostly drilling took place through central
their way to site
McClellan. “The best geotechnical information we holes. travel past the
had was from the previous project.” NYCDEP did The main bearing sealing system had multiple rows Freedom Tower
conduct two borings through the Hudson River, with
18 boreholes all told.
Both new and old tunnels pass through three
bedrock formations: the Normanskill shale on the
west side of the Hudson River, the Wappinger Group
limestone and then the Mt Merino shale on the east
side of the river.
NYCDEP decided to separate the construction of
the two new shafts from that of the bypass tunnel.
There were two reasons for this, says Dowey: to
move things along and to spread the risk. “The shaft
design period was relatively short, and the tunnel
design period was rather long.”
Both contracts were let as design-bid-build,
NYCDEP’s preferred procurement route and – until
very recently – the only one allowed by law. “We
have a history of in-house design and designing
tunnels ourselves, so we are happy with that,” says
Dowey. “We have had substantial knowledge of how

North American Tunneling Journal 9

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of traditional seals and an emergency, inflatable seal,
which could be activated if needed. The disc cutters
were equipped with a pressure equalization system
to keep the water out.
“We used both Herrenknecht and Robbins 19-
inch cutters,” says McClellan. “These cutters each
used different designs to handle the pressure
compensation of 25 bar if the TBM was ever
needed to be seal up, as required in the contract.
Fortunately, this was never required on the job.”
Both makes of cutter worked well. The reason
for trying different disc cutters was to attempt to
optimise the penetration and wear rates, explains
Dowey: “We did encounter some very hard rock
which was harder than anticipated, so the contractor
had a higher number of cutter tools that we had to
change.”
The TBM specification called for a machine that
could be quickly sealed in the event of a sudden
inrush of water, but this would have been a last
resort and was never deployed, says McClellan.
“When you plan ahead and have a number of
possible scenarios in place, you often only get to
Plan B. It’s when you haven’t looked far enough
ahead, and problems hit, that you start running out
of options.”
Part of the designers’ planning ahead was the
purchase of five rings of tunnel segments with
inflatable bags on the back. One of these was used
during the launch to check the concept worked,
but they were not needed after that. The machine
also had a primary dewatering pump and a higher-
capacity emergency one.
NYCDEP’s designed called for very robust gaskets
on the regular segments, which were universal ones,
six to a ring, says Dowey. “We had substantial testing
requirements for the gaskets,” he says. “Datwyler
supplied them but the most robust one they had
just fell short. So they made the ‘Rondout gasket’ for
this project (Rondout was a previous name for the
project). It’s not fundamentally different, just a little
bit more robust.
“With the tunnel pressurised, they are performing
well.” CSI made the segments in New Hampshire and
trucked them to site.
One of the big wins on this job was the
deployment of an alternative probe drilling system.
Kiewit-Shea tendered the job intending to use
traditional pneumatic drills which would have been
capable of drilling 100 to 150 feet (30 to 45m).
Instead they used a Ripamonti drill rig with a down-
the-hole Wassara water hammer.
“This was the single biggest advance on this job,”
says Dowey. “Since this activity was on the critical
path, it delivered a great improvement.”
Using the original method, the Kiewit-Shea would
have been setting up and probing around 120 times
over the length of the tunnel. The Ripamonti system
reduced this to 37 times.
There were a few teething problems at first, says
McClellan. “We had to use almost pure water to get
them to work. We learned that we had to make sure
that the water was very clean, or it ended up fouling
up the small parts within the drill.”
Considering their lengths, the probe holes were
surprisingly accurate, remaining within plus or minus
UNDER PRESSURE
5 feet in plan and drifting downwards between 10 The Robbins
single shield has
and 15 feet due to the weight of the string. The
a 22.3ft (6.8m)
contractor used ground penetrating radar down the cutter head
hole to look at fractures and water and to verify the
position of the hole.
Another benefit of this system is that its drill string
is circular in cross-section rather than hexagonal
which also worked well, says McClellan because
blow-out preventers were needed – which couldn’t
seal round a hexagonal string.
Generally, the drive was drier than expected.
“For 8,500 feet there was not enough water to
require any grouting,” reports Dowey. “When we did
encounter water, it was a lot later than expected.”
Both Dowey and McClellan credit this to the
difference in construction methods. While the drill
and blast system used to construct the original
tunnel opened up cracks, the TBM cutting through
the rock doesn’t.”
It took time to work out how best to approach
the pre-excavation grouting. There are lots of safety
issues to consider when grouting at a pressure of
580 to 870 psi (40 to 60 bar), says McClellan:
“We had plenty of packers fail and come out with
an incredible force. We were constantly educating
our crews of the gravity of the situation and to keep
out of the line of fire. Even though we had these
struggles, no one had gotten hurt.”
In the sections of faulted limestone, the advance
rate of the machine was frustratingly slow.
Sometimes, grout had to be pumped in several times
before the flow rate had been sufficiently reduced,
which can be challenging for a crew which is usually
focused on production rates, says McClellan.
In optimising the grouting sequence, Kiewit-Shea
tried several types of cementitious grouts, with
Ordinary Portland Cement types 2 or 3 deemed the
most effective as the crack widths were relatively
large.
“We found that the ground water accepted grout
North American Tunneling Journal 11

The cutter head in the initial grouting episode but subsequent
is lifted down the
grouting episodes were less successful so the aim
900ft (275m)-
deep shaft at was to give the initial grouting episode the best
Wappinger effort we could,” says Dowey. “The rock was not
simply jointed, it had small dissolution features and
some areas where there was calcite infilling which
had become compromised, so the actual ground as
encountered was a little bit unusual.”
A two-component grout was used for the annulus,
with washout a big concern, says McClellan. To
combat this, the grout mix had substantial anti-
washout agents and a very fast gel time.
Where the annulus grout had washed away and
water was leaking through the segments, Kiewit-
Shea drilled holes to relieve the water pressure and
allow it to pass through the lining.
“As the TBM got farther and farther away, the
water would take the path of least resistance and
stop chasing the TBM. We usually knew this had
happened when there was little to no water coming
into the cutterhead between builds or during cutter
changes,” says McClellan.
At this point the contractor would sometimes use
a chemical grout to ensure there was an annulus
grout bulkhead between the heading and the holes
drilled through the lining. The team could then carry
out secondary grouting to grout off the water.
Construction constraints
The 21.6 ft (6.5m)-diameter TBM arrived on site in
2017 and took four months to assemble. Its journey
began in January 2018 and ended in August 2019,
when it broke through into the Wappinger shaft.
The machine excavated 89.8 linear feet (27.4m)
on its most productive day, 354.8 feet (108.1m)
during its best week, and 945 feet (288m) during its
most productive month. However, such rates were
exceptions, rather than the norm.
It was important to go slowly in the faulted
12 North American Tunneling Journal
section, explains McClellan: “We always took the
approach that we should take our own sweet time
to do the grouting, make sure we were stopping the
water as much as we could, before we advanced.
Going back to seal off leaks behind you takes two to
three times the energy and work that it does to do it
in front of you.”
There were a few technical hitches with the
machine, says Dowey: “We had some equipment
failures, but this was a fairly high-tech machine,
so you expect that kind of thing to happen. All the
probes and sensors had to be working all the time.
There was a problem with the California switch
and some issues with the TBM’s conveyor belt for a
while.”
Mucking became a constraining factor, as the
tunnel got longer, explains McClellan. Kiewit-Shea
chose muck cars rather than a conveyor system
because vertical conveyors could not make the
900ft lift from the shaft.
“There are seven muck cars being lifted, emptied
and returned on 7.5-minute cycles,” says McClellan.
“It is very fast when you are actually there, but when
you are getting the segments in, shuffling the train
and the tunnel gets longer, eventually the limiting
factor becomes the mucking out.”
Connecting new and old
In October, Kiewit-Shea was completing the
demobilisation of the TBM and had started
installation of the 230 interliner sections which will
be welded together by a specialist contractor to
form a 9,200ft (2,800m)-long section. This should
take around eight months. The rebar for the internal
reinforced concrete lining will be attached to the
inside of the steel interliner pipe at the surface
before it is transported into place.
The final step will be to connect the bypass to the
existing system at either end. This will require the
flow into the Delaware Aqueduct from the Rondout
Reservoir to be shut off. Once the tunnel is drained,
via pumps installed in Shaft 6 on the East side of the
Hudson River, Kiewit will drill and blast connecting
tunnels and install plugs to stop off the existing,
damaged portion of aqueduct.
Before that shut down can happen, NYCDEP needs
to get another aging aqueduct back into shape. The
rehabilitation of the 100-year-old Catskills Aqueduct,
which supplies around 40 percent of the city’s water
is currently underway.
“The other big challenge is the structural integrity
of the old aqueduct. We know it is damaged, but
it has always had this artesian pressure within the
lining,” says McClellan. “When we drain the tunnel,
this pressure will be removed. There has always been
a fear that it may deteriorate quickly without this
pressure.”
Looking back to when the bypass tunnel was
tendered, there were fears then about what the
construction team would encounter, and how the
water in the ground would impact on the project and
its progress. These fears have now been allayed, with
a job that has been challenging but by no means
impossible.
“The excavation worked very well,” says Dowey,
“and we are close to being on schedule.”
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North American Tunneling Journal 13
 15 minutes with...
Sanja Zlatanic
n Sanja Zlatanic, Senior Vice President, Chair of HNTB National
Tunnel Practice, HNTB Fellow.
n With HNTB since 2011 and prior to that with other US and
international companies working on major tunnel and complex
underground structures for over 20 years.
n Board Member ACUUS, Associated Research Centers for the Urban
Underground Space, an international non-government organization
and ‘Think Thank’ in sustainable use of urban underground
environment.
n Active member of committees of UCA of SME and ITA
n Advisory committee member of DFI.

What is the best project you have
worked on and why?
Every tunnel project has its challenges
and allows one to learn and grow.
However, the projects where I had an
opportunity to work on conceptualizing
major transit underground structures
to meet project objectives, and arrive
at innovative solutions that minimize
impacts on existing overlying buildings
or adjacent subsurface facilities while
allowing existing transit or road services
to remain fully operational, presented
a special challenge. Also, finding
an innovative way to construct the
project to meet objectives of entire
communities along the assumed project
alignment was specially engaging.
One of the most interesting and
difficult projects was Access to the
Region’s Core (ARC) project, later called
THE Tunnel (Trans Hudson Express
Tunnel), that was cancelled after four
years of creative design work that
focused on minimizing the project
risks. Fortunately, this project has been
revived as Gateway Project, currently
undergoing environmental review and
approval process. Hopefully, the lessons
learned from the previous phase I would
be able to implement in the future. The
project is one of the most important
transit projects in the nation that
would spearhead regional economies.
Hopefully, soon New York will finally
embark on building another major river
crossing, largely overdue.
Another example of the project that
is very close to my heart is Santa Clara
Valley Transportation Authority’s BART
Silicon Valley Extension, Phase II. There,
my team developed an innovative single
bore concept for transit, first in North
America and second worldwide (after
Barcelona Line 9), that would allow
downtown San Jose to avoid major
construction impacts. The owner and
stakeholder agencies worked hard hand
in hand to secure a win-win solution
that would meet all major service,
operational, maintenance and safety
objectives. The engineering team
explored numerous alternatives to
ensure application of a most practical
and effective solution.
Toughest project you have worked on
and why?
I enjoy projects—every single one has
its difficulties and overcoming them
offers a special thrill and pride of
accomplishment.
Frankly, the ‘toughest’ job is probably
what I am currently undertaking as
national tunnel practice lead. Keeping
the entire team motivated and focused
to meet client’s needs, while sometimes
dealing with individuals’ personal
issues, is challenging. Ensuring that
professionals perform under difficult
personal circumstances is possibly
the hardest job. We overcome these
types of challenges through openness,
communication, mutual respect and
personal encouragement.
What 3 innovations have most changed
the tunneling industry over the last 10
years and why?
The tunneling industry is advancing
rapidly and there are many aspects that
spearhead this process. The tunnels are
becoming larger and their construction
safer, primarily due to significant
advancements of tunnel boring
machine control systems and tunnel
permanent support systems (liners) as
well as materials and special details
those entail. Today, safe tunneling is
common under difficult geological
conditions, very high hydrostatic
pressures and within active seismic
zones.
Also, accelerated utilization of
design build procurement methods
for large underground and tunnel
projects, has changed the industry. This
requires engineers to think creatively
in close coordination with contractors,
while paying more attention to
constructability aspects and builders’
preferred means and methods. Also,
the engineers are required to perform
and deliver on a very fast pace. Often
innovations, when allowed, are
necessary to differentiate one team
from another; discovery sessions to
identify a common approach are very
interesting and motivating. Today, the
large emphasis is on risks management
and mitigations and these aspects,
when properly implemented, have a
great potential to control the project
scope, cost and schedule. Risk-based
decision making is surely changing the
tunnel industry bringing it to another
level.
In addition, rapid urbanization and
the fact that it is expected that by
2050, 87% of the US population will
live in cities, require cities to pay close
attention to urban liveability aspects and
tendencies of decreasing quality of life

14 North American Tunneling Journal


due to overpopulation and overgrowth
of existing transportation networks.
Building new transportation facilities
while minimizing construction impacts
on communities and business require
cities to work with the engineering and
construction industry in identifying
non-disruptive methodologies to limit
such impacts. This increasingly means
broader use of bored tunnels through
dense urban areas. Very few cities could
pride themselves of keeping detailed
records of all subsurface features
including utilities and underground
facilities. Often, contractors do
not know what is ‘exactly’ beneath
the pavement before they open it.
Utilizing tunnels for infrastructure
and transportation would ameliorate
this issue and cities are becoming
increasingly aware of this aspect.
Also, today’s innovations in ground
improvement techniques, settlement
control and ability of tunnel boring
machines to be fully ‘pressurized’,
allow minimum volume losses
due to excavation and minimize
impacts to overlying streets,
utilities, and structures. Utilization
of instrumentation and monitoring
systems while maximizing GPS features
allow direct real time reporting to
multiple users including owners,
contractors and engineers. Safety
aspects in the tunneling industry have
risen dramatically and the majority of
construction companies are requiring
‘zero accident’ policy that further drives
industry culture forward.
What significant technological or
contractual changes do you expect to
see in the next five-to-ten years?
It is likely that tunnel boring machine
control systems, materials and quality
control would further advance, allowing
better performances and increase
in design service life of tunnels and
underground structures. This trend
might be further exacerbated by
an increase in utilization of the P3
procurement method where financial
arms necessitate improvements in
long term maintenance and operation
aspects and general reductions in
operating costs. In addition, it is likely
that next generation super-high speed
autonomous vehicles with magnetic
levitation or similar systems would be
advanced. This in turn would increase
requirements for tunnels since the
criteria driving utilization of such vehicles
at high speeds would be only met by
an underground trajectory, to minimize
impacts on passengers. Exciting times
ahead for the tunnel industry, indeed!
15 MINUTES WITH SANJA ZLATANIC
What are the most frustrating issue
facing today’s tunneling industry?
The most frustrating issue for me,
personally, is sometimes challenging
requirements for engineering
deliverables with a disregard to a
need for a thorough subsurface
investigation, or actual schedule and
staffing needs, to perform all tasks.
This is becoming quite a trend in
the last couple of years and I feel, as
an industry, we have an obligation
to produce general guidelines
for required engineering efforts,
supporting information, and reasonable
timelines, that would properly meet
certain procurement methods and
deliver required quality while meeting
project complexity.
Another frustrating issue is a general
lack of proper succession planning
– 70 to 80% of participants of large
tunneling gatherings are repetitive.
We need more young talents and
‘grooming’ them to take our place
should be the utmost priority. Also,
there is a need for larger international
‘mobility’ in general – allowing talented
professionals from other countries
to work in the US, which is often
stifled by elaborate and expensive
immigration processes. We must try to
do better there. Flow of brilliant ideas,
innovations and a grit to succeed in a
competitive environment should not
be muffled. The US has always been
a breeding ground that attracted and
maintained talent—we should keep it
that way!
What major challenges does the
tunneling industry face in the future?
People! Succession planning, as
I noted, needs to be brought to
another level and UCA SME can take a
leadership role in making the industry
come together and assure free flow of
talent including the international one.
What gets on your nerves at work?
Non-responsiveness, or being a
‘smartest person in the room’ with
disregard to value of collaboration
and team work. Admittingly, this does
not happen very often, fortunately.
However, when it does happen, it
usually requires a lot of energy and
time to bring the team to a required
level of cooperation and mutual
respect of everyone’s opinions and
points of view. It requires great
stamina and professionalism to work
out difficult technical challenges and
bring them to a level of common
understanding and appreciation. We, in
tunneling industry, are building more
than tunnels—we are developing
entire communities and the fruits of
our work will be there for generations
to come. Therefore, holding hands
in resolving major issues, achieving
consensus and building teams is what
matters.
What would you be if you weren’t a
tunneling engineer?
I would probably be a building
engineer! Tall buildings had drawn
my attention in the beginning of my
career – going to great heights and
defying dynamic forces has always
been a special challenge. Also, as a
young student I had affection toward
French language and literature—who
knows where I would be if I had had a
chance to spend a summer in France
during my high school years…
What is the best advice you have ever
received?
There are so many. The one I
would highlight is ‘Think big and
don’t be afraid to be bold’. Also,
knowing that ‘self-awareness is a
foundation of success’, forms a basis
of self-improvement and this is very
important in the fast-developing
engineering and tunneling industry.
Occasionally, early in my career, I
would find myself needing to work
harder to ‘break the ice’ in terms of
obtaining a team’s trust or having to
prove my points. In reality, I am very
grateful to those instances since they
made me a fast learner, gave me
courage to think ‘outside the box’ and
propelled me to bring up and develop
innovative solutions.
What advice would you give to
someone at the beginning of a career
in tunneling
I strongly believe that a collaborative
attitude is at the core of every
success. Throughout my career,
whether working on or leading major
tunnel and underground projects,
nationally and internationally, I found
nothing but respect and profound
professional collaboration within
this male dominated industry. The
tunneling and mining industry is a
very warm and gratifying environment
and is very conducive to the
atmosphere where women engineers
thrive. This originates from a long-
developed culture of caring – lives
of miners were often in the hands
of their teammates. This culture has
transferred into the consulting industry
as well and a feeling of camaraderie
and mutual respect is ever present.
North American Tunneling Journal 15
 Monitoring
the changes
Part 1
Lars Babendererde Rob Clark Tony Simmonds
Angus Maxwell Klaus Rabensteiner Paul Thurlow
Is the trend toward the simplification of data
collection and transmission continuing?
BABENDERERDE: Yes, it is. The amount of data
flow increases continuously, with various sources
in the tunneling process providing huge amounts
of data, such as geotechnical, machine parameters,
surface monitoring, reporting, equipment and
staff management. This requires an efficient data
acquisition system that is feasible with the current
technology. Additionally, we perceive and support
the increasing use of mobile devices to access the
data from anywhere. This is definitely a trend to be
mentioned.
CLARK and SIMMONDS: Perhaps the trend is more
toward the ease of data collection. People want to
retrieve and view data, quickly and easily. Having
systems that are easy to install, integrate, and collect
data from makes it more convenient for more
people and agencies to use monitoring data for
useful purposes.
MAXWELL: We’re moving away from presenting
data as files, such as FTPs. There are better
methods, including API (Application Programming
16 North American Tunneling Journal
What trends are emerging in the
tunnel monitoring industry in
North America? What opportunities
lie ahead? In this year’s two-
part monitoring roundtable, NATJ
gathered the input of five industry
experts: Lars Babendererde, partner
at BabEng – tunnelsoft and vice
president of ITA-AITES; Rob Clark,
geotechnical services engineer,
and Tony Simmonds, director, at
GEOKON Trusted Measurements;
Angus Maxwell, director at Maxwell
GeoSystems; Klaus Rabensteiner,
president of GEODATA Survey
& Monitoring Group; and Paul
Thurlow, Western Region vice
president at Geo-Instruments.
Interfaces). You get data a lot more quickly, which
has an impact. A reading from one instrument can
automatically adjust across others. MQTT helps
devices talk to each other. This simplifies everything.
That sort of thing will be the next to come into
monitoring tunnels. There is a trend toward low-
power wide-area networks (LPWAN) instead of mesh
networks.
RABENSTEINER: At the least, this is still urgently
required. While we still need easier handling, security
issues complicate matters even more.
THURLOW: I think the trend toward simplification is
continuing. There is always a case in the bid phase
where everyone wants to see this and that, but
usually as the project starts everyone gets aligned
to what is important – data presented in a simple,
precise fashion, on time! You also need to see
instrumentation data in a wider view, be able to plot
five or six types on one plot. There is always a story
that emerges if you look at the bigger picture.
Is the way that data is displayed increasingly
important?
BABENDERERDE: Sure, it has always been important
in engineering to have good graphic displays. The
change is that now we have better tools to access
this data. Undoubtedly, the data needs to be easily
accessed in a user-friendly way, and this is one of the
key elements that differentiates one data collection
software from another. Many times, you must make
fast decisions, and the last thing you need is to be
exhaustively searching for the correct data. And, at

the same time, the data software must also provide
tools to elaborate complex data analysis.
CLARK and SIMMONDS: Perhaps. Many people
who use monitoring data like to format the
presentation of their data themselves, to provide the
visualization they desire. There are a number of data
management systems available that can combine
data from a variety of sources and present it in a
combined or linked display – such as TBM operation
outputs and subsurface instrumentation.
MAXWELL: Everyone has a different interpretation if
only plans or graphs are part of the review process.
Some people can see things easily, some not quite
so. We have found that rendering the data into
3D/4D gets everyone on the same page. Nowadays
this is available online through technology driven by
the gaming industry. We make a lot of use of this to
enable real time visualizations of complex data. The
benefit is that we’re not just monitoring instruments,
but also construction information – the progress,
production, ground conditions, tunnel conditions. All
this can be combined in an easy browser interface so
that everyone has the same picture.
RABENSTEINER: That is definitely the case. Smart
visualization always helps to understand complex
situations more easily. Besides the usual charts
showing development of sensor values with
time, tunnel engineers are keen to see integrated
monitoring results along with construction progress
in cross sections and plan views. We are working
on VR and mixed reality technologies, offering
a completely new approach to visualization of
monitoring data.
THURLOW: Clients don’t really like a fussy, cluttered
dashboard. They like a report delivered to their
mailbox … being able to learn about alarm levels
breached and able to see pertinent information fast
and be able to react to it.
Has InSAR become more entrenched?
BABENDERERDE: Yes, because it is a low-cost
means to measure surface settlements when
MONITORING THE CHANGES
compared with other measurement acquisition tools. The DTSS2
However, it depends on the expected resolution and control room
on the satellite used. Right now, the most common
procedure is to obtain a high-resolution acquisition
system via the traditional systems – such as total
stations, load cells and others.
CLARK and SIMMONDS: The use of InSAR has
become more prevalent in the last several years
as an additional monitoring tool – to be used
in conjunction with more traditional, discrete
monitoring instruments … or instead of. This tool
appears to be used more on higher-profile projects.
It’s a tool that requires sufficient knowledge of the
data processing to feel comfortable with the results
and information developed. Having experts in this
field to assist with the use of this tool is highly
recommended.
MAXWELL: We see it on pretty much every project
now. The data itself is high volume but relatively
simple to display. The quality is good. One project
had been conducting manual monitoring for years.
We compared it to InSAR and it was very close.
When you use InSAR, you can go back in time. If
a satellite has been flying over an area since 2007,
you find some interesting data that leads to some
intriguing questions. You might see something with
InSAR that you otherwise would not have ... maybe a
subtle change in a building foundation. What do you
do with that data? It’s in the public domain. It’s quite
an interesting little minefield.
RABENSTEINER: We see an increasing number of
projects applying InSAR like Grand Paris Express and
across Sydney’s Metro and road tunneling projects.
This technology can be used to complement
conventional, mainly geodetical monitoring
programs. There is definitely still some potential to
use InSAR in a more augmented approach.
THURLOW: It really depends on how big the project
is. I see a lot of requests for pricing it for landslides
and dam tailings now … also for large assets in
the petrochemical field. It makes sense to use this
technology for large metro projects as the accuracy
and data management are significantly improved.
North American Tunneling Journal 17

Wireless sensors It’s a long way off from replacing a total station or a
for railway water level.
monitoring
Is monitoring in North America being included in
more RFPs than previously?
BABENDERERDE: Yes. The clients become
increasingly aware of the importance of having
access to the data of the tunneling process. It
enhances the control of the quality in projects,
providing more transparency of the entire process
between all the parties.
CLARK and SIMMONDS: It seems that most
large-scale tunneling, bridge, or infrastructure
projects have specification sections for monitoring
requirements.
MAXWELL: Our experience is it’s about the same.
THURLOW: Absolutely. It’s extremely encouraging
to see it in RFPs these days. The issues are that a lot
of the specifications or schemes are cut-and-pasted
from previous tenders and really are not cost-effective
if there is no discussion prior to submittal. As I always
say, instrumentation and monitoring companies will
give very sound advice at the tender prep stage. Clients
should use this to their advantage. We have had some
excellent projects for all stakeholders in the central
USA just by asking questions about what needs to be
monitored and why.
Has North America closed the gap with Europe?
BABENDERERDE: I am not so sure that this gap really
existed. Giving an example, the first implementation
of our software was in Los Angeles, in 2002, at the
ECIS/NEIS project. Already at that time, one of the
contractors was texting between management and
the TBM operator. I would say that in most of the
tunneling aspects, North America is as developed as
Europe. Both European and American governments
have their contributions and influences in the
infrastructure projects, as well as in the research
and development area. The cooperation between
North America and Europe also provides great
opportunities for both players.
18 North American Tunneling Journal
CLARK and SIMMONDS: We are getting closer, yes.
There is a longer history with monitoring in Europe
than North America.
MAXWELL: In some areas yes, but in others the
states aren’t quite there. One reason: There is not
a group or think tank in the U.S. that is pushing
the envelope – or at least there is no such group
that I’m aware of. In the UK, the Cambridge Centre
for Smart Infrastructure gets involved in a lot of
projects and pushes new methods and engineering.
The clients seem to embrace these types of think
tanks and they help to facilitate involvement. These
trials help give some confidence about what will
and won’t work and what is practical. We now
have a tie with the Colorado School of Mines in an
attempt to test and advance some of these newer
methods.
THURLOW: Coming from Europe and being
involved in this field for a very long time, I would
say the gap is very small now, even compared to
around 5 years ago. There have been some huge
instrumentation jobs in Europe, Asia and Australia
that have provided a sound testing bed for new
technologies, and these experiences are easily
transferred to the North American market.
What are other significant issues/trends/
opportunities in North America?
BABENDERERDE: In North America, as well as in
the other parts of the world, BIM is at the brink
of getting implemented in the tunneling market.
It will change the way we develop projects,
becoming a standard tool for planning, as well as
implementation and operation of tunnels. It is the
push toward full digitalization, already implemented
in several other fields.
CLARK and SIMMONDS: Issues are poorly
written specifications, holding sub-contractors
accountable for any shortcomings and poor
pre-qualification of instrument subs … on
status more than ability. Opportunities are the
expanding infrastructure works. There appears to
be a greater awareness with respect to the use of
instrumentation and the benefits it can provide –
as is evident in the increasing requirements in the
contract documents for monitoring programs.
Improvements to the specifications would create
opportunities in the U.S.
MAXWELL: Expectations are high but willingness to
spend is still low. Low-cost instrumentation is being
put into extremely harsh environments, which
means some failures are inevitable. There is also
a lot of variability in the quality of data. There also
needs to be some involvement by specialists at the
specification stage. If there is an inappropriate cut-
and-paste job, the best suppliers won’t want to be
a part of the project. They know the expectations
are unrealistic and the data collection will likely fail.
Then you have inferior suppliers providing cheaper
alternatives that are not equivalent to what has
been specified … and the cycle continues.
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North American Tunneling Journal 19


A Kronos THURLOW: The quality of instrumentation
screenshot monitoring vendors is a concern. It would be great
shows a contour
map of surface
if there was an instrumentation committee in one
settlements of the industry groups to promote good practices,
safety and innovation. It is soul-destroying to tender
to large general contractors as per specification
requirements and be told that the DBE has the
advantage for obvious reasons – although not
compliant with requirements. It’s ironic that a lot of
our daily business is helping other instrumentation
companies resolve practical and technical problems.
This could be remedied by better representation
from practitioners to the consultants, and better
education at college. I do believe that the pace (of
use in North America) has increased a lot in the last
two to three years.
How do you resolve the costs required to gather
quality data with the low-bid mentality that is
prevalent in the industry? Is some kind of pre-
qualification necessary?
BABENDERERDE: An increasing number of
customers have become aware of the importance
of project data. Both parties, project owner
and contractor, should take advantage of the
possibilities of the data transparency. This will raise
the understanding of the contractual partner and,
hopefully, will further promote a positive approach
in negotiations with a more open-book mentality.
Another side effect that could be instantly followed
is the improved quality of the structures as key
parameters.
Regarding pre-qualification … I do not see that
as an easy task to achieve, at least not for data
processing tunnel software, due to the variety
of configurations. Also, different software might
have different focused areas. Perhaps one is more
specialized in the geotechnical data monitoring –
and another in the machine operation, for instance.
Making a pre-qualification might also reduce the
flexibility to provide a client-oriented product.
Different projects require diverse and tailor-made
solutions.
CLARK and SIMMONDS: This has been a long-
standing issue that has been fought by qualified
instrumentation specialists for many decades. We try
to work with owners and specification writers to help
make sure that the correct types of devices are used,
20 North American Tunneling Journal
but it is difficult to compete with a low-bid mentality.
You get what you pay for. Sometimes it takes the
owners a few times of getting burned, and then
maybe they might consider doing pre-qualification
processes.
Some kind of pre-qualification would be ideal. We
would suggest improvements on the specification
writing process, holding sub-contractors
accountable for any shortcomings, and having the
pre-qualification of instrument subs based on proven
ability.
MAXWELL: There should be pre-qualification.
Quality suppliers can prove that they have training
schemes, that they have quality installers … that they
have performed well on past projects. Some sort of
supplier certification should be required. Training
also needs to be improved, particularly for those
who install the instruments. If they don’t do it right,
the instruments won’t work as required and the data
won’t be reliable. It’s just a waste, and it gives the
industry a bad name.
RABENSTEINER: Recently, we have been pleased to
see that customers are becoming increasingly aware
of the importance of high-quality measurement
data. They have realized that investing in monitoring
is an essential factor for the safety and quality of the
whole structure and are therefore more willing to
spend money on it. In addition, pressure from the
project owners to the construction contractors is
increasing all the time. After all, they (project owners)
have overall responsibility toward the population
and the public, especially in the case of major
infrastructure projects, and therefore do not want to
take any risks.
Up to now, we have only experienced two-stage
tendering procedures, with a pre-qualification to
prove the quality criteria for tenders that are directly
carried out by the client. At the Austrian Federal
Railways, for example, this procedure has long been
common practice for large-scale construction
projects. The procedure is supplemented by an
additional hearing by technical experts. Not only
must the technical and organizational concept of the
bidder be proven, but it is also made certain that the
task has been fully understood.
THURLOW: There is a lot of pre-qualification
information required, especially on Army Corps of
Engineer and public works – which is great news
and long may it continue. This type of work is always
good news. It seems to be conveniently overlooked
if the price is right in some other areas, and I don’t
think that is good for the industry.
In Part 2, NATJ will be looking into, among other
topics; whether the supplier’s knowledge is
sometimes not properly utilized and appreciated
on projects; how are the needs for data changing,
where the industry will be in the next five years,
will technology continue to evolve and will the
increased power of computer hardware and
software play a role, and what is going right in the
industry, and what could go better?
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North American Tunneling Journal 21