SURVEYING AND TUNNELLING

Introduction

A tunnel is an underground human and/or machine dug passageway through a mountain, hill,
building, road or waterway to establish access on both sides.

Tunnels (both human and machine dug) have been around for thousands of years and the
technology has greatly increased over time. For example, the ancient Egyptians used tunnels
for many different purposes. The Giza Water Tunnels are thought to have been built as an
elaborate system for water to travel back and forth between ancient Egyptian colonies.

Methodology

Several methods exist for tunneling, but in modern Mining and civil engineering tunneling
works, only two are seldom used either in combination or separately, as the choice of
tunneling method may vary from project to project.

Drill and blast tunneling

Drill and blast tunneling is a method of excavation involving the controlled use of explosives
to break rock. It was the primary means of tunneling through rock prior to the advent of
tunnel boring machines. Despite the prevalence of tunnel boring machines. It may be more
economical in shorter tunnels where the cost of a tunnel boring machine may be prohibitive.

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)

This method is restricted in circular tunnels. (1) It employs rotary cutter or disk cutters that
are driven either hydraulically or electrically and cuts through the rock mass. The figure
below details a typical TBM and its different functions.
Figure 1. TBM

Tunnel Surveying

The navigation system is the surveyor’s main tool when surveying a tunnel. The navigation
system is typically made up of a robotic total station, a back sight prism and a fore sight box
that is mounted inside the tunnel. Common brands of automated total stations are Leica,
Trimble and Topcon.

Fig 2. G.P.S. Fig 3. Total station

Surveying plays a major role in tunnel construction using TBM. A tunnel guidance system is
usually made for the TBM to continuously track the position and direction of the machine in
course of excavating. The geo-spatial data of the machine is instantaneously displayed on the
screen at the TBM control cabin. The pilot would make use of the information to steer the
machine to match the design alignment.” (2).
For the case of drill and blasting it is of usual practice to use total stations with laser guidance
systems with the classical ‘line of site’ method associated to ground control points.

Other but important role of surveying during tunneling works is the control of ground
deformations. This is important particularly with the construction of tunnels under urban areas
as it affect buildings.

References

(1) https://theconstructor.org/construction/pipe-jacking-utility-tunneling/15299

(2) https://fig.net/pub/fig2007/papers/ts_4f/ts04f_01_lee_1320.pdf