Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 16 Ž2001.

93᎐98

Effect of large excavation on deformation of adjacent MRT

tunnels

J.S. Sharmaa , A.M. Hefny b,U , J. Zhao b, C.W. Chan c

a
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland
b
School of Ci¨ il and Structural Engineering, Nanyang Technological Uni¨ ersity, Singapore, Singapore
c
Land Transport Authority, Singapore, Singapore

Received 5 February 2001; received in revised form 29 March 2001; accepted 7 April 2001

Abstract

A large excavation of approximately 140 m wide, 200 m long and 15 m deep was made close to two Mass Rapid Transit ŽMRT.
tunnels of 6 m diameter with invert depth of 15᎐27 m. In view of the scale and distance of excavation, significant effects on the
MRT tunnels were expected. The paper presents the monitoring of the tunnel deformations during the excavation. A
sophisticated monitoring system using a motorised total station was installed in the MRT tunnels to monitor their displacements
and to ensure that the stringent requirements for safeguarding the tunnels were not violated during any part of the excavation
works. The paper also presents the modelling of the excavation using a finite element program. The results obtained were
reasonably close to the monitoring results. It was found that the stiffness of the tunnel lining has significant influence on the
displacement and distortion of tunnels caused by an adjacent excavation. A stiffer lining undergoes less displacement and
distortion but is likely to experience significantly greater bending moments. 䊚 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Tunnel; Deformation; Monitoring; Excavation

1. Introduction area. Here, the trains run underground through a net-

For the past two decades, Singapore has experienced
unprecedented infrastructure construction activity. One
of the best examples of this is the commissioning of the
Mass Rapid Transit ŽMRT. system in the mid-1980s.
The MRT system consists of trains running on elevated
electrified tracks for most part of the island except in
the central business district ŽCBD. and the surrounding
U
Corresponding author. Tel.: 65-790-6309; fax: 65-792-1650.
E-mail address: camhefny@ntu.edu.sg ŽA.M. Hefny..
work of tunnels. All the stations in this area are also
underground. Most of the MRT tunnels were con-
structed using either the tunnel boring machines or the
New Austrian Tunnelling Method ŽNATM.. Some sec-
tions of these tunnels were constructed using the cut-
and-cover technique. The MRT tunnels are protected
by the MRT Corporation’s Code of Practice for Rail-
way Protection that does not allow the construction
work in close proximity of the tunnels that can displace
the tunnels by more than 15 mm. However, further
construction in the CBD and the surrounding area is
unavoidable and some of it is likely to be quite close to

0886-7798r01r$ - see front matter 䊚 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 8 8 6 - 7 7 9 8 Ž 0 1 . 0 0 0 3 3 - 5
94 J.S. Sharma et al. r Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 16 (2001) 93᎐98
the MRT tunnels. In such a situation, the contractor
responsible for the construction must make sure that
the 15-mm displacement limit is never violated and for
this purpose, he should resort to sophisticated
soil᎐structure interaction analysis and extensive field
instrumentation.
In this paper, the monitoring and analysis results
from one such project are presented. It consisted of a
large excavation for the construction of a basement for
a hospital. One side of the excavation was in close
proximity of the MRT tunnels. A state-of-the-art mo-
torised total station monitoring system was used for
measuring the displacement of the MRT tunnels. In
addition, the effect of excavation on the displacement
of MRT tunnels was analysed using a finite element
computer program. The results from the field moni-
toring and from the analytical study are presented and
compared.
2. The site
The site was for the redevelopment of the Tan Tock
Seng ŽTTS. hospital. This project involved the construc-
tion of a 15-storey hospital complex with 2 levels of
basement, a 5-storey podium and a 5-storey Communi-
cable Disease Centre and covered an area of approxi-
mately 5.9 ha. The construction involved installation of
a 1.1-m diameter contiguous bored pile retaining wall
that supported a large excavation approximately 140 m
wide, 200 m long and 15 m deep. Fig. 1a shows the
Fig. 1. Ža. Layout of the site and the location of MRT tunnels, Žb. idealised soil profile based on SPT N values.
location map for the site. It can be seen from Fig. 1a
that the north side of the excavation is quite close to
the existing MRT tunnels. Refer to Fig. 4 for the
location of the MRT tunnels relative to the excavation
in a cross section. These two MRT tunnels connect the
Novena and Toa Payoh MRT stations and have a
nominal external diameter of 6 m. The tunnels going
towards the Novena MRT station were constructed
using the NATM except for the last 80-m stretch that
was constructed using the cut-and-cover technique. The
tunnels going towards the Toa Payoh MRT station
were constructed using a tunnel shield under com-
pressed air.
2.1. Major geotechnical considerations
The site is located on the side of a hillock that
generally dips in the NNW᎐SSE direction ŽFig. 1a..
The northern part of the site is located in weathered
sedimentary rocks of the Jurong Formation and the
southern part is located in completely decomposed
granitic rocks of the Bukit Timah Formation. A de-
tailed account of major geological formations and the
characteristics of the residual soils of Singapore can be
found in Sharma et al. Ž1999.. The depth of the ground
water table from the ground surface varied. However,
for most of the site it was no deeper than 10 m.
Therefore, dewatering was necessary for the excava-
tion. The change in the phreatic surface of the ground-
water due to dewatering is also likely to have some
influence on the displacement of MRT tunnels.
 J.S. Sharma et al. r Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 16 (2001) 93᎐98
2.2. Site in¨ estigation results and idealised soil profile
For obtaining the soil profile, the results of site
investigations prior to the construction of MRT tunnels
as well as those prior to the excavation were used. The
site investigation program for the excavation consisted
of 37 boreholes and associated field and laboratory
testing. Detailed results of the site investigations are
given in Chan Ž1995. and will not be presented here.
The spatial soil profile was plotted for the whole site,
from which the idealised soil profiles along the sections
considered in the analysis of this study were derived.
The idealised soil profiles along sections G᎐G and
H᎐H ŽFig. 1a. as derived from blow count Ž N . values
obtained from the Standard Penetration Test ŽSPT. are
shown in Fig. 1b. Undrained shear strength Ž c u . for
each layer was estimated from the following empirical
correlation c u s 5 N that is generally found to be
satisfactory for the residual soils of the Jurong and the
Bukit Timah formations ŽSharma et al., 1999.. The
Eurc u ratio Ž Eu ᎏ Young’s Modulus. was taken as
equal to 400 based on the experience of Wong and
Broms Ž1989. in somewhat similar ground conditions.
Since the entire soil profile was considered undrained,
the Poisson’s ratio was taken as equal to 0.49.
3. Field monitoring
As mentioned previously, the excavation for the
basement of the hospital was quite close to the existing
MRT tunnels. Therefore, an extensive field monitoring
program was commissioned prior to the start of the
excavation. It comprised of instruments installed in the
ground and in the MRT tunnels. The ground instru-
mentation consisted of water standpipes, piezometers,
Fig. 2. Ža. A schematic diagram of the TM3000V automatic tunnel monitoring system; Žb. location of monitoring prisms for the TM3000V
automatic tunnel monitoring system.
95
inclinometers and settlement markers. Three incli-
nometers ŽI1, I2 and I3 as shown in Fig. 1a. were
installed quite close to the south-bound MRT tunnel.
These were made up of specially fabricated vertical
tubes Žcasings. with side grooves that were used to
guide a 500-mm long servo-accelerator probe along its
length. Readings were taken at every 500-mm interval
as the probe was raised from the bottom of the casing
to the top.
3.1. Automatic tunnel displacement monitoring
Two automatic tunnel monitoring systems ᎏ one in
each MRT tunnel ᎏ were installed. These were used
to monitor the displacements of the MRT tunnels with
respect to a few stable reference points that were
located sufficiently away from the excavation site and
unlikely to be affected by the excavation work. In order
to facilitate tunnel monitoring during the operational
period of MRT trains, readings were taken automati-
cally with the help of a computer that remotely con-
trolled the monitoring system. The schematic diagram
of the monitoring system is shown in Fig. 2a.
The monitoring system involved the installation of a
motorised total station ŽTM3000V manufactured by
Wild Corporation. at a permanent location inside the
MRT tunnel. The monitoring targets consisted of 50-
mm diameter precision glass prisms that were mounted
onto the brackets on the inside of the tunnel lining.
The location of these prisms along with the location of
primary and secondary reference prisms are shown in
Fig. 2b. The total station can achieve an accuracy of
"1 s when locating the position of a target. An angular
accuracy of "1 s gives linear accuracy of "0.005-mm
per m distance. Therefore, based on the prescribed
monitoring distance, the automatic tunnel monitoring
96 J.S. Sharma et al. r Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 16 (2001) 93᎐98
Fig. 3. Excavation sequence for Section G᎐G.
system is accurate to within "1 mm. Such a system has
been used successfully for the monitoring of MRT
tunnels during the construction of Bugis Junction ᎏ a
shopping complex in the CBD. The results obtained
from this system were checked against the results of
manual surveying to make sure that the software in-
stalled for the automatic system was performing satis-
factorily.
4. Construction sequence
The original ground level of the site varies from a
reduced level ŽRL. of 105.0 m to RL of 116.0 m. Filling
was required for the top left hand corner of the area of
the site overlying the MRT tunnel up to grid 13 as
shown in Fig. 1a. For the portion beyond grid 13, the
ground above the MRT tunnels was cut. The lowest
excavation level for the 2-level basement was approxi-
mately RL 101.0. The construction was carried out in
the following sequence:
1. Installation of contiguous bored pile retaining wall
for the basement excavation.
2. Excavation and filling works above the MRT tun-
nels for road construction.
3. Excavation of the rest of the site.
The excavation works were not carried out uniformly
Fig. 4. The finite element mesh.
over the site. Fig. 3 shows the sequence of excavation
for Section G᎐G. Detailed description of excavation
sequence is given by Chan Ž1995..
5. Finite element analysis
The finite element analyses for Sections G᎐G and
H᎐H were carried out using the geotechnical finite
element program CRISP ŽBritto and Gunn, 1994.. The
mesh for Section G᎐G is shown in Fig. 4. For the soil, 6
noded triangle or 8 noded quadrilateral isoparametric
elements were used. The analyses were simplified by
assuming plane strain conditions. Also, the excavation
was considered symmetrical about the vertical centre
line. Validity of this assumption was verified by check-
ing that the tunnel excavation has an insignificant
effect on the state of stress in the elements near the
centre line. The various soil layers were modelled using
an elastic-perfectly plastic model. Undrained analyses
were carried out. The uneven topology of the ground
posed special problems in CRISP that requires the
ground to be horizontal and in equilibrium at the
in-situ stage of the analysis. In order to overcome this
problem, the shaded elements on the right of the mesh
in Fig. 4 were removed at the in-situ stage. These were
added just before removing the elements inside the
tunnels. Prior to the simulation of the excavation, the
 J.S. Sharma et al. r Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 16 (2001) 93᎐98 97

beam elements modelling the retaining wall and the
tunnels were added. In other words, retaining wall and
tunnels were modelled as wished-in-place. Excavation
was simulated in 4 stages with 100 increments per
stage.
6. Results and comparisons
Table 1 shows a comparison between the displace-
ments of tunnel linings measured using the TM3000V
system and those computed by finite element analyses.
Generally, the computed horizontal displacement val-
ues are higher than the measured values. The com-
puted displacements in vertical direction are generally
smaller than the measured vertical displacements but
the discrepancy is not as large as that for the horizontal
displacements. However, the measured and computed
displacement trends are quite similar.
It can also be seen from Table 1 that the North-
bound Tunnel has experienced less displacement than
the southbound tunnel. One of the implications of this
observation is that the displacements in the soil tend to
localise close to the excavation area and have less
influence on the tunnels located some distance away
from the excavation.
Table 2 shows a comparison of tunnel displacements
obtained from finite element analyses for two cases of
different lining thickness Ž250 and 400 mm.. It can be
seen that the 400 mm thick lining which is stiffer than
the 250-mm thick lining, undergoes less displacement
and distortion. However, due to its higher stiffness, it
will experience much greater bending moments as com-
pared to the 250-mm thick lining. This factor must be
taken into account in the design of the tunnel lining so
that its stiffness can be optimised. If the functional
efficiency of the tunnel is not affected by small distor-
tion in its shape, it is better to select a lining that is
flexible.
7. Conclusions
The effect of a large excavation adjacent to MRT
tunnels was investigated using field monitoring data
and finite element analyses. A state-of-the-art tunnel
monitoring system with an accuracy of "1 mm was
used for monitoring the displacement of tunnel linings.
The performance of this system was found to be quite
satisfactory. It was found that the MRT tunnels un-
dergo displacement and distortion as a result of the

Table 1
Comparison of measured and computed tunnel lining displacementsU

Section G᎐G Ždisplacements are in mm.

Southbound tunnel Northbound tunnel
Horizontal Vertical Horizontal Vertical
displacement displacement displacement displacement
Location TM FEM TM FEM TM FEM TM FEM

Invert 3.6 7.0 2.8 1.4 2.5 5.1 1.3 0.1

Crown 6.0 8.0 3.0 2.6 2.8 5.7 1.2 0.3

Right 5.8 6.5 3.4 2.3 2.7 5.8 0.8 0.2

springing
Left 4.5 7.5 3.5 1.9 2.7 5.2 1.4 0.4
springing

Section H᎐H Ždisplacements are in mm.

Southbound tunnel Northbound tunnel

Horizontal Vertical Horizontal Vertical
displacement displacement displacement displacement
Location TM FEM TM FEM TM FEM TM FEM

Invert 3.6 5.2 3.3 1.9 2.7 4.3 2.1 1.4

Crown 5.6 4.8 3.6 2.9 4.0 4.2 2.0 3.0
Right 5.5 4.6 3.8 3.0 3.2 3.9 2.0 2.5
springing
Left 4.5 5.2 3.0 2.0 2.9 4.6 2.0 2.4
springing
U
TM ᎏ measured using the TM3000V automatic monitoring system; FEM ᎏ computed results.
98 J.S. Sharma et al. r Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 16 (2001) 93᎐98

Table 2
Comparison of tunnel lining displacements for 250-mm and 400-mm thick linings

Section G᎐G Ždisplacements are in mm.

Southbound tunnel Northbound tunnel
Horizontal Vertical Horizontal Vertical
displacement displacement displacement displacement
Location 250mm 400mm 250mm 400mm 250mm 400mm 250mm 400mm

Invert 7.3 7.0 1.5 1.4 5.4 5.1 0.2 0.1

Crown 8.8 8.0 3.7 2.6 6.8 5.7 0.7 0.3

Right 6.7 6.5 2.6 2.3 6.1 5.8 0.3 0.2

springing
Left 8.9 7.5 3.1 1.9 5.5 5.2 0.6 0.4
springing

Section H᎐H Ždisplacements are in mm.

Southbound tunnel Northbound tunnel

Horizontal Vertical Horizontal Vertical
displacement displacement displacement displacement
Location 250mm 400mm 250mm 400mm 250mm 400mm 250mm 400mm

Invert 6.9 5.2 2.2 1.9 5.3 4.3 1.6 1.4

Crown 7.0 4.8 6.3 2.9 5.7 4.2 5.3 3.0
Right 4.9 4.6 4.3 3.0 3.6 3.9 3.1 2.5
springing
Left 9.0 5.2 4.1 2.0 7.3 4.6 3.0 2.4
springing

stress relief in the ground due to excavation. The References

computed displacements of the tunnel lining were gen-
erally higher than the measured values. However, their
trends were quite similar. It was also found that the
stiffness of the tunnel lining has significant influence
on its displacement and distortion. A stiff lining is
likely to undergo less distortion but is likely to be
subjected to greater bending moments. If the functio-
nality of the tunnel is not affected by small distortions,
it may be beneficial to select a flexible lining system.
Britto, A.M., Gunn, M.J, 1994. Cambridge University Engineering
Department, UK.
Chan, C.W., 1995. Displacement of MRT tunnels due to an adjacent
excavation. Nanyang Technological University, M.Sc. Dissertation.
Sharma, J.S., Chu, J., Zhao, J., 1999. An overview of the geological
and geotechnical features of Singapore. Tunnelling Underground
Space Technol. 14 Ž4., 419᎐432.
Wong, K.S., Broms, B.B., 1989. Lateral wall deflections of braced
excavations in clay. J. Geotech. Eng. Div. ASCE 115 Ž6., 853᎐870.