By Desiree Willis

Boring a small tunnel in hard rock is never an easy task, but when the rock is 28,000 psi UCS, the term “hard” doesn’t begin to cut it. That was the obstacle facing Virginia-based trenchless contractor Kruckenberg Service Co. at a set of utility bores for new sewer lines in Ashburn, Va., in late 2013.

“Cut-and-cover was a problem with the rock hardness, as we had to go under a busy road. We also wanted casing under parts of the road that were planned to be widened,” said company owner David Kruckenberg, noting that utilities near the new sewer lines also meant there were limited options. “We had a 36-in. water line, 10-in. water line and 10-in. force main sewer nearby. It had to be bored, not blasted.”

The contractor ultimately opted for a 36-in. diameter Small Boring Unit (SBU-A) manufactured by The Robbins Co., with 9.5-in. disc cutters. The rock would be some of the hardest ever bored with a machine of such small diameter and small-sized cutter discs.

Historic Ground 

Buried lines were not the only cause for concern at the Mt. Hope Church Sewer Bore Project. “The pipeline was constructed to service 25 single family homes under construction, as well as a historic Baptist church, built in 1835, that it passes within a few feet of,” said Casey Rafter of general contractor Metro Earthworks, a division of Shirley Contracting Co. LLC. “The church limited the method that could be used. We couldn’t blast certain areas, and for the pits at either end we had to follow guidelines for maximum particle velocity near historic buildings.”

Metro Earthworks had blasted about 9,000 ft for installation of a variety of utilities including sanitary sewer, storm and water lines, but sub-contracted several crossings to Kruckenberg. In particular, the 210-ft long bore below Belmont Ridge Road was of concern due to its proximity to the church and buried utilities. While the contract did not specify an excavation method, it had to be bored rather than blasted, and the bores were required to maintain a grade of 0.43 percent.

Hard Rock

Kruckenberg Service Co. knew they had their work cut out for them based on excavation of the launch and receiving pits. At 24-ft deep, 40-ft long and 16-ft wide, the launch pit revealed bluestone rock below the surface. “The guy blasting the pits said it was almost like diamond, it was so hard,” said Kruckenberg.

Metro Earthworks had also tested rock on its sections as being as high as 29,500 psi and incredibly abrasive. It was decided to install the pit in the middle of the bore and excavate in one direction, then re-launch from the other direction, welding casing through the pit.

When Kruckenberg chose an SBU with an Auger Boring Machine (ABM) for the excavation, Metro Earthworks was initially unfamiliar with the method. “We had never been involved on an SBU project before, but the customer service was fantastic,” said Rafter. The 36-in. SBU-A was delivered to the site and launched in early 2014.

Disc Cutting through Rock

The SBU-A was chosen for its similarities to a larger diameter TBM. Mounted with disc cutters in a circular cutting head, an SBU-A regularly tackles hard rock up to 25,000 psi UCS. The cutting head, in diameters from 24 to 72 in., is welded to the lead steel casing and used with a standard ABM. The contractor-supplied auger pilots directly onto a taper hex shaft in the thrust bearing assembly. The ABM provides both torque and forward thrust, while the disc cutters chip away at the rock face. Spoils are removed via muck buckets in the cutterhead that dump onto the auger. A crewmember removes the spoils via a door in the ABM’s master pusher.

The action of the disc cutters is not to cut rock, but to fracture it. The rolling disc cutters create small fractures in the rock between them, causing the fractures to propagate. Chips of rock then fall away from the tunnel face.

Tough Tunneling

The crew averaged from 3 to 7 ft per hour in the rock. “Our crew and, in particular, our foreman, John Kevin Beamen, were so important. We pulled the augers every 5 to 10 ft to check alignment with a laser, and it required a lot of patience. The rock was harder on the bottom, so we had to watch for drift as the SBU wanted to raise up,” said Kruckenburg.

The SBU-A successfully completed the 210-ft crossing in one month, requiring some extra time to have the cutters changed out, as the rock had worn them down. “I’ve used Robbins hard rock heads for the last 12 years — auger boring is our thing, and I had never seen rock this hard,” said Kruckenberg.

Crews also had to deal with water inflows, in addition to rock hardness. “The rock also contained pockets of groundwater. We went under some fractured rock and found water coming in — we had to install three 2-in. electric pumps to keep the water down, as well as a 4-in. pump in the receiving pit. At one point we had water 5 in. deep in the casing,” said Kruckenberg.

Even with the short downtime and challenges, general contractor Metro Earthworks was impressed with the process. “We had a minor issue with the cutterhead, and we brought it from Virginia to Ohio on a Friday. It was back on the jobsite that following Tuesday. We had incredible service and because of that, I would certainly use them again. They also helped us to meet our budget and complete the project on schedule,” Rafter said.

Both companies also worked with Robbins to address the issue of the hard rock. “Robbins was honest about the limitations of the small diameter machine and how far we could bore with it in such difficult conditions. For our next project in the same conditions, they offered a machine rental at a larger size, so we would have an SBU that could deal with the harder rock conditions more easily,” said Rafter.

Small Diameter, Big Plans

That larger SBU-A, a 48-in. machine, completed a second bore in January 2014. “I finished the next bore on this project using a 48-in. SBU-A, and it did 140 ft in five days. It ate that rock up. The thing is a beast,” said Kruckenberg of the SBU. That project was excavated in equally hard rock at rates of over 20 ft per day (operating in one 10-hour shift).

Kruckenberg Service Co. sees the value of investing in SBUs, as it owns a 30-in. SBU-A and has rented multiple SBUs in various sizes since the company first tried them on a bore back in 2002. The contractor also began another new project in late July, using its 30-in. SBU-A rebuilt in Robbins’ Ohio-manufacturing facility. The 140-ft bore for a gravity sewer will pass under Centerville Road in Chantilly, providing just 2 ft of clearance around several active utility lines. “We need to maintain a 1 percent grade while keeping clear of buried utilities at a point 120 ft into the bore — it’s going to be tough,” said Kruckenberg.

The contractor is expecting somewhat softer rock along with a potential for mixed ground conditions. The company is not stopping there, however, with another bore planned in the coming months in Manassas, Va. The job will use the same 30-in. SBU-A under the Norfolk Southern railroad track. For other contractors considering SBUs, Kruckenberg offers some advice: “If you’re doing hard rock, SBUs are the only way to go, there isn’t any other competition out there. I don’t see any other head going through rock this hard.”

Desiree Willis is a technical writer for The Robbins Co., based in Kent, Wash.

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A joint venture of Salini Impregilo/Healy was the low bidder for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) Dugway Storage Tunnel (DST) project. The JV entered a bid of $153.3 million. Other bids, which were opened Sept. 10, included Southland Mole Johnson Bros., $155.5 million; McNally/Kiewit Dugway JV, $170.3 million; Kenny/Obayashi III JV, $188.6 million; and Jay Dee/Frontier-Kemper JV, $208.8 million.

The Dugway Storage Tunnel project includes the installation of a 24-ft diameter storage tunnel extending approximately 15,000 ft in length from its connection to the Euclid Creek Tunnel (ECT) at the Nine Mile Site to its terminus near Superior Avenue/ Lakeview Road. The tunnel will be constructed with a tunnel boring machine (TBM) in Chagrin Shale at depths approaching 200 ft below ground level. The DST will also include several consolidation sewers, diversion structures, and drop shafts to capture and store CSO from the DST service area. The diversion systems feeding the drop structures will be equipped with the inflow control gates to manage the dynamic flow within the ECT/DST tunnel system. The estimated cost was $179 million.

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Jeff Petersen of Kiewit kicks off the presentations on Sept. 15 with a discussion on safety considerations for tunnels.

The seventh annual Colorado School of Mines Tunnel Short Course – titled “Breakthroughs in Tunneling” – was held Sept. 15-17 in Golden, Colorado. The course attracts professionals from all over the country – and the globe – to hear presentations by internationally known tunneling and underground construction experts.

Once again, the course was sold out with more than 150 registrants. The course features presentations covering all facets of tunnel design and construction, beginning with safety and geologic investigation, through planning, design, construction and construction management. Included are presentations on equipment innovations and ground improvement.

The Tunnel Short Course Class of 2014

The attendance at this year’s event covered a broad cross section of the industry, including engineering consultants, contractors, owners and manufacturers/suppliers, in addition to Colorado School of Mines students and staff. In fact, the School of Mines UCA of SME student chapter hosted a networking reception on the evening of Sept. 15.

On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the annual banquet was held at the Golden Hotel, which featured the official presentation of the Tunnel Achievement Award, which was accepted by Louis Brais of Bouygues on behalf of the Port of Miami Tunnel Project. (For a complete report on the project, visit http://tunnelingonline.com/tunnel-achievement-award-port-miami-tunnel/). Brias gave a presentation of the challenging project, which was one of the first in the United States to be completed using a public-private partnership approach.

The Tunnel Short Course is presented by the Colorado School of Mines Office of Special Programs and Continuing Education (SPACE). Course directors are Dr. Levent Ozdemir, Ozdemir Consulting and Professor Emeritus at the School of Mines, and Tim Coss, Microtunneling Inc. The two also serve as the directors for the Microtunneling Short Course (Feb. 10-12, 2015) and the Ground Improvement Short Course (May 18-20). For more information on Colorado School of Mines short courses, visit www.csmspace.com.

Course Directors Tim Coss (left) and Levent Ozdemir

Louis Brias of Bouygues (right) accepts the 2014 Tunnel Achievement Award from Levent Ozdemir for the Port of Miami Tunnel project.

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While continuing the excavation, earthwork and dewatering project for the Transbay Tower in the new Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, Nicholson Construction was awarded a contract to complete critical foundation elements of the new bus ramp for the Center.

The Transbay Transit Center is a $4.5 billion project involving transportation and housing that creates a “Grand Central Station of the West.” This new hub will connect eight Bay Area counties and the state of California through 11 different transit systems. Nicholson will be constructing foundation support for a bridge that will be a part of the bus ramp. The contract includes the Installation of two 5-ft x 20-ft load bearing elements to a depth of 180 ft below grade as a foundation support for a new bridge pylon.

“Nicholson is excited to be a part of the ongoing transformation of downtown San Francisco through the development of the Transbay Transit Center,” said Luca Barison, Vice President of Special Projects for Nicholson Construction. “We are pleased to be contributing to something that will impact the region, and we want to continue to be involved with its evolution through the construction of this unique foundation solution.”

The overall project is set to be completed in 2017. Nicholson’s work on the new bus ramp is scheduled to be completed during the fall of 2014.

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The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) Board of Trustees approved a $3 million installment grant for the Public Square Renovation Project.

“Public Square is the heart of Downtown Cleveland,” said Julius Ciaccia, Executive Director of the district. “We’re excited to be able to connect our clean water work to the renovation of this historic, popular and heavily travelled area.”

The Public Square Renovation Project includes a $7 million investment in green infrastructure, which will remove approximately 3 million gallons of stormwater yearly from the combined sewer system. Visible features will include additional trees, permeable pavers and stormwater planters. Below grade, a rainwater harvesting system will collect run-off to be used for all on-site watering needs.

“As it exists today, Public Square is 60 percent hardscape,” said Frank Greenland, NEORSD Director of Watershed Programs. “The new design increases greenspace on Public Square by 30 to 40 percent, and 35 percent of the area will be permeable for stormwater. This will help reduce the amount of flow coming into our Westerly and Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plants.”

This investment complements NEORSD’s Project Clean Lake program, which is designed to reduce combined sewer overflows, a combination of sewage and stormwater discharging into the environment, from 4.5 billion gallons to 500 million gallons. Project Clean Lake includes major tunnel projects including the Euclid Creek Tunnel, Dugway Storage Tunnel, Doan Valley Storage Tunnel and Westerly Main CSO Tunnel.

“The transformation of Public Square is an investment in our core infrastructure that will redefine downtown Cleveland,” said Jeremy Paris, executive director of the Group Plan Commission, a 501 (c)(3) organization established by the City of Cleveland and its partners to guide the renovation, and long-term programming, operation, and maintenance of the restored Public Square. “The design is built around sustainability and underscores the importance of green infrastructure. A collaborative civic partnership has driven this effort.  We are thrilled to add NEORSD as a lead partner that will help make this vision of a greener Cleveland a reality.”

In addition, the district and the Group Plan Commission will coordinate clean-water messaging and programming throughout Public Square.

“Investments in projects like the Public Square Renovation Project give our organization an opportunity to share its clean water message,” said Constance Haqq, NEORSD Director of Administration and External Affairs.  “We’re excited to have such a public forum to convey the work we’re doing to keep our Great Lake great.”

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Dennis W. Boehm — Vice President of Technology and Key Client Development

Hayward Baker Inc. (HB), North America’s leader in geotechnical construction, announced two promotions at its Houston Office.

Dennis W. Boehm has been promoted to Vice President of Technology and Key Client Development, which includes corporate responsibilities as well as those throughout the company’s Central Region. In addition, Tyson Deklavs, previously Senior Project Manager, was recently promoted to Area Manager for the Houston office.

Boehm’s corporate responsibilities include promoting soil mixing and jet grouting, ultimately improving HB’s overall capability with these techniques nationally, as well as contributing to proposal and risk analysis work. In addition, he is responsible for developing new key clients in the gas and oil energy sector. Throughout the coming year, he will manage the transition of his Central Region responsibilities to Deklavs, HB’s recently promoted Area Manager.

Tyson Deklavs — Area Manager for the Houston office

Boehm has over 25 years of engineering design, supervision, and onsite project management experience. He holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University.

Deklavs joined HB in 2010 as a senior project manager. He holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering focusing in construction management with a minor in business administration and communications from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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Andy McKown

Brierley Associates announced that Andy McKown has joined the company in its Cambridge, Massachusetts, office. McKown has focused on rock engineering, blast consulting, drill-and-blast design and blast vibration monitoring of sensitive historic structures and urban infrastructure through his 35-year career. The spectrum of McKown’s nationwide practice includes underground excavations, tunnels and shafts, quarry development and rock slopes along roadway corridors. He has assisted as a technical expert on numerous blast damage claim investigations, blasting and vibration problems, and has served as an expert witness on blasting and vibration related cases.

McKown is the author of a chapter on tunnel blasting for the “Blaster’s Handbook,” an update to the DuPont Blaster Handbook, published by the International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE). He has served as: Chairman of the Committee on Perimeter Control Blasting of the Underground Technology Research Council (UTRC);  member of ASCE Rock Mechanics Committee; Chairman of the Committee on Close-In-Construction Blasting; member of the Program Committee of the Society of Explosives Engineers (SEE); member of the Explosives Advisory Committee, Board of Fire Prevention Regulations, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

AJ McGinn, President and CEO of Brierley Associates, commented, “Many of the our staff such as Alan Howard and Nick Strater have worked closely with Andy throughout their careers and with Andy joining Brierley Associates our in-house capabilities for blasting design, vibration consultation and rock mechanics is enhanced.”

McKown joins Jay Perkins in the Cambridge office. He can be reached at (617) 714-5784 or amckown@brierleyassociates.com.

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Jenny Engineering Corporation (JEC), a nationally recognized tunnel engineering firm, has won the Engineering News‐Record’s Best Project Award for the pedestrian and bike underpass project at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The new underpass consists of a new 14-ft wide pedestrian and bike tunnel. The tunnel passes under three active railroad tracks and a roadway on the University of North Carolina Greensboro campus. It provides a safe alternate route for pedestrians and cyclists and particularly for the student population on the campus. Previously only at‐grade crossings were available.

“This tunnel allows pedestrians and bikers to move safely between campus and new dormitories. One of the key challenges was to keep the railroad operations uninterrupted while the construction proceeded underneath the tracks”, said Prakash Donde, President of JEC. “We are honored to receive the award of Best Project in the Small Project category.”

JEC was responsible for the design of tunnel, the approach retaining walls, the canopy structure at the parking entrance, and providing construction administration services. JEC’s plan provided for alternatives of a prefab bridge to be replaced or roadway to be mined under. The cuts on both sides of the tunnel are supported by retaining walls. The tunnel was opened for public use in early 2014.

Judges evaluated projects based on different criteria including: Overcoming challenges and teamwork, safety, innovation and contribution to the industry and community, construction quality and craftsmanship; and functionality of design and aesthetic quality.

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WSP Global, a Canada-based professional services firm, has entered into a purchase agreement with Balfour Beatty to purchase Parsons Brinkerhoff, Balfour Beatty’s professional services division for $1.24 billion, according to a press release on the WSP website. Terms have been approved by the boards of directors for both companies, according to the release. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

Parsons Brinckerhoff is a global consulting firm assisting public and private clients to plan, develop, design, construct, operate and maintain thousands of critical infrastructure projects around the world. Founded in New York City in 1885, Parsons Brinckerhoff is a diverse company of 14,000 people in more than 150 offices on five continents. The company was involved with the original sections of the New York City subway and was also involved on the recent Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access and No. 7 Line Extension projects. Other recent tunneling projects include the Port of Miami Tunnel and Portland CSO projects, among others.

Parsons Brinckerhoff was purchased by Balfour Beatty in 2009 for $642 million. However, Balfour Beatty announced early this year that was considering the sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff following the revelation that profits for 2014 were expected to be down $50 million in its U.K. construction business. In other moves, CEO Andrew McNaughton stepped down and executive chairman Steve Marshall took over on an interim business.

As part of the change in strategy, the Balfour Beatty announced that it was exploring ways to simplify its structure and create a more focused group. According to the statement released by Balfour Beatty: “Since its acquisition by Balfour Beatty in 2009, Parsons Brinckerhoff has continued to be a highly successful business and has grown significantly under Balfour Beatty’s ownership.  As anticipated at the time of the acquisition, there has been growth in the market towards design and build and Public Private Partnership contracts. However, having professional services and construction capabilities combined within one organization has not delivered material competitive advantage for the Group. Therefore, we are examining how best to realize the substantial value of the Parsons Brinckerhoff business.”

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A Robbins Dual Mode EPB/Rock TBM is excavating two mine access tunnels for the Grosvenor Decline Tunnel Project in Queensland, Australia.

In August 2014, major progress was made at a coal mine in Queensland, Australia, when a Robbins Dual Mode EPB/Rock TBM was successfully rolled out from the first of two access tunnels. The specialized machine is the first TBM to be used at a coal mine in Queensland, and there are many aspects of both the TBM and project that make it unique.

The 8.0 m (26.2 ft) Robbins machine and continuous conveyor system were chosen by project owner Anglo American for the Grosvenor Decline Tunnel Project, where it began excavation in December 2013 for two tunnels consisting of sedimentary hard rock up to 120 MPa UCS, mixed ground of mainly sand and clay, and coal seams.

The TBM was chosen over the traditional roadheader method for several reasons including speed of excavation—the swift machine has proven to be about 10 times faster than a roadheader. Another reason was maintenance:  “The final tunnels need to remain intact for the life of the Grosvenor Mine [about 40 years], and be maintenance-free with cement linings,” said Adam Foulstone, Underground Construction Manager at Anglo American. “This was the biggest factor when determining our tunneling method.”

The TBM was retracted from its first decline tunnel in August 2014 using a Robbins-designed Quick Removal System and transport dollies.

The machine is optimized toward hard rock (Single Shield) excavation, as only the first 300 m (984 ft) of each tunnel are in mixed ground. A two-stage, center-mounted screw conveyor works in both hard and mixed ground conditions, and the cutterhead can be outfitted with back-loading cutters in hard rock mode, as well as knife bits and scrapers in EPB mode.

Additionally, the machine uses its EPB technology to deal with methane gas, a standard in coal mines. To ensure worker safety and avoid explosions, gas levels must be kept under 2% at all times. If any methane leakage is detected, a snuffing box evacuation system will draw the methane out of the screw conveyor and directly into the ventilation system. In the first tunnel, methane was detected within the first 300 m (984 ft). “The snuffing box was very useful,” said Foulstone. “It allowed us to monitor the tunnel face, plus a boundary sensor ensured we didn’t go above 0.5% methane content.”

The TBM was transported 2 km (1.2 mi) from one tunnel to the next by way of a 600 metric ton (661 US ton) lift that took the machine in two large sections.

The first tunnel is at a grade of 1:6 for men and materials; the other at 1:8 for conveyors. The approximate lengths of the tunnels are 1,100 m (0.7 mi) and 950 m (0.6 mi), respectively. Lengths of the tunnels are approximate and based on the location of the coal seam. “As soon as we see coal coming out of the conveyor, we conduct face inspection to verify. Once we have a coal seam taking up approximately 50% of the tunnel diameter, we know we’ve gone far enough,” said Foulstone.

Australian tunnels require constant ground support, and the TBM was customized with a Robbins-designed “Quick Removal System,” which allowed the machine to be removed from the initial tunnel and retracted from its outer shield bodies, leaving them behind to support the ground. At the second tunnel, a new set of shields will be assembled onto the machine. Upon completion of the second tunnel, these shields will also be left in place. In order to transport the machine to the next tunnel 2 km (1.2 mi) away, it had to be split into two sections and required a large 600 metric ton (661 US ton) lift. The machine is expected to begin boring the second tunnel in November 2014 following reassembly, and reach its final breakthrough in March 2015.

Two sets of outer shields are required for the TBM, as the machine retracted from its first set upon completion of the first tunnel. A new set will be assembled onto the machine at the second tunnel.

“This is the better methodology,” said Foulstone, when asked if he thought more TBMs would be used on mines in the future. “[Use of TBMs] opens up a new chapter not just with Anglo American, but with the whole coal industry in Australia. Now we can draw up a new coal mine in less than a year, compared with two to three years if we use roadheaders.” Foulstone also noted that there are few limitations for TBMs in mines. “Anywhere we need to get men and materials into an underground environment is an opportunity to use a TBM,” he said.

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Eric Drooff

Hayward Baker Inc. (HB), North America’s leader in geotechnical construction, announced the appointment of a new president, along with several other senior leadership staff appointments.

Eric Drooff has been named the sixth president of Hayward Baker. Drooff, hired by HB in 1992 as a Project Manager, has been the Vice President and Senior Vice President of HB’s Northeast Region for the past 12 years. His impressive project accomplishments and industry credentials make him a natural choice to lead HB in the coming years.

The appointment of Drooff to succeed John Rubright as president will allow Rubright to concentrate on his role as Managing Director of Keller North America, HB’s parent company.

In addition to Drooff’s appointment, several other management changes were announced for HB’s Northeast Region.

• Geo-Foundations Contractors Inc. and the Keller Canada Toronto office have joined forces to pursue industry and market synergies in Eastern Canada. The newly established group will operate as Geo-Foundations, a Hayward Baker company under the leadership of Todd Edmunds. Edmunds was an owner of the original Geo-Foundations entity and continued in that leadership role after it was acquired by Hayward Baker in 2013. Geo-Foundations will also work with Keller Canada to establish HB products and services throughout Canada. Edmunds and his team have forged strong relationships within HB, and this collaboration will continue to maximize opportunities for all sectors of business in Canada.

• Scott Nichols has been appointed Vice President of HB’s Northeast Region. His responsibilities include strategic management of the New England, New York and Mid-Atlantic areas. Nichols joined HB in 2005 as part of the G. Donaldson acquisition, and he has been manager of the Providence office since 2009. The Providence office has been consistently successful in a competitive union setting. The skills Nichols has acquired will benefit him as he develops further collaboration throughout the Northeast Region.

• In addition, Kevin Dawson has been appointed Area Manager of the Providence office. Dawson joined HB in 2004 as a Field Engineer in the New England Area.  He has mastered a broad range of products offered by this region and demonstrated effective leadership skills, most recently as a Senior Project Manager.

Commenting on the new senior leadership staff appointments, John Rubright stated, “On behalf of the HB Executive Committee and Keller management, I congratulate Eric, Todd, Scott and Kevin on their appointments. It is our goal at Keller to create great opportunities and lifetime careers for our employees. These promotions clearly show that we are achieving this goal.”

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On Sept. 30, a closing ceremony was held at the Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corp. facility in Toronto for the assets purchased by and between Liaoning Censcience Industry Co. Ltd. (LNSS) and Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corp. (CTCC). LNSS and CTCC entered into an assets purchase agreement in January 2014, under which LNSS has acquired the fixed assets and entire intellectual properties of CTCC.

CTCC was formerly known as Lovat, a Canadian company founded in 1972. It was considered a leader in soft ground mechanized tunneling technology.

LNSS is one of the major TBM suppliers in China. It has the largest manufacturing capacity in the country and its products are currently mining a number of mega urban subway construction projects in China.

Following this acquisition, LNSS has set up its wholly owned subsidiary, Lovsuns Tunneling Canada Ltd., based in Toronto. Lovsuns will be responsible for operating the acquired assets and will assume the strategic role of LNSS’s overseas engineering, manufacture and sales/service centers.

“We look forward to working closely with our parent company and providing the most competitive and reliable products and services to tunneling customers worldwide,” said Hongyu Xue, Lovsuns’ general manager.

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San Francisco Public Utilities Commission President Vince Courtney

The seismically resistant backbone of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System comes into service the week of the 25th Anniversary of Loma Prieta Earthquake.

On Oct. 15, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) joined with Dave Pine, President of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, to celebrate the completion of the first tunnel under San Francisco Bay at the location where the first Hetch Hetchy water through the tunnel enters Crystal Springs Reservoir. Eighty years ago this month, a similar celebration occurred in this exact spot when Hetch Hetchy water was first delivered to the San Mateo-Peninsula region through Bay Division Pipeline 1.

That original lifeline, and the entire Hetch Hetchy System, was built in response to the 1906 earthquake and the devastating fires that ensued in its aftermath.

Left to right: David Pine, President, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, Nicole Sandkulla, CEO of BAWSCA and Harlan L. Kelly, Jr. General Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

History repeats itself. The multi-billion dollar Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) is a response to the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and the likely seismic event that will occur in the Bay Area in the next 30 years. As one of the last WSIP projects, the Bay Tunnel replaces two aging pipelines (Bay Division 1 & 2) that sit on the Bay floor. The new Bay Tunnel acts as a seismically reliable lifeline connecting Hetch Hetchy and East Bay water supplies with customers on the Peninsula and in San Francisco.

Protecting our water supply also protects our entire regional economy,” said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. “The new Bay Tunnel is part of San Francisco’s multi-decade effort to upgrade the seismic reliability of our Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System and strengthen our water and sewer infrastructure to prepare for the next big earthquake.”

The Pulgas Water Temple is the site where Hetch Hetchy water enters the Crystal Springs Reservoir on the San Francisco Peninsula. Shown here is the opening ceremony from 1934.

While the occasion is historic, equally praiseworthy is the engineering prowess demonstrated by the hard-working women and men who designed and built the Bay Tunnel. Construction on the Bay Tunnel began in April 2010, and the tunnel was just put into service after weeks of testing and disinfection. At $288 million, the project was delivered on-time and below the original budget estimate of $313 million.

“Rate-payers are investing in critical infrastructure upgrades to ensure that precious Hetch Hetchy Water will continue to be delivered after a major seismic event,” said Nicole Sandkulla, CEO of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency. “The decision to invest 100 percent of rate-payer money now, rather than later, will prepare us for the future major seismic event that we know will occur in our region.”

The Bay Tunnel is one of the last projects in the SFPUC’s WSIP – one of the largest water infrastructure improvement programs in the country. Like water utilities in many parts of the country and world, the SFPUC is in a race against time to buttress its aging infrastructure. Since 2002, the nearly $4.8 billion WSIP has strengthened the water lifelines that cross over the major earthquake faults in the Bay Area to deliver high-quality Hetch Hetchy water to customers. Comprising 83 projects, WSIP is more than 80 percent complete and has seismically strengthened vulnerable pipelines and reservoirs, constructed redundant facilities and completed major projects like the Bay Tunnel as well as the seismic slip-joint upgrade project at the Hayward Fault.

The new Bay Tunnel acts as a seismically reliable lifeline connecting Hetch Hetchy and East Bay water supplies with customers on the Peninsula and in San Francisco.

WSIP was also an important economic engine helping to sustain the Bay Area economy after the 2008 Recession. Since 2002, WSIP investments have created 11,000 jobs, generated nearly 7,000,000 craft hours for workers and have trained new workforces in skilled trades, all while stimulating the local economy.

“The new Bay Tunnel will ensure that we have reliable access to Hetch Hetchy water at all times, particularly within 24 hours of a major earthquake,” said SFPUC General Manager Harlan L. Kelly, Jr. “The Water System Improvement Program has been an ambitious and successful undertaking. We are nearing completion of the program, with just a few construction projects remaining such as the Calaveras Dam rebuild, which will replace the original dam built in 1925.”

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was a wake-up call for the Bay Area, serving as the catalyst for WSIP, the Bay Tunnel and many other infrastructure projects. The timing could not be more prescient. The US Geologic Service predicts a major earthquake will occur within the next 30 years in the Bay Area.

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The Newly Opened Diabolo Tunnel Below Brussels Airport Features State-of-the-Art Safety System

By Marcel Hassenewer

On June 8, 2012, the Diabolo tunnel officially opened in Brussels, Belgium.
This 12-km (7.5-mile) tunnel is situated 100 ft beneath the Brussels Airport. The infrastructure project took five years to complete, at a cost of approximately $900 million.

The Diabolo tunnel stands out thanks to its comprehensive safety system. In case of a fire or similar emergency, corresponding emergency response is triggered. In such an event, Phoenix Contact PLCs control all safety systems beneath the airport.

The Smoke and Heat Extractor (SHE) is also connected to the FS system.

Faster, Safer Service
Travelers can cover the distance between Antwerp and Brussels Airport in only 34 minutes using the Diabolo tunnel. The journeys from Mechelen and Leuven take 10 and 14 minutes, respectively, with no transfers. Diabolo is also connected to the European high-speed train network, so travelers can reduce travel times and shorten the commute between Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt to and from Brussels Airport. An entirely new infrastructure was built for this purpose, including a section of track on the wide median of the E19 highway, numerous bridges and many kilometers of tunnels under the airport’s take-off and landing strips.

Belgium has experienced a series of rail accidents over the past few years, so railway safety was a very important part of the tunnel build. For this reason, all new rail tracks for the Diabolo project were equipped with electronic beacons or transponders, known as ETCS Eurobalises, one of the components in the new European Train Control System. The Eurobalises prevent trains from passing stop signals. Due to the stricter requirements of the Belgian infrastructure administrator Infrabel, the tunnels under Brussels Airport are now the safest in the entire country and have become a model for similar domestic and international projects.

Four RFCs are integrated into the central controller unit. The device installed under the industrial PCs makes a decision on whether there is an emergency and what type of malfunction this involves.

Adaptable Components and Systems
Fabricom GDF Suez won the contract for the safety technology for the tunnel and underground train station. Mario Brusselmans, senior rail project manager at Fabricom, stated, “We were able to secure the contract in no small measure thanks to our close partnership with Phoenix Contact. As part of our joint bid, the automation specialist adapted its components and systems to the client’s requirements, while other companies merely drew upon the existing products.”

A new concept for marking escape routes was developed. The dynamic evacuation guidance (DEG) system consists of aluminum parts fastened to the wall of the tunnel. LED profiles are inserted in these sections of the tunnel at intervals of 33 cm (13 in.), creating a dynamic lighting system that indicates the escape route. If a fire or other emergency requires passengers to leave the train and exit the tunnel on foot, these lights illuminate the escape route.

IP67-rated DEG modules are usually 4 m (13.1 ft) long and interconnected via redundant LED controllers. The LED module controllers are located in small cylinders. All LED controllers are linked to each other via a complex redundant cabling concept that supplies power and transfers data, saving space, time and money.

A modular service point (MSP) cabinet, containing all of the components needed for the operation of the LED profiles, is installed every 100 m.

Redundant Evacuation Concept
LED controllers are based on Phoenix Contact Inline controllers installed at intervals of about 100 m (330 ft) in so-called modular service points (MSP) cabinets. The Diabolo tunnels contain about 100 MSP cabinets. Every ILC 1xx Inline microcontroller controls the LED controllers installed on both sides of the cabinet. This usually concerns only the next 100 m of LEDs in one direction. However, if a fire cuts off an adjacent ILC, the LEDs in the other direction can also be controlled. In other words, the DEG system is configured redundantly.

An industry switch from the Factoryline product range connects the ILC with the central controller, while a DC UPS power supply unit supplies power to the components installed in the cabinet and the DEG modules. I/O modules ensure communication with subordinate sensors.

Certain MSP cabinets contain two of each component. This is due to the fact that, in single-track sections, the LED profiles fitted on both sides of the tunnel are controlled by one cabinet, which is why an additional ILC was installed for the LEDs on the other side of the tunnel. In that case, a fire-resistant RF1U cable, laid under the tracks, links the ILC and LED controllers. The remaining cables do not have to be fire-resistant, because in the event of a fire, the closest MSP cabinet can take over, something that helps lower costs.

Immediate Switchover
Four Phoenix Contact RFC 470S safety controllers are deployed for decision-making concerning the DEG module controller. The safety controllers are mounted in a central control cabinet. All ILCs and the RFC are connected to each other at this point via a gigabit ring structure. There are two identical safety controllers. The first one is installed underground, and the second aboveground and outside the tunnel for redundancy. If an RFC 470S fails due to a fire or other incident, the second safety controller takes over its function within milliseconds.

The most important of the four safety controllers is the FS-RFC (fire scenario). It triggers the emergency response and evaluates the type of emergency. The decision of the FS-RFC is based on input signals, so that it only takes action if a fire has in fact started or if the train is moving at less than 5 kph. Fires are detected by the Fibrolaser and/or measuring points. The Fibrolaser is a glass-fiber cable installed on the tunnel ceiling that detects temperature fluctuations with an accuracy of 0.1° C and a resolution of 3 m. Fire detectors or emergency buttons are used as measuring points at different locations, such as in the train station and the engineering rooms.

Sensors are mounted about 20 m (65 ft) apart on the tracks for measuring the speed of trains. They determine the stopping or passing of the measuring point at a certain time. The sensors are linked with the ILCs in the assigned MSP cabinet, as well as alternatively with the controllers of the previous or next cabinet. This ensures that signals are still received from every second sensor if an MSP cabinet fails due to fire. The sensor signals are now transmitted to the TL-RFC (train location) in the central control cabinet via the ring network. The location and speed of the train are calculated there.

Automated Safety Systems
The TL-RFC continuously transmits its data to the FS-RFC. Based on that information, the FS-RFC can determine which components and systems are in service or out of service in the tunnels and the accompanying structures/buildings. This includes the DEG system that indicates the escape routes. Commands are transmitted to the ILCs that control the LEDs via the DEG-RFC, the gigabit switch and the Ethernet connection. In addition to the DEG system, the FS-RFC is responsible for the following additional safety systems:

• Starting the emergency power generator
• Switching on of fans as well as the smoke and heat-extraction system
• Opening and closing of barriers
• Activation of fire water pumps
• Automatic switching on of lighting throughout the entire structure/building
• Loudspeaker announcements in the train station and on the platforms instructing passengers to remain calm and exit in an orderly manner
• Automatic opening of emergency exits
• Closing of fire rolling gates to shut off passageways
• Activation of smoke screens in the train station and on stairways
• Automatically stopping of elevators on a safe floor
• Halting of escalators
• Disabling of access control.

Automatic alarms for the airport, designed to ensure that no other passengers enter the train station, and the BMS (Building Management System) are also triggered. The BMS control room transmits the report wirelessly to the control room in Antwerp and, shortly thereafter, to Leuven and Mechelen, so that no further trains pass through Zaventem.

Conclusion
Fabricom GDF Suez has also chosen Phoenix Contact components, systems and solutions for other projects. Mario Brusselmans stated, “We are also working with Phoenix Contact in other Diabolo subprojects that we have been awarded, one such example being the contract to install electromechanical systems in the structure. The two companies have now been partners for several years, because of the user-oriented approach taken by Phoenix Contact and due to the speed and flexibility with which they are able to implement the requirements.”

This article was written by Marcel Hassenewert is with the Industry Management Infrastructure/Industry Solutions group, Phoenix Contact Electronics GmbH, Bad Pyrmont, Germany, with editing by Haroon Rashid, Industry Manager, Transportation Infrastructure, Phoenix Contact USA, Middletown, Pa.

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Colorado School of Mines was officially founded in 1874.

Golden Opportunity

Developing the next generation of tunnel engineers is something that is weighing on the minds of just about all sectors within the industry – contractors, engineering companies, owners, and trade unions. In fact, TBM held a roundtable discussion at the North American Tunneling Conference this year focused on that very topic. Almost unanimously, the participants agreed that there is a dearth of students coming out of universities with an education that includes tunneling.

Not too long ago, institutions including the University of Illinois and Cal-Berkeley churned out engineers who entered the tunneling profession thanks to the efforts of professors like Ralph Peck, Ed Cording and Tor Brekke. But those professors and their peers eventually moved out of active teaching, leaving a void that persists today.

But perhaps we are beginning to turn a corner. Colorado School of Mines, a university that has a strong tradition in mining and earth sciences, has recently established a center of excellence and a degree program geared specifically on underground construction and tunneling – a first in the United States. The focus on tunneling has caught the eye of the industry, as well as students who engaging with industry in research, in the classroom and at professional events.

The Center for Underground Construction and Tunneling was founded in 2011, while the degree program is now entering its second full year, having launched in fall 2013. In fact, it is anticipated that the school will issues its first Master of Science Degrees in Underground Construction and Tunneling in December.

Mines’ Earth Mechanics Institute is known as a leader in excavation equipment development and testing services.

Why Mines?
Colorado School of Mines was officially founded in 1874, when Colorado was still a U.S. Territory (statehood came in 1876). The school’s location in Golden, Colorado, a gold rush town and one-time territorial capital, made it an ideal location for an institution of higher learning dedicating to mining and earth sciences. Today, the school is home to more than 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students from across the globe, and is ranked among the top engineering schools in the nation.
The school has always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the underground construction and tunneling community, serving as a research facility and testing laboratory, and sending many graduates into the field. The Excavation Engineering and Earth Mechanics Institute was established at the school in 1974 and has long been recognized as a leader in excavation equipment development and testing services for contractors, owners, designers and equipment manufacturers. But Mines’ place within the tunneling industry took a big step forward with the establishment of the Center of Excellence in Underground Construction and Tunneling in 2011.

The Center has two goals, according to Prof. Mike Mooney, the Center’s director: Develop leaders and advance research solutions. “Like any university, we are all about educating the next generation of leaders for the industry, and so we educate undergraduate and graduate students across a number of different segments,” he said. “One unique aspect of the tunneling industry is the fact that it is an interdisciplinary field; it encompasses mining engineering, civil engineering, geological engineering, mechanical engineering, etc. So, a big component of the center is to be very interdisciplinary.

Field trips to tunneling sites help students connect what they are learning in the classroom with what is going on the field. Here, students visit the Blue Plains Tunnel project in Washington, D.C.

“We promote a very applied research environment. We really want to help advance solutions that will move the industry forward, tackle complicated problems, help grow the market for tunneling by developing solutions, knowledge and technologies that allow tunnel design and tunnel construction in environments that perhaps haven’t been advanced before. It is a complicated topic, so it is an industry that is ripe for solutions through research.”

Prof. Priscilla Nelson, head of the Mining Department, concurs that Mines is an ideal host to the Center. “At Mines, we have a unique assemblage of expertise ready to collaboratively address problems, including civil, mechanical, environmental engineering, hydrology, geophysics, mining engineering, operations research, and economics and business.  And Denver is a hotbed of the mining industry, so we have great opportunity there for partnerships.  The crossover between mining and underground heavy construction is strong and under-developed. In addition, CSM has a worldwide reputation and many alumni around the world – we get visited by students, faculty, regulatory organizations and industry. This cements international collaborations.”

Prof. Paul Santi, head of Geology and Geological Engineering, added: “Our program in Underground Construction and Tunneling was developed specifically to provide the interdisciplinary education and experience needed to tackle modern underground projects. It is unique in the United States, joining departments of civil, mining and geological engineering. We have a significant number of faculty working in these areas.”

The Colorado School of Mines is host to world-class short courses featuring leading experts from around the world.

The Center got a boost when Bruce Grewcock, a Mines alumnus and chairman and CEO of Kiewit Corp., contributed $5 million to support the school’s Underground Construction and Tunneling program, and provide scholarships for undergraduates. “Underground infrastructure is being built in increasingly complex geologic environments, so the demand for highly skilled professionals is growing,” said Grewcock. “Through partnerships with educational institutions like Mines, we can meet the demands of our growing industry.”

Mooney, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Grewcock University Endowed Chair in Underground Construction and Tunneling, says that momentum has been building. “Mines has a rich history and tradition of tunneling, and Bruce’s financial support really helped to catalyze the focus on underground construction and tunneling,” he said. “The administration, the faculty, the students – they all believe in this. When you have a shared vision, it is just a matter of moving forward.”

And moving forward is just what the school is doing. In fact, the administration is adding three faculty – one each in the Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mining Engineering, and Geology and Geological Engineering departments – as interest in the Underground Construction and Tunneling program continues, which is evidenced by the establishment of the industry-first degree program.
“We have seen great interest among graduate and undergraduate students in the program, as well as the industry,” Mooney said. “The establishment of the center really prompted us to ask ‘How do we become a great place for tunnel design and tunnel construction.’ We realized that creating a degree program that is interdisciplinary would help take us to the next level.”

Getting Better by Degrees
The degree program in Underground Construction and Tunneling mirrors some of the programs that have been established in Europe but had yet to make their way overseas. Again, a keystone of the underground degree program is the interdisciplinary approach that crosses civil, mining and geological engineering.

Graduate students can earn an MS or PhD in Underground Construction and Tunneling, while undergraduates will earn degrees within the traditional major areas with the option of pursuing a minor in underground construction and tunneling.

To date, students have shown great interest in the tunneling program, Mooney said. He cites the fact that guest lectures from industry experts regularly draw 50 or more students, and more students are participating in Short Courses sponsored by Mines’ Office of Special Programs and Continuing Education. Many students attended the Tunnel Short Course held Sept. 15-17, and they even hosted a reception for course attendees as way to further interact with industry. The reception was hosted by the Colorado School of Mines student chapter of the Underground Construction Association of SME, UCA’s first and only student chapter.

Laura Porras, a graduate student in mining engineering who is pursuing research in underground construction and tunneling, serves as president of the UCA of SME student chapter. “The students I talk to are really excited about the program. We plan regular lectures that bring in industry speakers, and we are planning two to three field trips during the school year. We are hoping to get more people involved with the program.”

Several students attended the North American Tunneling Conference in Los Angeles in June, with three earning UCA of SME Executive Committee Scholarships (Lisa Mori, Erin Keough and Kevin Hart). In December, 19 students ventured to Seattle for a field trip to the SR 99 project.

One of the key aspects of the program is working with industry to arrange internships for the students. Porras, for example, interned with Moretrench and got involved with grouting and ground improvement. Brock Rysdahl and John Kuyt, each expected to graduate with Mines’ first MS degrees in Underground Construction and Tunneling in December, both interned during their studies – Kuyt with Barnard and Arup in San Francisco and Rysdahl with Traylor Brothers in Washington, D.C. Mooney said that internships is a critical part of the program. 13 students worked as interns during the first year of the program and Mooney hopes to grow that to 25 per year, which further reinforces the relationship between CSM and industry.

Meanwhile, tunneling related research has been on the upswing at Mines, Mooney said. “The industry has been very receptive to us coming and working on project sites,” he said. “We are trying to continue to grow that. The word research is not a common term with this industry. There historically has not been a great relationship between industry and university in funding research, and so we are slowly but surely building some credibility, so to speak, in our capabilities.”

Sample research projects include soil conditioning and ground vibration monitoring as part of Sound Transit’s Northgate Link project; soil conditioning and EPB ground support studies on the Seattle SR 99 project; and ground deformation control studies on the Queens tunnels as part of the East Side Access project in New York. Additional areas of research including cross passage design and construction, advancing TBM data monitoring, and obstacle detection and imaging techniques ahead of TBMs. Early funders of Center research include The Robbins Company, Jay Dee Contractors, Hayward Baker and the National Science Foundation.

Moving Ahead
While the Center and degree program are off to a promising starts, there is still much work to be done. “The workforce issue is certainly forefront on the minds of this industry and so with the limited number of schools that are emphasizing underground, we have been fortunate to get the support of industry,” Mooney said. “It has been fantastic having industry leaders come and speak to the students and share their experiences. We are also lucky in the sense that these short courses are offered so our students can interact with industry multiple times per year.”

As long as there is a need to renew and build infrastructure, the need for qualified and educated professionals will continue to grow, Nelson said. “There will be more and more underground work, especially in urban areas,” she said. “And not just tunnels, but structures comprising many different shapes and sizes of spaces. Because of this, we need people – not just engineers – trained in underground architecture and underground planning integrated with planning for surface spaces and infrastructure. We also need more engineering expertise and experience inside owner organizations that will assist in the real management of risk – not relying on lawyers. Along with this, we need to consider new ways of excavating – not everything is a tunnel – such as developments in roadheaders, drill/blast, lasers, water jet excavation equipment and other new technology.

“A professional designation will assist in gaining the integrated risk and uncertainty management that our industry needs – including geologic, operations/equipment, financial, social license, and political. We as a society will have to be making harder decisions about investment and planning for our infrastructure, and the professional status would elevate the importance of engineering contributions to the dialog.”

For now, the university is continuing its search program and attracting new students to the underground construction and tunneling arena.

“We are absolutely in growth mode,” Mooney said. “The faculty hires will allow us to scale up so that we’ll be able to really expand research and teaching, while growing the number of research projects we are working on with industry. At the same time we need to continue to recruit and train great undergrads and graduate students for the workforce. We are still in build mode and really ramping up full tilt. It is a pretty exciting time.”

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An Akkerman TBM is launched for a 540-lf drive under I-5 in Lynnwood, Washington, from a 24-ft deep shaft.

Pipe Jacking Under I-5 Near Seattle Nets Savings for Owner

By Laura Anderson

In August, a Washington State trenchless contractor completed an installation of 540 lf of steel casing to house new gravity water and sewer lines under an active 10-lane interstate in Lynnwood, Washington; without this solution, the crossing would otherwise be improbable.

The I-5/164th Martha Lake Gateway Sewer and Water Improvement project was completed for the Alderwood Water and Wastewater District (AWWD). The steel casing housed a 30-in. ductile iron water line and a 20-in. HDPE sewer pipe, and when centered and appropriately positioned, correct alignment required a maximum allowable clearance of 2.6-in. on either side. Implicit in the design was that accurate, uniform and constant tolerances throughout the alignment were crucial.

Interstate 5 is a north-south route through the State of Washington, extending into Oregon and British Columbia. Lynnwood is located approximately 20 miles north of Seattle and considered a bedroom community to Seattle proper. Residential housing sandwiched the alignment on the west and east sides before it crossed under I-5’s 10 lanes of traffic.

Some of the cobbles and boulders that were encountered during the 540-lf bore.

The Martha Lake Gateway Sewer and Water Improvement project scope of work included the installation of 4,300 lf of open-cut 8- to 14-in. sanitary sewer; 1,900 lf of open cut 6- to 8-in. ductile iron water main along with connections; dewatering, erosion control and site restoration. TITAN Earthwork LLC of Sumner, Washington, was AWWD’s general contractor on this project. Trenchless subcontractor Northwest Boring Co. Inc. of Woodinville, Washington, pipe jacked 540 lf of 66-in. steel casing under I-5 with an open-face, man-entry TBM system and 202 lf of 42-in. auger bored steel casing under 164th Street SW. Total project costs were $5 million, which included the two trenchless runs tallying $650,000.

Steve Greiling, project manager with TITAN Earthwork explained, “From the onset of the client’s diligent pre-award review process, Northwest Boring’s statement of qualifications meshed well with TITAN’s underground capabilities and ultimately enabled AWWD to confidently execute the contract.

“With the work going under 10 lanes of live freeway traffic, which also serves as Washington’s primary north-south throughway, one can imagine that our contract had very specific performance expectations with tight tolerances enforceable by the AWWD, Snohomish County and the Washington State Department of Transportation. These demands necessitated precision, engineered QA/QC controls and accuracy to ensure TITAN’s trailing infrastructure within the casing would function perfectly.”

Shown is a view of the back end of the TBM from the interior of the 64.5-in. ID tunnel.

Northwest Boring has overcome many challenges during its 60 years in the trenchless construction industry. The company has performed this particular type of installation previously and found with the right set of project variables, installing two carrier pipes in one casing can present significant savings.

Don Gonzales, president of Northwest Boring stated, “We’ve done the multiple-carrier-pipe installation bore several times and it can save the owner lots of money. The I-5 crossing was over a half million dollars, so to be able to tunnel once, rather than twice, makes a big difference in the bottom line.”

The contractor used an all-in-one Akkerman TBM 540, a 5000 Series Pump Unit to power the TBM and jack the casing, a 524 haul unit for muck removal, and a laser stand for guidance from its fleet of equipment. The TBM was outfitted with an open cutter-face, dressed with bullet teeth in order to contend with the anticipated glacial geology and potential obstructions, which included wood and/or large boulders.

Northwest Boring crews mobilized in May 2014 to begin shaft preparations. A 12-ft wide by 32-ft long jacking shaft was constructed for the TBM launch at 24-ft deep and was shored with steel trench boxes. Attainment of the gravity alignment required the launch at a 1 percent downward grade to jack the steel casing from east to west under I-5.

A pipe jacking system was used to advance the TBM and 20-ft. lengths of pipe, with a compact jacking frame outfitted with a built-in yoke on a skid base, and an in-shaft power unit situated on the end of the skid base near the thrust block. Spoil removal was conveyed to the haul unit’s dirt bucket and hoisted to the surface for removal. The TBM is a manned-machine, where a crew member controls the machine’s advancement on grade from the interior. Due to the open face, this person was simultaneously responsible for keeping an eye out for obstructions, then halting operations for their removal at the face of the bore as necessary. Additional crew members maintained the spoil removal process on the haul unit, controlled the jacking frame hydraulics and directed the crane operator to receive additional pipe lengths in the shaft. Together the crew moved in unison to orchestrate these responsibilities in a seamless approach.

Operations became hindered when project adversity was encountered. Soil conditions on the baseline report were identified as consolidated glacial till with cobbles and boulders. Gonzales commented that the soil was, “some of the most difficult dirt in America that I’ve seen,” and furthered that they came across “blow counts up to 50 with 3-in. embedded cobbles and boulders,” although they experienced average jacking forces of approximately 70 tons throughout. Additionally, the downward grade of the alignment made for pooling water, requiring continuous dewatering during the boring process. The combination of extremely hard, consolidated soils with embedded cobbles and boulders was very demanding on the equipment. Gonzales reported that, “the pipe jacking equipment held up well even when the boulders were met. It managed to maintain virtually perfect line and grade throughout the soil variations.”

When Northwest Boring completed the 66-in. crossing at the end of June 2014, TITAN crews assumed the installation of the 30-in. ID water and 20-in. sewer pipeline. Northwest Boring then moved to 164th street to complete the 202-ft, 42-in. steel casing installation across six-lanes of traffic with an auger bore machine, which concluded their portion of the work.

The general contractor was also impressed with the bore. Greiling reported, “Northwest Boring flat out delivered, resulting in final inverts that deviated from design by only 2/100ths – an outcome that confirms that Northwest Boring has the sound leadership, expertise to implement the best tunneling equipment for the given conditions, high-caliber field talent, and is an overall outstanding option.”

Gonzales pointed out that, “The equipment worked wonderfully in this ground condition. Having face access was key because without it, removal of the boulders may not have been possible.”

Laura  Anderson is director of marketing and communications for pipe jacking and tunneling manufacturer, Akkerman of Brownsdale, Minnesota.

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Emerging Best Practices in Tunnel Liner Design Can Save Lives, Preserve Structural Integrity

By Sanja Zlatanic

Minimizing the impact of fire on tunnel liner is a top priority for the worldwide engineering community. In the past decade, the industry has made significant strides. Today’s sophisticated design of tunnel liners, in conjunction with modern fire life safety systems, has shown to:

• Provide passengers with a safe, smoke-free egress.
• Minimize material strength loss, ensuring that during and after a fire, the structure can still withstand major service loads.
• Aid firefighting and protect first responders, minimize explosive concrete spalling and detrimental impacts of fires to the tunnel main structural components.
• Ensure that any damage is repairable, so the facility can return to normal operations as rapidly as possible, thus minimizing economic impacts.

To achieve that level of structural integrity, tunnel owners are incorporating five best practices into the liner design process:

1. Defining an underground structure as a tunnel if the structure passes screening criteria determined by National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards.

Classifying an underground structure as a tunnel is the most important step at the onset of the planning and designing process. An informed owner realizes the criticality of this first step because a majority of the design decisions depend on it. The tunnel size, clearance envelope, provisions for facility systems, supporting equipment, emergency egress layout, as well as the entire adopted emergency egress scenario, all will be determined based on the initial classification of the facility.

For example a highway that threads under an airport taxiway or a railroad structure passing beneath an over-build (provided it meets a specified length) classifies as a tunnel. We want to ensure that the entire engineering community is vigilant about these rules, so the structure is designed with the appropriate fire life safety and structural protection provisions in case of a fire.

2. Using project-specific customized fire curves.

In the past decade, many detrimental tunnel fires have occurred worldwide, impacting lives, structures and economies of adjoining communities. The trend among owners nowadays is to invest in sophisticated tunnel fire engineering and to develop project-specific design fire curves, including fire heat release rate (HRR) curve and time-temperature curve, rather than using off-the-shelf fire curves.

The trend is also to assess the structural fire durability by analyzing heat propagation through the tunnel liner, the impact of the heat on the concrete and steel reinforcement, and the degradation of the structural capacity of the liner. This approach is being used in order to arrive at a better assessment of the impacts of the design fire on the structural tunnel liner and the need for applying a fireproofing system.

Of course, standard fire curves, such as the Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) or ISO fire time-temperature curves, are still valid and many engineers fall back to them when no additional fire engineering is available or planned. However, these curves typically yield more conservative results and are implemented when a fireproofing layer is intended to be applied over the structural liner. This prescriptive approach does not require a detailed understanding of a fire in a tunnel and its effects on the tunnel liner; the tunnel liner would simply be protected by a passive fire protection material meeting the specified duration of fire resistance.

It should be noted that there are two fire curves that are important to the assessment of fires on tunnel liners:

• Fire heat release rate (HRR) curves define the fire event, its peak period, its intensity and its subsiding period. They show the energy release with time.
• Time-temperature curves define the temperature with time generated over the life of the fire event. These curves define the temperature of the air (gas temperature) at the concrete surface during a fire event. They are developed based on the project-specific HRR curve using computational fluid dynamic modeling (CFD). The thermal energy is transferred into the liner through conduction, convection and radiation.

Structural fire durability analyses utilize fire time-temperature curves to assess the damage caused by the fire on the primary structural elements (tunnel liner). The analyses account for adopted fire incident, including fire growth, peak HRR, fire decay, cooling and the impact of the ventilation and the active fire suppression systems.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations for critical conditions and locations performed using a project-specific HRR curve will define the gas (air) temperature at the face of the concrete liner. Based on the results of the CFD modeling, a heat transfer analyses can be performed to determine the propagation of the heat within the concrete liner. Non-linear structural analyses using finite element modeling can be performed taking into consideration the degradation of the concrete and the reinforcement properties under high temperatures. The results of these analyses will determine the impact of the tunnel fire on the concrete liner and the need of the application of a fireproofing system.

Figure 1:
Prescribed fire time-temperature curves including RWS curve

The prescribed time temperature curve, such as the RWS curve (see Figure 1), represents a 200 mW fire HRR curve and includes hydrocarbon fire curves. The use of ventilation and fire suppression system, if present, will reduce the heat release rate and the associated temperature of the fire. For example, for a super-fast fire corresponding to the RWS curve, if tunnel fire detection and suppression systems are available, the fire could be detected and the suppression system implemented in no more than four minutes, resulting in a reduction of the peak HRR to about 145 mW. This approach is more practical and takes advantage of the existing fire protection systems in which the owner has already invested.

Figure 2:
Project-specific customized fire time – temperature curve data for design fire event yields more realistic time-temperature fire data

Consequently, customized fire curves (see Figure 2) are becoming the industry norm due to an increased focus on an actual fire event that a tunnel should be designed for, primarily based on the type of the vehicles and their combustibles (or a cargo load) that are allowed into the tunnel. For tunnels designed for specific applications – involving  exposure to well-defined fire scenarios, yielding to reasonably identified maximum fire loads – customized curves are more appropriate and even necessary. Advanced calculation methods available to structural and fire engineers relying on Eurocodes for guidance and using performance-based engineering allow for a more prudent approach to fire protection requirements. This approach is project specific, efficient, realistic and practical. Owners are increasingly resorting to this approach, which generally follows a detailed quantitative and qualitative risk assessment for a fire event in a tunnel.

3. Approvals of authority having jurisdiction when using a customized fire curve.

Municipal and state fire departments are major players in every underground project and have considerable influence in approving the project-adopted fire curves. Often they are the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ).Their approval of fire life safety and structural fire engineering is a must. Because the approval of any adopted fire scenario depends on the approvals of the local fire marshal, it is advantageous to work with the fire department during the development of the customized approach to fire life safety and structural fire durability within the realm of NFPA requirements. This can facilitate dramatically the approval process and correspondingly the project schedule.

4. Making use of fire suppression systems, tunnel ventilation and sophisticated analyses to provide for effective tunnel liner design.

Project-specific, performance-based, fire heat release rate and fire temperature curves should utilize the inherit benefits of the existing tunnel fire protection systems including tunnel  ventilation system and tunnel fire suppression system such as sprinklers, deluge or mist. This approach will result in an efficient and economical solution.

This performance-based approach is in accordance with International Fire Engineering Guidelines and the International Code Council’s Performance Code for Buildings and Facilities. This approach was used on various projects, including the SR 99 Alaskan Way Tunnel in Seattle, Presidio Parkway tunnels in San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale airport access, and others. HNTB staff has performed these sophisticated analyses to assess the impact of fires on tunnel liners and to efficiently meet NFPA 502 limitations on steel and concrete temperatures and to prevent explosive spalling. Sometimes application of passive fire protection is recommended.

Engineers quantify heat transfer from hot gases into the liner and calculate temperature distribution within structural elements over time, using sophisticated finite element modeling that account for changes of the tunnel liner material properties (concrete and steel) due to heat exposure. The analyses assess the liner spalling potential, its load carrying capabilities, and its potential deflection. The critical liner section capacity is reduced due to fire impacts and its structural response, including structural capacity, and deformations are checked using thermo-elastoplastic analyses. Such analyses could be ‘coupled,’ where temperatures from a thermal analysis are used as input to the stress analysis and the displacements from the stress analysis are used to update the geometry in the thermal analysis. These analyses, when completed, may lead into a conclusion that a sacrificial concrete layer (concrete cover over reinforcement) is sufficient to protect the tunnel liner and that the temperatures in the reinforcement and the concrete remain below 250 C and 380 C, respectively, as required by NFPA. In such cases, structures would not require fireproofing protection system since their structural capacities are affected marginally. More often than not, owners tend to resort to protecting their tunnel’s structural integrity from fires using the sacrificial concrete protective cover due to its constructability advantages, the fact that it is ‘maintenance-free’ and its inspection falls into the pattern of regular facility inspections. Additional reinforcement, if required within the additional sacrificial concrete protective cover layer, usually outweighs the costs of a separate fireproofing material and the costs of its periodic inspections, maintenance and replacements as needed.

5. Incorporating advances in liner protection.

Advances in structural hardening include:
• Micro polypropylene. Adding micro polypropylene (PP) fibers to the concrete mix for tunnel liner construction minimizes explosive spalling of concrete and meets NFPA 502 standards for road tunnels and NFPA 130 standards for fixed guideway transit tunnels.

Any water or moisture trapped in the tunnel’s reinforced concrete lining – and no matter how old the concrete may be, it still contains chemically bonded water – turns into a water vapor when exposed to extreme heat. The pressure generated by the water vapor during a fire event results in violent explosions, which may inhibit fire fighters and first responders’ intervention.

Under extreme heat, the PP microfibers’ synthetic resin – a polymer of propylene – melts, creating channels or voids into which the steam generated from the evaporation of the trapped moisture can expand or escape without internal pressure, reducing or eliminating explosive spalling. According to tests, fiber-modified concrete exhibited less or no spalling vs. concrete without PP fibers.

The Channel Tunnel fire resulted in significant loss of the tunnel lining’s cross sectional area due to severe spalling of the high-strength concrete. London’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link project subsequently became the first major tunnel project in the world to incorporate PP microfibers to inhibit explosive spalling. Many other major tunneling projects followed suit.

Although PP microfibers are effective in preventing spalling and avoiding hazards from falling pieces of concrete, they do not contribute to the tunnel liner overall strength and durability under fire.

• Super concrete. Still in the laboratory stage, a new fire-resistant concrete called super concrete has shown to have a compressive strength of 160 MPa (about 2-3 times that of high-strength concrete) together with a tensile ductility of more than 300 times that of high-strength concrete, according to the University of Michigan. Furthermore, recent research at the Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany showed that a precast segmental liner with a sophisticated concrete mix, an optimized selection of aggregates consisting of basaltic gravel and quartzite, and the addition of 2 to 3 kg/m³ polypropylene fiber, can withstand significant fire loads with temperatures up to 1,200 C for 90 minutes.

• Other methods. Various fireproofing materials, such as sprayable cementitious fireproofing materials, vermiculite/cement materials, manufactured boards, ceramic or intumescent coatings, are effective heat insulators and are being constantly developed.

In conclusion, by developing project-specific fire curves, assessing each fire event for its specific features, assessing the structural durability of the tunnel liner for a project-specific fire, and incorporating proper fire suppression methods and operational aspects, engineers are well equipped to design safer and more cost-efficient tunnels.

Sanja   Zlatanic, P.E., is chief tunneling engineer for HNTB Corp. She brings more than 25 years of experience in project and engineering management of mega transportation, transit and underground projects. Zlatanic has been responsible for managing all phases of major multibillion dollar projects, including extensive multidisciplinary joint venture staff, from feasibility and conceptual engineering through final design and construction. She has led or been a key member of the design management or technical oversight on East Side Access, Access to the Region’s Core, No. 7 Line Extension, Superstorm Sandy recovery projects, Los Angeles County MTA’s Crenshaw/LAX project, and Istanbul Strait Road Crossing Tunnel. She is an active member of various industry societies and has published numerous articles, chaired conference sessions and made presentations on the design and construction of tunnels and underground facilities. She can be reached at (212) 294-7567 or szlatanic@hntb.com.

The post Approach to Tunnel Design for Fire Loads appeared first on Tunnel Business Magazine.

Building Link in the Chain

With traffic that regularly makes the top 10 lists, Seattle’s subway system is a highly anticipated transportation option. The city’s latest dig will further extend the Link light rail system from the University District to the Northgate area north of Seattle, easing traffic through busy neighborhoods near the University of Washington.

The 4.2-mile extension adds length to the recently completed University Link tunnels running 3.2 miles south to the area’s busy Capitol Hill neighborhood. To complete the parallel tunnels, contractor JCM NorthLink LLC (a joint venture of Jay Dee, Coluccio and Michels) is gearing up to excavate tough glacial till and saturated sands near freeways and other sensitive structures – including underground research laboratories at the University.

Urban Planning

The light rail extension, approved by Seattle voters in 2008, includes 3.6 miles of twin running tunnels, two cut-and-cover stations at Roosevelt and Brooklyn and a 0.9-mile guideway that transitions from tunnel to an elevated structure and an elevated station at NE 103rd Street. Project owner Sound Transit awarded a Construction Management contract for the project to North Star, a joint venture of Jacobs and CH2M Hill. Sound Transit expects to open the line in 2020, and is currently on schedule as tunneling began in summer 2014.

Challenges during tunneling are many – the start of excavation consists of lacustrine clay and unsaturated, dense sands above the water table, which make ground conditioning a difficult process. The location of the tunnels is another cause for concern: “We are tunneling for three-quarters of a mile below the University of Washington campus, with some work required at the surface above the tunnel, and there has been concern about surface impacts to the students as well as ground-borne noise and vibration,” said Glen Frank, Project Manager for JCM NorthLink.

Ground freezing for a cross passage will take place at the surface on campus, where monitoring instruments will keep noise and vibration within limits. Upward of 20 buildings, according to Frank, house sensitive research laboratories and are also being monitored to make sure vibration levels are acceptable. “The trains will run fast and their vibration will be in similar magnitude to our excavation, so we are trying to stay within and below their ballpark estimates for noise and vibration,” explained Frank.
The contractor is also building two cut-and-cover station sites in addition to tunneling. The first site, Roosevelt, requires 135,000 cu yd of material to be removed and measures 450 to 500 ft long, 80 ft wide and 100 ft deep. JCM is constructing it using slurry diaphragm walls for water cutoff down to an underlying clay layer, then tie-back slurry diaphragm walls after that. “Our critical path for the overall excavation is the Roosevelt station box, and we are trying to accelerate its excavation with night work so the TBMs will not have to wait for it to be completed,” said Frank. The second U-District station site is similarly sized, requiring 110,000 cu yd of material to be removed, and is currently on schedule.

Reusable Machines

Contractor JCM refurbished the Hitachi Zosen machine used on the Sound Transit U-230 contract by Jay Dee, as the ground consists of a similar mixed face, glacial till. As of early September the machine had advanced about 1,500 ft in one of the parallel tunnels.

For the second tunnel, JCM chose a Robbins EPB previously designed and used in mixed ground at Singapore’s Downtown Line. The machine is scheduled to be launched in mid-October after refurbishment and assembly at the jobsite. The contractor sees a positive trend with the increasing use of refurbished EPBs in the industry: “With a standard size of 20 to 23 ft for metro EPBs, there are many of them around, and refurbishing them makes a lot of sense,” said Frank. “10 years ago, EPB tunneling in glacial geology below the water table was not that common, and it would have been considered a big risk to use a refurbished machine. There weren’t that many around designed for the difficult geology. Now, many EPBs have been specified to deal with more challenging geology, and so there are quite a lot more out there to be refurbished. It increases our ability to get a TBM to launch sooner, and is also more cost-effective.”

He also mentioned the fact that refurbished machines have been proven in the field – there were no flaws that prevented that machine from finishing the tunnel – and the scheduling benefits are passed on to the project owner.

Robbins designs its machines, including EPBs, with refurbishment and use on multiple tunnels in mind: components are built up to 33 percent heavier than other manufacturers, and all parts and subsystems are designed for 10,000 hours of workable life. While refurbishment of hard-rock machines has long been considered standard, refurbishment of EPBs is just catching on, and looks to be increasing. “We had notice to proceed in October 2013, and less than 10 months later, we were tunneling with our first machine. Both of them will be tunneling within 12 months, and we never could have done that with new TBMs. The estimated times for new machines was 16 months,” said Frank.

The Critical Path

With a tight schedule, the contractor opted for several project features to cut down on time to launch and excavation. The first of those was Onsite First Time Assembly (OFTA) for the Robbins EPB. The Robbins-developed process allows for TBM components to be initially assembled at the jobsite, eliminating the disassembly step that would take place in a workshop and passing substantial shipping and time savings on to the contractor. Large machines assembled with OFTA have saved contractors months on their project schedules and millions of dollars.

“We wanted to do this to shave time off of the schedule. It has worked out okay –  some parts arrived late so we wound up doing more work at the site. That being said, it hasn’t impacted the schedule greatly and OFTA is still saving us six weeks of time compared to a doing all the assembly in the shop,” said Frank. The contractor installed the cutterhead on Sept. 10, 2014, and is now jacking the machine forward over the course of the week so it can be readied for launch.

Assembly itself was a difficult logistical process, as the long and narrow jobsite runs the width of a city street and sits next to Interstate 5, Washington State’s largest and busiest highway. Segment storage and delivery at the south end of the site is tricky with one machine running and the other being assembled, while muck storage is located on the north end with a continuous conveyor running along one side wall. Robbins Field Service assisted crews at the site during the assembly. Frank indicated the team had been able to manage it, and the benefits of assembling the machine on location were just beginning to be realized: “The critical path is definitely through the Robbins TBM, and OFTA has been a benefit to us in terms of schedule. If we had to do it over, we would make the same decision knowing what we know now about the OFTA process,” said Frank.

The second consideration impacting timing was the contractor’s choice of a continuous conveyor over muck cars. “We started using conveyors behind soft ground machines at Brightwater in Seattle, and we used conveyors again at U230 (University Link). They are certainly the best way to move muck in tunnels above 12 ft in diameter,” said Frank.

The contractor currently has one Robbins conveyor running along the surface to a muck storage bin. Once the second EPB starts up, the conveyor will need to be moved to facilitate muck from both machines being combined on one conveyor. “We’ve had great success with Robbins conveyors. Without the conveyor, we couldn’t do this job. They cut down on costs and vibration and allow us to use rubber-tired vehicles, rather than trains, for transport in the tunnels,” said Frank. He continued: “There is a big benefit to going with conveyors. We have always used Robbins conveyors, and we feel they are the best quality out there.”

After breakthrough of the machines into the Roosevelt station site, the storage hopper and cross conveyor will be moved up, allowing muck to run on conveyors through the southbound tunnel only. The arrangement allows for the contractor to begin work on 23 cross passages in the northbound tunnel. The contractor will also pour a concrete invert behind the TBM excavation and install lighting as well as stainless steel standpipe before turning it over for final rail and electrical installation.

The contractor anticipates that tunneling will be completed in about 15 months, by late spring 2016.

This article was supplied by The Robbins Company.

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I co-authored an article for this magazine in April 2010 titled, “Bullshit As Applied to Tunneling Projects.” One of the reasons for writing that article was an admiration of the 2005 book, “On Bullshit,” by Dr. Harry G. Frankfurt, a Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University. Focusing on tunneling projects, the article defined what is, and is not, bullshit, noting that it includes statements anywhere between the truth and a lie. It suggested that there is more bullshit in this industry than is healthy, and noted that it can occur in any of the many project facets from planning through construction, and, that it can result in dramatically different project outcomes regarding schedules and budgets. It admitted a candid willingness to subject my personal work history to the judgment of others regarding my use of bullshit. Suggestions to improve the situation were relatively simple, but not necessarily easy to carry out, or enforce:

1. In all things, know the truth and convey it accurately
2. Be very careful in giving opinions that are not evidence-based, and be especially clear in noting what you don’t know

In the last four years, much has changed. Globalization and the Internet (along with the proliferation of mobile devices) has nearly created a world without boundaries and increased competition for the available projects; new materials, processes and equipment have come into place to attempt to increase efficiencies and production rates; larger and more complex projects are being planned; and, complex new project delivery systems are being initiated by owners in an attempt to receive better value for their money spent. Given these changes, and in the spirit of open dialogue, it seems prudent to take another look at the situation.

Tunneling: A Growing Global Business

Globalization is advancing steadily, driven by better and cheaper transportation, better and cheaper communication mechanisms, and less restrictive travel and relocation regulations. One of the direct results of this trend is the accompanying population growth of urban areas. Cities are just a better place to live and work efficiently and conveniently. It is a noted fact that cities are also very green, showing a low carbon footprint on a per capita basis. A related result of these trends is an increase in tunneling and underground construction, especially in cities, to both free up surface space and improve quality of life.

To improve transportation between cities, tunnels are also often employed to create the most efficient transportation corridors. Trenchless technology, particularly directional drilling, has also made major strides as it eliminates costly and disruptive excavations in urban areas for utilities and other subsurface construction needs.

Another development that is affecting the global tunnel business is the employment by owners of design-build, public-private partnerships (P3s), and other alternative project delivery methods to hopefully create more cost-effective and efficient solutions to their particular tunneling needs. Initial costs of tunnels can be high, so attempts are made to reduce this aspect. Clearly, the O&M costs of tunnels throughout their long, useful lives is generally much lower than other infrastructure facilities, and this is one of the main reasons for their attractiveness. The evidence suggests that current and planned tunnel projects are becoming more frequent, larger in scope, and more complex in their execution.

Volume of Bullshit

1. In general. Prof. Frankfurt’s book suggested that the widespread existence, proliferation and employment of bullshit is in large measure a result of the many individuals in modern society who are frequently required to speak on topics for which their factual knowledge is sadly lacking. This fact is common today and includes talk show hosts, politicians, salesmen of any and all things, actors, sports figures, clergy, medical personnel, and, of course, engineers, contractors, and lawyers.

We are living in a totally connected, 24/7/365 world where everybody has an opinion about just about everything. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, CNN, MSNBC, and many other communication tools have made this process relentless. Globalization and the Internet have also added the factor of increased competition to the processes. Everybody wants to convince everybody else that they, their firm, their ideas, their products and their processes, are better, faster, cheaper, more interesting and more sustainable than the same of their competitors. When people are impelled to speak extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorant, the result is bullshit. Thus, it is more or less obvious that in the last four years or so, the sheer volume of bullshit in the known world has increased dramatically.

2. In tunneling. People involved in the tunneling business, while a varied and clever lot, are ultimately a general cross-section of humanity, and thus subject to the same character flaws of venality, pettiness, stubbornness, vanity and self-importance as others. Thus, it would be unusual for them to not also engage in bullshit. Since tunnel projects are generally large and expensive, and the competition to win the related planning, financing, insurance, design, construction and other associated contracts is truly intense, one might assume that the temptation to sling a little bullshit is also a bit more tempting than in other more mundane endeavors. The players in the tunnel business might be better educated than the average blokes, and might be more used to dealing with very expensive, complex issues, but when two or more entities are seeking to get qualified for, and win, a really big contract, well … watch out for bullshit.

Suggested Reasons for Current Situation

1. Evolution. Darwin’s “Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection,” is an accepted explanation for the current state of the human race on Earth. It’s really not correct to call it a theory since there is no other credible explanation. One of the key elements of evolution theory is that genes are totally immoral, they just want to get passed on to the next generation, period. If your ancestors were not good at deception, you wouldn’t be here. “Survival of the fittest” is also not an accurate description of the process of evolution, because it is not the strongest that survive, but those most adaptive to change. The only constant in the universe is change. This applies to the business world, and to the tunnel business: IBM doesn’t sell computers anymore, but they still make a lot of money in services; Digital Equipment is out of business, Lovat is gone, and Dames and Moore is history. The dominant theme is a world of constant change with more and more competition.

2. Globalization. This item is noted above, but it is truly pervasive. There are no boundaries anymore: Parsons Brinckerhoff was sold to Balfour Beatty four years ago and then flipped to WSP Global, AECOM is joining with URS, COWI bought Jenny Engineering, etc. It is now common for big tunnel projects to be bid by international teams of designers and contractors. The job of “selling” these teams to owners, financiers and insurance entities has become extremely complex and risky. Some of these large projects can easily consume 10, even 20, years between planning and the completed project. During the complex procurement process, prequalification often results in as many as five teams being certified to actually perform the work. How do you differentiate and select a winner? Hmm… Again, the increased competition resulting from globalization appears to provide a clear reason for being more forceful in making individual arguments for winning a particular project.

3. Increased Use of Advanced Technology. New technology has made it possible to suggest that certain firms, or individuals, are capable of unique positive performance in select situations, and thus should be chosen over their rivals for certain projects. Because of the sophisticated employment of complex algorithms, proprietary software, and other very high-tech tools, it is not always easy to judge the truth of such claims.

Two examples of the above phenomena follow:

• In an interview with the New Yorker magazine published on July 28, 2014, Vice President Joe Biden describes his approach to dealing with other nation’s high-ranking officials, “It’s really very important, if you are able, to communicate to the other guy that you understand his problem. And some of this diplomatic bullshit communicates: ‘we have no idea of your problem.’ ”
• An article in the June 2014 issue of WIRED magazine described the difficulty of the scientific community in judging the accuracy and success of a new quantum computer developed by the firm, D-Wave. Scientists at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Zurich set up a contest between the new and improved optimizer and an Intel desktop. The result appeared to show the D-Wave was not, in fact, faster on many of the submitted problems. When notified of the result, the D-Wave staff said, “It’s total bullshit.”

The above suggests two key things: 1) the volume of bullshit is if fact increasing significantly, and, 2) it appears to be getting more difficult to discern what is, and what is not, bullshit.

Consequences of Bullshit

1. Schedule Delays. One adverse result from bullshit in tunneling is a schedule delay during the project development and execution. The project takes longer to complete than anticipated or predicted. Because of financing issues, this translates to a related rise in cost: time is money. However, there are a variety of other related elements that come into play, e.g., the relationship of the subject project to other projects in close proximity, many of which are often dependent upon the timely completion of the subject project. This interdependence is particularly critical in an urban environment, where the combined synergistic effect can be extremely adverse. A current major tunnel design-build project in the Northwest was awarded not to the low bidder, but to the bidder who promised to finish the project a year ahead of the owner’s published schedule. That project is currently temporarily stopped and looks to be delayed about 16 months.

2. Cost Overruns. The other most common result is a cost overrun, and the dollar issue usually receives more attention. Cost overruns and their resolution are complex because of the inter-related nature of applicable contracts; local, state and federal regulations; project-specific financial arrangements; and the nature and ability of the involved parties to actually raise additional required funding in a timely fashion.

The literature is replete with examples of “bad” projects that were severely harmed, or in some cases abandoned, because of the failure to secure required additional funding to complete the work. A currently active major East Coast tunnel project has experienced major delays, and, the budget has increased by a few billion dollars.

A casual look at the recent history of tunnel projects gone bad, especially large ones in urban areas, suggests that the legal profession is the one entity that is most likely to profit; and the third parties in the vicinity of the work, along with the taxpayers in the project area, are the most likely losers. The amount of time and money involved in these situations is generally very long and very large, respectively.

Suggestions for Improvements

A prudent person would argue that some changes are in order. A good start would be:

• More strictly enforce Cannons 2 and 3 of the ASCE’s Code of Ethics, which address individual competence, truth and objectivity. A major change in such enforcement would not be easy to accomplish, but it makes sense as a way of beginning. The complexity of carrying out such a program would have to be the subject of another article. The example of the massive financial crisis here in the United States that began in 2008 and is finally pretty much in the rearview mirror does not offer much hope. Identifying and punishing the “guilty” in that case was largely unsuccessful.
• A second suggestion applies to all players in the industry and is simply to rely upon ONLY verifiable facts and evidence when judging the merits of any claim or prediction for project performance, or for team or individual performance. This should apply throughout the entire procurement project process, from planning to completed construction and initial operation. Opinions are likely to contain bullshit.
• A third suggestion is to look carefully at the current use of “risk management” and its shortcomings in justifying and managing complex urban tunnel projects. Risk management programs and processes largely rely on probability theory to assess uncertainty and link the various risky elements into a model that permits the “evaluation” and “management” of uncertainty and risk for the project. These models may include even the viability of the project; financing issues; design and construction issues; third-party issues; and insurance, regulation and contract issues. There appears to be ample evidence that probability theory falls significantly short in trying to judge the actual outcome of truly complex projects.

It would not be incorrect to describe a tunnel project as analogous to a military battle. All complex projects, at every stage of their development and execution, are really conflicts, conflicts between the best solution and the solution that works (wins). What is the optimum financing scheme, the best design strategy, the best owner contractual strategy, the best bidding strategy for competing design or construction firms, the best construction sequence, the best strategy to deal with and resolve adverse contingencies, etc.? The myriad decisions required to get through all these elements are made by opponents in many individual conflicts. It would be wrong indeed for any player to think his opponent’s choice of strategy will be made by chance. Chance has nothing to do with it. Each player should be expected to do their very best to deduce what the other’s strategy choice will be and prepare for it. Game Theory provides a more realistic approach to these projects and judging their outcomes, but, again, a detailed discussion of Game Theory and its applicability will have to be the subject of another article. Suffice to say that Game Theory is a different way at looking at conflicts, i.e., interactions between individuals and groups with differing goals and strategies, and it has been successfully applied in many complex situations.

The incidence of bullshit is increasing everywhere, and, it is becoming more difficult to discern the difference between bullshit and the truth, or an outright lie. The consequences of this dilemma can be severe. Buyer beware.

A final note regarding the difficulty of knowing the “truth.” Various forms of skepticism suggest that we have no access to objective reality. To the degree that we’ve lost the discipline required to the reach ideal of “correctness,” some have pursued an alternative ideal of “sincerity,” i.e., we try to accurately represent ourselves and be true to our own nature. This is a mistake. We are not determinate. We ourselves are subject to correct and incorrect descriptions. Prof. Frankfurt describes this dilemma well in the last sentence of his book, “And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit.”

Thom L. Neff, PE, PhD, is president of OckhamKonsult. His professional career has included significant assignments in the planning, research, design, construction and operation phases of a wide variety of civil and heavy construction projects throughout the United States and overseas. He has also worked on Design-Build and Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects that have ranged over transportation, water/wastewater and oil facilities.

The post Bullshit in Tunneling, Revisited appeared first on Tunnel Business Magazine.

CALIFORNIA
Menlo Park/Newark
Bay Tunnel
Michels/Jay Dee/Coluccio JV
The first tunnel under San Francisco Bay went into service in October after successful hydro tests and disinfection of the 5-mile tunnel over five weeks. The tunnel completes the “lifeline” designed to withstand major earthquakes.

The new 108-in. diameter, 26,208-ft long, water transmission main pipeline (a portion of the new BDPL No. 5) is $215.2 million project for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).  The project commenced in spring 2010. Crews used a 15-ft diameter Hitachi Zosen (Hitz) EPB TBM to excavate the tunnel and install 12-ft, 6-in. ID concrete rings (6, 10-in. x 5-ft segments). Tunnel advance rates were exceptional for the 5-mile drive, with best production days exceeding 200 ft per day achieved on numerous occasions. As a result, the tunnel excavation came in eight months ahead of schedule and the project was honored with the Highly Commended Project of the Year Award by the ITA in 2013.

Two shafts were excavated. On the Peninsula side, the 58-ft diameter Ravenswood Shaft was built using slurry wall construction to a depth of 141 ft. The 28-ft diameter Newark Shaft was excavated to a depth of 86 ft by freezing and installing rings, lagging and concrete for support. The last steel liner pipe was installed in the tunnel in October 2013. A total of 654 pipe spools (108-in. diameter, 40 ft in length, 9/16-in. thick) were welded. Subcontractors included Northwest Pipe, National Welding Corp. and Pacific International Grout Corp.

Key Project Personnel – Contractor – Project Manager: Jim Stevens; Project Engineer: Ed Whitman; Assistant Project Manager: Kit Fleming; Quality Control Manager: Ted Walker; Superintendent: Ron Klinghagen; Owner – Project Manager: Johanna Wong. Construction Management – Jacobs Engineering Construction Manager: Robert Mues; Lead QA: Tom Hogan. Designer – Jacobs Associates Engineer: Shawn Spreng.

San Francisco
Central  Subway
Barnard/Impregilo/Healy JV
The $233 million Central Subway Tunnel Project, Phase II of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Third Street Light Rail Program, has been designed to expand the city’s transportation network and increase public access to San Francisco’s Chinatown. This project includes constructing precise, twin, 8,512-lf tunnels that are being excavated with two EPB TBMs and lined with 18-ft diameter precast segments. The work also includes construction of a launch box and portal structure under 4th Street, a retrieval shaft, and headwalls for future stations that the TBMs will mine through prior to station construction.

Retrieval Shaft: Since the completion of tunneling, BIHJV crews have disassembled and removed the northbound TBM, Big Alma, and are nearing completion of disassembly and removal of the southbound TBM, Mom Chung, from the 50-ft x 50-ft x 50-ft retrieval shaft.

Launch Box & Portal Structure: All tunneling facilities have been removed from the launch box, and crews have commenced with construction of the Portal Structure, which will serve as the CIP concrete structure transitioning the railway underground.

Cross Passages (CP): Excavation and the final concrete lining of cross passages 1 through 4 have been completed. Crews have completed installation of the freeze pipes at cross passage 5, and are preparing to commission the ground freezing facilities that will provide for the excavation and temporary support of CP5.

Project Director: Dan Schall; Project Manager: Ben Campbell; Project Superintendent: Mike Hanley; Chief Engineer/DPM: Alessandro Tricamo; Superintendents: Andy Granger, Bill Kiehl, Bob Schaffer, Eric Smith, Mike Gilbertson; Survey Manager: Klaus Herbert; Staff Engineers: Glenn Strid, Jack Sucilsky, Beau Blume, Aaron Abel; Safety Manager: Chad Brinkerhoff. Information: Ben Campbell, (415) 546-0799, or ben.campbell@barnard-inc.com.

Sunol/Fremont
New Irvington Tunnel Project
Southland/Tutor Perini JV
The New Irvington Tunnel is a $227 million project for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The final installation of the 8.5-ft diameter welded steel pipe fabricated by Northwest Pipe was completed earlier this year for this 18,660-ft tunnel. The annulus backfill grouting with low-density cellular grout was completed in July 2014. Placement of the 5/8-in. cement mortar lining has started.  The tunnel is expected to be commissioned this winter.

Crews used conventional tunneling with two Antraquip roadheaders and controlled detonations to excavate the two headings. Both headings were challenging with high groundwater inflows and pressures, some squeezing ground, and extensive pre-excavation grouting.  The project is 96 percent complete.

Designer: Jacobs Associates and URS Corp. Construction Manager: Hatch Mott MacDonald.
Key Project Personnel: Southland/Tutor Perini Project Manager: Robert Cornish; Tunnel Superintendent: Walt Hawkins; Hatch Mott MacDonald Construction Manager: Daniel McMaster; Lead QA Inspector: Rebecca Fusee; SF PUC Sunol Regional Project Manager: David Tsztoo, P.E. Communications: Maria Le 866-973-1476 or email mle@sfwater.org.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington
Anacostia   River   Tunnel
Impregilo-Healy-Parsons JV
This $253 million design-build project for DC Water was awarded in June 2013. The work includes six shafts with various configurations, diameters of 27 to 77 ft, depths 113 to 123 ft, 12,500 ft of 23-ft minimum inside diameter CSO tunnel with bolted/gasketed precast liner, excavated by a Herrenknecht EPB TBM, CSO diversion structures, odor control facilities, various SEM adits, and ancillary work. Project design is being performed by Parsons.

Excavation of the CSO-019 north shaft is complete and the concrete bottom slab has been placed. Excavation of the south shaft is under way. The TBM is onsite. Diaphragm wall construction for the M Street shaft is in progress, as is site work at other locations.

Project Director: John Kennedy; Project Manager: Shane Yanagisawa; DPM/Design Manager: Phil Colton; Design Manager: Jonathan Taylor; General Superintendent:  Larry Weslowski; Construction Manager: Daniele Nebbia; Mechanical Superintendent: Lars Poulsen; Electrical Superintendent: Bruce Haught; Safety Manager: Sharyn Hopson; QC Manager: Rick Munzer.  For DC Water, Construction Manager: Scott Shylanski.  Information: John Kennedy, (702) 524-0438.

Washington
Blue Plains Tunnel
Traylor/Skanska/Jay Dee JV (TSJD)
The design-build project includes designing and constructing the Blue Plains Tunnel (BPT), associated shafts, and structures from BPAWWTP to DC Water’s Main Pumping Station at 2nd Street and Tingey Street SE. The 23-ft inside diameter tunnel runs for 24,000 ft.  Two connected shafts (Figure 8) start the alignment, with two intermediate shafts and one end shaft further along. Tunnel depth is approximately 150 ft, and varies between under the river and shoreline. A Herrenknecht EPB is mining and installing the precast concrete liner. Shaft construction used diaphragm walls, with excavation and CIP lining following.

The DS shaft’s 25-ft thick concrete base slab is complete. Waterproofing of the shaft walls is complete. Placement of walls has begun, with two of 10 concrete lifts complete. The TBM advanced to approximately 12,000 ft to the JBAB shaft, where maintenance activities were completed. Mining continues. Construction of the end shaft is complete, and the site demobed. Lining of the two remaining shafts along the alignment is complete, with surface structure construction ongoing. Halcrow/CH2M Hill is nearly complete with design of the various components of the project. The Bay State Precast segment production is nearly complete.

Washington
First Street Tunnel
Skanska/Jay Dee JV
This $157 million design-build project for DC Water consists of approximately 2,700 lf of 20-ft ID precast lined tunnel. The tunnel is to be driven with a Herrenknecht EPB TBM, which is being remanufactured in Kiel, Germany. The tunnel will be constructed in silty/clayey/sand conditions including the Potomac formation, with an invert depth ranging from 85 to 160 ft deep. The tunnel will be driven from a construction shaft at the Channing Street site with a slurry wall SOE. The project also consists of three satellite shafts in the densely populated neighborhood of Bloomingdale, along with approximately six shallower open-cut structures ranging in depth from 14 to 55 ft. The SOE for these shafts will be ground freezing, and the SOE for the open cuts will be a combination of ground freezing, secant pile walls and soldier piles and lagging. The project is in the setup and excavation support stage. At Channing Street, slurry wall installation has been completed for the main mining shaft. Slurry walls are approximately 194 ft deep, 3.5-ft thick, and form a ring with an ID of approximately 74.5 ft.

Ongoing construction at the V Street satellite site includes secant pile installation for the multiple diversion chambers and the demolition and relocation of utilities. Drilling for the ground freeze was anticipated to start Oct. 6. At the Adams Street site, the installation of guide was for the secant piles in ongoing, along with heavy utility work. At the pump station, soldier pile installation has begun for the vaults, leading into ground freeze pipe drilling.

NTP was given on Oct. 17, 2013, with March 2016 as the planned completion date.
Key project personnel – Project Executives: Gary Almeraris, Mike DiPonio; Project Manager: Scott Hoffman; General Superintendent: Dudley Eisser; Tunnel Superintendent: Steve Clegg; Shafts Superintendent: Karl Poss; Electrical Superintendent: Randy Moldenhauer; Equipment Superintendent: Dean Gibbons; Street Level Superintendent: Rick LaMarche; Tunne Manager: Mina Shinouda; Project Engineer: Thomas March; Safety Manager: Mark McGowan; QC Manager: Brian McGuinness.

FLORIDA
Miami
Port of Miami Tunnel
MAT Concessionaire LLC
The project, which was built for the Florida Department of Transportation at an estimated design and construction cost of $667 million, includes 0.75-mile long twin-tube highway tunnels connecting the MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island to PortMiami on Dodge Island. The tunnels officially opened on Aug. 3.

FDOT Construction Manager/Owner’s Representative: Jacqueline Sequeira, P.E.; Project Construction Manager: Victor Ortiz, P.E. (CSA Group); CEI Manager: Steve Dusseault, P.E. (Parsons Brinckerhoff); Concessionaire CEO: Trevor Jackson; Concessionaire Vice President: Christopher Hodgkins (MAT); Project Director Design-Build Contractor: Louis Brais (BCWF); Operator: Chad Elliott (TSI); FDOT/Owner’s Representative – Public Information: Liz Fernandez (Stantec) – (786) 502-0704 or liz.fernandez@stantec.com.

HAWAII
Kaneohe/Kailua
Kaneohe/Kailua Sewer Tunnel
Southland/Mole JV
This $173 million project for the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Design and Construction, Wastewater Division, was given NTP on Jan. 6, 2014, and has an estimated completion date of Jan. 9, 2017. The project consists of 16,338 lf of tunnel (1,388 lf conventional tunnel via roadheader, 14,950 lf TBM tunnel) with a tunnel diameter of 13 ft. The final liner, fiberglass reinforced pipe, will have an ID of 10 ft. The project contains two slurry wall shafts: an 87-ft diameter, 95-ft deep launching shaft (Kailua Site), and a 30.5-ft diameter, 54-ft deep receiving shaft (Kaneohe Site). The predominant ground condition is basalt. The project includes microtunneling for surface pipelines, and construction of diversion and junction structures connecting to existing pipelines.

Slurry wall panels installation for 87-ft diameter launching shaft (4-ft thick walls) has been completed. Current activities include jet grouting microtunneling pipeline and conventional tunnel alignment; excavation of launching shaft in Kailua; and installation of slurry wall panels for receiving shaft in Kaneohe.

Lead Designer: Wilson Okamoto Corp.; Tunnel Designer: Jacobs Associates; Construction Manager: Bowers and Kubota Consulting; Major Subcontractors: Layne Christensen Co. (slurry wall and jet grout); James W. Fowler Co. (microtunnel); Brierley Associates (Design Consultant). Hobas Pipe USA is supplying the fiberglass pipe and The Robbins Co. is supplying the TBM.

Key Project Personnel – SMJV Project Director: Tim Winn; SMJV Project Manager: Don Painter; SMJV Quality Control Manager: Craig Kolell; SMJV Senior Project Engineer: Quang D. Tran; SMJV Project Administrator: Bill Kominek; CM Director: Mike Young.

INDIANA
Indianapolis
Deep Rock Tunnel Connector
Shea/Kiewit JV
The Deep Rock Tunnel Connector (DRTC) project is the first of five planned tunnel projects that comprise the backbone of Indianapolis’ solution to the city’s combined sewer overflow problem. In order to comply with a federal consent decree, Citizens Energy Group, an Indianapolis-based public trust that provides local gas, water and wastewater utility services, is constructing the tunnel system in compliance with its long-term control plan. The overall tunnel system, dubbed DigIndy, will be approximately 25 miles long and will capture, convey and store approximately 250 million gallons of sewage per wet weather event. The Shea-Kiewit joint venture (SK JV) is constructing the $179 million DRTC project, which commenced in December 2011. After approximately 17 months of mining, the refurbished main beam TBM, featuring a new Robbins cutterhead, completed the approximately 42,000-ft main tunnel alignment with a hole-through on in July 11, 2014. The 20-ft., 2-in. diameter tunnel bore is approximately 250 ft deep. Following mining, a 12-in. thick, cast-in-place, fully circumferential liner will be constructed. Currently the TBM is being backed up to perform extension tunnel Line AA, approximately 9,200 lf.

Construction Project Manager: Stuart Lipofsky, P.E.; Tunnel Superintendent: Mark Haney; Shaft Superintendent: Darrel Vliegenthart; Project Engineer: Percy Townsend; Safety Manager: Paul Bianco; Equipment Manager: Keith Walter; Quality Engineer: Eric Haack; Field Engineers: Dan Kough, Zachary Heinrich. Inspection Project Manager: Alex Varas, P.E. (AECOM), Assistant Project Managers: Mark Guay, (AECOM), James McKelvey, P.E. (Black and Veatch). Citizens Energy Group Manager of Construction: Mike Miller, P.E.; Construction Supervisor: Tim Shutters.

MARYLAND
Baltimore
Lower Gwynns Run Interceptor – II
Bradshaw Construction Corp.
Baltimore City has funded the construction of a 30-in. FRP sanitary sewer interceptor project to alleviate current sewer lines. Bradshaw Construction Corp. will install 2,500 ft of tunnel with a 74.5-in. diameter cut in the Baltimore gneiss formation, using a 72-in. Robbins Rock Head Double Shield TBM. Tunnel depth will vary between 18 and 55 ft deep. Tunneling will be accomplished in four drives between five pre-drilled and blasted shafts, with an additional 9-ft diameter drilled shaft installed midway between a proposed 1,200-ft drive for TBM modifications and an eventual manhole installation. Anticipated ground conditions will allow for the TBM to grip against the hard rock tunnel walls, providing support for the needed thrust to propel the machine. Supports will be installed on an as-needed basis depending on encountered rock competency, and will include rock bolts, rib-and-board sets, and liner plates to support excavation beneath AMTRAK and Norfolk Southern lines.

The first launch shaft has been pre-drilled and is ready for excavation to top-of-rock, where blasting will occur. Tunneling is scheduled to begin at the end of October 2014. The $11.9 million job started in May and is expected to run through November 2015.

Designer: Dewberry Consultants LLC; TBM Manufacturer: The Robbins Company; Carrier Pipe Manufacturer: HOBAS Pipe USA.
Key Project Personnel – Edwin “J.R.” Beachy – General Superintendent; Todd Brown – Project Manager; Raymond Grossmann – Project Foreman; Jordan Bradshaw – Project Engineer.

Silver Spring
Plymouth Tunnel Test Shaft
Bradshaw Construction Corp.
Bradshaw Construction Corp. has completed work on the installation of a 12-ft diameter rib-and-board exploratory shaft as part of the Maryland Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Purple Line project. The shaft was installed to a depth of 33 ft and then backfilled with flowable fill after a four-day observation period. Information: Doug Piper, dpiper@bradshawcc.com.

NEBRASKA
Omaha
Nicholas Street Sewer Extension – II
Super Excavators Inc.
This $19.8 million project for the City of Omaha Public Works Department will include 910 lf of 108-in. reinforced concrete pipe and 1,040 lf of 84-in. reinforced concrete pipe constructed by conventional tunneling methods; construction of 28 storm sewer and sanitary sewer tunneling work shaft pits; 70 lf of 24-in. RCP and 4,850 lf of 24-in. VCP by guided boring machine; approximately 2,200 lf of 12- to 54-in. RCP by open-cut; bypass pumping; and numerous connections to existing and new storm sewer and sanitary sewer structures. NTP is scheduled for mid-October 2014.

Key Project Personnel – Estimator / Project Manager: Joe Mulville; Project Manager: Mike Garbeth; VP of Tunnel Construction: Gregg Rehak. Information: mike@superexcavators.com.

Omaha
OPW 52223 (CSO) South Interceptor Force Main – North Segment and North Gravity Sewer
Super Excavators Inc.

This $21.5 million project for the City of Omaha Public Works Department was awarded to Super Excavators on Sept. 3, 2014, and official NTP is scheduled for Oct. 3, 2014.  The project comprises 2,480 lf of 72-in. ID rock tunnel using conventional tunneling methods, with ring and beam lagging, at approximately 100 vf; completion of two working shafts for the rock tunnel construction; construction of a 64-in. steel cased tunnel under UPRR tracks by auger bored tunnel method; and installation of two 84-in. steel casing tunnels under the UPRR Bridge embankment. Aside from tunneling, the project also includes: the installation of 42- and 48-in. restrained joint force main installed by open-cut methods and supported on piles; construction of a vault valve structure; blasting; vibration control and monitoring; and soil stabilization by jet grouting.

Key Project Personnel – Estimator/Project Manager: Joe Mulville; Project Manager: Mike Garbeth; VP of Tunnel Construction: Gregg Rehak. Information: mike@superexcavators.com.

NEVADA
Las Vegas
Lake Mead Intake No. 3 Connector Tunnel
Renda Pacific
Over the past several months, final marine work has taken place to complete the modifications to Intake No. 1 and begin the reflow of lake water to current water treatment operations. Renda reached final completion on Aug. 14, 2014. Project Manager: Dennis Bailey.

Las Vegas
Lake Mead Intake No. 3 Shafts and Tunnel
Vegas Tunnel Constructors
This design-build project for the Southern Nevada Water Authority was awarded to a JV of Salini Impregilo/Healy for $447 million. The work includes an access shaft 600 ft deep and 15,000 ft of rock tunnel to be mined with a convertible 7.2-m Herrenknecht TBM, capable of operating as a hard rock machine in open mode and as a full Mixshield in poor rock and/or with high water inflows, and lined with 20-ft diameter precast gasketed segments. Also included is a new Intake Riser structure constructed 350 ft below the surface of Lake Mead, and miscellaneous site and ancillary work.

Project design has been completed by Arup USA in conjunction with Brierley Associates. All underwater work has been completed.

Excavation of the Intake Tunnel is under way in a very complicated geology with large groundwater flows. Closed mode excavation with face pressures of up to 14 bars has been employed throughout much of the alignment. Tunneling is continuing with good progress, with intermittent open and closed mode mining according to the ground and groundwater conditions. Approximately 12,900 lf of tunnel has been excavated, representing more than 85 percent tunneling completion. Estimated completion date is July 2015.

Project Director: Jim McDonald; Project Manager: Jim Nickerson; Construction Manager: Renzo Ceccato; Chief Construction Engineer: Roberto Bono; Staff Engineers: Erik Hornaday, Claudio Cimiotti, Nihad Rajabdeen; Tunnel Superintendent: Chris Gomez; Walkers: Mike Revis, Brian Comfort, Willie Flores; Plant Manager: Greg Cook; Safety Manager: Vaughan Hargrave; QC Manager: James Grayson.  For SNWA, Construction Manager: Jerry Ostberg.  Information: Jim Nickerson, (702) 893-2300.

NEW YORK
Marlboro/Wappinger
Delaware Aqueduct Rondout-West Branch Bypass Tunnel – BT-1
Schiavone Construction Co. LLC
The $101.6 million project for the NYC DEP comprises the construction of Shafts 5B and 6B for the Rondout-West Branch Bypass Tunnel. NTP was issued in January 2013 and estimated completion is November 2016.

Schiavone is constructing two shafts for the DEP’s “Water for the Future” Program. Shaft 5B, in Marlboro, N.Y., will be 838-ft deep and have a finished diameter of 30-ft. Shaft 6B, in Wappinger, N.Y., will be 673-ft deep and have a finished diameter of 33-ft. When complete, the shafts will allow access for a new water tunnel to be driven for New York City’s drinking water and sections of the Delaware Aqueduct that are leaking will be taken out of service.

Shaft 5B has been excavated to a depth of approximately 295-ft using conventional drill-and-blast methods. A cast-in-place concrete liner has been constructed for the top 170-ft of the shaft. In the coming weeks, Schiavone will be transitioning from drilling and blasting operations to concrete operations to complete the third lift of concrete (145-ft).

Shaft 6B has been excavated to a depth of approximately 225 ft using conventional drill-and-blast methods and almost the entire excavated portion of the shaft has received a cast-in-place concrete liner. Schiavone will complete this first lift of concrete in the coming weeks and then switch back over to drill-and-blast excavation.

Other parties affiliated with the project – Subcontractor: Yonkers Contracting Co. (Site Work); Designer:  DEP; Construction Manager:  Parsons.
Key Project Personnel – SCC Project Manager/ VP:  Vin Sambrato; General Superintendent: Dave Dorfman; Project Manager 5B Site: Peter Wang; Project Manager 6B Site: Dan Peterson; NYCDEP – Sean McAndrew, George Schmitt, Peter Marsh, Matt Sorrell; Parsons Construction Management – Steve Minassian, Leif Stepakoff.

New York
86th Street Station
Skanska/Traylor JV
The project team completed all cavern and underground works by Milestone No. 2—Sept. 12, 2014. This turnover included the North Ancillary Cavern, Ancillary No. 2, North Shaft, the Northwest connecting TBM tunnel and the underground mined complex in entrance No. 2. The JV thanks Local 147 (Sandhogs) for their hard work and safe work practices which made the underground works successful.

Operations are continuing at the 86th Street open-cut section of entrance No. 2, which includes the elevator structure, concourse and entrances. This two-shift operation is scheduled for final completion in November.

Project Personnel – VP: Mike Attardo, Project Executives: Gary Almeraris, Tom Maxwell; Project Manager: Tom O’Rourke; Project Engineer: Steve Vick; Superintendent: John Kiernan; Engineer/Superintendents: Robert Begonia, Charles Schock; Safety Manager: Mike Ceglio; Quality Manager: Gino Morales.

New York
Harbor Siphon
Tully/OHL JV
The Tully/OHL JV re-started mining in April 2014 after repairing the flood-damaged TBM with support from Robbins. Mining operations have been proceeding well, with over 1,730 rings (6,920 ft) installed since mining resumed. The California switch has been moved several times to ensure optimal position in relation to the TBM and minimize waiting time for trains. A little over 930 ft of tunnel remains to be completed to bring the tunnel through the already-constructed Brooklyn Shaft. Steel pipe installation and grouting operations will then take place before the new siphon can be connected to land-side piping and made operational.

Personnel currently assigned to the project are the following: Tully/OHL JV Project Manager: Vincent Sefershayan; Tully/OHL JV Tunnel Project Manager: Josep Juan Rosell; Tully/OHL JV Tunnel Manager: Luis Alonso; LiRo/PB JV CM Project Manager: Tom Bowers; NYCEDC Owner’s Representative: Rob Damigella; CDM/HMM JV Design Liaison: David Watson.

NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte
McAlpine Creek/Irvin’s Creek Relief Sewer
Turn-Key Tunneling
This project for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities comprises multiple tunnel drives ranging in size from 72 to 108 in. Tunnel Shields & Equipment of Galena, Ohio, specifically designed the shields being used to accommodate the installation of the new 36- to 66-in. sanitary sewers. To date, five tunnels have been completed varying in length from 108 to 354 ft and the sixth is set to begin after the first of the year. The total project consists of approximately 1,900 ft of tunnel work in material that is wet, clayey with intermittent rock/boulders within the heading. For Information regarding the project, contact: Brian Froehlich – Project Engineer, brian@tunnelit.net.

Charlotte
Myrtle Morehead Strom Drain Improvements
Bradshaw Construction Corp.
Bradshaw will start construction of an SEM tunnel 35 ft under Morehead Street in downtown Charlotte. The project consists of one access shaft and a 150-ft long by 13-ft horseshoe shaped tunnel. A 90-in. RCP storm drain pipe will be installed and grouted in place. Mixed face tunneling requiring careful drill-and-blast techniques is anticipated for some reaches of the tunnel. Construction should start in October 2014. Information: Eric Eisold, Area Manager; eeisold@bradshawcc.com.

OHIO
Cleveland
CSO 49-50 Sewer
Triad Engineering and Contracting
The $6.8 million project for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District was issued NTP in March 2014 with an expected completion date of August 2015. The project consists of 2,200 lf of 7-ft diameter excavated tunnel using ribs and lagging. There are two headings, each of which will work from one access shaft and terminate at receiving shafts. The final lining is a 48-in. diameter reinforced concrete pipe.Tunneling will be entirely in the Cleveland shale formation. The project is 25 percent complete. The access shaft is partially excavated. Henninger receiving shaft is nearly complete. Tunneling is under way.

The project was value engineered by Triad engineers. The new sewer profile was lowered, a new routing designed and a full conversion to tunnel from partial open cut was added.

Key Project Personnel – Project Manager: Philip J. Kassouf, P.E.; Project Supt.: James Lowery; Asst. Project Engineer: Matthew J. Kassouf, P.E.; NEORSD Manager: James Jones.

Cleveland
Euclid Creek Tunnel
McNally/Kiewit ECT JV
The $198.6 million project for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) is approximately 90 percent complete with an estimated completion date of March 2015. The project comprises 18,000 lf of 27-ft OD, 24-ft ID one-pass segmentally lined tunnel approximately 200 ft deep in Chagrin Shale; one access shaft, one receiving shaft, three auxiliary baffle drop shafts; $6 million change order for an additional shaft and 700 lf of sewer; 18 near-surface structures, including gate structures, diversion structures, and control vaults.

With the 18,000 lf main tunnel, excavated by a Herrenknecht TBM, and 420 lf plastic-fiber-reinforced tail and starter tunnels complete, crews at the Euclid Creek Tunnel project have been focusing on the excavation of smaller tie-in structures and permanent controls, along with demobilization efforts at most shaft sites.

Excavation was recently completed on the Lakeshore Blvd. Relief Sewer tunnel and receiving shaft, a $6 million change order issued in June 2013. The 700 lf tunnel was excavated using a McNally-owned 100-in. Lovat TBM Cast-in-place concrete work is ongoing by the JV’s subcontractor, Northstar.
Hatch Mott MacDonald and AECOM were the designers of the project.

Lorain
Black River Tunnel
Walsh/Super Excavators JV
This $53.6 million project for the City of Lorain comprises the construction of approximately 5,500 lf of 23-ft diameter rib-and-board, two-pass, TBM rock tunnel – using a 23-ft Robbins double shield TBM. The tunnel is a 19-ft ID storage tunnel that extends approximately 120 ft below ground along the bank of the Black River. For the first phase of the project, which was completed in early July 2013, Super Excavators constructed 200 lf of wood lagging/steel ring mechanically excavated starter tunnel. The starter tunnel, which has a 25-ft by 25-ft arch, was constructed with an Alpine Roadheader attached to an excavator. The launch shaft was a 42-ft ID, 175-ft deep shaft which will serve as home to the future Pump Station. The machine was retrieved from a 30-ft ID, 115-ft deep shaft. The ground conditions consist of shale rock.

Notice to proceed was issued on Aug. 6, 2012 with completion projected in spring 2015. Tunneling commenced on Nov. 18, 2013, with holethrough on April 29, 2014. Demobilization of the TBM and conveyor system is now complete, and Super Excavators’ crews are working to install 2.5 million lbs of rebar to support the secondary monolithic poured, cast-in-place, concrete tunnel liner.

Engineering/Designer – Malcolm Pirnie/Arcadis; Starter Tunnel Concrete Liner: Headlands Contracting & Tunneling Co.; Shaft Work: Ric-Man Construction; TBM: Robbins.
Key Project Personnel – Project Tunnel Supervisor: Gregg Rehak; Project Managers: Mike Garbeth, Mark Hedrick; Project Superintendent: Doug Meyers; Survey Manager: Mike Klement; Safety Managers: Steve Garlock, Anthony Revay Jr. Information: mike@superexcavators.com.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
Market Street Tunnel
Triad/Midwest Mole JV
This $13.8 million project for the City of Charleston was given NTP on July 16, 2012, and is nearing completion. The project consists of 4,000 lf of 12-ft diameter excavated tunnel using ribs and lagging. There are two headings, each of which will work from one access shaft and terminate at a dead end. The final lining is a 9-ft diameter, monolithically poured concrete. Tunneling will be entirely in the Cooper marl formation. The access shaft is a 20-ft finished concrete diameter structure that was installed by sunken caisson methods. In addition, there are three 54-in. drop shafts that will be installed along the route on Market Street to connect surface drainage structures.

The project is nearly complete. Tunnel excavation is complete. Monolithic concrete installation is complete. Drilled drop connections are complete. Tunnel connection to the Pump Station is complete. Site work is nearly complete for project completion.

Original Tunnel and Site Work Designer : URS/Davis & Floyd; Construction Manager: Black & Veatch; Contractor’s Tunnel and Shaft Designer/Consultant: ARUP; Instrumentation Consultant: Terracon.
Key Project Personnel – JV Manager: Clifford J. Kassouf, P.E.; Asst. JV Manager: Dan Liotti, P.E.; Project Manager: Paul J. Kassouf, P.E.; Project Engineers: Matthew J. Kassouf, P.E., Michael Firestone, P.E.; ARUP Lead Engineer: Seth Pollak, P.E.

Charleston
West Ashley Sewer Tunnel & Influent Pump Station
Southland Renda JV
This $50.7 million project for the Charleston Water System was given NTP in March 2013 and has an estimated completion date of June 3, 2016. This project is Phase V Charleston Water Systems (CWS) sewer tunnel improvements replacing an existing deep tunnel from the Croghan Spur to the Plum Island Waste Water Treatment Plant (PIWWTP). The shafts consist of a 60-ft ID at PIWWTP and 20-ft ID at Croghan, both built using the caisson sinking method, and 30-in. drop pipe at Porter Gaud. The 8,300-ft tunnel will be excavated with an 86-in. diameter single shield TBM, manufactured by Southland Contracting, and supported with ribs and lagging. The project is about 30 percent complete. Currently, the 60-ft caisson is going through redesign. Drilling of the two intermediate drop shaft has been completed.

Project Designers: Black & Veatch, Hazen and Sawyer, and Hussey, Gay, Bell & DeYoung.
Key Project Personnel – Operations Manager: Kent Vest; Project Manager: Enrique Baez; Superintendent: Rick Leever; Project Engineer: Steven Ricker. Black & Veatch RPR: Keith Fraiser.

TEXAS
Austin
Jollyville Trans mission Main WTP4
Southland/Mole JV
All contract work on the Jollyville Transmission Main project is complete. The tunnel pipe and near surface pipe were successfully pressure tested and disinfected and are ready to receive water from the new Water Treatment Plant 4. All structures have been installed and all the shafts are backfilled. Work remaining includes handrails, minor electrical work, punchlist items, grading and revegetation. All major equipment has been de-mobilized.

Project Manager: John Arciszewski; General Superintendent: Kent Vest; Superintendent: Mike Clingon; Project Engineer: Nick Jencopale; Safety Manager: Mike Seeley; MWH Project Manager: Jim Brennan; Black & Veatch RPR: Ray Brainard. Information: (817) 293-4263.

VIRGINIA
Reston
Corbalis to Fox Mill Watermain
Southland
This $26 million project for the Fairfax Water Authority includes furnishing and installing approximately 12,000 lf of 54-in. water main and 300 lf of 42-in. water main along with the associated valves, shafts and tunnels. Approximately 8,600 lf of the 54-in. water main was installed via tunneling, which was performed using a Robbins 88-in. Double Shield TBM.

Southland completed tunneling operations in May 2014 and the interesting part of this project, was that the tunnel was installed through diabase rock that exceeded 50,000 psi UCS that apparently set an unofficial new record for a TBM of this size and hardness of rock in North America. Southland Contracting was the continuation contractor on this project due to the original GC’s inability to complete the work. Prior to installing the Robbins machine, the former GC’s 99-in. TBM had to be removed from the previously excavated portion of the tunnel. Currently, Southland has set all tunnel pipe and completed 95 percent of the open-cut installation. This project is scheduled to be complete in January 2015.

Project Manager: John Marcantoni ; General Superintendant: Norm Gray; Superintendant: Lamar Haynie; Safety Manager: Mark Fredrickson. Information: (817)-293-4263

Richmond
Lakeside to Strawberry Hill SPS – Flow Equalization Pipeline
Turn-Key Tunneling
Turn-Key Tunneling is subcontracting tunnel work for Oscar Renda Contracting of Texas and the Henrico Department of Public Utilities. Due to the tremendous growth and updating of aged utilities, a new sanitary sewer is needed to bring the utilities department into compliance. The job entails installing two 132-in. tunnel structures for a new 110-in. sanitary sewer. Each tunnel will be installed using a hydraulically driven tunnel shield. To date, the first run of 250 ft has been completed and the second run of 190 ft is half way done.  For Information contact: Brian Froehlich – Project Engineer, brian@tunnelit.net.

WASHINGTON
Seattle
Northgate Link Extension
JCM Northlink LLP
This $440 million project for Sound Transit is being completed by JCM Northlink, a joint venture of Jay Dee Contractors Inc., Frank Coluccio Construction Co. and Michels Corp. NTP was issued Sept. 30, 2013, with a Substantial Completion Milestone of Feb. 11, 2018.

The project consists of 18,100 lf of twin tunnels with an ID of 18 ft., 10 in. The tunnels will be driven through glacially deposited soils using EPB TBMs and lined with a single-pass, pre-cast, bolted and gasketed concrete liner. The contract includes 23 cross passages and provides the shoring and excavation of the station boxes for two underground tations and a portal structure to transition the light rail tracks from tunnels to elevated guideway.

The project is approximately 25 percent complete. Work is in progress at all three of the major project sites. The Maple Leaf Portal excavation is complete and boring of the northbound running tunnel began in July 2014 using a Hitachi Zosen TBM. The tunnel has advanced 1,630 lf as of Aug 31. Production halted at that time to reconfigure the portal and conveyor systems. This allows a Robbins TBM to move to the headwall and prepare for launch on the southbound running tunnel. At the Roosevelt Station, jet grouting and slurry diaphragm walls are complete. Excavation and tie back installation are in progress. At the University District Station, soldier and secant pile installation are complete. Excavation and tie back installation are in progress.

Tunnel Designer: Jacobs Associates; Construction Management: NorthStar JV (CH2MHill, Jacobs Engineering); Major Subcontractors include: DBM, Case Foundations,  Bencor,  Elcon,  Sundancer, Hayward Baker, Soldata; TBM manufacturers: Hitachi Zosen, Robbins. Segment manufacturer: CSI/Hanson.

Key Project Personnel – Owner: Don Davis, Executive Project Director; Jonathan Gabelein, Principal Construction Manager; Brad Cowles, Construction Manager; Contractor: Tom Diponio, Managing Partner; Mike Diponio, Project Executive; Glen Frank, Project Manager; Gregg Olsen, Deputy Project Manager; Jerry Pordon, General Superintendent. Construction Management: Paul Gasson, Project Manager; Ed Shorey, Resident Engineer; Anthony Pooley, Section Manager; Derek Dugan, Section Manager.

Seattle
SR 99 Tunnel Project
Seattle Tunnel Partners (Dragados USA/Tutor Perini JV)
Construction of an 83-ft diameter, 120-ft deep TBM Access Shaft is under way, into which the stalled TBM will advance to enable the cutterhead and cutter drive unit to be removed from the TBM and raised to the surface, where the new main bearing seals and the spare main bearing will be installed, after which the cutterhead and cutter drive unit will be lowered into the TBM Access Shaft and installed on the TBM. Subsequent break out from the TBM Access Shaft and the resumption of tunneling is scheduled for March 2015.

During the tunneling stoppage, work has commenced on construction of the tunnel roadway structure inside the bored tunnel behind the TBM, while work continues on the north and south cut-and-cover approaches to the tunnel and the tunnel operations buildings at the north and south ends of the tunnel.
Key project personnel include: Seattle Tunnel Partners Executive Committee: Jack Frost and Alejandro Canga; Project Manager: Chris Dixon; Deputy Project Manager: Greg Hauser; Construction Coordinator: Bill Monahan; Construction Managers: Juan Luis Magro and Joel Burch; Tunnel Superintendents: Tom McMahon and Jorge Vazquez; Safety Manager: Dan Weathers. Information: Chris Dixon, (206) 971-8215.

CANADA

BRITISH COLUMBIA
Surrey/Coquitlam
Port Mann Main Water Supply Tunnel – Fraser River Crossing
McNally/Aecon JV
This $167 million project for the Greater Vancouver Regional District includes two shafts, 55 m (180 ft) and 60 m (195 ft) deep. Each shaft consists of slurry wall primary ground support and a heavily reinforced, cast-in-place concrete liner. The 1,000-m (3,280-ft) long, 3.5-m (11.5-ft) diameter tunnel is driven with an EPB TBM through the riverbed of the Fraser River at pressures up to 6 bar. The tunnel primary lining is precast segments and final lining consists of a 2.1-m (7-ft) diameter steel pipe concreted in place with cellular concrete.

Primary ground support, excavation and final structural lining of both shafts is complete. The tunnel is currently 67 percent complete. Steel lining pipe manufacturing is 80 percent complete and shoring has begun on the North Shaft for the CIP concrete valve chamber.

Other parties associated with the project include: Project Manager: Hatch Mott MacDonald; Designer: Fraser River Tunnel Group (Ausenco, Jacobs Associates, Golder Associates). Key partners: Slurry wall installation: Bencor Corp.; TBM Manufacturer: Caterpillar; Precast tunnel lining design: AECOM; Precast tunnel lining casting: Armtec; Steel lining pipe supply: Northwest Pipe; Reinforcing steel supply and install: Harris Rebar; Valve Chamber Shoring: Southwest Contacting
Key Project Personnel – Project Sponsor: Steve Skelhorn; Project Manager: Andrew Rule; Tunnel Superintendent: Sean Gamble, Civil/Surface Superintendent: Arash Foadi; Project Engineer: Mark Thompson.

Vancouver
Evergreen Line
EGRT Construction
The Evergreen Line is a $1.43 billion 11-km transit project with seven stations, including approximately 2 km of bored tunnel. The project is expected to be in service in summer 2016. The TBM, “Alice,” is 10 m in diameter and will be up to 50 m deep. Alice will make a single bore which will be divided by a wall that will separate the inbound and outbound tracks. The dividing wall will be installed after Alice has completed boring the tunnel. Assembly of Alice began in January of this year, and she was launched in early March.

EGRT Construction includes SNC-Lavalin Inc., Graham Building Services, International Bridge Technologies Inc., Jacobs Associates Canada Corp., Rizzani de Eccher Inc., S.E.L.I. Canada Inc., SNC-Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc., SNC-Lavalin Constructors (Western) Inc., and MMM Group Ltd.

ONTARIO
Mississauga
Hanlan Feedermain Contract 1
McNally Construction
NTP for this $102 million project for the Region of Peel was issued Nov. 6, 2013, with an estimated completion date of July 28, 2016. The project comprises 5,725 m (18,783 ft) of 3.65-m (12-ft) diameter rib-and-lagging tunnel in Georgian Bay shale with a minimum depth of 20 m (66 ft) and a maximum depth of 32 m (105 ft); six shafts – 7 to 18 m (22 to 60 ft) in excavated diameter – supported with secant piles, rock bolts and mesh; three permanent valve chambers; 5,725 m (18,783 ft) of 2.4-m (8-ft) pre-stressed concrete pressure pipe backfilled with 3 MPa (430 psi) cellular concrete.

To date, three of six shafts are completed with work commenced at two shafts. The TBM was launched mid-July and has advanced 460 m (1,500 ft). Production of the pre-stressed concrete pressure pipe is under way. Crews are using a Robbins TBM model no. 126-137 originally built for McNally Construction in 1970 to construct the 6-km (3.7-mile) mid-Toronto Interceptor Sewer.

Other project participants include: Design Engineer: CH2M HILL; Mechanical Components: Emco; PCPP Pipe: Hanson; Chambers: Clearway Construction; Concrete: Dufferin; TBM Manufacturer: The Robbins Company.

Key Project Personnel – President: Murray Malott; Operations Manager: Tim Cleary; Project Manager: Armenio Martins; Engineering Manager: Behzad Khorshidi; Equipment Manager: Rick Anderson; Chief Surveyor: Nick Dmitrenko; Project Engineer: Josh Campbell; Project Coordinator: Jordan VanTol; QHSE Manager: Melissa Thompson.

Ottawa
Confederation Line Tunnel
Rideau Transit Group (RTG)
This $2.3 billion project will span 2.5 km (1.5 miles) under Ottawa’s downtown core, roughly 15 m below the surface, as part of a transit line. The project includes three access points – the West Portal, East Portal and Central Shaft – for personnel, material and muck removal. Tunnels will be driven through limestone with pockets of clays and sands using the SEM method. Three 135-tonne roadheaders will be used to mine the tunnels along steel sets and shotcrete for support.

At the West Portal, excavation in drifts is ongoing as mining progresses toward the west entrance of Lyon Station. As of Sept. 19, The roadheader “Jawbreaker” excavated 441 m of tunnel, approximately 21 percent. At the Central Shaft, the roadheader “Chewrocka” continues mining west in the running tunnel toward Lyn Station. Chewrocka has mined 282 m, approximately 12 percent. At the East Portal, mining progresses north under Waller Street toward Rideau Street while rockbolt installation continues. The roadheader “Crocodile Rouge” has excavated 261 m.

Rideau Transit Group is led by Toronto-based ACS Infrastructure, and includes engineering firm SNC Lavalin, construction company EllisDon Corp. and Ottawa-based BBB Architects, among others.

Toronto
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Pedestrian Tunnel
Technicore Underground Inc.
This $35 million project for the Toronto Port Authority comprises 186 linear meters (610 lf) of tunnel with a 10 m maximum diameter and 10 m minimum rock cover, and two shafts up to 35 m depth, to connect the mainland to the Billy Bishop airport.

The permanent tunnel lining installation was completed in May. Shaft base slab, sidewall, and roof construction is now complete at the island shaft, and superstructure construction linking the tunnel and the existing island airport terminal is under way.  Mainland shaft permanent base slab, sidewall, and floor slab construction is also under way. Backfilling operations at the island shaft are anticipated shortly. Tunnel and shaft fit-out operations are now under way, and the facility is scheduled to open to the public in February 2015.

The project is constructed in the Georgian Bay Formation, primarily shale, with pre-support provided by seven 1.8-m diameter TBM-driven horizontal, interlocking secant bores, followed by conventional rock excavation using a Liebherr 934 excavator with rock breaker attachment as well as a DOSCO roadheader.
Major Parties Affiliated with the Project: Arup (Tunnel Designer); PCL Constructors Inc. (General Contractor); Technicore Underground Inc. (TBM Manafacturer/Tunnel Contractor); and Forum Infrastructure Partners (Private Partner).

Key Project Personnel – Technicore: Tony DiMillo, Gary Benner, David Marsland, Mike MacFarlane, Joe DiMillo. Design Project Manager: Jon Hurt (Arup); Tunnel Lead: Seth Pollak (Arup); Site Engineer: Andrew Cushing (Arup). Information: jon.hurt@arup.com.

Toronto
Eglinton Crosstown
Aecon/ACS Dragados Canada (East contract)/Crosstown Transit Constructors (West contract)
The Crosstown is a light rail transit (LRT) line that will run across Eglinton Avenue between Mount Dennis (Weston Road) and Kennedy Station. This 19-km corridor will include a 10-km underground portion. It is divided into two tunneling contracts – a $177 million contract awarded to Aecon/ACS Dragados Canada to build 3.25 km of twin 6.5-m diameter tunnels – with TBMs “Don” and “Humber” – from a launch shaft east of Brentcliffe Road to the extraction shaft at Yonge Street. Crosstown Transit Constructors, a joint venture of Kenny Construction, Kenaidan Contracting, Obayashi Canada and Technicore Underground, was awarded a $320 million contract to build the remaining 6.2 km of tunnels from near Black Creek Drive to Yonge Street. The TBM “Dennis” had advanced to Times Road as of Sept. 9 – approximately 3 km – while “Lea” had passed Dufferin Street – about 2.7 km.

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