Consulting

The Puerto Suello Tunnel is a 400 m long single-track rail tunnel in San Rafael, California and was constructed in 1879. The 4.9 m wide and 6.8 m high tunnel was partially destroyed by a fire in 1961, was rebuilt for freight service in 1967 and closed in the mid-1980s. The tunnel was acquired by SMART in 2003, who retrofitted and then reopened it for commuter rail service in 2017.

The ground overburden above the tunnel reaches a maximum of 45 m and the tunnel was constructed using cut-and-cover and mined construction methodologies.

Bank Station is a London Underground station located in the City of London financial district. It is a key interchange served by five existing lines. The Bank Station Capacity Upgrade (BSCU) comprises the construction of new tunnels adjacent to and connecting with the existing tunnels. Defects surveys of the LU existing facilities predicted to be impacted by the BSCU works had to be carried out before construction started. All existing facilities expected to be within the 1 mm settlement contour were inspected for defects.

Inspected tunnel connects two quarries at the Luck Stone Corporation Fairfax plant. The tunnel crosses beneath the Lee Highway (US Route 29), in a North-South direction. Built ca. 1975, the tunnel is partially unlined and in rock; approx. 190 feet long and approx. 22 feet wide and 22 feet high. As the Northern quarry side is already exhausted, the tunnel is rarely used with just one or two transits per day.
Dr. Sauer & Partners performed an in-depth inspection of a connector tunnel; assessed the tunnel condition and provided remedial measures.

The Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT) is a 64km long railway tunnel connecting Austria and Italy. Once completed, it will be the world's longest rail link underground. In addition to the two main tubes, the project comprises a complex set up of exploration adits, crosscuts, emergency stops and additional access tunnels, excavated by TBM and SCL methods. Dr. Sauer & Partners provided tender support services for the 18km lot H51 Pfons-Brenner and was responsible for creating the bid documents as well as conducting QA/QC services. The documents covered issues such as TBM choice, annular gap filling, reuse of excavated rock, rail delivery of construction materials, construction logistics and pre-excavation grouting.

Crossrail is a 118km railway line along an east-west route across London. Its central section runs via 21km twin-bore tunnels connecting eight underground stations and represents one of the world's largest infrastructure projects. Dr. Sauer & Partners was assigned to provide Category III independent design checking services on the Sprayed Concrete Lining works for the complete Whitechapel and Fisher Street SCL structures. Additional 3D non-linear FEA and assessments were carried out for the wraparound and junction structures of the Liverpool St Station and the Bond St Station.

Los Bronces copper mine, an open-pit operation at an altitude of 3500m ASL in the Chilean Andes, planned to utilise a tunnel for further deposit exploration and development. The project consisted of an 8.2km tunnel link between Los Bronces and Confluencia, connecting two processing plants. By applying drill and blast methods, a chamber was prepared to launch a 4.5m diameter tunnel boring machine which took over further excavation. A difficult geological and hydrological setting, extreme weather conditions as well as the high altitude and the rough terrain, provided a challenging environment.