Tunnel Design & Specialities

Luck Stone Corporation (LSC) planned to open a new quarry on the Western side of Goose Creek river, a component of the Virginia Scenic Rivers System. A tunnel was envisioned to connect the new Western quarry with the existing South-Eastern one below the river. The rock cover between the tunnel and the river was approximately 50 feet. The tunnel is 1275 feet long with a diameter of 45 feet. It is designed to accommodate large scale mining trucks as well as a conveyor belt for material transport which is scheduled to be installed in the future.

Euston Station will be transformed as the London terminus for HS2. The project involves building a new station alongside the Network Rail station and creating over 600m of new tunnelled connections to the Euston London Underground (LU) station. The works include two new sets of escalators serving the Victoria line and Northern line Bank branch and three new lifts providing step-free access to all lines. Tunnel diameters range from 3.6m to 11.5m with most tunnels being constructed using sprayed concrete lining. In the tightest locations squareworks tunnels have been designed.

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. The capacity upgrade includes the construction of 540 metres of running tunnel intercepting with existing foundation piles at four no. building locations. A bespoke solution was developed for each of the buildings and the building impact was assessed in detail.

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.

University Link is a 5km light rail extension that runs in twin-bored tunnels from Downtown Seattle north to the University of Washington, with stations at Capitol Hill and on the University of Washington campus. The twin-bored tunnels are connected with 20 cross passages. Dr. Sauer & Partners performed the temporary and final support design for the cross passages. This included the design of excavation and support measures and the development of specific ground support categories, settlement analyses, and the structural analyses of initial and permanent lining.

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.