Case Study of sewerage pipe installation using Pipe Jacking and Micro-tunnelling Boring Machine (MTBM) in Ipoh

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the sewerage pipe installations near Jalan Pengkalan Perindustrian, Ipoh Perak using pipe jacking and micro-tunneling methods. The alignment of the pipe installation involving tunneling and jacking beneath the KTMB (Kereta Api Tanah Melayu Berhad) railway track with 191 m distance from jacking to receiving pit. The average jacking force of the micro-tunneling boring machine varies over distance and the highest recorded was 310 tons at 190 m distance from jacking pit meanwhile 50 tons was the lowest jacking force within 10 m distance from the jacking pit. The trend of the advance rate, mm/m shows the similarity with the average jacking force. The higher average of jacking force leads to a higher value of advance rate with the highest and lowest value was 270 mm/m and 5 mm/m respectively. The excessive deviation for both line and level affect the magnitude of the ground surface settlement where 100 mm and 130 mm for both line and level produce 30 mm of ground surface settlement at 40 m distance from the jacking pit. As the machine advances further and has better control in deviation, the settlement decrease where the value for both line and level below 30 mm, the settlement decrease to 10 mm at 80 m distance from the jacking pit and the trend continues to decrease for both deviation and settlement. The maximum settlement for the railway track was 2 mm after the MTBM passing through and still within the allowable limit set by KTMB (10 mm over 10 m chords for intervention).