Design and construction of a deep excavation in soft soils adjacent to the Shanghai Metro tunnels

Abstract

This paper presents the design and construction of a deep excavation for building foundations in saturated soil. This deep excavation was of particular interest because it was located above and beside the Shanghai Metro tunnels. The twin Shanghai Metro tunnels had to be in full operation during the deep excavation. Potential large deformation of the twin tunnels was one of the main concerns during the design and construction for the deep excavation. The paper discusses in detail the criteria and measures for controlling the soil and tunnel deformation. The measures included cast-in-place concrete diaphragm walls with bracing structural members, pumping consolidation, cement–soil mix pile systems, and rational excavation procedures. A simplified theoretical method was proposed to estimate the increment in undrained shear strength in a soft clay layer due to pumping consolidation. Furthermore, conventional finite element methods were used to predict the soil vertical and horizontal displacements induced by the excavation. Using the design and construction methods discussed in the paper, the settlement and horizontal displacement of the tunnels were successfully controlled within 5.0 mm and 9.0 mm, respectively. The curvature of longitudinal deformation curve of the tunnels was less than 1/15 000. The horizontal displacement of the braced diaphragm walls was less than 0.12% of the total excavation depth. Key words: Metro tunnels, saturated soft soil, deep excavation, design, construction, ground improvement, case studies.