Displacement analysis of tunnel support in soft rock around a shallow highway tunnel at Golovec

Abstract

Within the last 10 years Slovenia has been constructing its highway network. The Golovec tunnel, as a part of Slovenia's capital ring is thus one of the most important connections of Ljubljana to the east and to the north. It is a double tube three-lane tunnel in soft rock with small to medium overburden. Its construction, following NATM, caused huge problems to all parties involved. The tunnel support was well monitored during its construction, which gave the authors a good opportunity to analyse the results. The Golovec tunnel is constructed through one of few hills surrounding Ljubljana, of Carboniferous age, consisting of clastic rock: siltstone, claystone and sandstone. Golovec hill belongs to the first of two overthrusting zones from this area, so the rock is strongly faulted. Tunnel monitoring consisted of daily 3-D tunnel tube displacement measurements in 97 measuring sections, and of two measuring sections within the tunnel with more complex measuring equipment, to monitor stress changes and rock deformations around both tunnel tubes. Monitoring of the surface 3-D movements gave us the opportunity to study the influence of the tunnel construction on the surface above it. The tunnel, its geology, construction procedure and monitoring results are described in the first part of the paper. The second part consists of the interpretation of monitored results, with an emphasis on results concerning development and evolution of the excavation-damaged zone in the rock around the tunnel. Back-calculations, performed as a basis for the interpretation procedure, are also presented in this part. Calculations of the propagation of the tunnel destressed zone and stress-field around the tunnel, up to the surface, were performed by means of numerical model with the finite difference method. The evolution of tunnel displacements and their prediction was based on the use of Back Propagation Neural Networks, whose principles are presented in one chapter of this paper. Results showed that the most important, for the final settlement at the surface above the tunnel, was the time of installation and rigidity of the primary support. On the basis of the calculated final displacements, this support could easily be strengthened in a short time, when necessary.