doi:10.3850/978-981-08-7920-4_S1-R02-cd

ABSTRACT

The construction of underground tunnels, shafts, chambers, and passageways is essential yet a dangerous activity in the modern construction industry. Risk assessment in underground constructions has been a crucial task to ensure the success of the project and also safe working conditions. In contrast to conventional civil engineering projects in which the engineer can design and specify the type of constructionmaterial used, there is no such luxury in underground construction due to the high degree of complexity and risks involved. The difficult environmental conditions, high technical level of construction methods, uncertainty associated with the type of soil and rock mass, complex contracts as well as the long project time all attribute to this high degree of complexity and risks. Due to the above complex nature of underground construction projects, the methods of risk evaluation for underground projects should be different from conventional construction projects. The success or failure of a project would largely be decided by the risk factors involved and usually the tunneling method chosen for a particular project. The latter is usually selected based on the lowest expected construction cost and/or duration in ideal condition. Hence, it is very important to assess the risk involved in the variation of existing condition against the ideal expectation. In this paper, the authors will list out the risk factors typically involved in an underground construction project. A numerical simulation is then used to demonstrate the sensitivity of the variation of geological condition and construction methods towards the overall cost/time benefit of a underground tunnelling project

Keywords: Underground construction, Risk, Risk assessment, Risk factors, Geological, Cost/time benefit.

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