Risk Management of Cost Overrun and Delay in Underground Excavation in Rock

This bright spark lecture opens by noting that geological and geotechnical uncertainty affects not only a tunnel's structural safety but also its cost and time plan. Cost overruns and delays of underground excavation projects in rock are, in fact, a huge problem worldwide, and neglecting the effect of geological uncertainty in the project planning can be an important reason for this. As a consequence, both clients and contractors need sensible risk management tools and contractual frameworks that facilitate fair risk sharing between the involved parties and reduce the number of contractual disputes. The lecture will highlight a number of such tools, like probabilistic time and cost assessments and Geotechnical Baseline Reports, as well as discuss their use from a risk management perspective.

Keywords: Risk management, Tunnel, Geotechnical Baseline Report, Time and cost estimation.