Technological Advancements in the Risk Mitigation of Uncertain Ground Conditions in Singapore Metro Projects

Singapore is rapidly expanding its urban metro network, which involves underground construction. The deep excavation and tunnelling works bring constructionrisks due to uncertain ground conditions and dense urban surroundings. The Land Transport Authority, as the governmental body overseeing these works, thus seeks to improve construction risk identification and mitigation through research and development. This paper provides an overview of two recent projects where technological advancements have enhanced risk managementin the mitigation of ground condition uncertainties: (1) machine learning to enhance ground profile predictions, and (2) geophysical look-ahead system to detect obstacles in tunnel boring machine (TBM) drives.

Keywords: Underground construction, Tunnelling, Ground investigation, Machine learning, Geophysics, Seismic detection.