SAN FRANCISCO HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT

Class of support and TBM operation – case history

Alessandro Tricamo1

ABSTRACT
The San Francisco hydroelectric project consists of the construction of a new power station and all the related works.
About 85% of the water conduction tunnel is foreseen to be realized with a double shield Tunnel Boring Machine
(TBM).
Due to the rock condition, the TBM must be able to install three different type of support: rock bolt, shotcrete and
precast segment and of course all the operation must be unrolled during excavation in order to avoid any waste of time.

1 – SAN FRANCISCO HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT

Generalities
On the base of the recent plan of Ecuador development, the government decided to improve the capability of energy
production, reducing import of energy from other countries.
The San Francisco hydroelectric project, situated near the city of Baños (Ecuador), one, of the most important of the new
projects for the growing up of the Ecuadorian economy, foreseen the construction of a new hydroelectric power station
with a capacity of approximately 210 MW. The entire project is financed by the Brazilian National Bank.

Main contractor for the entire project, the construction of the power station, the excavation of the conduction tunnel and
all the related works, is ODEBRECHT.
Almost 80% of the 11.000m water conduction tunnel has to be bored with TBM and it is subcontracted to SELI that is
realizing the work with a Wirth double shield TBM of 7,04m diameter.
Boring operation started in April 2005 and at October 2005 50% of the tunnel is completed.

Figure 1 - San Francisco jobsite at "ventana 4" during TBM assembly

1
TBM engineer, SELI excavation responsible for San Francisco project – aletricamo@tiscali.it

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2 - GEOLOGY AND CLASS OF SUPPORT

The San Francisco tunnel mainly develops into metamorphic rock formations, schist and gneiss and a small part of
granite and granodiorite. It crosses three rivers, rio Machay, rio Verde and rio Blanco from 40m to 100m depth.
The rock formations are generally good and stable, although hard to bore and abrasive with foreseen UCS up to 200
Mpa.
On the base of these geological informations, it was decided to use different classes of support, reducing the precast
segment ring support, the most expensive, at a length that not exceed 1500m for the entire tunnel.
In the preliminary project were foreseen 5 different classes of support based on the Barton “Q index” classification:

CLASS T-1 CLASS T-2 CLASS T-3

CLASS T-4 CLASS T-5

Table 1 - rock support class

CLASS T-1
Q index > 10, rock massive and stable, no particular support is required only spot bolt if necessary

CLASS T-2
10 < Q index < 6, rock quite stable with sporadic collapse of instable blocks, systematic rock bolt, no.4 bolts each 2,80m
of advance

CLASS T-3
6 < Q index < 1, rock fractured with collapse of instable blocks, systematic rock bolt, no.6 bolts each 1,4m of advance
and fiber reinforced shotcrete with an average thickness of 7cm.

CLASS T-4
1 < Q index < 0.1, rock highly fractured and instable, complete segment ring supported is required in order to assure
stability of the tunnel and safety during work operations.

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CLASS T-5
0.1 < Q index, special and dangerous rock condition due to water or other geological problem, complete segment ring
supported and consolidation grouting is required.

On the base of the several geological investigations, made by Odebrecht and its client, and from previous experiences of
TBM excavation in the same rock formations, it was estimated a length for each support classes: class T-1 = 44% of the
tunnel length, class T-2 = 40%, class T-3 = 9%, class T-4 = 7% with hypothesis of systematic installation of segment
under the rivers.

3 – TBM AND B/U MODIFICATION AND EQUIPMENT

As known, TBM excavation reaches its optimum when all the related works, like installation of rock bolts, shotcrete and
installation of precast segment, are submitted and unrolled during boring time.
Since it is not possible to define exactly rock condition before excavation and consequently which kind of support should
be installed and when, the TBM had to be equipped in order to change from one class of support to the other quickly and
without stop of the boring operation.
Therefore TBM and Buck Up have been modified and equipped in order to complain to all the operations of rock
supporting during the excavation, avoiding any waste of time and optimizing the entire process.

In order to install all the different support classes without stop and delay of the TBM, the machine was modified and
equipped by SELI mainly on the B/U, by installation of a special shotcrete robot and two rock bolt machines.

Rock bolt support

Next to the tail shield, on the same support of the segment erector, were installed two SIG hydraulic hammer with a
working pressure up to 200 bar.

Figure 2 - rock bolt machine assembly

These two hammers are assembled on a circular support that allows a movement of 360 degree around the TBM axle,
furthermore the ring is assembled on the same guides of the segment erector consequently also a back and forward
movement is allowed.
The hammer guide allows installation of rock bolt of 3 m length.

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This kind of equipment normally works during TBM excavation, both hammers can work contemporary, avoiding any
stop for installation of the rock bolt foreseen in class T-1, T-2, and T-3.

Figure 3 - SIG hammer movement

Shotcrete support
Behind the two hammers, on the conveyor belt bridge, is installed a special SIKA shotcrete robot.
The robot moves on a semi-circular support, especially designed for this TBM, that allows shotcrete operation in an area
between 8:00 hour and 4:00 hour with an angle of about 220 degree
Furthermore an extensible arm allows all the other necessary movements.

Figure 4 - shotcrete robot installation

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The shotcrete is pumped to the robot with a SIKA piston pump mounted on the B/U, through a 3” line.
Combined with the main pump, there is another one, that mix shotcrete with the right quantity of accelerant additive,
MEYCO SA 160, before it is pumped to the robot.
Also in this case all the equipment can work during excavation time, without any interference with the main operations.

Figure 5 - SIKA pump on the B/U

Precast segment ring support

The installation of the precast ring support class is guaranteed, as in all TBM machines, by the erector system, a special
crane that allows installation of the complete ring during excavation.
The erector is positioned just after the tail shield, in order to install the complete ring before the rock comes out from the
shield itself and therefore guarantee safety and support of the tunnel in case of collapsing material.

Figure 6 - installation of the erector system

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 Just after the segment installation, the gap between the segment and the rock is filled up with pea gravel using a pump
installed on the B/U.

Figure 7 - auxiliary conveyor belt for pea-gravel and pea gravel pump

4 – PROJECT CONDITION AND SITE CONDITION

Theoretical condition
In the preliminary project, on the base of the geological investigations, the entire tunnel was divided in sections and each
section should be supported by a specific class follow the project technical specifications.
The TBM was equipped in order to complain to these specifications and to optimize the process of support installation
during excavation.
Particularly, a specific construction method was studied to install the class T-3, the systematic rock bolt and shotcrete.
During excavation, just after the shield, the rock bolts should be installed using the two hydraulic hammers. In the same
time shotcrete was sent inside the tunnel, adding to normal train a special vagon equipped with a mixer that, once
connected on the B/U, avoids that shotcrete mix becomes hard before the application.
For this reason, a mix design was specifically studied for the shotcrete, in order to make it stable enough to be carried
inside the tunnel.
So as to avoid any kind of problem for pumping the shotcrete once on the TBM, a retarding additive (SIKA retarder) and
a fluidificant additive (RHEOBUILD 1010), were added to normal mix design.
Using this kind of mix design, it’s assured to obtain a shotcrete-mix stable, with high fluidity and able to be pumped
without any problem.

The exact mix design is shown in the table below:

GRAVEL STEEL
Kg/m3 RHEOBUILD SIKA MEYCO FIBER
CEMENT SAND WATER W/C
1010 RETARDER SA 160 DRAMIX
Kg/m3 Kg/m3 Lts/m3 index
Ø 25 Ø 9,5 Kg/m3 Kg/m3 Kg/m3 65/35
mm mm Kg/m3
WET SHOTCRETE 420 1200 - 500 196 0,467 6,72 0,42 16,80 35,00

Table 2 - wet shotcrete mix design

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Tunnel condition
Once inside the tunnel the real condition, as usual in underground works, was a little different from what foreseen in the
preliminary project.
Direction of rock stratification inside the tunnel implies instability concentrated on the left side. Therefore the support
classes as foreseen in the project for systematic rock bolts and shotcrete, in particular for Class T-3, wasn’t the best
solution.
Rock bolts are practically concentrated on the left side as well shotcrete application in the most of case.
Moreover rock condition is better than expected and class T-3, where shotcrete support is required, is much less and
much less extended than project prevision. It has been never encountered, inside the tunnel, zones where class T-3 was
more than 3-4m extended and in the most of case it was located on the left side of the tunnel.
On the base of the real condition of the rock, technicians in the jobsite were obliged to introduce some modifications in
the foreseen construction method.
It was clear that the process of shotcrete by using robot, could be optimized only with a sort of continuity, and the actual
condition didn’t permit this. Moreover the cleaning of the SIKA pump and of the robot implied a waste of time that was
not justified by the using time of the robot itself.
Follow these considerations, it was decided to change the way of application of shotcrete and abdicate the use of sotcrete
robot for manual application. Consequently also shotcrete-mix had to be changed, by using dry shotcrete instead a wet
one.

Thanks to this change, shotcrete-mix could remain on the TBM up to 4-5 hours, also if it isn’t used immediately or if it
has to be used for more than only one application.
That modification also implied substantially changes of the shotcrete mix design.
The dry design didn’t need retarding additive as well fluidificant one, on the other side the W/C factor can be now
controlled only by the shotcrete operator.
In order to avoid that some of these conditions could compromise the quality of the shotcrete, and consequently the final
resistance of the shotcrete itself, quantity of cement was increased up to 500 Kg/m3 and the quality controls were
increased up to one resistance control for each week of work progress.

Actual shotcrete mix design is shown in the table below

STEEL
GRAVEL Kg/m3 RHEOBUILD SIKA MEYCO FIBER
CEMENT SAND WATER W/C
1010 RETARDER SA 160 DRAMIX
Kg/m3 Kg/m3 Lts/m3 index
Ø 25 Ø 9,5 Kg/m3 Kg/m3 Kg/m3 65/35
mm mm Kg/m3
DRY SHOTCRETE 500 1270 - 310 215 0,430 - - 17,50 30,00

Table 3 - dry shotcrete mix design

This mix gave, after one week, an average resistance of 180-200 Kg/cm2 and complains with the minimum resistance
required of 175 Kg/cm2

5 – CONCLUSION

It’s clear that a complete knowledge of the work condition is possible only during the work; therefore it’s extremely
important that technicians in the jobsite must be ready to react promptly to the different problems.
Especially in work like TBM excavation, where the optimization of working process is the key to reach a good average
production, the flexibility of the operational parameters, is the best way to find the correct solution.
Even if geological investigation is an irreplaceable instrument to predict the rock condition and avoid main problems
during excavation, and all the parameters were studied in the preliminary project in order to optimize boring operation
and reduce waste of time, during excavation the real condition of the rock mass can imply changes and modifications on
the foreseen construction method.
In the San Francisco specific case, an improvement of the expected condition as well, could cause a delay of the foreseen
boring production.

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6 - REFERENCES

[1] Remo Grandori – San Francisco Tunnel – general project design review
[2] Ernst Buchi – Hydropower project San Francisco – Assessment of rock support classes, TBM penetration rates and
cutter wear rates
[3] ODEBRECHT – San Francisco project – shotcrete mix design parameters
[4] Projectos e Consultorias de Enghenierias Ltda. (PCE) – Proyecto Hidroeléctrico San Francisco – CLASE DE
SUPORTE en TBM

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