In the CE5104B Lectures, you were given several articles on tunneling in Singapore Bukit

Timah granite formation. By referring to these articles (and any other additional relevant
information that you have), in about 200 words, write concisely in your words on
(a) The strength and weathering state of granite,
(b) The problems in tunneling in Singapore granite and possible remedial measures to tackle
the problems

A) THE STRENGTH AND WEATHERING STATE OF GRANITE

Weathering state of Granite

Intrusion of the Bukit Timah Granite is believed to have taken place during the early Triassic period
(230 million years ago). The rock in the formation varies from granite to grandiorite and various
dykes are included in the formation.

Top portions of the Bukit Timah Granite is generally weathered and decomposed into residual soils.
As the water seeps through fractures of granite mass below the weathered soil, chemical processes
take place and as a result, the subsurface of the rock is eroded, leaving numerous boulders in place.

Bukit Timah Granite has undergone weathering processes over time and the degree of weathering
decreases with depth, the upper portion of the Bukit Timah Granite Formation is mostly
weatheredand comprises completely weathered granite to residual soil, slightly weathered and fresh
granite is found at deeper depth of the Formation.

The weathering of the Bukit Timah Granite is gradational with stratified layers and sharp boundary
between completely weathered layer (GV) and moderately weathered granite (GIII) is often
observed.

The rock head level is generally undulating with frequent valleys and commonly follows
thetopography. Because of the intrusive nature of the formation, variation in depth of granite rock is
significant, based on the data of many boreholes drilled, the deepest depth of BukitTimah Granite is
located at 62m below the ground surface and the shallowest depth is located at 3m below the
ground level

From several deep excavations, the most common feature observed is the presence of boulders,
which are frequently found near to the soil-rock interface and are also occasionally found within the
residual soils.
The strength of Granite
For Bukit Timah Granite, there islimited published data to represent the actual USC strength range.

Zhao et al (1995) has shown that UCS of Bukit Timah Granite is 180 MPa and McChesney (2011)
reported UCS of up to 280 MPa from Circle Line project. The UCS test data obtained from DTL2 and
Thomson section of TEL showsignificant variation in the strength of the Bukit Timah Granite with a
maximum value of 376 MPameasured at the Newton area.

From the test data, the number of data points that show UCS of more than 250MPa from northern
areas is limited compared to the southern areas where more data points show UCS of more than 250
MPa, most of the samples from northern areas appears to be light greyish in colour, whereas for
southern areas it varies from light grey to strong greenish grey in colour.

Anyhow according to weathered pattern the rock have lower strength also.

Very weak < 1.25

Weak 1.25 to 5

Moderately weak 5 to 12.5

Moderately strong 12.5 to 50

Strong 50 to 100

Very strong 100 to 200

Extremely strong > 200

Modulus: Average of 70 GPa.

Tensile: About a tenth of UCS values

Criterion: Mohr-Coulomb at low stress level; best with Hoek-Brown criterion (m = 30 - 33).

Shear Strength: Shear friction angle varying with smooth joints having angles of about 30 degrees
and rough joints up to 70 degrees

In-situ Stresses: High in-situ horizontal stress (about 2 – 3 times vertical stress)

B) THE PROBLEMS IN TUNNELLING IN SINGAPORE GRANITE

For tunnelling works, the Bukit Timah Granite Formation can be considered as a complex formation
due to the presence of boulders and undulating rock head level. The boulders of Bukit Timah Granite
Formation vary in sizes, strength and grade of weathering. It is observed that the strength of these
boulders can be as high as the parent rock.

Encountered challenging ground conditions, through Bukit Timah Granite Formation, mainly
moderately to slightly weathered granite GII to GIII grade, with portions of completely weathered
Bukit Timah Granite of GV. The weak and completely weathered ground consisted of mainly sandy
silt material including occasional graniteand sandstone fragments.

The higher face pressure slows down the TBM advance speed which has impact to the cutters and
machine wear and project programme. The heavy wear and tear on cutting tools and equipment in
hard ground tunnelling has led to the frequent cutterhead Intervention and downtime.

Cutter torque is a reactive parameter that reflects the conditions of cutting tools with respect to the
ground condition. Generally few typical signs that may be indicating the occurrence of damage to
cutting tools

• Cutter torque increases with deceasing penetration rate

• Spike of cutter torque occurs and continues
• Cutter torque fluctuates in large range

Cutter torque can reach as high as the breakaway torque when the TBM hits very hard objects or
obstacles are trapped in between the rock face and cutterhead.

Large rock pieces could not pass. This resulted in jamming screw conveyor. Medium sized rock
pieces become stuck requiring manual extraction. This process is time consuming and cause major
downtime in TBM operations.

Impact from the jammed rock pieces and high torque of screw conveyor, Blades of screw conveyor
sheared off numerous times.

Because of fatigue created by repeated loads from screw conveyor rotation, Connection between
shaft and the drive drum cab be sheared off.

On many occasions, screw conveyor discharge gate couldn’t be closed because of rock fragments
stuck in the discharge gate. Impact of rock fragments cause damage to the parts of gate which
required extensive welding.

TBM encountered difficulty in forming a plug in screw conveyor in full face rock and in mixed faces.

There are many cases of lost rings of disc cutters or disc cutters completely broken. In some of the
interventions disc cutters are completely worn out. Some of the disc cutters showes wear of 25mm.

Many parts of the TBM cutterhead have become loose and lead to damage of disc cutters and
dropping of buckets and scrappers due to numerous reasons, summarized as follows:

• Uneven load acting on disc cutters.

• Excessive vibration resulting in loosening and dropping of cutting tools.
• Mining long distance without maintenance.
• Cutter bearing damage due to long service time.
• Improper operation of TBM.
In addition, steering of the TBM also creates uneven load on the cutterhead. Thus, the momentary
load on a single disc cutter may reach as much as several times of the average distribution load.
These contribute to damage to the disc cutter as well as variable wear patterns.

Mining in homogeneous GI/GII rock, the impact of vibration on the machine can be very
significantand cause some parts to be loosened or dropped which substantially reduces the lifespan
of cuttingtools and even cause damages to the other tools.

The dropped parts are either trapped in between the rock face and cutterhead or fall into the
bottom of excavation chamber causing further damage to other tools if mining continues. This
damage can extend very fast to adjacent cuttersif the cutterhead keeps on rotating.

In other cases, once one of the cutters is damaged during mining, the risk of damage to the
adjacentcutters is subsequently increased due to the additional load being taken by the adjacent
cutters tobreak the rock that should have been cut by the damaged cutter. This is very much a chain
reaction.

Changing of damaged cutters, especially flat gauge cutters, is difficult due to the significant
reduction of cutting diameter. The protruding rock has to be hacked off before installing new cutter
and on resuming mining the TBM operator must be very careful when rotating cutterhead as new
cutter could be easily damaged in uneven rock face with high thrust force, due to high impact loads

Groundwater Ingress

Because of the undulating nature of the Bukit Timah Granite, one of the major construction
challenges is controlling the ingress of groundwater and ground loss at the soil-rock interface.

This is particularly problematic where the rock head is higher than the formation level. The
supporting ERSS walls do not necessarily penetrate sufficiently deep enough to act as a cut-off wall.

However, fissure grouting was not fully effective since the direction and penetration of grout could
not be controlled. This resulted in water draw down extending to a wider area than originally
predicted.

C) POSSIBLE REMEDIAL MEASURES TO TACKLE THE PROBLEMS

An extensive geotechnical instrumentation and monitoring plan shall be implemented during

tunnelling works. Site team reviewed the ground condition carefully together with instrumentation
monitoring results and adjacent structures and other TBM parameters in order to achieve the
optimum solution with respect to advance the TBM and settlement control.

High face pressure is maintained in some circumstances to reduce water ingress to control surface
settlement, due to consolidation.

To overcome sheared off of screw conveyor, thickness of screw conveyor blades shall be increased
from 25mm to 40mm.

To overcome the issue of the screw conveyor gate not able to be close during mining because of
rock fragments stuck in the discharge gate, a second discharge gate shall be installed on the screw
conveyor.
To form a plug in screw conveyor, Clay Shock shall be injected in excavation chamber. Clay Shock
paste in the excavation chamber assists greatly in smooth transportation of Granite rock fragments
through screw conveyor.

Very effective and efficient logistical supply chain to ensure seamless process of refurbishment and
delivery of disc cutters in order to progress the tunnel without delay.

To minimize the vibration on the cutter wedge lock system, an additional cross bar is fitted to
restrain the movement of wedge block. Inaddition, buckets are welded in groups to prevent
individual buckets from dropping

The TBM must be stopped at the soonest possible, whenever any sign of damage on cutting toolsis
observed.

It is advisable to change cutters in group rather than individual to avoid uneven force when resume
mining.

In order to ensure sufficient clearance for TBM to progress, sufficient time and manpower is
required to break the surrounding rock of TBM shield.

As a consequence of this to avoid future trapping of TBM shield and also allow more clearance of
negotiation in tight curve, TBM cutting diameter can be extended by replacing thicker c-clamps at
outer gauge cutters.

There is a case of water inflow which is coming mainly from behind the TBM shield. Then, PU
grouting through ports at TBM tail shield and secondary grouting at 10 rings behind TBM are carried
out to minimize the water inflow and ensure no gaps between the built rings and ground.

Upon completion of the CHI, TBM chamber shall be pressurized close to hydrostatic pressure for
mining of first few rings. The pressure and quantity of backfilling grout shall be increased to maintain
the ground settlement below the predicted trigger values.

Although considerable soil investigation has to be carried out along the tunnel drive where the
ground conditions are different and change rapidly.

To avoid stopping the TBM at an unfavourable ground condition, which could be highly fractured
rock zone, weak ground or high water ingress location, forward probe drilling ahead from the TBM is
carried out at the locations where there is a lack of information of the ground condition. The data
retrieved from probe drilling will be very useful in terms of water ingress and estimation of ground
condition.