NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CONSTRUCTION

MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH

2020-21

SINGAPORE UNDERGROUND TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION

SECTION: ACM-6

SUBMITTED TO:

Dr. SUDARSHAN KORE

SUBMITTED BY:

GROUP-10

Mr. K. K. S. SANDEEP - AP20543

Ms. VARADA - AP20568

Mr. ABHIJEET JADHAV - AP20575

Mr. MAYANK YADAV - AP20577

Mr. BHARATH KUSUMA - AP20578

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

S. No Content Pg. No
1 About Singapore 3

2 About metro tunnel 3

3 Fen-Shui compass 4

4 Tunnelling between building across swimming pool 5

5 Accident at a station 5

6 Emotional loss and home loss 6

7 Deputy mayor of Amsterdam-Mark’s view 6

8 Amsterdam riots and construction of tunnel 7

10 Escape shaft construction 9

11 Conclusion 10

1. About Singapore

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Singapore an island country and city got its independence from Malaysia in 1965 with per
capita of 500 dollars. It is one of the richest and culturally diverse nation.

Its an economical miracle that the country transformed from third world status to first place
in a generation. It is one of the most densely populated country in the world with 15000
persons per square mile. 15 persons in a single room house.

They demolished all buildings and built a new.

Singapore then Singapore now

2. About metro tunnel

It is started in 1982 and its expansion continuing since.

World’s largest underground subway tunnel expansion is going on, under buildings and soil
with a bad condition. It is time consuming and dangerous and they need to do without
damaging buildings above the tunnel.

By 2010 there will be a subway stop for every 400 meters which is very risky.

CHRIS KNIGHT HASTTLE who is a British engineer worked for London under ground
expansion. He and his team launched tunnelling slurry machine below 30m to the ground. It
moves very lowly that they can lay only 10meters of tunnel a day.

They do exercise before going to work with slogan “safety first”.

Tunnelling machine got stopped because blade became blunt. They changed its blades which
costs 10000 dollars each so total cost is 50000 dollars. Changing blades is dangerous job,
they must be very careful.

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13 construction squads with 5000 men working 2 shifts day and night for 33kms, 29 stations
with a budget of 6000 billion dollars at 40 degree Celsius at mid-day.

They banned chewing gum in Singapore because when it placed between doors of metro it
will create problem.

3. Fen-Shui compass

SWAN LEK CHONG who is an expert in Fen-Shui compass said the tunnel is going from
land across the river to the business building (North to South) which means positive energy
moving through the tunnel and it brings economical boost. He said this because Singaporeans
believed that it may bring bad fortune to the country and people living in.

Fen-Shui compass

They dug 130KM of tunnel and the track. Metro moves half a population of the country every
day. By 2010 extra 26 stations will be built. Expected that it will be the most advanced
transport system in the world. It won’t be an easy tsk because Singapore’s soil condition is
danger.

4. Tunnelling between building across swimming pool

They stopped tunnelling when tunnelling machine reached a swimming pool between two
condominiums because it was blocked by rocks, blockage may lead too much pressure

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Infront of the tunnel boring machine. Due to this soil can drop and can cause damage to the
buildings. So, they decide to analyse the tunnelling effect on buildings and found the moment
in the building was only 2mm which does not affect the building, but when it is more than
30mm it is dangerous to proceed. Again, they started tunnelling after post analysis.

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)

5. Accident at a station

On 28th April 2004 when they were about to finish the tunnelling near a station an accident
was occurred due to a collapse of retaining wall which holing the steel beams. It caused
damage to the gas and water pipelines and also 6-way road was buckled. Four men were
trapped inside the walls. It was difficult to bring them back due to accumulation of water and
also there is a chance of further collapse. At last, they managed to bring back three bodies.

Collapsed area

Workers prayed to earth god daily to keep them safe.

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Muddy soil was major cause of the accident, its looks like a paste. They decided to build a
new station called Nickle high station which is 100 meters away from the accident site. Its
floating walls were thicker and station was dug deeper to avoid further accidents.

6. Emotional loss and home loss

Grem and his team dealing with a building called hockey house, which is next to the
excavation site. So, they demolished it by vacating 35 residents and 7 shop keepers and they
lost their shelters. Singapore is most urbanised place. Tan pohiyan is the person to stay in
hockey house, but now he is living with is grand so by doing their family T-SHIRT business.
Vacating that place made him disturbed his life by losing friends and memories.

7. Deputy mayor of Amsterdam-Mark’s view

There's one place on Earth, we're destroying buildings to expand a subway line is strictly
forbidden.

It’s Historic Amsterdam.

Many of its buildings date back to the 17th century. It was one of the richest cities in the
world.

Soon, they will be boring a tunnel underneath the city in soil softer than Singapore's and the
challenge is: Not one of these ancient buildings can be touched.

No one is more sensitive about this than the vice mayor of Amsterdam Mark Van der horst.

Mark says: It's very important for everybody who lives here that the city is kept as the way it
is because all this historical building it's just feels deep in your heart if you if you touch it
with one finger people get angry and I think they're right.

8. Amsterdam riots and construction of tunnel

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When the city put in it subway line 30 years ago, it was impossible to use a tunnel boring
machine. Technology had not advanced far enough to needle through such spongy soil. So
they've done the old-fashioned way ripping open the streets and destroying buildings along
their path. a bad move in this medieval city, as people didn’t want to leave their heritage
building.

This increased Tension between people and government.

It was March 24th 1975. Police arrived with tear gas and armoured cars to force people out of
their houses because no one was willing to leave their historic home/building.

By the end of the day 30 people were injured and many more arrested. Only a few left the
easy way. It was one of the worst riots in Amsterdam's history. What's actually the start of
two decades of let's say Metro phobia, even the word metro line as we we call it here in
Amsterdam was more or less forbidden. All plants were expanding their metro system were
put on hold.

But today the congestion in the historic heart of Amsterdam has only gotten worse. There is
simply no more room on the streets for extra trams or buses.

Mark says if you want to improve the public transportation system, you have to go
underground and that's why we're making the North South Subway right to the heart of the
city center from North to south. The city is finally green-letter plan it's been on hold for 30
years.

Three kilometers of the route will run through the most historic part of this city centre. The
deal this time is that not one of the 1,500 buildings can be demolished. In the spongy soil
of Amsterdam, that's an almost impossible task.

This task was so difficult that Mark compares it to flying to the moon by riding a bicycle. It's
impossible but still we're doing it he adds.

So, they’ve passed that impossible task onto a handful of experienced engineers.

These Engineers did virtual tunnelling before the real work begins. Used BIM

They use computer models to predict the exact effects the tunnel machine will have on the
historic buildings. These predictions were critical for the success of this project.

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It was a challenging tunnelling route with tight corners and narrow streets. Disturb the wood
foundations of these building sit on and they could sink in an instant.

Frank (Engineer) said: What we actually doing we're driving a tunnel under the city and we
almost tickling the pile toes where all the buildings are founded on and this specific
engineering topic hasn't been dealt with in the past.

Since this type of work was never done before so it made the work very challenging for
the engineers as they have no such prior work experience or reference. There are museums
embassies and even the royal palace at stake. Overall a lot is resting on the virtual tunnelling
predictions.

But engineers relied on these computer models and continued to do work with the
saying: When there is no guts; there is no Glory.

So they've started digging the station's pits only meters away from buildings. It's precise work
that requires a close watch for any shifting soil And that's done by robotic stations.

Computers measure 7,000 points every day all along the tunnelling route. (Biggest
monitoring program of its kind in the world).

This system monitored and warned engineers about a building which settled almost 30
millimeters which is very precise measure and very important to be notified. After deep
analysis engineers found out this sedimentation occurred during weekend when there was no
construction going. And to cure it they filled the excavation bit with water again to make
things stable

The building there most worried about is Central station. One of the signature landmarks of
Amsterdam. It's also the busiest transport hub in the Netherlands. Welcoming 300,000
passengers a day. Now, they're getting ready to do the impossible, i.e., Drill a tunnel right
underneath it. But before they can start, they have to rebuild the foundation constructing two
massive columns 30m deep. By Pouring cement into those two foundation columns using
high pressure very carefully.

Engineers installed protective cook curtains to avoid the risk that concreate is exporting onto
the walls and the ceiling and many more protective measures to avoid harming historical
building. But then also minor incidents occurred which were fixed later.

National heritage is protected and carefully monitored by Chief engineer also.

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There's no room for air any mistakes in the project will be shut down.

By integrating archaeology with construction, tunnel construction in Singapore became an

opportunity to retrieve the past and also introducing a new technology.

Tunnel had to construct 25 m below the ground surface

Digging of tunnel underneath an existing metro station was the biggest challenge.

For that they had to remove a massive steel pile on which the metro station was existing.

It took them 1.5 years to complete 180 metres by hand

Another big challenge was that, the ground was porous and soil was totally collapsible.

Engineers had to take extra care to make the soil damp proof, regular monitoring is
mandatory.

Station had already a settlement of 2mm.

9. Escape shaft construction

To evacuate train between two subway stations, escape shaft was constructed. The area had
hard rocks.so drilling using dynamite was mandatory.

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73 kg of dynamite was used 6m deep. Location was nearer to residential complex and next to
schools. So, extreme protection and safety measures had to take.

Blasting

Another challenge for dynamite drilling was, the changing weather condition of Singapore.

Subway system is used as civil defence shelter, after inspired from London subway, which
was used as shelter space during second world war. Its door is made of 20-ton concrete.

10.Conclusion

They laid underground tunnel metro because as population is increasing day by day, and
there is no place for expansion of roads or metro, they came up with this idea. And also, most
of its population use public transportation.

Singaporeans are good planners and they make themselves ready for any situation.

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