Operation Involved in tunneling 

 
The hard rocks tunneling method has following sequence of operation for construction
of tunnel :- 

1. Drilling
2. Loading of holes
3. Blasting
4. Scaling
5. mucking
6. secondary blasting
7. tunnel supporting
8. Grouting and lining 

1. Drilling :- Tunneling with explosive requires drilling of holes in to rocks. A drill

holes are made with drills worked by compressed air. the depth of the holes varies
from 2 to 3 metre. 
2. Loading of holes :- Charging the holes with explosives is known as loading of
holes. It is the operation performed to loosed the rock, each holes is charged and
loaded with explosive.

3. Blasting :- After loading the holes next step is blasting. warning signal are sounded
for safety. 

4. Scaling :- At the end of Blasting some rock fragments hang loosely from ceiling
and walls of tunnels .removing of such loose rock fragments and hammering off
projecting rock is known as scaling.

5. Mucking :- It refers to the operation of loading and removing the excaved or
blasted material and dumping it at the selected place.

6.Secondary blasting :- Main blasting may not gives desired profile to the tunnel.
therefore to achieve proper shape of tunnel the process of secondary blasting is done.

7. Tunnel supporting :-  The interior surface of the blasted portion is supported by

timbering to avoid accidents immediately after mucking.

8. Grouting and lining :- Before the tunnel is finally lined , it is necessary to grout
the weaker section with cement slurry so that the weaker strata is stabilized. finally
the tunnel is lined .