Underground Singapore 2016

EPB Tunneling and Undercrossing the existing MRT

Tunnels in Fort Canning Boulder Bed
S.H. Noh, U.Y. Kim, I. H. Suh & I.H. Kim
GS Engineering & Construction, Korea

ABSTRACT: Two EPB TBMs employed in Contract 937 (C937) of Downtown Line Stage 3 (DTL3)
excavated the Fort Canning Boulder Bed (FCBB). In order to overcome significant problems related
to tunneling in the FCBB such as low advance rate and high abnormal cutter consumption, several
factors were considered during both design and construction stages, i.e. the design of EPB TBMs, cut-
ter configurations, TBM operations and soil conditioning. From the construction records, the mean
daily advance rate was increased comparing to previous projects, but some unplanned stoppage for
cutter replacement caused by a secondary wear still remained a major problem for the tunneling in the
FCBB. In this paper, case studies of C937 tunnels undercrossing the existing North-South Line (NSL)
tunnels and Circle Line (CCL) tunnels in the FCBB are also introduced. The minimum clearances are
about 8.7m and 3.2m for NSL tunnels and CCL tunnels, respectively. The maximum vertical move-
ments of the existing tunnels were mostly observed above the second drive tunnel of C937 tunnels in
the range of 11.1~17.1mm. Based on the case studies, a few of useful suggestions and key considera-
tions were provided for future projects in similar ground condition.

1 INTRODUCTION

Tunneling in urban areas generally has high level risks because it is usually planned adjacent to exist-
ing buildings, roads, utilities and other tunnels in complicated ground conditions. In order to prevent
the hazards associated with the tunnel construction in urban areas, the greatest caution must be taken
during both design and construction stages.

Contract 937 (C937) of Downtown Line Stage 3 (DTL3) in Singapore is one of the most challengea-
ble urban tunnels in terms of construction under the difficult ground conditions and the surrounding
infrastructure.

The Fort Canning Boulder Bed (FCBB), which is considered as very unfavorable ground for the tun-
neling work in Singapore due to its unique geological condition, is encountered along the tunnel
alignment of C937. The FCBB typically exists as matrix materials consisting of extremely strong
boulders and very dense clay. Not only difficulties to operate TBM correctly considering two distinct-
ly different materials and to predict the presence and frequency of boulders but less TBM construction
experience in the FCBB compared to other geological conditions makes shield tunneling in the FCBB
particular challenges.

Another key challenge of C937 project is ground loss or settlement during construction which may
cause significant problem on serviced Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) tunnels, North-South Line (NSL)
tunnels at the intersection of Stamford Road and Bencoolen Street, to the west of Bencoolen Station
and Circle Line (CCL) tunnels at the intersection of Bras Basah Road and Bencoolen Street. C937
tunnels are undercrossing these two existing tunnels in the FCBB. The minimum clearances between
C937 tunnel excavation profile and existing tunnel extrados are about 8.7m and 3.2m for NSL tunnels
and CCL tunnels, respectively.
In this paper, two main subjects are introduced in the view of shield tunneling in the FCBB. One is the
main considerations for tunneling in the FCBB such as the design of EPB TBM, operational parame-
ters, cutter wear characteristics and soil conditioning. The overall performance including production
and stoppage time during construction is also presented. The other one is the impact of shield tunnel-
ing on existing structures in the FCBB through the case studies of C937 tunnels undercrossing NSL
and CCL tunnels in the FCBB. A few of useful suggestions and key considerations are highlighted for
future projects in similar situation as tunneling adjacent to sensitive structures in the FCBB.

2 PROJECT OVERVIEW

DTL3 is an underground MRT System extending from Downtown Line Stage 1 (DTL1) Chinatown
Station running through MacPherson, Bedok Reservoir, Tampines and ending at the East West Line
Expo Station. It consists of 16 stations and a total route length of about 23km including connection to
Kim Chuan Depot. DTL3 aims to improve rail connectivity between the eastern corridors and the cen-
tral business district

The layout of C937 is shown in Figure 1. DTL3 starts at the interface with the overrun tunnel from
DTL1 Chinatown Station. The alignment runs under a number of public roads, the Singapore River
and existing MRT tunnels, then terminates at the Bencoolen Station of Contract 936.

The major works for C937 include a short length of cut and cover tunnel adjacent to Upper Cross
Street connecting Chinatown Station, an emergency escape shaft at the end of the aforementioned cut
and cover tunnel which serves as a TBM extraction shaft, twin bored tunnels between the west launch
shaft and the aforementioned cut and cover tunnel (called as WEST Tunnel during construction
phase), a cut and cover station at River Valley named as the Fort Canning Station and twin bored tun-
nels beneath Fort Canning Park from C937 Station Box connecting to C936 Station Box at the West
end of Bencoolen Street (called as EAST Tunnel during construction phase).

The length of WEST tunnels is approximately 520m. The lower tunnel (BP Bound) is constructed first
and the same TBM is relaunched from the launch shaft to construct the upper tunnel (EXPO Bound).

The length of EAST tunnels is approximately 790m. The retrieval shaft for EAST tunnels is not con-
structed due to various constraints on traffic and surface working space at Contract 936 Station Box.
TBMs dock with the ends of C936 Station Box. The TBM shield skin is left behind and the compo-
nents of the TBM are extracted back through the constructed tunnel. Therefore two TBMs were de-
ployed for the excavation of EAST tunnels.

Figure 1. Overview of Contract 937.

The FCBB to be studied in this paper is encountered along the EAST tunnel alignment as indicated in
Figure 1. Total length for tunneling in the FCBB is approximately 670m, 42% of EAST tunnel length.
Soil profiles of EAST tunnels are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Soil profile of EAST tunnel.

3 FORT CANNING BOULDER BED (FCBB)

The FCBB is a colluvial deposit of Pleistocene age and typically consists of hard sandy SILT/CLAY
and very dense silty/clayey SAND as matrix materials with randomly distributed moderately strong to
very strong fine to coarse grained sandstone boulders, cobbles and gravels. The boulders are usually
described as sandstone, and consist mainly of quartz with felsites. The prominent color of the soil is
purplish to deep red mottled with yellow and light grey. Generally, the FCBB is found to be interfaced
with the underlying Jurong Formation and it is very difficult to accurately identify the FCBB from
borehole logs as the products are similar to the weathered stratum of the Jurong Formation (Arup Sin-
gapore Pte Ltd, C937 Geotechnical Interpretative Baseline Report).

Excavations that expose the FCBB, notably for the recent Fort Canning Road tunnel, have reported
that there is no discernable water ingress into the excavations through the FCBB materials. It is re-
ported favorable excavation experience, with very limited inflow of groundwater during excavation
(Wong, I.H. et al., 1996).

According to C937 Geotechnical Interpretative Baseline Report (GIBR), the compressive strength
range of FCBB boulders is between 10 MPa and 90 MPa, with an average strength of 60 MPa and the
abrasiveness of the FCBB is considered as very abrasive to quartzitic abrasive. The requirements of
geotechnical design parameters for the FCBB are presented in Table 1.

The dimension of the boulders can be established by continuous coring within a borehole prior to ex-
cavation, or by physical measurement of the boulder in an exposed excavation. The minimum and
maximum dimension of any single boulder was considered 0.5m and 3.0m respectively based on the
observations of the rock cores within the FCBB found in C937 during design phase. However TBMs
were occasionally encountered boulders which are larger than 3.0m during construction phase and
some boulders were large enough to cover the whole tunnel face (Figure 3).
Table 1. Geotechnical design parameters for the FCBB.
Unit Effective Angle Effective Undrained Young’s Modulus
Design Permeability
Weight of Friction Cohesion Shear Strength Undrained Drained
Parameters (K)
(γ) (Ф') (c') (cu) (Eu) (E')
Unit kN/m3 Deg kPa kPa MPa MPa m/s
Value 21 32.5 10 5N1)≤500 300 Eu/1.2 10-8
1)
N=SPT blow count

Figure 3. FCBB conditions observed during Cutterhead Intervention (CHI).

4 EPB TBMS

EPB TBMs were designed and manufactured considering complex geological conditions of C937. A
mixed face cutterhead was adopted to excavate various ground conditions from rock-soil interface of
Jurong formation to boulder-soil matrix of the FCBB. Extensive hard facing plate was used to ensure
the protection of the cutterhead in the abrasive environment. 17″ wedgelock type disc cutters were in-
terchangeable with knife bits. All cutters were armored with extra heavy duty steel and cemented
tungsten carbide to minimize damages. Wear detection system at varying heights was installed on the
face of the cutterhead plate to give a warning of excessive wear before damage occurs to the cutter-
head. Some technical features of EPB TBMs are summarized in Table 2.

For the tunneling in the FCBB, grill bars were installed on the cutterhead slit in order to restrict the
boulder size which can be transported through the screw conveyor. Considering screw conveyor di-
ameter of 900mm, grill bars were arranged around 300mm pitch (Figure 4). The screw conveyor with
420mm pitch had center stem auger to convey boulders up to sizes of 327.5mm x 655mm. The screw
conveyor was designed to rotate both forward and reverse direction in case the screw conveyor is
plugged with boulders.

Table 2. Technical specifications of the EPB TBMs.

Excavation diameter (m) 6.650 (with disc cutters), 6.630 (with knife bits)
Shield outside diameter (m) 6.600
External/Internal diameter of tunnel (m) 6.350 / 5.800
TBM/Backup length (m) 10.6 / 80.0
Cutterhead type Mixed Ground
Opening ratio (%) 37
Total cutterhead power (kW) 1050 (5 x 210 kW)
Cutterhead speed (rpm) 0 to 4.5
Maximum cutterhead torque (kNm) 5847 @ 0~1.71 rpm, 2865 @ 3.5 rpm
Number of thrust cylinders (units) 32
Maximum thrust (kN) 48,000 (32 x 1500 kN)
Maximum thrust speed (mm/min) 70
Figure 4. EPB TBMs employed in C937.

5 EPB TUNNELING IN THE FCBB

5.1 Main considerations

Main problems for tunneling in the FCBB are high abnormal cutter consumption, wear or deformation
of cutterhead, difficulty of soil conditioning, hardness to control steering and so on. Experience of the
Circle Line (CCL) project has shown that tunneling in the FCBB can cause significant problems in
terms of advance rate and machine wear (Osborne, N.H. et al., 2008).

In order to enhance advance rate and overcome aforementioned problems, many issues related to tun-
neling in the FCBB were studied and discussed by C937 project team. Main considerations for suc-
cessful tunneling in the FCBB are summarized as follows:

Cutter Configurations: Disc cutters were basically installed to break down strong and large boulders
by the chipping process. However combined cutter configurations with knife bits at some locations of
center cutter were occasionally used to prevent the clogging problem at rotary joint area by sticky and
stiff clay which can lead high torque to cutterhead rotation.

Soil Conditioning: The ratio of the quantity of foam to the ground (FIR, Foam Injection Ratio) was
approximately 30% and sometimes it increased up to 50% for cutter lubrication and better muck con-
ditioning. The quantity of air and water to be mixed with the foam (FER, Foam Expansion Ratio) was
2~4 and concentration of foam additive (Cf) was 2%. Anti-clay polymer with 0.2~0.4% of concentra-
tion was occasionally applied based on the muck condition. Above values were changed little by little
until muck condition was improved (Figure 5).

TBM Operations: The thrust force, torque and the rotation speed were reduced to avoid abnormal cut-
ter wear and damage of the cutterhead, which resulted in low advance rate and delays. Advance rate
was controlled less than 15mm/min and the rotation speed was restricted less than 1.5~2.0 rpm. In ad-
dition, abnormal changes of operational parameters were monitored thoroughly during EPB tunneling
to check the ground conditions and take effective measures, i.e. sudden increase of thrust force and
torque, sudden decrease of cutterhead speed or thrust speed, abnormal noise from the chamber, alarm
from wear detector and so on. Main operational parameters analyzed during EPB tunneling in the
FCBB are presented in Figure 6.

Alignment Control: It is very difficult to predict the presence and frequency of boulders accurately in
the FCBB and to control tunnel alignment because boulders usually appear at one side of the tunnel
face. Therefore, the guidance system of TBM was always carefully monitored and manual survey was
frequently implemented to double-check the TBM position.
Figure 5. Muck condition in the FCBB.

Figure 6. Operational parameters of EPB TBM in the FCBB (EXPO Bound).

5.2 Overall performance

The construction period of tunneling in the FCBB was 85 days for BP bound and 91 days for EXPO
bound, respectively. The mean daily advance rate was 5.2~5.5m/day and the best daily advance rate
was 8.4m/day. The average excavation time for one ring was about 87 minutes. The summary of over-
all tunneling performance in the FCBB is given in Table 3 and Figure 7.

The main reason of stoppage was CHI for cutterhead inspection and cutter replacements. Due to fre-
quent CHI, the machine utilization was reduced. There were two planned CHI and five unplanned CHI
during tunneling in the FCBB. Two unplanned CHI was carried out to prepare undercrossing CCL
tunnels, but the others were implemented due to sudden increase of thrust force and torque, sudden
decrease of advance speed which resulted from excessive cutter wears. Some interventions were im-
plemented under compressed air condition, consequently it led to longer downtime to replace cutters.
The percentage of production and downtimes are shown in Figure 8.
Table 3. Overall performance of the EPB TBMs in the FCBB.
BP Bound Expo Bound
237 240
Total tunnel rings
(Ring number: 321~557) (Ring number: 319~558)
Total tunnel length (m) 332 336
Total construction time (days) 85 91
EPB TBM working time (days) 64 61
EPB TBM waiting time (days) 21 (day off: 6, CHI: 15) 30 (day off: 10, CHI: 20)
The best daily advance (m/day) 7 8.4
The best weekly advance (m/week) 42.0 46.2
The mean daily advance (m/day)
5.2 5.5
(excluding waiting time)

Figure 7. TBM advance curve in the FCBB.

Figure 8. The percentage of production and stoppage time of tunneling in the FCBB.

5.3 Consumption of cutters

Total 146 of cutters were replaced during seven conducts of CHI in the FCBB. It means that the aver-
age cutter life was approximately 160m3 per cutter. Only 41 cutters, 28% of replaced cutters, had
normal cutter wear pattern. The others were replaced due to abnormal cutter wear such as the crack,
breakage and the failing of disc from the cutter housing (Table 4 and Figure 9). When comparing cut-
ter position, 40 center cutters, 51 face cutters and 55 gauge cutters were replaced as shown in Figure
10. In general, the consumption of gauge cutters is much higher than other positioned cutters because
the cutting distance of gauge cutter is much longer than others. From this study, however, it is noted
that cutter position has little correlation with cutter wear in the FCBB since the consumed numbers of
gauge cutters were not much higher than other cutters as shown in Figure 10. In addition, cutting dis-
tance after replacing cutters is also not major factor for the consumption of cutters because main cut-
ter wear pattern in the FCBB is not a loss of cutting blade material but a secondary wear. Although the
advance rate was increased in C937 project compared to previous project, it seems that the abnormal
cutter wear is still remained a major problem for tunneling in the FCBB.
Table 4. Summary of cutter replacement in the FCBB.
BP Bound EXPO Bound
1st 2nd 3 rd
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Intervention
planned unplanned unplanned unplanned planned unplanned unplanned
Distance from previous
154.2m 74.3m 75.6m 105.4m 36.3m 89.7m 89.6m
intervention
Total number of
42 12 15 17 30 11 19
exchanged cutters

Figure 9. Abnormal cutter wear in the FCBB.

Figure 10. Cutter replacement record according to cutter location in the FCBB.

6 UNDERCROSSING THE EXISTING MRT TUNNELS

6.1 Preparation for undercrossing

It has been known that the risk of groundwater inflow and soil instability which may induce large set-
tlement and ground collapse is not very high in the FCBB. However, undercrossing the existing MRT
tunnels in the FCBB was a great challenge because unavoidable deformations appeared in the sur-
rounding ground during tunnel construction. Moreover the C937 tunnels are located very close to the
existing MRT tunnels, as 8.7m and 3.2m below the NSL and CCL tunnels, respectively. In addition,
the normal operation of the existing MRT should not be interrupted or suspended during construction
of C937 tunnels.

In design phase, two dimensional plane strain finite element analysis was conducted using Plaxis 9.0
program. The maximum vertical movements of NSL tunnels and CCL tunnels were estimated as
11.0mm and 13.0mm, respectively, which met the allowable limits of the CPRP, maximum movement
of 15mm. The volume loss at ground level is assumed as about 0.85% for the NSL crossing and 0.75%
for the CCL crossing (Arup Singapore Pte Ltd, Final Design Settlement Analysis, Building Damage
Assessment and Protective Works Report, Issue 3).
During construction, the following items were mainly considered and prepared in order to minimize
the potential damages on the existing MRT tunnels;

Instrumentation Monitoring: Automated deformation monitoring system with four point reflective
prism and EL beam was used to monitor the movement of NSL and CCL tunnels. A total of 30~33
prism sets with intervals of 3m and 22 EL beam arrays with intervals of 2.8m had been installed inside
NSL and CCL tunnels (Figure 11). Monitoring results were recorded every two hours while under-
crossing the existing MRT tunnels.

TBM Operation: Ground movement may be developed by uncontrolled tunneling such as over excava-
tion, improper face pressure, inadequate grouting of the tail void and so on. The predominant factor
controlling the movement was the human related factor in TBM operation, which was not easy to pre-
dict (Sirivachiraporn, A. & Phienwej, N., 2012). Therefore TBM was operated with great caution and
operational parameters of each ring were closely monitored and reviewed during undercrossing the
existing MRT tunnels. The applied face pressure was 150kPa for tunneling in the FCBB. It was slight-
ly adjusted during the excavation period based on results of instrumentation. Volume of the excavated
muck was continuously measured and monitored relative to the TBM advance. Muck reconciliation
was controlled within allowable range, 110% of theoretical excavation volume. Continuous backfill
grouting was performed as TBM advances to compensate for volume loss. Primary grouting volume
was controlled within the range from 105 to 120% of the theoretical volume and secondary or tertiary
grouting was followed occasionally to ensure the proper backfilling of the tail void.

Continuous Excavation: Stopping excavation may influence on the development of ground movement.
In order to avoid unexpected stoppage, CHI was always carried out for the maintenance of TBM and
replacements of cutters before the 1st reserved line of NSL and CCL tunnels. In addition there were no
shift change and days off while undercrossing NSL and CCL tunnels.

Figure 11. Instrumentation plan of NSL and CCL tunnels.

6.2 Movement of MRT tunnels induced by EPB tunneling

The instrumentation data was used to figure out the ground movement behavior and its consequent
impact on the existing tunnels induced by the EPB tunneling in the FCBB. In addition, operational pa-
rameters of EPB TBM could be adjusted by analyzing the instrumentation data, i.e. increase or de-
crease of face pressure, the adjustment of grouting pressure and volume, and so on.

Table 5 summarizes the maximum vertical movement and differential movement developed in the
track of four tunnels. The maximum movement after the first drive of C937 tunnels was in the range
of 4.4~6.2mm. When second drive was completed, the maximum movement was increased to the
range of 11.1~17.1mm. The maximum differential movement of the track monitored by EL beam was
less than 1mm in all tunnels.
Table 5. Summary of instrumentation data of NSL and CCL tunnels.
NSL CCL
Instrumentation data North South Outer Inner
bound bound bound bound
After 1st C937 tunnel Max. vertical movement (mm) -5.9 -5.0 -6.2 -4.4
(BP Bound) Max. differential movement (mm) 0.436 0.323 0.496 0.385
After 2nd C937 tunnel Max. vertical movement (mm) -13.5 -11.1 -17.1 -13.5
(EXPO Bound) Max. differential movement (mm) 0.784 0.565 0.668 0.461

As shown in Table 5, maximum movement of NSL tunnels and CCL tunnels was slightly bigger than
the estimated value in design phase, 11.0mm and 13.0mm, respectively. Moreover the maximum
movement of CCL outer bound had breached 15mm as per CPRP limit. Therefore performance-based
assessment was carried out to check whether the tunnel is within serviceability limit or not. Longitu-
dinal and transverse differential movement, total distortion of the lining and track alignment were as-
sessed and all values were within the allowable limits.

Figure 12 shows a development of vertical movement in CCL outer bound according to TBM position
of EXPO bound. Ground movement started when the TBM approached the 1st reserve line of the exist-
ing tunnel (Ring number: P491) and steadily increased up. During the passage of the shield body
(Ring number: P499 to P505), the ground movement was relatively small. When the shield tail skin
advanced away from the existing tunnel (Ring number: P505), the trend of ground movement was a
bit different according to prism locations, sudden decrease at tunnel left shoulder position and small
increase at tunnel track position. And then the ground movement was continuously increased until
TBM was six meters away from the outer bound tunnel (Ring number: P514). After the TBM passage,
some small ground movement was observed (Ring number: P532).

Generally the ground movement induced by the second tunnel is bigger than the first tunnel because
the construction of the first tunnel may considerably affect the ground conditions, i.e. reduction of the
strength parameters, stress release and so on. Figure 13 shows the trend of vertical movement for twin
tunnel according to instrumentation location. The maximum vertical movement of the tunnel was
mostly observed above the second drive tunnel, EXPO bound. However the prism at the right shoulder
position of the tunnel close to the first drive tunnel showed the maximum vertical movement above
the first drive tunnel, BP Bound.

Figure 12. Development of vertical movement in CCL outer bound with TBM position.
Figure 13. Trend of vertical movement of CCL outer bound according to prism locations.

7 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, two main subjects were introduced in the view of shield tunneling in the FCBB: main
considerations for tunneling in the FCBB and the impact of shield tunneling on existing structures in
the FCBB.

Although C937 project experienced some unplanned stoppage caused by the abnormal cutter wear
during the construction, the advance rate could be increased compared to previous projects with sug-
gested design and TBM operations. From the experience of C937, it should be noted that effective
machine design, careful TBM operation, proper soil conditioning and regular CHI are very important
considerations in design and construction phase for successful tunneling in the FCBB.

While undercrossing the existing NSL tunnels and CCL tunnels in the FCBB, TBM was operated with
great caution to minimize the movement of the exiting tunnels. In addition, operational parameters of
each ring and instrumentation data were closely monitored and thoroughly reviewed. The normal op-
eration of the existing MRT was not interrupted or suspended during the construction of C937 tunnels.
For undercrossing sensitive structures in the FCBB without significant movement or damage, the
shield tunneling should be focused on the reduction of human related error in TBM operation, proper
adjustment of operational parameters based on instrumentation results and continuous excavation
without stoppage.

All of design and construction considerations suggested in this paper were reviewed and obtained
from the actual operations of EPB TBM encountered by the FCBB in C937 project. It is believed that
the introduced experiences and considerations will be useful practically for future projects in similar
situation.
REFERENCES

Arup Singapore Pte Ltd. 2010. C937 Geotechnical Interpretative Baseline Report.
Arup Singapore Pte Ltd. 2010. Final Design Settlement Analysis, Building Damage Assessment and Protective
Works Report, Issue 3.
Wong, I.H., Ooi, I.K. & Broms, B.B. 1996. Performance of Raft Foundations for High Rise Building on the
Bouldary Clay in Singapore. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 33(2), 219-236
Osborne N.H., C. Knight Hassell, L.C. Tan & R. Wong. 2008. A review of the performance of the tunneling for
Singapore’s circle line project. World Tunnel Congress 2008, Vol 3, 1497-1508.
Sirivachiraporn, A. & Phienwej, N. 2012. Ground movements in EPB shield tunneling of Bangkok subway pro-
ject and impacts on adjacent buildings. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 30, 10–24.