The lattice girder is usually among the first structural member to be installed in the tunnel excavation

either as soon as the excavation round is completed or a "flash'" layer of shotcrete is applied to protect a
potentially unstablee profile.

Commonly manufactured three-chord lattice has an isosceles

triangular section with a larger bar diameter (25 -40mm) at the apex and two smaller diameter bars
(20- 32mm) at the base corners. The apex bar is separated from the side-bars by small diameter (10
-
.
The end ofs lattice girder are secured by steel plates either butt welded to the main bar
ends or fillet welded to form base plates or connection For this the complete lattice girder arch
is fabricated in manageable sections that can be bolted or pinned together at the end plates to form
full moment connections when fully encapsulated in shotcrete