SOFT GROUND TUNNEL, CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

EPPING TO CHATSWOOD RAIL LINK, SOFT GROUND TUNNEL CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

1.0 INTRODUCTION Most of the 13km long Epping Rail link in Sydney comprises twin 7.2m diameter tunnels bored by TBM through Hawkesbury Sandstone. However, where the tunnels emerge to the surface to join the North Shore rail line north of Chatswood, they pass through weathered Ashfield Shale that forms a capping over the sandstone. There is approximately 170m of twin tunnel within residual clays and extremely to highly weathered shale, with a depth of cover as low as 5m. This length of tunnel is called the Chatswood Soft Ground Tunnel and a key feature (see Figure 1) is that the tunnels had to be constructed under the embankment of the operating North Shore line. The initial design was undertaken by specialist tunnel consultants from Austria. The design comprised 7.8m diameter tunnels with typical support as follows (Reference 1): Initial Lining Split headings, bench and invert excavation sequence 170mm to 250mm shotcrete two layers of welded mesh lattice girders at 0.75m to 1m centres, full round for first 35m and beneath Boundary Street bridge.

Waterproof Membrane 10mm thick, continuously welded full parameter Final Lining 200mm or 300mm cast in situ concrete reinforced for most of the length with 16mm bars at 200mm both ways. Pells Sullivan Meynink Pty Ltd was requested by the Thiess Hochtief John Venture to take design responsibility for this length of tunnel. This note summarises the final design and construction performance. 2.0 GEOLOGY Figure 1 summarises the geology at the portal. Ground conditions are poorest at the portal but steadily improve to the north as the tunnel descends and the ground surface rises. At the portal the crown is at the boundary between residual clay soils and Class V Shale (as defined in Pells et. al. 1999). The residual soils in the crown have unconfined compressive strengths <1MPa and at mid height of the face the substance strengths are < 2MPa. Defects comprise near horizontal bedding and joints dipping at between 40 and 90. The quality of shale improves with depth, such that at the portal, the floor of the tunnel comprises slightly weathered shale. From about 100m inbye, the entire tunnel lies within Class II Shale.

Figure 1: Cross section at the portal showing geology and existing North Shore Railway.

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SOFT GROUND TUNNEL, CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

3.0 DESIGN The poor ground conditions together with the need to limit settlement of the overlying rail line constrained the construction sequence and support design. The tunnels were initially excavated with small excavator. An AM 105 Alpine Miner roadheader was used from about 15 m inbye, which imposes some constraints on the tunnel geometry and construction sequence, notably: the shape of the head dictates a flat central portion of the crown a maximum cut height of 6 m, which means a heading and bench excavation sequence

The finite element package Phase was used to assess the induced stresses within the rock mass and the tunnel lining, as well as surface settlement. The ground reaction curve from this analysis is shown in Figure 3. It was concluded from this curve that it was essential that support be installed close to the face so that the support would actually carry a high proportion of the overburden stresses thereby avoiding excessive crown and sidewall displacements.

Figure 2: Tunnel geometry. Under the contract for the soft ground tunnel, the lining was required to carry the full overburden weight. Yet in practice this is impossible, as some displacements will always occur prior to the installation of support. Hence, while the structural capacity of the lining was designed for the overburden load, the construction sequence was designed to control settlement. The analysis package FLAC3D was used to model the three-dimensional geometry that exists at the portal, as shown in Figure 4. This package enabled modelling of the effect of canopy tubes and steel sets.

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SOFT GROUND TUNNEL, CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Figure 3:

Ground reaction curve for the western tunnel, showing a collapse mechanism occurring after about 40 mm crown displacement.

Figure 4:

FLAC3D model of portal showing steel sets and canopy tubes.

Figure 5: Steel set being placed underneath previously installed spilling bars. Note residual clay in the tunnel crown. A series of support types was designed to account for varying overburden loads and ground conditions. The various primary support types included canopy tubes, spiling bars, soil nails, rock bolts, steel sets, and structural shotcrete. The permanent lining comprises a 260mm thick steel fibre reinforced shotcrete shell with a formed concrete invert. A sprayed membrane in the crown acts as an umbrella for any groundwater percolating from the surface. The groundwater table is drawn down to approximately invert level.

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SOFT GROUND TUNNEL, CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

4.0 MONITORING The design analyses indicated that ground movements above the tunnels were very sensitive to the proportion of overburden pressure actually carried by the ground support this in turn being very sensitive to the proximity to the face of support installation, and effective contact between the steel sets and the rock. With tunnel support in the tunnels carrying 80% of overburden, the ground surface settlements were predicted to be as little as 8mm. However, when the lining carries between 50% and 80%, settlements of up to about 60mm are calculated. Based on the FLAC3D analyses it was concluded that with near perfect construction of the steel sets, canopy tubes and spiling bars, that the lining would only ever carry between 60% and 70% of overburden pressure (Reference 2). On this basis it was predicted that when the western tunnel was excavated the surface settlements would be 8mm to 10mm, increasing to 30mm to 40mm with excavation of the eastern tunnel. Surface settlements monitoring just in-bye from the portal gave settlements ranging between 15mm and 45mm.

REFERENCES 1. 2. D2 Consult, Parramatta Rail Link, Chatswood Portal Design Report, 5 March 2004. Pells Sullivan Meynink Pty Ltd, Internal Memorandum PSM649.TM31 of 28 June 2004.

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