Design and construction of an immersed concrete tunnel using an integrated dock facility C. Bauduin BESIX, Brussels, Belgium University of Brussels, Belgium P. Depuydt BESIX, Brussels, Belgium ABSTRACT: The construction of the A73 highway (the Netherlands) involved the construction of a 2.4 km Jong, 2*2 lane tunnel to mitigate the impact of traffic on the city of Roermond and to cross the 1 km wide val- ley of the river Roer. Given the ground conditions (mainly dense sand and gravel), required cross section and tunnel depth, an immersed tunnel appeared to be the most economic solution to cross the valley. However, a facility to permit precasting of the RC tunnel elements needed to be established. The small depth and width of the Roer prevented transportation of tunnel elements by use of the river and dewatering was not permitted due to the associated environmental impact. The analysis of the geotechnical data indicated the presence of a5 m thick local loam layer over a length of 350 m along the tunnel alignment, located at the eastern part of the Roer valley. This impervious layer offered the opportunity to excavate a 350 m long dock along the axis of the tunnel between temporary anchored sheetpiles that were installed into the loam layer. Two precast tunnel elements of approximately 158 m long could be constructed in this dock. A trench was excavated between and temporary sheetpiles were installed 5 m outside the future tunnel location, thus permitting the transporta- tion and immersion of a total of four such tunnel elements in two installments from the dock to their final lo- cation, The remaining part of the tunnel was constructed in what was previously the dry dock after the immer- sion of the elements. This paper describes how the concrete structure was designed and specified (concrete weight and tolerances) with allowances for the specific geotechnical and hydraulic conditions (water depth, concrete weight and freeboard, water level management in the trench, excavation depth and uplift of the im- pervious layer etc.). The paper describes the behavior and provisions of the concrete structure on the gravel bed foundation, which was preferred to sand flow to minimize the risks of liquefaction as the area is mode- rately seismic, 1 INTRODUCTION As part of the new 40 km A73 Highway in the south of the Netherlands, the Ministry of ‘Transport Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) planned to build a 2*2 lanes, 2.4 km long tunnel, parily adjacent to the city of Roermond and partly under the 1 km wide valley of the river Roer. The tunnel solution was selected in order to minimize the impact of the highway in the urban area and to pre- serve the natural environment of the Roer valley. The Ministry prepared the tender for the funnel works as a Design and Construct contract and the client’s specifications were stated on a rather ab- stract level, leaving a large degree of design freedom to the competing contractors. In 2004 the contract was awarded to the lowest bidding contractor that conformed to the client’s specifications. The design and the construction were the contractor's respon: bility, under process supervision by the Ministry. The contract was awarded to Besix, the works were executed by Besix-Strukton Betonbouw JV, the de- sign was undertaken by Besix Design Department and the preparation, design and execution of immer- sion operations was undertaken by Mergor (part of Strukton Betonbouw). 4 Fig. 1, Location of the tunnel.Severe environmental constraints applied to the design and construction of the tunnel: = To preserve nature and to avoid settlement of neighboring structures, with no permitted changes to ground water levels ~ The construction should not influence the course of the River Roer and not reduce the discharge capacity of the Roer Valley in case of flooding = Vibrations and noise should not adversely impact the natural environment or cause hindrance or damage to neighboring structures and persons. The ground conditions are characterized by me- dium dense sand and sandy-loam top layers, overly~ ing dense to very dense, highly pervious sand and gravel layers, Stiff loam layers with low permeabi- ity were found locally between these layers. oe ew ST le ew ol = SNSUENE Arne ws EE] Doainm Fig. 2. Typical CPT in construction pit. The discharge of the River Roer is governed by rainfall and the melting of snow in upstream regions ‘The water level is mainly governed by the discharge, the water level in the Meuse and by the opening or closing of the upstream dams, In normal discharge conditions, the Roer is approximately 15 m wide and 4m deep; in extreme conditions, however, the valley is flooded over its whole width between the winter dikes (approximately 1 km). The water level varies from 18.75 m NAP (minimum level) to 20.74 m NAP (return period: 1/10 years), 21.55 (retum pe- riod: 1/100 years) which corresponds to a river width of I km. The design water level was 22.44 m NAP (return period 1/10000 years). ‘The maximum top ground level is 20.5 m NAP. The ground water piezometric head reacts moderately to variations in the river level. The geometric requirements of the tunnel were: = The cross section was to consist of two tubes (two. catriageways cach) separated by a central emer- ‘gency evacuation tunnel (fig. 3). = Internal free height requirements: 5.0 m (inclu- ding an allowance for electro-mechanica! installa tion) and width between the wails: 10.20 m minimum to be increased to allow for construc- tion tolerances. The height between bottom and top slab is 5.6 m to allow for ballast concrete, road pavement construction and settlement tole- rances (fig. 3) = Specific to the tunnel in the Roer Valley: the top level of the roof slab was to be located at 14.85 m ‘NAP maximum over approximately 200 m width of the valley in order to avoid adverse effects of the tunnel on the groundwater flow. The overbur- den combined with the design water level go- verned the maximum values of the actions for de- signing the tunnel cross sections (fig. 4). — The design specifications required that a mini- mum contact stress of 5 kPa due to the absence of overburden over approximately half of the tunnel Tength to accommodate possible future natural changes of the river bedding be included in the design. This governed the volume of structural and ballast concrete that was required for the in temal volume of the tunnel, given the unit weight of the conerete and the amount of reinforcement. ~ The concrete volume and internal net open vo- lume determined the free board. The smaller the free board, the easier the immersion and ballast exchange operations. 1260 Fig. 3. Tunnel cross section TEL/TE2, concrete pouring stages. 2. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE, TUNNEL Four main areas can be identified (fig. 7): — An open access ramp at the western side was de- signed as a polder construction formed by a PE sheet placed underwater on the bottom and the slopes of a deep dredged open trench, Backfill on the sheet compensated for uplift ground water pressure. — Piled open ramp and tunnel section, west of the Roer valley. The deepest part of the access ramp and a 60 m long part of the tunnel west of the dike, including the main technical building and sump pit, were designed as reinforced concrete structures supported by GEWI piles and con- structed between permanent anchored sheet piles or combi-walls. A temporary unreinforced con-crete floor was designed below the RC structure between the sheet piles and anchored by the GEWI piles to avoid dewatering. This design was chosen because the required width in the trench for the PE sheet was not available and also due to the complexity of the structures to be built. — Crossing of the valley, as far as the eastern dikes (see chapter 3). — An urban section of the tunnel, which is located partly under the urban ringroad to the south of Roetmond; the alignment being crossed at ground level by local access roads at several locations. The urban part was designed as a cut and cover cast in-situ reinforced concrete structure, 3. TUNNEL CROSSING THE VALLEY ‘The design for the crossing of the Roer Valley was a key element to the project due its very important economic impact on the total construction cost. Several solutions complying with the fundamen tal requirements were predesigned and evaluated in terms of cost and risk. Immersed tunnel solutions appeared to be the most appropriate because they ‘would require no piling works and construction ma- terials could be used efficiently provided that: ~ the trench could be constructed using temporary facilities such as recoverable sheet piles an efficient and economic solution for the area for precasting the immersed elements could be found while preventing the need for dewatering The trench along the tunnel alignment was sup- ported by temporary anchored sheet pile walls lo- cated 5m beyond the planned tunnel, thus permit. ting recovery of the sheet piles after completion of the works. ‘The use of the Roer to transport elements was not feasible as it has insufficient depth and width. Care- fl analysis of the ground conditions indicated the presence of a 5 m thick loam layer along the tunnel alignment at the eastern 350 m of the valley, the bot- tom of the layer being at approximately -2 m NAP. 1 Table 1. Parmer Ti fiveraby afiess Tntiverbly aes Torani il condition or esgn parameter Deep excavation oval ‘Wate depitvequiedinRoertoen | Uplittleam layer Disignporawar consiuton pit ble Noting of TE Dimensions reining stusture of pit “Tishnes of lamlayer | Thick | Excavation dept (higher piles “Tobe determined by etal ) ee ground investigation _| Teal nl Haight Haigh | Stength of roof ana testom sb | Required water depth for loating condi | Determined by te height, bale Allowable thickness otallasteon- | ous (ative feels between the Roce | lst thikess and rootbtiom cree aud te depth of excavations) sab thickness ‘Verte tolerance for immersion and __| acewacy of prediciedsotlemens “oun toed ioe Tow | Required water dep for oaing | Swengh ofvoot and baton sab ‘Deerined by fee eign (Oe conditions (relive levels between the | Allowable thickness okaastconcete_| sign requirement), allasthick- [Roe and the depth afexcavations) | Venicl tolerance for immersion and ae- | ness and oofbottom sab curacy of peditdsetlements thickness ‘Waar level Rose High | Plating coolions (ow fee Bord) Vasile, slightly pedicle, (Clearance under TE manageable Waterevel Row Tow Regus high ee bowed ‘Variable sighly edie, sumnageable ee board TE Taw | Foating conditions Reqd water depih footing coral | Design paramsi, Ballastquatiy tions (elaine level between he Reer | minimum tee bosd (0.2 mto Egil afer ierson sd the depth ofeseavations)toenable | erable lotng of TE foating Fre board TE THigh | Respird depth oF constustion pe | Inmerson (igh vem of ballast wa | Design parame, ied by eguited depth wench ) strength egucerent for ap- Required minimum evelofRoerto | Exchange of water allast to permanent | plied load able Noting of TE tall Deptraftinneisiement | Follows | The smaller the dept, he snlle the “Allows optiniztio of? infval postion (us| tom vent- | floor and rf thickness thar otal ele ‘Wess maximum alae oforer- | callin: | ment height ‘burden on of) ent ‘Ceaance fo ballast, High | Upliinabeence cf overburden | Total wane eight ‘Design pavantr Hinting de const in tunnel Allowable uncertainty ox settement ition to wravel bed ‘Weight of reinforced Tow | High fee tourd, ds requved dept | Eifetive contacts underbotton | Design parameter cencite ee slab ‘Maximum tee oftuw | Designs eight ofthe tunnel (ming evel of | Design reqaerent oi aclroof afer immersion | urement ‘uel 008) size effets of tunel on round wate ow Wooverbadenontun | Designs ‘Minima hekners ofall eonerete | Design equuement elo! qltement vodeaey)This geotechnical feature was the key to the de- sign of the construction area for the precast RC elements of the immersed tunnel, as it permitted the construction of a construction pit along the axis of the planned tunnel, ie. in the same alignment as the trench, without the need for dewatering pro- vided that the retaining wall could penetrate suffi ciently deeply into the impervious layer, ‘This construction pit was used to construct two tunnel elements (each of which was approximately 135 and 158 m long), after which the pit was inun- dated and the tunnel elements were floated out of the pit and subsequently immersed (fig. 4). The pit ‘was then dewatered and used again to construct the next (Wo tunnel elements which were similarly transported and immersed at their final location. Finally the pit was dewatered again to construct a remaining part of tunnel approximately 350 m long as a cast in-situ cut and cover tunnel using the framework of the immersed parts. After backfilling the french and the construction pit, the sheetpiles located adjacent to the trench and the construction, pit were removed. In order to achieve the conceptual design de- scribed above, it was necessary to successfully balance a number of oppositely interacting pa- rameters, as shown in table 1. Analysis of the interaction between these pa- rameters has indicated that, for a given level of the underside of the loam layer and thus the allowable exeavation depth, the feasibility of the concept was governed by: = The required tunnel height for resistance with full overburden and uplift safety without over- burden, including tolerances on settlement = The required water level in the Roer — The ability to predict the unit weight of the rein- forced concrete adequately and the control of this value during construction, in addition to the control of dimensions during construction Several scenarios were analyzed, which finally Jed to the following design (fig. 4): — For the deepest and thus most heavily loaded elements 1 and 2, the required slab thickness was too large to be compatible with the pro- bable low water levels in the Roer and may mum allowable excavation depth in the con- struction pit. It was decided to install a lock wall in the trench which allowed the water level in the construction pit and the adjacent part of the trench to be controlled independently of the water level of the Roer. The elements were then towed to the deepest parts of the trench and fi- nally the lock was opened afler equating the two water levels. The elements 1 and 2 were de- signed for a free board of 20 cm to 50 cm de- pending on the assumed tolerances on concrete weight and dimensions. — For the two highest and thus less loaded ele- ments 3 and 4, e design with a high free board (greater than 1 m) was adopted, as the possi ity of using the lock wall no longer existed fol- lowing the immersion of elements 1 and 2 — After immersion, the fourth element was strut- ted and preloaded under water against the longi- tudinal walls of the construction pit in order to avoid loss of compression in the Gina profile, which could occur during the subsequent dewa- tering of the construction pit which was neces- sary for the construction of the final in-situ part of the tunnel under the Roer Valley The structural design of the tunnel and temporary structures was undertaken so that the aforemen- tioned requirements were accommodated, Cet -4 CONCRETE Conerete grade C28/35 was selected as: = Its spalling behavior is more favorable when ‘compared with concrete of a higher strength — Because it develops manageable internal tem- peratures in its initial hardening stage (hydra- tion process). In order to avoid cracking, it was specified that the maximum tensile stress in the hardening concrete during the hydration process ‘was not to exceed half of the average instanta- neous tensile strength. FE heat and stress caleu- lations were performed for the selected concrete mix to check this criterion and to determine the amount of water cooling that was necessary to concrete the pouring stages (stage 1: floor slab, stage 2: internal walls; stage 3: extemal walls and roof). ‘The specified design life for the tunnel is 100 years, Durability of the structure was achieved by ‘adopting a conerete cover of 50 mm, specifying ‘environmental class XD3/XF4, using CEM Ill ce- ment with a minimum slag content of 50% and a maximum water penetration of 20 mm. The value and range of variation of the unit weight of the concrete are of large importance for the im- mersed tunnel. Values were specified on the initial concrete mix type tests. The unit weight of the concrete (y= 22.85 kNim’ - 23.46 kN/m?) and the as built dimensions were measured continuously during the construction in order that they remained within the acceptable limits for successful floating and immersion operations, 5 FOUNDATION DESIGN Due to the seismic risk in the Roermond area, a gravel bed foundation was preferred to classical sand flow in order to minimize the risk of liquefac- tion during an earthquake event, This foundation consists of nine ridges, 1.65 m wide at their top level and 0.5 m high per 22.6m long tunnel section (fig. 5). “The interaction between the foundation and the tunnel was determined by the stiffness of the ridges and by the uniformity of their top level. The Joad-settlement relationship of a single ridge was established using FE geotechnical calculations as- suming @ hardening soil model for the natural ground and Mohr-Coulomb behavior for the gravel ridges. ‘The behavior that was predicted for the ridge was confirmed by plate load tests that were undertaken on full scale ridges which were con- structed using the intended gravel. Deviations of the actual top levels of the ridges from the theo- retical levels provoked non-uniform reactions which had to be accounted for. Deviations of the top levels may be stochastic or systematic, but are not known during the design. They interact with the structure differently depending on the scale (area over which local deviations are averaged) of the deviation: ~ Stochastic deviations act at a local level; par- ticularly at “stiff points” as protruding ridges in the span of the bottom slab are unfavorable when compared with a uniformly distributed soil reaction. These effects have been mitigated by reducing the thickness of the lower face of the bottom slab in the centre of the span below the tunnel cells and by the design methodology He BB B42, ta "ec aN a aa ac oon Fig. 5. Plan view ridges for one TE and detail of izes. — Systematic deviations over areas of quarter to half of the area of a section mainly act at a global level in a single tunnel section provoking torsion or cross spanning of the tunnel from one outer wall to the other — Systematic deviations over areas that are ap- proximately the area of a whole tunnel section (22.6m*27.64 m) result in the shear forces be- ing transferred fiom the poorly supported sec- tion to the well supported section Separate non-linear analysis models were con- structed to simulate each of the types of aforemen- tioned deviations. In all of these models, the non- linear behavior of the spring and possible gaps be- tween the top of ridges were modeled. A large number of calculations have been undertaken with these non-linear models in order to develop a full understanding of the effects of the assumed devia- tions. These calculations led to envelopes of inter- nal forces that were used to construct equivalent deterministic simple 2D-models which were then used for routine design, of which the results hadbeen proven to be conservative when compared with the envelopes that were obtained from the non-linear models. The different simplified models that were used for the design have been incorporated into the permanent works by introducin; ~ Specifications for the placement of the ridges — Acceptance criteria for the gravel bed as placed in-situ, by introducing limits on the measured deviations of the as built levels when compared with the theoretical. The flow diagram shown in fig 6 indicates the design steps that were followed to establish the possible effects of any deviation, to convert these models to casy-to-handle routine design models, and to specify allowable mean deviations of the ridges over areas of different sizes, ‘Sepia fone dvs oop ee and sot conta sores || “Senmesarazsen || secmeaeonyze ce tons Things of ght eos ot eter see er oe fonveryterotsertaans 2fotbea roves nr ‘Sep} Snpiied meds talloaine design stantondinaaceatom | “atldjon model emelopes Tee equa 7 wae wi ote | [ Tavalnostae tama cones Ryarrreuin arenes Sorotuttenrcuerwatswesa.c.e | | mamatueemtcotswces oie Siocewenceee en atnabie devatong top aes cetomentaras a6, || ousransiocen || haratsen nee SreerimacetanSoem || Cletmsceeaon |] Cleanses Fig. 6. Flow scheme of design and specification of gravel bed ‘The non-linear models were used to predict the most probable value of settlement due to backfill after immersion as well as the upper and lower its of these settlements (as approximated 5% and_95% ranges). The theoretical level of the ‘| ROER Fig. 7, Overall view of the tunnel and design solutions adopted, gravel bed has been corrected on the basis of the calculated most probable values of settlement G5 mm in the deepest section reducing to 5 mm in highest section), After backfill, the deviation be- tween the as built level and theoretical level was for 90% of the measurements less than 5 mm, ex treme deviation was 15 mm. 6 ACCEPTANCE PROCEDURE FOR GRAVEL BED The ridges were placed by an underwater scrader that was specially developed for the project. The top level of the ridges was measured in-situ by use of a multi-beam, Transforming the measured data into a calculated average level per meter length, the level of the ridges and the levels of the as- sumed areas in the design could be easily checked against the acceptance criteria, If the three crite (lig. 6) were met, the foundation bed was accepted. If one or maybe several criteria were not satisfied, the actual measured in-situ ridge levels were intro~ duced in the relevant calculation models to check the design (slab reinforeement, shear force in shear key, etc.) for the actual as built situation. If neces- sary, profile of the gravel bed had to be adapted. 7 CONCLUSION Strict client's specifications on environmental con- ditions and geometric boundaries were applied in the design and construction of the tunnel. Considering the local ground conditions, an immersed tunnel was the optimum design solution in terms of costs and risks. Integration of design, construction methods, specifications and monito- ring was the key issue for a successful project. ‘The consttuction pit was started in November 2004 and tunnel elements were immersed in May and October-November 2006. The project was de- livered in November 2007.