Tunnelling: Management by Design

Summary

Tunnelling has become a fragmented process, excessively influenced by lawyers'notions of confrontational contractual bases. This prevents the pooling of skills, essential to the achievement of the promoters' objectives. Tunnelling: Management by Design seeks the reversal of this trend. After a brief historical treatment of selected developments, the concept of design is defined in detail and related to systems and to risk, the central features of this book. A final chapter discusses the failure in 1994 of railway tunnels at Heathrow Airport which well illustrates the expensive results of disregard for several of the criteria for success.

The book covers all the main aspects of tunnelling:

• planning
• studies which contribute to the viability of a tunnel project
• the technical aspects of design · the management of construction
• overall project management
• a review of recent tunnel failures
• issues regarding dispute resolution and prevention

This book is an essential handbook for professional engineers engaged in all aspects of tunnelling and geotechnically-based construction, including those in public authorities, private consultants and contractors, plant manufacturers, and designers of specialist geoprocessors. It will also appeal to project managers, lawyers involved in contractual issues, and civil engineers from post-docs to professors and researchers in geotechnics and structures, in engineering management, health and safety, construction law and risk assessment.

Table of Contents

Preface. Notation. Introduction. Background to modern tunnelling. Design - the ubiquitous element. Planning. Studies and investigations. Design of the tunnel project. Design of construction. Management. Hazards, disputes and their resolution. Coda - the Heathrow Tunnel collapse. References. Author Index. Subject Index.

Reviews

"Whether you read it from cover to cover or just to dip into it, it is well worth the effort."
—Concrete March 2001

"Alan Muir Wood is a legend in the tunnelling community and this book, Tunnelling - Management by Design, typifies his contribution to tunnelling."
—NZ Geomechanics News June 2001

"This book by Alan Muir Wood is an excellent reference and should be in the personal library of every engineer and manager involved in tunneling. It is very readable and the no holds barred approach adopted by the author in discussing the important issues is authoritative and refreshing. It comprehensively covers the technical aspects and philosophies of tunnelling and many readers will find it has applications to other major civil engineering projects."
—NZ Geomechanics News, June 2001

"We know of no other textbook on tunnelling with a comparably large breadth of treatment..."
—Tunnel, 4/2001