TBM considerations for soft-ground tunnels

The global demand for underground facilities has increased substantially in the past decades, and a substantial number of underground projects have had to deal with challenging ground conditions in urban environments. Particularly challenging are weak and unstable water bearing soils. Advancements in shielded TBM tech-nology have led to significant improvements regarding the ability to control ground deformations in soft ground. Nonetheless, ground collapse may occur even when the most advanced TBM designs are employed if unexpected adverse ground conditions are encountered or if insufficient stabilizing pressure is transferred to the tunnel face. This paper reviews common approaches for face stability and face pressure transmission calculations, and provides an overview of some of the latest technological developments and considerations for soft ground TBM applica-tions.