Permanent sprayed concrete tunnel linings waterproofed with bonded membranes have been used at a number of important traffic projects over the last decade. Research has been carried out in several teams in order to increase the understanding of the function, properties and behavior of such linings under different loading and boundary conditions. The basic layout of this lining gives fundamental different system properties compared to the traditional lining systems. The main differences pertain to the groundwater exposure and the resulting hydraulic loading, the response of the concrete and membrane materials to this loading, as well as the geomechanically induced loading of the lining structure. The current understanding of the function and properties of such lining structures is presented in the paper based on review of recent research carried out in Norway, as well as field observations and monitoring carried over a several years. The influence of the water exposure on the final condition of the concrete and membrane materials has proven to be of vital importance for proper material testing and acceptance, assessments of the mechanical contribution of the bonded membrane, as well as assessments of the longterm durability of such linings. Obtaining realistic material parameters for the concrete and membrane materials subject to the boundary conditions posed by the groundwater exposure in an undrained structure is emphasized. Finally, some recent results from currently ongoing research on such linings, particularly the hydraulic response of the rock mass and the long term behavior of the concrete and membrane materials are presented.

Tunnelling in urban environments is very common nowadays as large cities are expanding and transportation demands require the use of the underground space for creating extra capacity. Inevitably, any such new construction may have significant effects on existing nearby infrastructure and therefore relevant assessment of structural integrity and soil-structure interaction is required. Foundation piles can be rather sensitive to nearby tunnel construction and therefore their response needs to be evaluated carefully. Although detailed three-dimensional continuum finite element analysis can provide a wealth of information about this behaviour of piles, such analyses are generally very computationally demanding and may require a number of material and other model parameters to be properly calibrated. Therefore, relevant simplified approaches are used to provide a practical way for such an assessment. This paper presents a simple method where the pile is modelled with beam finite elements, pile-soil interaction is modelled with soil springs and tunnelling-induced displacements are introduced as an input boundary condition at the end of the soil springs. The performance of this approach is assessed through some examples of applications.