Tweet Share

• Send by email

  Send by email

  

  The Xicotepec road tunnel collapse in Mexico - an investigation of the causes and the reconstruction project

  The road tunnel Xicotepec is under construction since September 2011 as part of a modern Highway project connecting Mexico City with Tuxpan, in the coast of the State of Veracruz. Along the mountain system known as Sierra Madre Oriental, very complex geological formations are passed across, consisting of diverse type of Jurassic sedimentary rocks, coexisting with volcanic deposits from the Holocene. While driving the tunnel through soft clayey strata at the face in combination with and an upper body of stiff columnar basalts at the roof, a very large scale collapse happened. This paper presents a complete, both geological and geotechnical interpretation of the event, supported by two and three-dimensional numerical analyses reproducing the failure with a very good degree of approximation, which served as the basis for the reconstruction designs, same that will also be summarized.

  Recipient :

  Name ^* :

  E-mail address ^* :

  ^* Required fields

  Send   or  Cancel

• Print