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  Risk Management in Tunnelling – A Joint Approach of all Involved

  Risk management in tunnelling requires a joint approach of all parties involved in the project, the clients’ representatives, the designers and the contractors as well as the site supervision and the geological and geotechnical experts on site. Only a common approach and a joint goal of a safe and economical construction will lead to a successful and satisfying project completion. The paper presents the Austrian approach for tunnels and underground structures based on the Austrian Guideline for the Geotechnical Design of Underground Structures (Ref. [1]). The procedure is backed with examples of the actual implementation in major tunnel projects. Risk management in tunnelling projects starts not only with the start of the construction but already during the initial design phases. All geotechnical risks have to be evaluated by the design team prior to the start of the actual design works and be covered as much as possible by the solutions provided. Any remaining risks must be acceptable as to be handled during construction and will be considered in the so called geotechnical safety management plan which is prepared during the tender design and is part of the contract documents.The geotechnical safety management plan is a design document which includes information about the expected behaviour of the tunnels under consideration of the underground conditions and support measures. The expected behaviour is to be referenced by alarm and alert values for deformations, water inflow, stresses etc. The content covers also all roles and responsibilities of all parties involved as well as contact information of the named personnel. All processes and procedures for the regular as well as for exceptional cases are presented and intervention measures defined.During tunnel construction the team dealing with the geotechnical safety management on a daily basis typically consists of the geotechnical and geological experts on site and the site supervision, which are on behalf of the client on the one side and the contractor on the other side. During daily routine meetings the monitoring results are analysed and in case of necessity respective measures are taken. The designer will be included as to adapt the design accordingly and update the geotechnical safety management plan if required.The theoretical background will be shown in practice by experiences made during major tunnelling projects in Austria such as Semmering Base Tunnel or Tunnel Lainz and Tunnel Wienerwald.Semmering Base Tunnel is a 27 km long railway tunnel in a mountainous environment with an overburden of up to 900 m, which is currently under construction. The total length of the two adjacent projects Tunnel Lainz and Tunnel Wienerwald is app. 26 km with 24 km being built by means of mined tunnelling method.

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