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  Tunnelling below Barcelona Airport: Lessons Learned in the Control of EPB TBM Face Support Pressure for Settlement Risk Management

  The new railway access tunnel to the Barcelona Airport, bored with an EPB, underpasses the C-31 motorway, the terminal T2 and an operative runway. This meant a strict limitation of the maximum admissible settlements that, in the existing conditions of low overburden (10 to 25 meters) and deltaic geology of high deformability, were not exceeded by using a face pressure in the higher range and a cautious backfilling injection. In this paper, the influence over the face pressure range design of some geotechnical and constructive factors not usually taken into account, such as the permeability of the ground in the face, the resultant mixture in the work chamber, the excavation advance rate, the coupled hydrogeological behaviour or the proper formation of the cake in the face, among others, is analysed. It is also exemplified how, under certain geotechnical conditions, classical analytical recommendations should be applied with caution, requiring the use of numerical methods and the consideration of the geotechnical interaction between the tunnel face and the soil. Finally, the lessons learned in this case are explained.

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