ABSTRACT
Ground Support in Mining and Underground Construction-Villaescusa & Potvin (eds.) © 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 90 5809 640 8
ABSTRACT: Traditionally, tunnels have been designed using empirical methods and a semi-observational approach. A series of high-profile collapses in civil tunnelling however, have demonstrated that these methods cannot be used in isolation and that increasingly, designers need to take a risk-based design approach and to make more use of sophisticated numerical analysis. There is now general acceptance in the UK that risk management is not optional. It took some time for this realisation to sink in, but the Construction and Design Management Regulations (CDM) implemented in 1994 made it mandatory and enforceable. Therefore it has been necessary to incorporate strategies into the design and construction phases of a project that provide both continuity and a framework for an open process that can be adjusted during the progress of the works to suit the actual conditions. This paper looks at some of the concepts and definitions that are helpful in this process.
