ABSTRACT
Turkey has a large potential for tunneling projects in both civil and mining industries. Nearly a total of 140 km/year of various tunnels are being constructed, including mine developments, drifts, raises and shafts, hydroelectric projects, underground storage, highway, metro, sewer and irrigation tunnels (Bilgin et al, 2000). However the advance rates, in many cases, are too small which necessitates new excavation technologies for more efficient tunneling. The primary goal of the research program described in this paper was significantly advance the current level of excavation technology utilized in the Turkish Mining and Civil Underground Construction Sectors to speed up project completion schedules, to reduce costs and improve worker health and safety. This goal was planned to be accomplished by conducting research in new excavation techniques and introducing them into the industry by field implementation of the research findings (Bilgin et al, 2000)
2 LABORATORY FACILITIES
Laboratory facilities were created under the specific purpose of providing the tunneling and mining industries with solid solutions to practical problems. The laboratories contain a selection of equipment that allows physical testing of every type of commercially available rock cutting or drilling tools at full scale and also, rock mechanics equipment, ventilation-health and safety equipment.
