ABSTRACT
Once the elements forming a tunnel have been immersed, joined, and made stable through ballasting and backfilling, the interior finishing works can commence. There are a great many operations that have to be carried out within a tunnel before it can be opened to either road traffic or rail services. Some of these must be carried out sequentially in order to enable access for other operations. This is the case particularly for early finishing operations when access is first obtained into the newly immersed tunnel. Later, it will be possible to undertake multiple finishing operations at one time, but these need to be planned carefully to ensure that access through the tunnel can be maintained. This usually requires the finishing operations to be staggered through the tunnel such that the finishes are installed progressively through the tunnel in a logical order.
