ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the background and motivation of the current study as well as the structure of the monograph. First, the importance of the stability of underground tunnels to an underground project is highlighted. The various factors that influence the rock mass stability around underground excavations are discussed. Due to the complexities in the field, the stability assessment of underground excavations could be extremely challenging and difficult. For this particular underground mine located in the USA, because it has a relatively long remaining life, the stability of the development drifts, which are used to extract and transport the ore from the mining area, seems pretty important. It stimulates the study of investigating the tunnel stability and providing suggestions on the support design by taking into account specific geological conditions and engineering disturbances.
