ABSTRACT
The Green Heart Tunnel is one of the most important structures in the northern part of the high-speed railway link between Amsterdam and Brussels. The tunnel consists of one bored tunnel with a separated wall between two tracks in the tunnel; ramps as entrances for the tunnel; diaphragm walls between the ramps and the technical buildings. In the design and construct contract for this tunnel a requirement of a service life of at least 100 years has been stated. In order to prove the validity of this required service life, performance and reliability-based calculations have been carried out according to the design method “DuraCrete”. In this paper the performance and reliability based service life design for the Green Heart Tunnel has been described. The environmental conditions and the possible degradations in the tunnel and ramps have been identified. The degradation processes have been formulated within the limit states. The determination of material and execution parameters, which is closely related to the material selection, concrete mix development and optimisation of execution processes, is mentioned in this paper. This underlines the importance of the co-operation between the designer and the contractor during the service life design and construction. It is believed to be the first time that the service life design has been carried out in such a full scale in practice.
