ABSTRACT
Ground movements are an inevitable consequence of excavating and constructing a tunnel. Tunnel excavation causes relaxation of in-situ stress, which is only partially restricted by the insertion of the tunnel support. A certain amount of the deformation of the ground will take place at the tunnel depth; this will trigger a chain of movements, resulting in settlements at the ground surface, which become more significant with the decrease in tunnel depth. It is important to understand the development of tunnelling-induced settlements on a greenfield site before considering the added complexity of an existing building. The assessment of the control parameters is performed for each building within the control zone, based on the prediction of settlements at the level of the building foundations. The semi-empirical settlement theory offers the advantages of easy implementation and a good degree of reliability, provided that the basic hypotheses of the theory are respected.
