Minimising the Impact of Tunnelling Work

Before embarking on a project, any potential disruptions to the local community as a result of your work should be identified and efforts made to minimise these disturbances.

Traditional tunnelling methods dictate that existing tunnels must be internally propped before connecting into them. However, this method runs the risk of causing massive disruption and losing approximately 20m of standing space, which would compromise station operation.

As a result, the following measure was introduced on site, to offset potential disturbances:

• A propless platform connection system was developed to alleviate the need for closing off sections of the station, escalators and platforms, when making final breakthrough into station and platform areas;
• This removed the need for any temporary propping from within the station, with interfaces between new and existing tunnels only taking around 450mm of station space.

This provided massive benefits, as disruption to commuters was minimised and previous logistical issues alleviated; as containing all props within the worksite removed the need for equipment to be delivered by train or escalator.