Subjects › Transportation
Tunnel Engineering
Drill-and-blast, NATM, TBM, cut-and-cover and immersed tunnels.
Topics by level
Basics
School, diploma and first-year level: the ideas in plain words.
Intermediate
Degree and exam core (GATE, ESE level).
- NATM planned
- Tunnel boring machines planned
- Cut-and-cover planned
- Ventilation and fire safety planned
- Immersed tunnels planned
Advanced and Design
Professional design practice.
- Tunnel lining design planned
- Settlement above tunnels planned
Research
Frontier topics for researchers and postgraduates.
- Digital tunnelling planned
Videos
Road tunnel through a mountain: drill, blast, NATM
Excavate in rounds and let the rock help support itself.
Atal Tunnel, Rohtang
A single-tube road tunnel under the Pir Panjal that keeps a mountain valley reachable through winter.
Kolkata's underwater metro beneath the Hooghly
Twin tunnels bored under a tidal river, and how water is kept out.
Fehmarnbelt: 18 km under the sea
Precast tunnel elements floated out and lowered into a dredged trench, Denmark to Germany.
Channel Tunnel: three tunnels under the sea
Two rail tunnels and a service tunnel between the UK and France.
Codes and standards
| Country | Designation | Scope (our words) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | IRC:SP:91 | Guidelines for road tunnels. | current |
| India | IS 4880 (series) | Design of tunnels conveying water. | current |
| Europe | EN 14487 (series) | Sprayed concrete: definitions, specification and execution. | current |
Listed in a fixed country order; no standard is ranked above another. Scopes are our summaries. Buy the standards from the issuing body for exact text.
References and further reading
Standard texts, listed in no order of merit. We do not copy text, figures, tables or solved problems from any book; our explanations and examples are original.
- J. O. Bickel, T. R. Kuesel, E. H. King, Tunnel Engineering Handbook, Chapman and Hall, 2nd edition.
- E. Hoek, E. T. Brown, Underground Excavations in Rock, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 1980.