Innovative Geotechnical Investigation Approach for York Region Tunneling Project in Complex Geological Setting

Giuseppe M. Gaspari, Tamara Kondrachova, Mark Telesnicki

In the proceedings of: GeoOttawa 2017: 70th Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 12th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Tunnelling and Deep Excavations

ABSTRACT: The planned West Vaughan Sewage Servicing (WVSS) Project includes an approximately 14km long trunk sewer within York Region, a municipality north of Toronto, Ontario. Geological conditions along the selected tunnel alignment are very challenging, due in part to periods of advancing and retreating glaciation, more recent fluvial depositions and erosion by the Humber River. In order to complete a design in such a variable geological environment, an innovative two-phased Geotechnical Investigation program including very specific in-situ and laboratory testing was undertaken and the overall program was continually optimized using state of the art 3D visualization. The project has been completed to the 60% Design phase with EPB-TBM proposed as the tunneling construction method. The knowledge obtained from the geotechnical program will form one of the major documents for a tunnelling project - the Geotechnical Baseline Report. This paper will demonstrate how such an innovative approach can potentially reduce risks on large scale tunneling projects where all field results are consistently analysed to avoid gaps and misinterpretation which will likely reduce Contractor™s claims during construction.

Please include this code when submitting a data update: GEO2017_671

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