Underground Tunneling to Match Social Development and Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage: Bangalore Metro Line UG-1

The fast economical growth and the great development of Bangalore, Capital of Karnataka State in India, transformed the city in one of the biggest metropolises in India: the population almost doubled in the last 20 years, but without the contemporary and proper increase in public services and utilities. A special opportunity is nowadays given to the inhabitants: a profound change in public transports network has been developing, particularly with recent design and construction of metro line UG-1. The central portion of the line runs under the ancient historic centre of Bangalore, characterized by old buildings and a labyrinth of streets along which huge market activities take place. In order to manage such neuralgic and sensitive areas, special technologies were adopted to reduce the tunneling impact. The biggest issue was to match the civil works with preservation of the ancient heritage buildings of the area: the target is being achieved through an integrated design procedure, capable of taking into account results coming from site monitoring and the most recent developments of research in the field of building risk assessment.