Safety management in tunnel construction: Case study of Wuhan metro construction in China

This paper presents a systematic approach for Overall Process Safety Management (OPSM) in tunnel construction, including safety system design, analysis, control and effect assessment. Wuhan Yangtze Metro Tunnel in China is used for a case study. A slurry shield machine is required to pass through Wuhan Ventilation Shaft with a cover depth of 42 m, a hydraulic pressure of 0.44 MPa and a curve radius of 350 m. To deal with the challenging technical issues in such complex environments, various schemes were compared and discussed as to figure out a more reasonable solution for the waterproofing and reinforcing works at first. Then, ANSYS finite element software is employed to simulate a numerical model of the drilling process, investigate the distribution of the stress field in the frozen wall, and to verify the reliability of the selected scheme. Finally, control measures in response to all technical problems are put forward. The OPSM approach can be applied by practitioners in the industry to provide effective guidelines for the safety management in urban tunnel construction, and to increase the likelihood of a successful project in a complex environment.