Abstract

Open-cut method has been widely used to construct underground structures, but it causes several problems such as traffic congestion and public resentment resulting from severe construction noise and ground settlement. In many cases, it is very difficult to build underground structures safely due to the unknown locations of buried facilities such as water pipes, drainage pipes, gas pipes and high-pressure cable conduits etc. Also in open-cut method, moving buried facilities causes additional cost and extension of construction period. Therefore, this paper is to present a case study in which Tubular Roof construction Method (T.R.c.M.), a newly developed construction method for underground structures using slab steel pipes and PC wall trench, is applied for the construction of a subway tunnel in Seoul. As a result, it is found that T.R.c.M. is a construction method by which tunnels can be constructed safely without any effect on the surrounding environment and traffic flow due to the minimized construction vibration and noise.