Dr Mazin Alhamrany has experience of more than 25 years in the field of Geotechnical and Tunneling Engineering. Dr Mazin is specialist in the field of applications of Finite Element Method for tackling complex soil-structure interaction problems.

1. Innovative solutions for complex
geotechnical and tunnelling
projects
Dr Mazin Alhamrany, BSc MSc PhD MISSMGE CEng MICE
April 2017

2. Summary
Dr Mazin Alhamrany has experience of more than 25 years in the field of
Geotechnical and Tunnelling Engineering. Dr Mazin is specialist in the
field of applications of Finite Element Method for tackling soil-structure
interaction problems. He is a highly experienced in 2D and 3D Finite
Element Modelling, using advanced soil models, to simulate construction
staging and soil-structure interaction to produce buildable economic
designs and to assess the impact of carrying out engineering activities
such as deep excavations on existing adjacent structures. We have a
solid reputation in finding innovative solutions for complex geotechnical
and tunnelling projects.
We are proud of leading design teams for major challenging projects in
The UK, Europe and Middle East. Dr Mazin Alhamrany was previously
working as a Technical Director at Hyder Consulting Middle East Ltd
(ARCADIS, 2012-2015), leading the Tunnels and Geotechnics Team of
Dubai Office. He led the Regional Teams for the design of challenging
projects such as Mega Reservoirs in Doha, Doha Metro, Doha
Expressway, The Inner Doha Re-sewerage Implementation Strategy
(IDRIS), Riyadh Metro, Strategic Tunnel Enhancement Programme
(STEP) in Abu Dhabi and Etihad Rail (UAE).
Prior to joining Hyder Consulting, He was working as Associate Technical
Director leading geotechnical team at Scott Wilson Ltd / URS (AECOM,
2005-2012) for the design of major projects in UK such as the Upgrading
of Tottenham Court Road Station, Gerrard’s Cross re-design, Thames Link
Borough Viaduct, Blackfriars Bridge, East London Line (Dalston station)
and the Crossrail Project (Farringdon Station and Pudding Mill Lane
Portal). In addition, he was responsible for developing the Numerical
Modelling Team for Scott Wilson.
Prior to that, Dr Alhamrany was a key member for the design of
challenging projects in Europe / Holland, such as the High Speed Line
Project between Amsterdam and Paris and the North-South Metro Line
underneath Amsterdam Central Station Building.
Dr Alhamrany has undertaken teaching, for both undergraduates and
postgraduates, in the field of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Design as
well as researches adopting advanced numerical methods for solving
geotechnical problems and has published several papers on these topics.
For more details see our website: www.ur-geotech.com
https://nl.linkedin.com/in/mazinalhamrany

3. Qualifications
Dr Mazin Alhamrany, BSc MSc PhD MISSMGE CEng MICE
1983 – 1986
•Ph.D. Civil Engineering; Soil Mechanics
•Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering
•University of Sheffield, England
1979 – 1980
•M.Sc. Civil Engineering; Soil Mechanics
•Dept. of Civil Engineering
•University of Baghdad, Iraq
1968 – 1972
•B.Sc. Civil Engineering
•College of Engineering
•University of Basra, Iraq

4. Experience
A) United Kingdom
Crossrail Project (Farringdon Station)
Farringdon Station is one of the major central stations to be built and
involves the construction of two 400m long platform tunnels and
associated cross passages with a ticket hall at either end. The West
Ticket Hall (WTH), which will house both Thameslink and Crossrail
Services, includes a Circular Shaft of 15m diameter, a Rectangular Shaft
of 24m by 28m, an Escalator Shaft 9m x 25m and individual 1.2m and
2.1m diameter piles to support the ticket hall and over-site development.
The East Ticket Hall (ETH) includes a Trapezoidal Shaft of approximately
32m by 28m and a further Double Basement with individual 1.2m
diameter piles supporting the ticket hall and another over-site
development as well as works that link with London Underground
Barbican Station. The excavation depth of these shafts is 25 to 30m.
The works include the challenge of installing the 2.1m diameter piles of
the oversite development at the WTH among the tight constraints set by
the new tunnels. The piles have also been designed to carry the negative
skin friction and the bending moments induced from the construction of
the future Crossrail tunnels and the adjacent Shafts.
The impact of constructing deep shafts on existing buildings in the
surrounding area, using 2D and 3D finite element models, has been
thoroughly investigated. Design of Diaphragm walls, secant pile walls
and deep excavations is part of the works.
Our experience can be summarised in leading geotechnical design teams
defining the most appropriate approach of analyses, liaise with wider
project team, define the technical aspects that need to be checked,
ensure delivering optimum design in terms of quality, costs and
constructability, assessing impact of construction on adjacent structures
and services, ensure having the required resources to get job done on
time within the budget.

5. Tottenham Court Road Station Upgrade / Category 3 Check
Leading geotechnical team for carrying out Independent Design Check
involved carrying out 2D and 3D finite element analyses for the design of
the Double Basement, Escalator shaft and Falconberg Shaft as well as
assessing impact of the construction on the existing tunnels and London
Underground assets. A key challenge of this project was the need to limit
deflections in the secant pile walls in order to avoid damage on the
adjacent buildings and roads.

6. East London Line (Dalston Junction)
Leading geotechnical team carrying out foundation design for Dalston,
Hoxton and Shoreditch Stations of the East London Line. The work
included, in addition to the pile foundation of Dalston Station, assessing
impact of constructing Dalston foundation on existing listed buildings as
well as impact of Dalston station as a whole on the proposed future
Crossrail tunnel. Piled-raft foundation has been designed so that
differential settlement between this part and the rest parts of the station
maintained with the tolerable limit. The design involved two rows of
bored piles on each side of the tunnel, topped with pile caps that support
walls carrying the podium slab, the station concourse and the multi-
storey development above. This solution was adopted by the client after
being reviewed and supported by an independent well-established
geotechnical consultancy firm.

7. Blackfriars Bridge 407
Leading geotechnical team for carrying out Independent Design Check
for assessing impact of the construction of a new concrete box structure
on the existing South Abutment of Blackfriars Bridge using 3D Finite
Element Model. The problem under consideration is quite complex
involving a piled raft foundation for the proposed structure as part of the
structure will be founded on the existing abutment of the bridge.
Gerrard’s Cross
Geotechnical Team leader for the independent checking for the design of
the anchored contiguous piles walls to be installed on both sides of the
existing tunnel. Advanced modelling was required to assess the stability
of the anchored contiguous piles, their deflections as well as the bending
moments and the shear forces.
Thames Link Borough Viaduct
Responsible for assessing impact of the construction of the Borough
Viaduct on the existing Northern and Jubilee lines tunnels. The work
included also impact moving loads on existing buried services and LUL
assets.

8. B) Holland
High Speed Line between Amsterdam-Paris, Holland
This was one of the largest European rail projects of recent times. This
project provided the Dutch with a 300-kph railway from Amsterdam
southward to the Belgian border, a distance of 125km at total cost of
around 6.7billion Euros. The strict requirements for this project
regarding the maximum allowable long term settlement including
secondary compression, considering the highly compressible organic soil
of the Netherlands, made the design process of this project a real
challenge.
Key member of the engineering design team for this large European rail
projects of recent times. Assigned to lead the geotechnical design team
for all aspects of project, including tunnelling (Rotterdam Tunnel), deep
excavations and retaining structures using 2D and 3D Finite Element
Modelling.

9. Metro Line Amsterdam, Holland
Responsible for the design work including the metro line underneath
Amsterdam Central Station Building. Beneath the Amsterdam Central
Station an excavation was created for the proposed tunnel. The
excavation width is 18m to a depth of 23m along the whole longitudinal
section of the Station. The design concept was characterised by the need
to apply an innovative technology in the form of the so-called ‘sandwich
wall’. This is a composite wall consisting of two rows of steel piles with a
body of jet grout columns in between. This wall needed to act both as an
excavation retaining wall and also as a vertical bearing wall. The
installation of the wall, within certain specific conditions (limited height,
sensitive historical building, and train station in service), within the
design requirements set in terms of construction tolerance and water
and soil retention, may be regarded as being a pioneering achievement.
Responsible for leading the design team for this challenging project. This
included Finite Element Analysis to predict settlements, deformations
and stresses in the sandwich walls in order to demonstrate that the
proposed works would not damage the historic Amsterdam Central
Station Building.

10. Vertical
force
Horizontal
force

11. Dikes improvement
This project involves taking every necessary measures to improve and
reinforce the existing embankments as well to design new dikes along
Waal and Maas rivers. The rate of construction is specified so that
reasonable safety factors for stability are ensured. The build-up pore
water pressures during construction and also the time required for the
dissipation of the excess pore water pressures are calculated. In many
sites and due to the limited time available for construction, geotextiles
and/or soil improvements are applied in order to improve the shear
strength against sliding.

12. C) Middle East
Bahrain
Muharraq
Geotechnical Technical Manager responsible for the design and build
project for Muharraq STP and Flow Conveyance project which comprises
construction of a new Deep Gravity Sewer (DGS), 97 shafts and Waste
Water Connection Network (WWCN) extending approximately 16km in
length and will collect flows from the island of Muharraq and future
developments on new land reclamation projects off the East Coast of the
Kingdom of Bahrain.
Iraq
A project of 13 berths in Umm Qasr, South of Iraq
The study was focused on, (i) if there is a need to use sand-drains in
order to accelerate the rate of consolidation and so to reduce the time
required for consolidation settlement, (ii) if there is a need for soil
improvement in order to improve the allowable bearing capacity and (iii)
How long should the preloading be applied in order to eliminate all the
primary consolidation settlement, expected under the proposed
permanent loading, plus such amount of secondary compression in order
to reduce a post-construction settlement to tolerable values.
Babylon project, Iraq
The study involved predicting the behaviour of three (30 meter high
earth fill) “mountains” in Babylon ancient city. Two main aspects were
thoroughly investigated; the stability and the settlement. In addition to
these two aspects, the influence of such constructions on the adjacent
ruins was also assessed. Due to the importance of the ruins, suggestions
were given to install inclinometers to monitor the lateral displacements
during construction. It is worth mentioning that the reading-records
were very close to the predicted values which have been calculated by
using a computer program based on finite element method.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Riyadh Metro
Riyadh Metro project, a six-line driverless network which will eventually
encompass 177km and 96 stations in the Saudi capital.

13. Responsible for leading design team for the geotechnical and tunnel
design of the tunnel and the stations, which have been subdivided into
Shallow, Deep and Transfer Stations.
Qatar
Doha Metro
Geotechnical design team leader responsible for carrying out
geotechnical services for the two packages form the core of the Doha
Metro in the old part of the city. The Red Line South runs from the
Musheireb development south along Al Matar Road to E-Ring Road and
the golden line starts at Airport City North Station, a double width station
runs west to the Musheireb development; on the other side of Musheireb
Station
Abu Hamour
Abu Hamour Surface and Ground Water Drainage Tunnel, Doha –
Geotechnical Director for tender design of a stormed water tunnel and
associated access shafts. TBM segmental lining (main tunnel) and pipe
jacking with micro-tunnelling (connection tunnels) comprise the tunnel
works along the route of the drainage system. Work included feasibility
studies and advance numerical analysis (Strand7) of main tunnel – shaft
junctions. Also responsible for the technical design reports and tender
drawings.

14. United Arab Emirates
Etihad Railway
Etihad Rail’s 1,200 km network will extend across the United Arab
Emirates, from the border of Saudi Arabia to the border of Oman. The
network will run from Ghweifat to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Northern
Emirates with major connecting points in between, including Al Ain and
Madinat Zayed. Etihad Rail will have an extensive national network with
freight terminals, distribution centres and depots located close to major
transport hubs, warehouses, and storage facilities across the UAE,
including Mussafah, Khalifa Port, Jebel Ali Free Zone, Port of Fujairah and
Saqr Port.
The Etihad Rail network will also connect with the GCC network and this
– once fully established – will cover the five GCC countries of The
Kingdom of Bahrain, The State of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, The Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Responsible for leading design team for the geotechnical works
associated with this project.