2010 04 tunneling-to_the_future

APRIL 2010

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Parsons Brinckerhoff • One Penn Plaza • New York, NY 10119

+ 1-212-465-5000
w w w . pb w o r l d . c o m

For

a listing of our over

150

o f f i c e s , p l e a s e v i s i t o u r w e b s i t e at w w w . p b w o r l d . c o m

o r c o n ta c t u s at t h e f o l l o w i n g l o c at i o n s :

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TUNNELING
TO THE FUTURE

1-212-465-5000
44-(0)20-7337-1700
971-4-360-0090
852-2579-8899
61-2-9272-5100

8M04/10P2

N orth and S outh A merica N ew Y ork
E urope /A frica L ondon
M iddle E ast D ubai
A sia H ong K ong
A ustralia S ydney

Notes
PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF

Letter
from the
CEO

Inside
Page 2

F

rom its beginning, tunneling has been a specialty of Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB). As it celebrates its 125th
year of continuous operation in 2010, PB remains a leader in underground construction through its
participation in tunneling projects from New York to Newcastle.

2
Transit Options
Expanding in New York
And New Jersey
Cut-and-Cover Tunnels

© 2009 DAVID SAILORS

In the early years of the 20th century, PB’s founder, William Barclay Parsons, pioneered the use of cut-andcover tunneling for the New York City subway, and Parsons’s subway also included an early application of
the immersed tube method to take the subway under the Harlem River.

Page 8

In the U.S., PB is owner’s representative for a tunnel under the Port of Miami and contributed to the design
and construction of tunnels for transit systems in Seattle and Los Angeles that opened in 2009. And in the
city where PB tunneling began more than a century ago, PB is instrumental in four major expansions of
New York’s public transportation system that involve new tunnels beneath the busy streets of Manhattan
and under the Hudson River.
The spirit of innovation that began with Parsons continues today with PB’s advances in tunneling
technology, including improved methods for tunneling through unstable or contaminated soil … designing
tunnels to withstand earthquakes and explosions … constructing deep mined caverns … ventilating
underground spaces … and furthering the use of tunnel boring machines and mechanized excavations.
As the science of tunneling progresses in the 21st century, PB will surely be there, continuing a tradition of
innovation and technical excellence that began 125 years ago.

George J. Pierson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.

30
Writing the Book
On Tunneling
Ground Improvement

Editorial Board
George J. Pierson
Stuart Glenn
David McAlister
Richard A. Schrader
Chuck Kohler
Judy Cooper

8
PB Brings Tunnel
Know-how to Australian
32
Transportation
Keeping China’s High12
Speed Rail Program on
Deep Crossing is High
Track
Point for Istanbul
34
14
Notes on Projects
Tunneling to Support
36
Hydroelectric Power
Notes on the Firm
Mined/Bored Tunnels

Executive Editor

16
Tunneling to the Future
In Newcastle upon Tyne
Immersed Tunnels

PB advanced immersed tunnel design through the 20th century with such projects as the Detroit-Windsor
Tunnel (completed in 1930); the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnels in Virginia (1957 and 1976); the BART
tunnel under San Francisco Bay (1969), then the longest and deepest immersed tunnel in the world; and
Baltimore’s Fort McHenry Tunnel (1985), at the time the widest immersed tunnel in the world. Most recently,
PB contributed to the design of an immersed tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul that is the deepest
immersed tunnel ever built and was designed to withstand earthquakes in a highly seismic area.
The Bosphorus tunnel connects Europe with Asia, two of the four continents where PB is now active in
tunneling. A strong area of tunnel practice is Australia, where PB has been on the teams building road and
rail tunnels in Sydney and Brisbane that are among the largest infrastructure projects in the past decade.
In Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK, PB is part of the design team for a second vehicular tunnel under the
River Tyne. In China, PB provided technical advice for tunnels that are part of two high-speed rail lines
being built to connect Zhengzhou with Xi’an and Shijiazhuang with Taiyuan.

28
Light Rail Line a Boon
To East Los Angeles

Richard Mangini

20
Cleaning Water
Resources
Water Conveyance Tunnels
Page 28

24
Improving Port Access
In Miami
26
Tunnel Innovations:
Light and Air

Tom Malcolm

Editor
Susan Walsh

Contributors
Muriel Adams
Dan Altano
Leon Erlanger
Charlotte Forbes
Julie Johnson
Terry Kuflik
Tom Malcolm
Kathy Montvidas
George Munfakh
Judith Raymond
Susan Walsh

Graphics Services Manager
Graphic Design
Gary Hessberger

Director of Corporate
Communications

on the cover
Station cavern below Grand Central Terminal,
MTA LIRR East Side Access project
© 2009 David Sailors

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), founded in 1885,
is recognized as a leader in strategic
consulting, planning, engineering, program
management, construction management,
and operations and maintenance for all
types of infrastructure. PB has
approximately 14,000 people worldwide
in more than 150 offices on six continents.
Parsons Brinckerhoff is part of
Balfour Beatty plc, the international
infrastructure Group operating in
professional services, construction
services, support services and
infrastructure investments.

Judy Cooper

Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.
One Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10119
1-212-465-5000
www.pbworld.com
pbinfo@pbworld.com
NOTES is published three times a year by
PB for the employees, affiliates and friends
of PB. Please contact the Executive Editor
in the New York office for permission to
reprint articles.
© 2010 Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.
All rights reserved.

Notes • 1

metropolitan area is expanding as fast as

In New York’s most significant growth
in commuter rail and subway service
in decades, projects are in progress to
increase commuter rail service from New
Jersey and Long Island and expand subway service in Manhattan.

tunnel boring machines can move through
the complex geology below the surface,

Trans-Hudson Express

New tracks and platforms will be added to New York’s Penn Station
in a new mined cavern under 34th Street.

2 • Notes

© 2009 NJ TRANSIT AND PORT AUTHORITY OF NY-NJ

TRANSIT OPTIONS EXPANDING IN
NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY

permanent linings are constructed.
When complete in 2018, the TransHudson Express Tunnel Project will
double commuter rail capacity between
New Jersey and New York and provide
more riders with transfer-free rides to
Manhattan. The expansion of Penn Station
will also provide underground connections to PATH train service, Amtrak, the
Long Island Rail Road and 14 New York
City subway lines including, for the
first time, the eight lines at Herald
Square/Sixth Avenue.

Relieving Congestion
on the East Side

Tom Peyton

The Lexington Avenue
subway line serving the
East Side of Manhattan
is operating

© 2009 NJ TRANSIT AND PORT AUTHORITY OF NY-NJ

associated work can be completed.

Nearly 170,000 people travel to and from
New Jersey and Manhattan each day—
relying upon a century-old, two-track
rail tunnel under the Hudson River that
is operating at capacity. A delay on one
train sets off a ripple effect throughout the
rush hour, delaying travelers on both sides
of the Hudson River. Responding to
increasing demand, New Jersey
Transit and the Port Authority of
New York & New Jersey are
constructing the Trans-Hudson
Express Tunnel Project.
PB is the managing
partner of a joint venture
(THE Partnership) providing final design engineering including tunnel, civil,
geotechnical, structural, systems and facilities engineering; architectural design;
project controls; environmental services; and quality
assurance. The joint venture
is also providing design support during construction.
The project includes
three major tunnel segments being delivered under
design-build contracts: a tunnel in
Manhattan running from the Hudson
River east to Sixth Avenue; a tunnel under
the Palisades to the existing Northeast
Corridor line in New Jersey; and two
single-track tunnels under the Hudson
River. In Manhattan, a new station cavern
will be built as an expansion to the
existing New York Penn Station.
Construction began in June 2009
with the first underpass project to allow the new trainway
to pass under an existing state
highway leading to the new
tunnel portal in New Jersey. In
November and December
2009, New Jersey

and on busy streets above, as fast as the

Transit received bids for the contract
for the construction of the respective
Manhattan and Palisades tunnels.
Mining to construct the extension of
Penn Station, according to Project Manager
Richard Fischer, is particularly challenging. “We’ll be excavating a 96-foot-wide
cavern between Sixth and
Eighth avenues under 34th
Street—one of the busiest streets in New York
City,” he says. “We’ll
also have to build new
street entrances through


Transit in the New York City

Rendering of a new Penn Station
cavern in Manhattan.

existing buildings
leading down to the new
station while maintaining access
to existing buildings.”
First, the team had to find locations
where exploration holes could be bored
through the congested subsurface
utility infrastructure that is typical for
New York City. Subsurface rock conditions were evaluated to identify
the rock characteristics and anticipated rock behaviors. Then, they identified the appropriate temporary rock
support requirements
until such time as

Richard Fischer

at capacity. A long-held dream of adding a
subway to Second Avenue is coming true
with the Second Avenue Subway. Work
is under way on Phase I of the project, a
2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) section between
96th Street and 63rd Street. In subsequent
phases of the project, the line will be
extended south to Lower Manhattan and
north to 125th Street.
PB, under the direction of Tom
Peyton, is leading a team that is providing
construction management services.
Much of the two-track line will be
built using tunnel boring technology with
cut-and-cover used at the 96th Street station locations. Mining is being used on

Notes • 3

ment techniques are used to minimize
ground settlement and to preserve the structural integrity of various facilities, including
utility lines, buildings, tunnels and ramps.

Preparation for a tunnel boring machine launch box on Second Avenue.

feet) will be bored through soft ground
using a pressurized-face TBM.
The work in Queens requires careful coordination because it takes place at
the busiest railroad interchange in the U.S.
and outside the Woodside Station, the last
stop in Queens for several major lines. “At
Harold, three new tunnels will be bored
into a major open-cut excavation constructed by slurry walls, then under an operating
subway through frozen ground, finally connecting to the existing 63rd Street Tunnel,”
says Forman. “A fourth tunnel, which will
lead to the storage yard, will have to traverse under the interlocking.” All this work
requires redesign of the interlocking above
ground to provide space for the tunnels
and the connection of the new tracks.
All work in Queens must be carried
out while maintaining daily train service.
“The LIRR’s service delivery is only as
good as the last rush hour,” says Forman.
“Maintaining that service is a high priority
of the project.”
In Manhattan, the teams face typi-

cal hard-rock conditions for the island,
where two TBMs are tunneling through
9,750 meters (32,000 feet). The alignment
in Manhattan resumes at 63rd Street and
Second Avenue with two new hard-rock
tunnels that will transition to four and then
eight tunnels under Park Avenue, terminating
below the existing Grand Central Terminal.
Construction of the two caverns for
the additional station space at Grand
Central Terminal is under way and will
be the largest passenger terminal constructed in the United States since 1930.
“Traditional drill-and-blast construction
techniques supplemented with road
header excavation
will be used
to create the
caverns,” says
Forman. “Each
will be 1,200
feet long, 60 feet
wide and 60 feet
high. Within each
cavern will be

© MTA/PATRICK J. CASHIN

Currently, the majority of the 270,000 commuters who use the Long Island Rail Road
(LIRR) arrive at Penn Station on the West
Side of Manhattan. Approximately half of
them have to backtrack to the East Side via
subway or on foot. The East Side Access
project will change this for many riders,
bringing LIRR service to Grand Central
Terminal on the East Side.
LIRR trains will enter Manhattan from
Queens via the existing 63rd Street Tunnel
under the East River and then travel under
Park Avenue to Grand Central. The 63rd
Street Tunnel, designed by PB and completed in 1974, is a double-decked four-quadrant
tunnel with the upper quadrants now used
by New York City Transit subway trains. The
LIRR will use the lower quadrants.
PB is the managing partner of the joint
venture designing the project as well as providing design services during construction.
Jerry Forman, PB Project Manager,
reports that the project is progressing in
several areas in Queens and Manhattan,
both below and above ground. At the
Harold Interlocking in Queens, the team is
preparing to connect existing service to the
63rd Street Tunnel. To do this, four tunnels
with a total length of 3,050 meters (10,000


New Stop for the Long Island
Rail Road

© MTA/PATRICK J. CASHIN

two station caverns at 86th and 72nd streets
and portions that are too short to make tunnel boring cost-effective. The geology of the
Upper East Side of Manhattan also poses
interesting challenges for the team, according to Peyton. “We have hills and valleys,
Manhattan schist and a great mixture of
unpredictable and variable sands and silts—
not to mention fault lines!”
Work is taking place in several locations along Second Avenue. At 92nd
Street, a tunnel boring machine (TBM)
launch box is being excavated. Blasting
has been going on since November 2009.
Nearby utilities and buildings of varying
ages—some more than 100 years old—
mean that the work requires extreme care.
“We watch the amount of explosives in
every blast to minimize the vibration, and
blasts are covered by blast mats to contain
and prevent the shot rock from escaping
and damaging nearby pipes,” says Peyton.
“Most significantly, we put a 30-inch gas
pipe inside a 42-inch steel carrier pipe
to give it protection from blasts.” Farther
south, work shafts are being constructed
to support the eventual mining of the
72nd Street and 86th Street stations.
Above ground, Second Avenue is a
busy and wide thoroughfare with older
townhouses and high-rise residential towers
as well as many retail and dining establishments. During construction, at least four
lanes remain open to traffic and efforts are
made to maintain access to businesses and
residences. Structural and ground improve-

Mezzanine level construction on the No. 7 Subway Line Extension.

two platforms serving four trains.”
When complete in 2016, the new eighttrack terminal of the LIRR at Grand Central
Terminal will not only provide direct service

to the East Side of Manhattan but also allow
the LIRR to add service from key locations
on Long Island and free up track space at
Penn Station on the West Side.

Jerry Forman
4 • Notes

Notes • 5


From Parsons to the Present:

THE HISTORY OF TUNNELING AT PB


Editor’s Note: PB marks its 125th year of continuous operation in 2010. Tunneling has always been integral to
the firm’s operations, beginning with William Barclay Parsons’s design of the original New York City subway.
As part of its observance of PB’s 125th anniversary, NOTES asked George Munfakh (left), Director of PB’s
Geotechnical & Tunneling Technical Excellence Center, to review PB’s history in tunneling. Munfakh’s report
begins below and continues throughout the issue, covering various tunneling technologies including cutand-cover, immersed tunnels, mined/bored tunnels and geotechnical innovation.

F

© 1992
DAVID

SAILO

RS

PB AR

CHIVE

S

rom the first segment of the New York City subway, for which
William Barclay Parsons, the founder of the firm, was Chief
Engineer, to the firm’s current work designing and managing
construction of extensions to that system, PB has participated in the
design and construction of some of the longest, largest, deepest and
63rd St.
Connec
most complicated tunnels in the world. Our tunnels have been built
tor, New
York
in hard rock, soft ground or mixed-face conditions,
using mining, boring, jacking, cut-and-cover, and
immersed tube technology.

Cavern construction on the No. 7 Subway Line Extension: location of future platform and tracks at 34th Street and 11th Avenue.

6 • Notes


y
ork Cit
New Y

y
Subwa
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alignment at 25th Street in mid-2009 and
broke through the future 34th Street wall
in December,” says Wahl. “Currently, one
is in the turn approaching 41st Street and
the other has completed the turn and is
excavating below West 41st Street.”
The station at 34th Street and 11th
Avenue is unusually deep for a New York
City subway station, most of which are
near the surface. The deepest point of the
station structure will be about 40 meters
(130 feet) below street level. “The station
is as deep as it is because the tunnel alignment needs to be below existing tunnels
which run perpendicular to the No. 7
alignment,” says Wahl. “These include the
three Lincoln Tunnel vehicular tubes located just north of the station structure and
the Amtrak North River rail tunnel located
just south of the station structure.”
When completed, the Trans-Hudson
Express, Second Avenue Subway, East Side
Access and No. 7 Line Extension will provide more opportunities for commuters,
residents and visitors to get around the city
faster and easier than ever. n

CHIVE

In Manhattan, construction is under way on
the No. 7 Subway Line Extension. The project
will extend the No. 7 Line from its current
terminus at Times Square to a new station at
34th Street and 11th Avenue, located in an
area known as Hudson Yards. When completed in 2013, the No. 7 Line will make it
easier to reach the Jacob K. Javits Convention
Center and the Far West Side of Manhattan
and support future development of the area,
which was recently rezoned for residential,
commercial and cultural use.
Currently, PB is providing final
design services to the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority under
the direction of Project Manager
Peter Wahl. Work includes
design of all civil, structural,
architectural, mechanical, electrical and communications elements;
preparation of all contract
documents; and
design support
during con-

struction. PB’s previous contributions to the
project included alternative alignment studies, conceptual designs and preparation of
an environmental impact statement.
“The development of the Hudson
Yards area involves a number of private
and public projects,” says Wahl, “and the
No. 7 project is at the heart of it all, so
one of the more challenging aspects of the
project includes coordinating designs and
schedules.” Proposed projects in the area
include residential and commercial developments, renovations at the Jacob K. Javits
Convention Center, utility service
improvements and the construction
of a new boulevard and park.
As with other major transit
projects in New York City, tunneling is taking place beneath
busy city streets and in proximity
to existing structures, and in some
cases, near other major transit lines.
“The two 22-foot tunnel
boring machines started
excavating at the
south end of the

PB AR

Reaching the
Far West Side

ncisco
an Fra
ART, S
B

Cut-and-Cover Tunnels

One of the earliest uses of cut-and-cover tunneling
in the United States was in connection with the
initial segment of the New York City subway, which
opened in 1904. To reduce the construction cost
and schedule, and facilitate quick entry and exit
of passengers from the subway, Parsons elected to
build shallow tunnels using cut-and-cover technology,
which was ideally suited to the geology of Manhattan,
as opposed to the deep mined tunnels of the London
Underground, the world’s first subway.
Parsons developed a means of cut-and-cover
tunneling in which one side of the street was excavated,
the tunnel box constructed inside, and then covered up
and opened to normal traffic while work proceeded on the
other half of the street.
From the early 20th century to today, PB has refined and
improved cut-and-cover techniques so that subways can be
constructed with minimal adverse impact on buildings, utilities,
neighborhoods and the environment. A few examples:
• Pioneering use of the SPTC (soldier pile-tremie concrete) wall
on San Francisco’s BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the 1960s
allowed deep excavation in a highly seismic urban area.
• Design of slurry walls as permanent structures allowed
the Harvard Square Station in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
constructed in the 1970s, to be shoehorned between two
buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
• First use of jet grouting on a subway system, which allowed
Baltimore Metro’s Shot Tower Station to be constructed without
interrupting high-voltage electric lines that cross the excavation.
• Design of a combination of slurry diaphragm walls and jet-grout walls
at the 63rd Street Queens Connector in New York City allowed safe
underground construction in the vicinity of contaminated plumes. n

Peter Wahl
Notes • 7

transportation investment in Australia. PB has played
a key role, contributing to the Epping to Chatswood
Rail Link, and providing lead design of the Lane Cove
Tunnel in Sydney and the design of the Clem Jones
Tunnel (CLEM7) in Brisbane.

SOURCE: BOB PETERS IMAGING, COURTESY OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

The past eight years have seen a boom in

PB BRINGS TUNNEL KNOW-HOW
TO AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORTATION

8 • Notes

SOURCE: BOB PETERS IMAGING, COURTESY OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

The Epping to Chatswood Rail Link in Sydney (also on left) serves the Macquarie Park business district and Macquarie University.

In 2008, PB teamed with Arup for the
detailed design of the Airport Link and
Northern Busway projects in Brisbane and
completed the reference design of the
Sydney Central Business District and West
Metro projects in Sydney.
“PB’s tunneling team in Australia has
grown from a handful of people in Sydney
in 2003 to approximately 75 engineers
spread across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane
and Auckland,” says Charlie Jewkes,
General Manager, Geotechnical, Tunnels
and Geospatial for PB Australia-Pacific.
Whether for highways or rail transit,
tunneling is key to constructing new connections for major cities in Australia.

Epping to Chatswood Rail Link
Sydney’s US$2.1 billion Epping to
Chatswood Rail Link opened in February
2009, providing for the first time rail services
to a fast-growing education and employ-

ment hub in Sydney’s northern suburbs.
The rail line connects the existing North
Shore Line at Chatswood, a satellite commercial and residential area north of
Sydney’s central business district, with
the existing Northern Line at Epping,
an established suburban residential area
northwest of Sydney.
The Epping to Chatswood Rail Link
is expected to reduce traffic congestion,
improve air quality and free up capacity on Sydney CityRail’s congested
Western Line. Since it started
operation, the new link’s weekday ridership has averaged
10,000 passengers per day.
“The project is unique in
that the majority of the new line
is underground with all new stations built within rock caverns,” says
PB Principal Structural Engineer
Jim Nelson. The route com-

Charlie Jewkes and Jim Nelson

prises 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles) of rail constructed 15-60 meters (49-197 feet) below
ground, including three new underground
stations and new underground platforms at
the existing Epping Station.
At the time it was announced, the
Epping to Chatswood Rail Link was the largest publicly funded infrastructure project in
New South Wales. PB’s involvement started
in 1996, when it prepared a planning report,
conducted community consultation and performed preliminary
ridership modeling. In 2002, PB,
as a subconsultant to GHD,
began the
detailed design
of the station

Notes • 9

© RICHARD PEARSE PHOTOGRAPHY

of that size presented several challenges in
the logistics of setting up, launching and
retrieving machines of that scale, as well as
providing ventilation for the construction
workers and spoil handling as the boring
took place,” says Jewkes.
Tunnel construction was completed
in May 2009 and the project opened in
March 2010.
The new route bypasses 24 sets of
traffic lights and shortens travel from south
to north by 30 percent.

Airport Link

The CLEM7 Tunnel, also known as the North-South Bypass Tunnel, opened in March 2010.

caverns, running tunnels and structural
components (excluding certain structures
designed by third party subconsultants to
the design-build contractor). At the time,
the underground station caverns were the
largest ever constructed in Sydney using
permanent rock bolts.
The project used an international team,
with design of three main station caverns,
including excavation and waterproofing, led
by Tim Smirnoff of PB’s Los Angeles office.
The new underground platforms constructed
below the existing Epping Station, designed
by Doug Maconochie, have a binocular configuration of station platforms and complex
escalator, lift and service shafts constructed
beneath an operating surface station.
“The design of the station caverns
called for wide-span arch roofed caverns
rather than the flat roof or trapezoidalshaped sections typical for Hawkesbury
sandstone,” says Maconochie. “There was
no precedent for wide-span arched construction in Hawkesbury sandstone, but
our study found that the architectural arch
shape was technically feasible.” The cavern roofs were supported with rock bolts

and shotcrete both in the temporary and
permanent design.
“The station caverns have a unique,
asymmetrical arch shape that was chosen
to minimize excavation and provide an aesthetically pleasing feature,” says Maconochie.

CLEM7 Tunnel
South-East Queensland is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in Australia and one
of the busiest. In 2004 the Lord Mayor
of Brisbane promoted a plan to build
a system of five highway bypasses that
would allow more rapid movement in and
around Brisbane. Called the TransApex
Plan, it was to be largely financed by
public-private partnerships.
CLEM7, formally known
as the North-South Bypass
Tunnel, is named after influential Brisbane politician Clem
Jones and the M7 designation
for the route. It was the first of
five projects slated for construction and widely considered the
most urgent. CLEM7 will connect
the northern and southern

Doug Maconochie
10 • Notes

parts of Brisbane. An underground junction will also provide access to the southeastern Brisbane suburbs.
In 2005, the public-private partnership
tendering process began and PB aligned
itself with partners in a design-construction-finance consortium called RiverCity
Motorway, which in turn contracted the
design and construction to the Leighton
Contractors and Baulderstone Hornibrook
Bilfinger Berger Joint Venture (LBB JV).
LBB JV, with PB acting as lead designer in
joint venture with AECOM, submitted the
winning tender in 2005.
Two 5-kilometer (3-mile) tunnels,
one each for northbound and southbound traffic, and each with two
lanes, will take drivers under
the Brisbane River. Most of the
length of both tunnels has
been constructed using hardrock double-shield tunnel
boring machines (TBMs) with
a diameter of 12.4 meters (41
feet)—among the largest TBMs
ever used in Australia.
“Using TBMs

The second TransApex tunnel project is the
US$4.3 billion Airport Link.
The project has three parts. A 6.7-kilometer (4.2-mile) toll road, most of which
is underground, will link the central business district of Brisbane with the northern
suburbs and the airport. The project also
includes construction of the Northern
Busway, a road tunnel dedicated to bus
traffic that links Windsor to Kedron in the
north, and the upgrading of a roundabout
near the airport to a three-level intersection
that features a new flyover bridge.
The 5-kilometer (3-mile) tunnels
include 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) of threelane tunnels in each direction and 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of two-lane tunnels.
There are also complex intersections at
the tunnel portals located at Bowen Hills,
Kedron and Toombul. Digging the tunnels
will require TBMs for the east-west tunnels
and mined tunnels for the intersections and
north-south tunnels.
“These are large tunnels running at
shallow depths through complex geology
with many different sets of conditions,”
says PB Project Director Luke Van Heuzen.
“We’ve had to consider all the different
conditions we expect to encounter very
carefully and vary support types according to the encountered
conditions using
rockbolts, sprayed
concrete lining,
canopy tubes and
sequential excavation techniques.”
Like CLEM7,
the Airport Link
will take traffic off

the surface road network, allowing motorists to bypass the downtown area. “There
will be significantly improved access to
the airport from the central business district,” says Van Heuzen, “eliminating up to
18 sets of traffic lights and reducing a trip
that can take up to an hour down to as
little as 10 minutes. We’ll also be creating
a lot of new green space from the land
adjacent to the project.”
PB is part of a design joint venture
with Arup (PBAJV), which is contracted
to Thiess John Holland, the design and
construction joint venture. The project is financed by a consortium called

BrisConnections, which will build and
then operate the tunnel and collect tolls
for 45 years, with the state government
paying for an additional busway and airport roundabout upgrade adjacent to the
Airport Link Project.
The PBAJV includes more than 500
designers and will provide design and
project certification through construction,
including tunneling, road, geotechnical, electrical, mechanical, structural and
drainage design.
The contract was awarded in May
2008, with an expected completion date in
mid-2012. n

Typical sequential excavation methods adopted at portals.

During construction of the Airport Link mined tunnel, workers use drill rigs to install bolts to
support the excavation.
Luke Van Heuzen
Notes • 11

The world’s deepest immersed tunnel has
been placed beneath the Bosphorus Strait

Relief through Rail
Modern Istanbul has outgrown its transportation network, placing a crushing burden
on its streets, bridges, ferries and rail lines.
Crossing the Bosphorus by bridge requires
motorists to spend up to an hour in traffic.
A well-developed rail system is expected
to significantly reduce Istanbul’s traffic
congestion and the associated air pollution.
The trip beneath the Bosphorus by train
will take only four minutes.
In addition to the 1.4-kilometer (0.9mile) immersed tunnel, the Marmaray
Project encompasses bored and cut-andcover tunnels beneath the city, four new
underground stations, 37 new or upgraded
surface stations, and 250 kilometers (155
miles) of new track.
PB was originally commissioned
by the Turkish Ministry of Transport in
1985 to conduct a feasibility study for the
Bosphorus Crossing. Since 2002, PB has
worked in association with Avrasyaconsult,
the joint venture responsible for designbuild development of the Marmaray Project.
PB led the immersed tunnel design and
provided construction supervision and
inspection. Other significant PB contributions to the overall project include electrical
and mechanical design, station architecture,
hydraulics, and marine environmental services, as well as seismic, geotechnical and
rail analysis, and design review.

in Istanbul, Turkey, connecting Europe and
Asia and concluding a major phase of the
Marmaray Project, a 76-kilometer (47-mile)
system of new and upgraded railway on both
sides of the Bosphorus.

DEEP CROSSING IS HIGH POINT
FOR ISTANBUL
Tunnel segments were fabricated off-site and floated into place in the
busy and turbulent waters of the Bosphorus Strait.


Into the Deep

12 • Notes

Constructing the immersed tunnel involved
fabricating tunnel segments off-site, floating
them into place and lowering them into a
trench at the bottom of the strait—while
working in a busy international waterway.
The segments were joined with rubber
gaskets and the
trench backfilled
over the tunnel.
The tunnel has
11 rectangular
segments, or
elements, each
roughly 135
meters (443 feet)
long, with a separate
tube for each track
direction.

At its deepest point, the Bosphorus
Crossing reaches 58 meters (190 feet). “It
is two to three times deeper than most
similar immersed tunnels, which introduced
significant design and construction challenges,” explains Christian Ingerslev, who
led PB’s tunnel design services. “In fact, at
that depth, water pressure alone is a significant design consideration.”
Due to the site’s proximity to the active
North Anatolian Fault, the tunnel is designed
to withstand a 7.5 magnitude earthquake.
Some of the ground beneath the tunnel had
to be stabilized against liquefaction—the
sudden transformation of ground to liquid
as earthquake tremors force groundwater up
through unstable soils. Grout columns—2,778
in all—were injected to stabilize the soil. A
special gravel foundation blanket was placed
in the bottom of the trench to allow any seismic water pressures to escape quickly from
beneath the tunnel.

A Delicate Touch in a
Turbulent Sea
Floating tunnel elements into position and
lowering and joining them perfectly relies
on precise science.
“The currents in the Bosphorus are
savage and difficult to predict, with strong
freshwater currents at the surface and a
dense saltwater bottom current flowing
in the opposite direction,” explains Walter
Grantz, who served as PB’s Project Manager
for the original feasibility study and also as
Construction Inspector. The team collected
data on weather and currents for more than
a year and developed a computer model to
help determine when conditions might be
favorable for the 11-hour tow from the fabrication site to the mouth of the Bosphorus.
Each segment was outfitted with an
array of monitors. “Virtually every parameter had a digital or graphic readout in the
control cab of the placing barge,” Grantz
says. After the placing barge was anchored
in position, the element was lowered slowly as adjustments were made to the ballast
and anchor lines. “Currents could increase
unexpectedly, and large ships might generate sudden wakes,” Grantz says.
To join two elements, a crew inside
the previously placed tunnel extended a

Christian Ingerslev

A TBM was used for some sections of tunnel
beneath Istanbul.

large hydraulic jack to pull the element in
tightly and form an initial seal. Next, pumps
reduced the water pressure in the joint space
to atmospheric pressure. Because the water
pressure surrounding the element was five
times greater than atmospheric pressure, the
force compressed a rubber gasket between
elements and completely sealed the joint.
Later, a reinforced concrete connection—
designed to resist seismic loads—was made
across the joint. A special grout mixture was
pumped between the gravel blanket and element to complete the foundation.
The final element was placed in
September 2008.

Toward Completion
“Because Istanbul was the capital of three
great empires—Eastern Roman, Byzantine,
and Ottoman—work has been halted at
various times to protect archeological
treasures, including the remains of a fourth
century seaport,” says Bruce Esdon, who
succeeded Daniel Horgan as PB’s Electrical
and Mechanical Design and Construction
Supervisor and is now managing PB’s
remaining work. “With tunneling projectwide coming to completion, attention has
turned to the electrical and mechanical
work and railway systems.”
The Marmaray Project is scheduled
to open on October 29, 2013—Turkey’s
National Day and the birthday of Kemal
Atatürk, the first president of the Republic
of Turkey. n

Notes • 13


The future portal of the proposed tunnel that will support a hydropower plant
on the Mpanga RIver in Uganda.

TUNNELING TO SUPPORT
HYDROELECTRIC POWER

14 • Notes

Jon Roe (left), of PB’s Singapore
office, and Andy Noble, Sydney.

RS
SAILO

In Laos, the Theun Hinboun Hydropower Project,
located on the Nam Theun and Nam Hinboun river basins in
Borikhamsay Province, is being expanded.
PB is providing advice to a consortium of lenders for
the expansion, which requires that a tunnel be constructed
to divert water to a powerhouse. “A 5.5-kilometer-long
headrace tunnel is being constructed using the first TBM to
be launched in Laos,” says Singapore-based Brian Allan, PB’s
Project Manager. Also serving on this project is Andy Noble
of PB’s Sydney office, working with PB power experts from
Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.
Construction on the tunnel began in February 2010. When
complete in mid-2012, the Theun Hinboun expansion will more
than double the generating capacity from 220 MW to 500 MW.
The project will provide power to neighboring Thailand.
For proposed projects in
Australia, the team has worked on
concept and pre-feasibility study
designs for pumped storage hydropower schemes involving complex
arrangements of underground caverns and a variety of high-pressure
tunnels and shafts. n

© 1992
DAVID

SAILO

RS

bway,
City Su

DAVID

An Australian-based team of experts in tunneling for hydropower projects is working with various power specialists across PB
on tunnels associated with hydropower projects worldwide.
In Uganda, PB is providing tunnel construction advice
to the developer of a small run-of-river 18-MW hydropower
plant at the Mpanga River near Kamwenge. The hard-rock,
drill-and-blast tunnel is 4 meters (13 feet) wide by 3.8 meters
(12.5 feet) high and relatively short at 103 meters (338 feet)
long. Its purpose is to avoid having to traverse around a steep
cliff-face that would have caused environmental disturbance to
a pristine forest comprising a colony of rare Cycad plants that is
also an important habitat to primates. The tunnel will carry an
open-topped headrace channel for transfer of river water from
the diversion weir to the powerhouse. Tunneling is due for
completion by mid-2010 and the plant is
scheduled to be operational by late 2010.
“Normally a hydropower plant of
this capacity would serve about 20,000
homes, but given the lower electrical
demand per household in Uganda it
could be equivalent to more than
50,000 homes,” according
to Andy Noble, PB
Project Manager.

ork
New Y 6
. 190
c

© 1996

The first-ever tunnel boring machine to be launched in Laos is helping
to construct an expansion of a hydropower plant.

C
PB AR

HIVES

Mined/Bored Tunnels
PB’s earliest mined tunnels were designed by William Barclay Parsons
for the New York subway in the 1890s. Sections of mined tunnel
included a 3.2-kilometer- (2-mile-) long tunnel in the Washington
Heights section of Manhattan and a stretch along Park Avenue. For
the Steinway (Queensboro) Tunnel under the East River, Parsons
decided to go deep and use mined tunneling. He erected a large
working platform on a rock outcrop in the East River, sunk two
shafts from the rock island as well as shafts on each bank of
the river, and drove four headings at once. The tunnel, through
which the No. 7 train now travels, was completed in 1907.
A mined tunnel under the Scheldt River in Antwerp,
Glenwo
Belgium, built in the early 1930s, posed
od Can
Colorad
yon Tun
o
nel,
unusual challenges, including difficult ground conditions. To facilitate
excavation of a deep shaft from which
mining of the tunnel would begin, the
saturated and running soil was frozen,
an innovative concept considered novel
even by today’s standards. Despite the
many challenges, the firm completed the
job in just 18 months.
In the 1980s, on behalf of the Canadian
Pacific Railroad Company, PB designed the
Mount Macdonald Tunnel, a 15-kilometer(9-mile-) long rock tunnel that crosses Rogers
Pass in Western Canada and was, at the time,
the longest tunnel in the Western Hemisphere.
Vehicular mined tunnels to which PB made
significant contributions include the Glenwood
Canyon Tunnel in Colorado (1992); the Tetsuo
Harano tunnels of Hawaii’s H-3 highway
(1994); and the Cumberland Gap Tunnel in
Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia (1996). All
three featured context-sensitive designs that
met strict environmental requirements.

Mined Caverns
During the Cold War, PB pioneered
irginia
ssee/V
methods for the creation of large underground
/Tenne
ky
Kentuc
spaces for military fortresses. The firm’s work in this area began
Tunnel,
d Gap
rlan
in the late 1940s with the design of a hardened underground defense
Cumbe
facility at Fort Ritchie, in the Catoctin Mountains near Waynesboro,
Pennsylvania, and culminated in the early 1960s with NORAD (North
American Air Defense Command Center), an underground cavern
deep within Cheyenne Mountain outside Colorado Springs, Colorado,
comprising six huge chambers and several tunnels designed to sustain
nuclear attack. Recently, mined caverns have been designed by PB for
construction of transit stations or underground storage. n

Notes • 15

© 2010 MIKE SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY

Making it easier to cross the River Tyne in
northern England has been important to the

The first tunnel under the River Tyne was
opened in 1951—a pedestrian and bicycle
route that gave workers better access to
jobs in the shipbuilding industry on both
banks of the river. A 1967 vehicular tunnel,
an engineering marvel in its time, alleviated
congestion on local bridges. Today, the aging
tunnel carries the busy A19 highway beneath
the river, and more capacity is needed.

area’s development throughout history. Currently,
work is under way on The New Tyne Crossing,
a major tunnel project that will greatly enhance

New Tyne Crossing


TUNNELING TO THE FUTURE IN
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

In November 2007, the Tyne and Wear
Integrated Transport Authority engaged a
concessionaire known as TT2 (Tyne Tunnel
2) Limited to develop a new tunnel and
associated toll plazas, interchanges and
highway segments. Work is being executed
under a 30-year design-build-finance-operate-maintain concession financed through
a public-private partnership. The concessionaire is also responsible for refurbishing
and operating the existing A19 tunnel and
operating the pedestrian and bicycle tunnel.
When completed, the two vehicular tunnels
will each have two lanes, with one tunnel
handling northbound vehicles and the other
carrying southbound traffic.
PB is one of three main designers to
the contractor, Bouygues Travaux Publics.
Under the direction of Project Manager
Russell Bayliss, PB’s Newcastle office is
also leading the approvals and consents
and environmental coordination for the
entire project. Other responsibilities include
design of the southern approach tunnel
and existing tunnel refurbishments.

Tunneling Techniques
Space is at a premium, traffic is heavy and
geological conditions are complex along the
tunnel’s alignment, all of which influence
design and construction. The section under
the river will be a 360-meter- (1,181-foot-)
long immersed tunnel—only the second
immersed tunnel in England. The immersed
tunnel will be linked at either end to deep
cut-and-cover tunnel sections. The northern
approach tunnel is 320 meters (1,050 feet)
long and the southern approach tunnel
is 823 meters (2,700 feet) long. The new
northern approach tunnel crosses over the
existing tunnel near the north bank with just
2.8 meters (9 feet) of clearance.

Cut-and-cover sections under the streets north and south of the River Tyne will connect to an immersed
tunnel section beneath the river.

“Most of the approach tunnel sections were constructed using cut-and-cover
techniques and diaphragm walls,” Bayliss
explains. “Trenches are excavated on each
side of the tunnel alignment—as deep as
30 meters [98 feet]—and are temporarily
supported by bentonite slurry. Steel
reinforcement is then lowered
into the trench and concrete is
piped in to replace the bentonite.” After the concrete cures, the
tunnel area between the two
diaphragm walls is excavated.
Temporary props between the
walls help them withstand
the high ground pressures
experienced during

Russell Bayliss
16 • Notes

deep excavation. When the concrete work
on the floor and roof slabs is completed,
the props are removed and the excavation
is backfilled over the tunnel.
To avoid disrupting major utilities—
including gas mains—two short stretches
were bored using umbrella vaults, steel
arches and sprayed concrete lining,
rather than an open excavation.
For the shallower section of
tunnel farther to the south, the
cut-and-cover sections were
constructed using pile and box
techniques. Instead of diaphragm walls, concrete piles
hold open the excavated
area while a reinforced

mobility in the Newcastle region.

Notes • 17

Rehabilitating the Old Tunnel

A cutter suction dredger executed the dredging
operation within strict limits, which protected
migrating salmon and allowed sediment to be
transported by pipeline to infill a dry dock
2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the site.

When The New Tyne Crossing is completed—scheduled for February 2011—
traffic will be diverted to the new tunnel
and refurbishment of the old tunnel will
begin. Overall completion is anticipated
in early 2012.
Improvements to the existing tunnel include installation of mechanical and
electrical equipment to enhance operations

18 • Notes


HIVES

“Beyond easing traffic congestion, the
tunnel is part of a major regeneration
scheme to enhance the economic development of the area,” says Paul Littlefair,
PB’s UK Director of Regeneration and
Redevelopment Infrastructure and a native
of Newcastle. “The tunnel will improve
access to jobs and customers, and create
favorable conditions for a public transport
link. The enhanced mobility of goods and
services will make the area more attractive to companies and investors. And more
than 2,000 people have worked on the
project to date, providing immediate economic benefits.” n

Tunnel
indsor
troit-W
De

PB AR
CH

RS
SAILO
DAVID
© 1986

“Despite the range of tunneling techniques
employed, the greatest challenges actually
arise from construction in an urban environment and all the required consenting, statutory and third-party approvals,” says Bayliss.
These include approvals from two
planning authorities—one on either side of
the river—in addition to the government
environmental regulator, port authority and
local departments. Managing approvals
and consents has involved preparation
of detailed documentation, plans and
method statements for the various
construction phases and, Bayliss
notes, ongoing dialogue with the
various entities.
Negotiation and cooperation have been essential in
keeping construction on
track. For example, the
River Tyne is prized
for its salmon and
environmental

Immersed Tunnels

Anchoring Renewal


Keeping to the Schedule


IVES

concrete box is constructed inside. The
final 130 meters (427 feet) of the tunnel
approach is an open-cut box.
Construction began in March 2008; the
approach tunnels have been excavated and
backfilling is under way.

and safety. “This includes ITS [intelligent
transportation systems], SCADA [supervisory
control and data acquisition—a computerized monitoring system], new ventilation
using jet fans, and an advanced fire suppression system, which will be linked to
systems in the new tunnel,” Bayliss says.
“One PB innovation is the addition of a
separate escape passage—a design feature
to be incorporated in both tunnels.”

C
PB AR


authorities constrained the schedule for
dredging the immersed tunnel trench to
minimize potential impacts to salmon
migration. PB negotiated a slight relaxation
in the six-week dredging window to avoid
major delays to the project. Dredging was
completed in December 2009 and the
immersed tunnel segments were placed in
February 2010.
PB also negotiated a simplified
approval protocol for certain permits, as
well as a phased approvals process, meaning that all approvals did not have to be
secured before construction could begin.
These efforts have been successful in
avoiding approvals-related delays.

ore
Baltim
unnel,
enry T
cH
Fort M

Construction work has to take place near residences and businesses under strict
limitation to prevent nuisance, requiring extensive community consultation and a
great deal of extra care.

An early application of immersed tunneling in the U.S. was the
1.6-kilometer (1-mile) vehicular tunnel between Detroit, Michigan, and
Windsor, Ontario, completed in 1930. The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel
has three sections: open approaches, shield tunneling from the
approaches to the river and an immersed tunnel under the river. The
immersed tunnel segments featured the first use of welded steel
shells and internal steel lining in tunnel construction. It was also the
first tunnel designed and built by PB.
Other immersed tunnels designed by PB included the
Hampto
Baytown Tunnel under the Houston ship
n Road
s
Bridge-T
unnel, V
channel in the early 1950s; a number
irginia
of tunnels in Virginia over a period of
30 years including the first Elizabeth
River Tunnel (also known as the
Downtown Tunnel) connecting Norfolk
and Portsmouth, opened in 1952; the
Midtown Tunnel, completed in 1962; and
the second Downtown Tunnel, opened
in 1982. The standouts, however, were
the PB-designed bridge-tunnel crossings of
Hampton Roads, Virginia, completed in 1957
and 1976, respectively. For those projects,
immersed tunnels were built between two
artificial islands that connected to the mainland via bridges.
Another notable immersed tunnel was
the Fort McHenry Tunnel, completed in 1985,
which was the widest immersed tunnel built at that time and
the first to have double tubes, carrying a total of eight lanes of
traffic, laid immediately side-by-side in a single trench under
Baltimore Harbor.
An immersed tube tunnel under San Francisco Bay constructed in the late 1960s as part of BART was the longest
and deepest immersed tunnel built at that time. It was also
the first immersed tunnel to use cathodic protection for
corrosion control, and to be designed for seismic conditions
using a triaxial seismic joint between the tube and its land connection.
The BART tunnel suffered no damage as a result of the devastating Loma
Prieta earthquake of 1989, and following the disaster was the only direct
means of public transportation between Oakland and San Francisco.
Internationally, PB’s immersed tunnel experience includes Hong
Kong’s first cross-harbor tunnel, linking Hong Kong island to Kowloon,
for which PB in the early 1970s developed a replacement steel design
for a tunnel originally designed as a concrete box. In the 1990s PB
designed an immersed concrete tube for the Western Harbor Crossing,
which was part of an effort to improve access to Hong Kong’s new
international airport. n

Paul Littlefair
Notes • 19

On the East and West coasts of the U.S.,
two combined sewer overflow (CSO)
projects are under way to help clean up
significant bodies of water.

In Boston, Massachusetts, a CSO project
should entice more swimmers to Carson
Beach in South Boston.
In Portland, Oregon, another CSO
project is part of the renaissance of the
Willamette River, the main waterway flowing through the city.

North Dorchester Bay
CSO Tunnel

CLEANING WATER
RESOURCES
A tunnel boring machine (TBM) being prepared to bore the
North Dorchester Bay CSO tunnel in Boston.

In South Boston, the Massachusetts Water
Resources Authority’s (MWRA) North
Dorchester Bay CSO Tunnel, a 5-meter
(17-foot) diameter storage tunnel of reinforced concrete segmental lining about
3.4 kilometers (2.1 miles) long, will result
in the elimination of CSO discharges to
North Dorchester Bay. In addition to tunneling by a tunnel boring machine (TBM),
there were more than 1,500 meters (5,000
feet) of new storm water piping installed
to separate sanitary and storm water flows
into the new storage tunnel.

Long Time Coming
PB designed the tunnel as part of a joint
venture team between 2004 and 2006
under the direction of Tim Smirnoff, Joe
O’Carroll and Eldon Abbott. Construction
began in late 2006 and was completed in
2008. Following completion of the pump
station (designed by another firm) and an
odor control facility, the tunnel will be
put into service in 2011. PB assisted the
MWRA during construction, reviewed shop
drawing submittals and saw through the
implementation of the project.

Challenges Met
There were challenges along the way,
says Filomena Maybury, Deputy Project
Manager, who worked under Project
Manager Eldon Abbott.
One concern was
what might be
in the path of
the tunnel. “We
were worried
about running
into abandoned
seawalls, wells
and timber piling supporting
existing CSO

20 • Notes

Filomena Maybury

The TBM breaks through at the end of its journey beneath the streets of South Boston.

outfall pipes crossing the tunnel alignment.
Extensive probe drilling and historical plan
searches helped to set the tunnel profile to
avoid these potential obstacles.”
Maybury recalls another challenge—
during construction the fire department
determined it was necessary to have a
rescue shaft halfway along the proposed
tunnel alignment in case of an emergency
in the tunnel. Such a shaft was designed
by PB and was built very quickly, with no
impact to the overall construction schedule.
The shaft will also be used as an additional
maintenance shaft for the completed tunnel.
The CSO runs 5 to 11 meters (17
to 35 feet) under Day Boulevard, the
main road accessing the parkland along
Carson Beach in South Boston. So as not
to interrupt traffic, a cut-and-cover tunnel
was ruled out in favor of a bored tunnel.
Geotechical staff found that a TBM would
have to tunnel through mostly clay as well
as sand and gravel. “This was rather challenging—a TBM boring through different
materials,” says Maybury. “Kudos go to our
geotechnical team, who had accurately laid
out profiles of the materials. This profile
was instrumental in giving the contractor
the necessary data to effectively plan his
tunneling means and methods.”
Bill Levy, MWRA’s Project Manager

in charge of design, points out that this
was the MWRA’s largest and most difficult
CSO project. “There were challenges during design, but PB embraced them and
worked with us to solve problems. We
successfully implemented the project on
an aggressive design schedule. This design
package resulted in a very successful construction project that was completed ahead
of schedule, on budget and with minimal
change orders.”

Improved Quality of Life
“Most important is the big picture,” says
Maybury. “The project will result in a better
quality of life for South Boston residents,
especially for those who visit Carson Beach.
This was a rewarding project in that the
result is a cleaner beach. And with the TBM,
there was less community disruption—it
was out of sight, out of mind.”

East Side CSO Tunnel
The East Side CSO Tunnel Project is the last
major component of the City of Portland’s
20-year program to reduce combined sewer
overflows into the waterways within the
city. This is to be done by controlling overflows from 13 outfalls on the east side of
the Willamette River. PB was awarded the
design for the project in 2003.

Notes • 21

The Portland CSO’s TBM being
retrieved from below ground.

In Portland, a TBM was delivered to the launch site via barge on the Willamette River.


Water conveyance tunnels for which PB has performed design or construction services include:
• The 15-kilometer (9-mile) Boston Harbor outfall and its 55 state-ofthe-art diffusers (completed in 2000), which was part of the effort to
clean up Boston Harbor;
• The recently completed Singapore Deep Tunnel Sewerage System,
a project that replaced that country’s entire wastewater treatment
system, including 48 kilometers (30 miles) of tunnels; and
• The design of water conveyance tunnels of the
Croton water treatment plant in the Bronx, New
York, and the ongoing rehabilitation of 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the New Croton Aqueduct of the
New York City water supply system, which was
built in 1885, the year PB was founded. n

GOOD

MAN

Water Conveyance Tunnels

EL H.

In progress: build out of the Portland East Side CSO lower vortex generaThe tunnel will be 8.8 kilometers
tor at Alder Street.
(5.5 miles) long with an internal
diameter of 6.7 meters (22 feet).
larger East Side CSO tunnel,” says Roy
The project includes seven shafts approxiDealing With 19th Century
Industrialization
Cook, Project Manager for PB’s East Side
mately 15 meters (50 feet) in diameter
CSO design team.
excavated to depths up to 55 meters (180
In addition to the tunnel, near-surface
Furthermore, the tunnel passes seven
feet), approximately 3,700 meters (12,000
pipelines are required as part of the sysmajor bridges crossing the Willamette.
feet) of near-surface pipelines and 13
tem diverting flows from outfalls to the
“One of the most challenging aspects of
diversion structures.
tunnel. One of these pipelines parallels the
the design was selection of an alignment
The challenging tunneling condiriver and was excavated through artificial
through the Sullivan Gulch area,” says
tions—beneath the groundwater table at
fill containing timber piles placed in the
Cook. This deep channel in-filled with
depths up to 50 meters (160 feet) and
19th century to build docks. Despite these
soft sediments is the location for a major
primarily through a very dense gravel
poor conditions, the pipeline was microbridge, an interchange between the I-5
and cobble mixture held in a sand/silt
tunneled as a single drive—930 meters
and I-84 freeways and the main West Coast
matrix—have required the use of a slurry
(3,055 feet) long—the longest microtunnel
north-south railroad tracks. Through this
shield TBM. This type of TBM applies a
to date in the U.S.
area, the tunnel had to avoid deeppositive pressure to the tunnel face by
Cook has found the project rewardpiled foundations for the bridge and
means of bentonite that penetrates the
ing. “It’s been a long process but
then snake through steel H-piles
ground and provides face stability. Slurry
never dull. From the construction
driven to support ramps for
shield tunneling was first used in the
of the deep slurry wall shafts to
the interchange. Investigations
U.S. on the West Side CSO
the slurry shield tunneling to the
showed that deviated piles came
in Portland for a 4-meter
microtunneled pipelines and
within a few feet of the tunnel
(14-foot) diameter tunnel
their associated works, there is
along its originally
also designed by PB. “Its
always something challenging
selected alignsuccess on that project
going on.” n
ment. As a
resulted in the technology being
applied to the

MICA

Demanding Ground
Conditions

result, the tunnel was realigned
to increase clearances.
“The contractor finished
the 6 kilometer- [3.8 mile-]
long TBM drive to the north in
November 2009. The TBM was
retrieved, put on a barge and
floated up river to the main
mining site. Once refurbished,
it will go underground again
to drive south,” explains Cook.

© 2000

This project, now under construction and scheduled for completion in 2011, will significantly improve
water quality in the river, encouraging
its use for recreational activities while
promoting wildlife habitat.

unnel
Deep T
gapore ystem
Sin
age S
Sewer

Roy Cook
Boston
Harbor
Outfall

Notes • 23

The Florida Department of Transportation
lengths and will soon be going to great
depths to improve access to and from the
Port of Miami.

IMPROVING PORT ACCESS
IN MIAMI
The Port of Miami is Florida’s main container port and accommodates
4.1 million cruise ship passengers annually.

Construction on the Port of Miami Tunnel
project is expected to begin in May 2010.
As owner’s representative since 2003,
PB has assisted FDOT in the development
of a program to link the Port of Miami—the
cruise capital of the world and cargo gateway of the Americas—with I-95 and I-395 to
alleviate congestion on local Miami streets
and enable the port to remain competitive.
Under the direction of Project Manager Eldon
Abbott and Deputy Project Manager Peter
Donahue, PB’s efforts have included project
management, civil and structural concept
design, tunnel engineering, cost estimating
and scheduling, and preparation of publicprivate partnership (PPP) procurement documents. The firm also supported FDOT during
the contract negotiation process.
Currently, the only route to and from
the Port of Miami, located on the 210-hectare
(518-acre) Dodge Island between Miami and
Miami Beach, is the Port Boulevard Bridge.
Motorists must navigate city streets between
the interstates and the bridge, and regular
traffic backups slow commerce, deter tourism
and negatively impact pedestrian traffic and
local air quality. The solution: Reroute portrelated traffic, particularly trucks and buses,
by providing a direct connection to the Port
of Miami via Florida’s first major tunnel.

Long-Haul Procurement
In 2006, the project was advanced through
a public-private partnership. Following
the request for proposal, the MAT (Miami
Access Tunnel) consortium was selected as
concessionaire in February 2008. Protracted
contract negotiations and the subsequent
pullout in December 2008 of the concessionaire’s original 90 percent equity partner
delayed financial close until October 2009.
The PPP includes FDOT, Miami-Dade
County, the City of Miami, the Federal
Highway Administration and MAT. Under
the PPP contract, MAT will provide finance,
design, build, operate and maintain services over a 35-year period—five years for
design and construction at a cost of $607
million and 30 years for operation and
maintenance with annual payments based
on performance standards.

Mobility Enhancements
In addition to twin-bore tunnels between
Watson and Dodge islands, project com-

24 • Notes

Currently, the only way to reach the Port of Miami is via the Port Boulevard Bridge. A tunnel from Watson
Island to Dodge Island will offer an alternative way to reach the port.

ponents include Port of Miami roadway
connections and the widening of the
MacArthur Causeway to accommodate
the associated growth in traffic. These
enhancements will provide a vital dedicated route to cruise and cargo ships.
Tunnel construction will be especially
challenging due to Florida’s soft, permeable ground conditions. An earth pressure
balance tunnel boring machine (TBM),
with a cutterhead measuring 12.8 meters
(42 feet) in diameter, is being fabricated
to traverse the sand and limestone. Precast
tunnel segments will be placed as the
TBM progresses. Each tube, 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) in length and 13 meters
(41 feet) in diameter, will carry two lanes
of traffic at depths up to 37 meters (120
feet) below the navigational channel in
Biscayne Bay.
“Both tubes will be driven from a
single launching pit on Watson Island so
only one area will be required for tunnel
muck outside the portals,” says Donahue.
“When completed, this will be the largest soft-ground bored tunnel in the U.S.”
Each bore is expected to take six months
to complete.
The MacArthur Causeway will be
expanded from three to four lanes in each
direction, and acceleration and deceleration lanes for trucks and buses using the
tunnel will enhance safety. The port’s
roadway system will feature three overlapping bridges to provide improved access
for both cargo and cruise traffic entering
and exiting specific areas of Dodge Island.

En Route to Smoother Sailing
“PB will be reviewing all of the concessionaire’s technical and administrative
submittals for conformance with good
engineering practice and contract terms,”
says Donahue. “In addition to our role
as owner’s representative for permitting,
design and technical assessment, recently
we were tasked with construction engineering and inspection [CE&I] services.”
PB’s Richard Lear and Richard
Monahan are currently managing the
design review process. Following final
design, permitting and utility relocation in
2010, upcoming construction tasks include
excavation for tunnel tubes and port
roadways and bridges in 2011, work on
depressed roadway sections and approaches in 2012, and tunnel finishes and support
facilities efforts in 2013. PB’s Felix Vergara
will manage the CE&I services.
With project completion scheduled
for April 2014, the result will be an infrastructure network that allows for smooth
sailing to and from the
Port of Miami as well
as an improved
downtown and an
enhanced environment for residents
and tourists alike. n

Peter Donahue


(FDOT) and its partners have gone to great

With a proven track record of success in
complex tunnel design and construction,
global leader in tunnel ventilation and lighting.

TUNNEL INNOVATIONS:
LIGHT AND AIR
The Upper Narrows Tunnel in southern Colorado uses a counterbeam lighting system
to increase visibility at reduced energy.

26 • Notes

Ventilation Innovation
Since PB’s tunnel ventilation team was
created more than 35 years ago, PB has
been responsible for scores of major ventilation design breakthroughs that have
slashed costs while providing a superior
environment for rail and road tunnel users.
Among its accomplishments is the Subway
Environment Simulation (SES) computer
program, created in the 1970s, that continues to prove itself today in the design of
safe, cost-efficient tunnel ventilation systems. PB’s tunnel ventilation team currently
numbers approximately 40 people.
The team also wrote the Subway
Environmental Design Handbook, a
technical guide for subway ventilation
design. In the 1990s the team developed
SOLVENT, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) fire-ventilation
road tunnel simulation program validated
by the Memorial Tunnel Fire Ventilation
Test Program in West Virginia.
Members of the team have been
responsible for scores of major subway and
tunnel ventilation designs, including those
of Atlanta’s MARTA rapid transit system; the
Hong Kong subway; the Canadian Pacific
Railway’s Mount Macdonald/Rogers Pass
tunnel, which is the longest railroad tunnel
in the Western Hemisphere; as well as a
proof check of the English Channel Tunnel.
How has tunnel ventilation changed
since the early 1970s? “The ability to work
things out precisely on the computer has
allowed us to implement all kinds of innovations that were too risky before,” says
team founder Bill Kennedy. “The first thing
we realized was that tunnel ventilation
could be done a lot less expensively. With
the SES and CFD, you can pinpoint exactly
where to place ventilation shafts and how
many cubic meters per minute the fans
have to move.”
On the MARTA project, PB was able
to reduce the number of ventilation shafts
by a third. Since each shaft cost $500,000
to $1 million in those days, the savings
was considerable. The total cost reduction
for MARTA was about 5 percent.
In the mid-1980s, PB designed the first

so-called “screen doors” for the Singapore
Mass Rapid Transit. Screen doors are a second set of subway doors on the train platform that prevent heat in the tunnel from
warming the station platforms. This further
reduced air conditioning costs as well as
platform air velocities when trains arrived
and departed.

Light at the End of the Tunnel
Lighting is another area where major
changes are occurring, according to Senior
Supervising Engineer Paul Lutkevich.
Advances in LED, high-intensity discharge
and fluorescent technologies have improved
efficiency and reduced energy use.
But perhaps more dramatic was the
discovery about a decade ago of an additional photo receptor in the human eye,
indicating that the color of light plays a
significant role in the physical response
of the eye and therefore how well we see.
“This discovery turned everything upside
down in this field,” says Lutkevich. “We
always knew that what you see is affected
by the difference in brightness between
an object and its background. Now we’re
experimenting with the additive effects
of color contrast from the use of widespectrum lighting sources and using the
light source to control pupil size and, ultimately, visibility.”
For example, in the Baltimore Harbor
Tunnel for the Maryland Transportation
Authority, PB replaced monochromatic lowpressure sodium lamps with easy-on-theeyes induction lamps, a technology similar
to fluorescent that uses external coils to
generate electromagnetic fields in order
to stimulate phosphors in the lamp. Not
only are induction lamps broad spectrum,
but they have an operating life that is five
times that of a traditional fluorescent light.

porating the daylight that penetrates the
tunnel into experimental lighting designs.
In a tunnel project for the Arizona
Department of Transportation, PB was
able to measure daylight readings and validate computer modeling techniques that
predicted daylighting levels for various
sky and weather conditions. The result of
this analysis and modeling, according to
Lutkevich, is that it likely will be possible
to exclude all artificial tunnel lighting
from the entrance and exit portals, reducing the initial and operating costs of lighting dramatically.
PB has also tested LED installations
in small sections of the Fort McHenry
Tunnel in Baltimore and the Holland
Tunnel in New York City, and is arranging mock-ups for several tunnels in
Washington state.
LEDs can also provide the wide spectrum source that PB is looking for. “We
have the research in color contrast and eye
response and are looking to direct LED
development to conform to those models.”
Next in tunnel lighting? “We’re looking at better ways to exploit daylight in
the tunnel,” says Lutkevich, “experimenting
with modifications in the tunnel structure
to direct more daylight inside and extend
that penetration with elements similar to
light shelves or with artificial light guides
that have an optical film to bounce light
down a long tube. The ideal result would
be the use of daylight to light the entire
tunnel. Instead of the problem, daylight
may become the solution.” n

Daylighting Tunnels

© 2007 J-F VERGEL

PB has harnessed its expertise to become a

Another change has been the incorporation of daylight in tunnel lighting. “In the
past, a lot of money was spent on lighting
the entrance to the tunnel, where a person’s eyes have to adjust from daylight to
a black hole,” says Lutkevich. PB is incor-

Bill Kennedy

Notes • 27

Residents and business owners alike in
East Los Angeles are thrilled about the
recent completion of a long-awaited light
rail project that links them to Union Station
in downtown Los Angeles and several
vibrant neighborhoods in between.


LIGHT RAIL LINE A BOON
TO EAST LOS ANGELES

The line—with two underground stations
and six at grade—offers convenient travel
to downtown Los Angeles and also makes
East Los Angeles easier to reach from outside the area.
PB, as the lead member of the
Eastside LRT Partners joint venture,
provided planning, design and engineering services during construction
for the Eastside Extension of the Los
Angeles Metro Gold Line. A project of
the Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (Metro) that was
many years in the making, the extension opened on November 15, 2009. U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
called the project “a model for the nation.”
PB brought several innovations to the
project, including the use of tunneling
equipment that produced virtually no
ground settlement during construction.
An estimated 13,000 riders used the
system on weekdays by the close of 2009,
with 23,000 riders projected by 2020.
“The Eastside Corridor has among
the highest residential densities and largest transit-dependent populations in Los
Angeles,” explains Bob Bramen, who
served as PB’s Principal-in-Charge and JV
Project Director of Eastside LRT Partners.
“With this extension of Metro, the client
has done a great service to users in the
Eastside neighborhood and beyond.”

Project Details
The Eastside light rail is a 10-kilometer
(6-mile), eight-station extension of the
Metro Gold Line and
runs between Union
Station in downtown
Los Angeles and
East Los Angeles.
The alignment is
primarily at-grade,
with a midsection
tunnel, and a viaduct
section over the
U.S. 101 free-

28 • Notes

PB contributed to the design of the Maravilla Station, as well as several other
stations, on the Eastside Extension of the Los Angeles Metro Gold Line.

way. The original Metro Gold Line runs
north and then east from Union Station for
21.7 kilometers (13.5 miles), ending at the
Sierra Madre Villa station in Pasadena.
Initially the extension was envisioned
as a completely underground system but
that program was later suspended because
it was not financially feasible. Heading
back to the drawing board, PB and the
client team identified an alternative plan
that combined a system built at grade
for 6.7 kilometers (4.2 miles) and underground for 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). The
subway solution was deemed most appropriate for the portion of the line running
through Boyle Heights, an older neighborhood that has many narrow streets.
Final environmental studies prepared under PB’s lead were approved
in February 2002; final design began in
October 2002 and construction started
in July 2004. The twin tunnels under the
Boyle Heights district were completed in
December 2007.
The new stations, many of which
were designed by PB architects Aziz
Kohan and Larry Johanson and their
joint venture colleagues, were uniquely
planned to fit the context of the neighborhoods where they are located.

Public Involvement and
Process Innovations
An extensive public involvement program
was key to the project’s success. “The community was critical in the decision-making
process, evaluating a variety of alternatives
with PB and the owner,” says Bramen.
PB introduced a number of innovations to the process that further minimized impact to the community, says
Amanda Elioff,

PB Lead Tunnel Engineer. PB recommended the use of pressurized-face tunnel
boring machines (TBMs) to reduce settlement of the ground above the tunnels. In
fact, the tunnels were completed with virtually no settlement, minimal disruption to
the community and no impact to existing
infrastructure or buildings—benefits that
led Metro to consider the use of TBMs for
future projects.
“Another major innovative element
employed in this project was the use of
double-gasketed precast concrete segmental tunnel liners—versus two-pass tunnel
liners—to contain gas and water seepage,” says Jim Monsees, PB’s Technical
Director for Tunneling. “The decision to
use these liners saved considerable time
and expense when compared to systems
used in the past.”
Elioff also attributes the job’s success to the integrated project management
team. “The owner, engineer, contractor
and construction manager were all located
in field offices on the site,” she says.
As always, safety was a top priority. The project posted a perfect safety
record—more than 4 million construction
hours without a lost-time work injury.
Dennis Mori, Metro Executive Officer
of Project Management, praised PB for
“assisting Metro in completing the project
ahead of schedule and within budget.” n
Public officials celebrate the opening of the
Eastside Extension (front row, left to right): L.A.
County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, former L.A.
County Supervisor Yvonne Burke, U.S. Sen. Barbara
Boxer, L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina, U.S.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, L.A. Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa, and former Metro CEO Roger Snoble.

Amanda Elioff
Notes • 29

During more than a century of practice, PB
has produced books, monographs, reference


manuals and research papers that have

30 • Notes

RS

SAILO

© 2000
DAVID


Red
Metro
geles
Los An

Line

SAILO

RS

Sunghoon Choi

© 1995

DAVID


Among publications written by PB engineers is the Tunnel Engineering Handbook,
a comprehensive review of the state of the art in the design, construction and rehabilitation
of tunnels; “Design Manual for Tunnels and Shafts in Rock,” prepared for the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers; and the recently completed “Manual for Design and Construction
of Road Tunnels,” for the Federal Highway Administration which will
soon be adopted as a national standard of practice by the
American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
PB also fosters innovation through its
William Barclay Parsons Fellowship, which has
awarded a number of fellowships to support
research into tunneling. Monographs by Parsons
Fellows include the following and are available
through PB’s Website (www.pbworld.com/library/
fellowship/).
• The Inspection and Rehabilitation of Transit Tunnels
(1987) by Henry A. Russell
• Seismic Design of Tunnels: A Simple State-of-the-Art Design
Approach (1991) by Joe Wang
• A Guide to Planning, Construction and Supervision of Earth
Pressure Balance TBM Tunneling (2002) by Joe O’Carroll
• Tunnel Stability Under Explosion (2003) by Sunghoon Choi
• Fiber-Reinforced Concrete for Precast Tunnel Structures (2007) by David Smith
• An Innovative Method to Assess the Risk to Adjacent Structures Associated with Urban
Tunneling (2009) by Nagen Loganathan n

Joe O’Carroll

David Smith

WRITING THE BOOK
ON TUNNELING


Joe Wang

Sometimes, before tunnels can be dug, or while they are being
excavated, the ground through which they pass must be stabilized or
otherwise improved to allow for smooth tunneling with minimal impact
on adjacent structures and utilities. Over the past three decades, PB
has developed a number of ground improvement techniques that have
facilitated tunneling on projects including the following:
• Chemical grouting allowed tunneling on the Lexington Market section
of the Baltimore Metro at about 2 meters (7 feet) beneath a 19th
century brick-lined tunnel.
• Soil nailing made possible the construction of a tunnel portal for the
West Side light rail line in Portland, Oregon, at a site susceptible to
landslides.
• Ground freezing allowed tunneling of Cleveland’s Heights Hilltop
Interceptor through an active railroad embankment.
• A combination of jet grouting and micro piles
expedited construction of MARTA tunnels under
Interstate Highway I-285 in Atlanta.
• Jet grouting and fracture grouting at the 63rd
Street Queens Connector in New York City
allowed for the tunnel excavation beneath an
existing tunnel and elevated railway.
• Geomembrane incorporated within the
tunnel lining design facilitated safe tunneling
through petroleum-saturated ground along
the Los Angeles Metro Red Line.
• Ground freezing of soil under active
railroad tracks at Boston’s South Station
Central
allowed contractors on the Central Artery/
Boston Artery/Tunne
l,
Tunnel project to jack huge vehicular
tunnels through unstable soil without
interrupting rail traffic above. n

ILORS

Ground Improvement
SA
DAVID
© 1992

advanced the state of the art in tunneling.

Henry Russell

ity
York C
r, New
onnecto
treet C
63rd S

Nagen Loganathan

Notes • 31

China is undertaking an ambitious rail program in a
move to modernize its transportation network. The
458-kilometer (285-mile) Zheng-Xi Passenger Dedicated
Line (PDL), which runs from Zhengzhou to Xi’an, is part
of the country’s plan to construct up to 11 high-speed
rail lines that will link its major urban centers. The line
opened in February 2010.

Travel time from Zhengzhou to Xi’an is now just over two hours—previously this journey took 11 hours.

32 • Notes

© DIETRICH THEUREROF DB-INTERNATIONAL

KEEPING CHINA’S HIGH-SPEED
RAIL PROGRAM ON TRACK

In all, China is building a 10,000-kilometer
(6,200-mile) network of dedicated passenger rail within a five-year period to connect
the capitals of most of its 27 provinces. On
track for completion by 2013, the program
includes 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) of
high-speed rail, the largest high-speed rail
network in the world.
PB was part of a joint venture consortium chosen by China’s Ministry of
Railways (MOR) to build the high-speed
Zheng-Xi PDL, which includes some 38
tunnels, the longest at 8.5 kilometers (5.3
miles); the consortium included the MOR’s
Third Survey and Design Institute and DB
International GmbH of Germany.
Construction on the US$ 5.2 billion
project started in July 2005. Work was completed on a highly accelerated schedule,
with an on-time opening in February 2010.
PB’s responsibilities covered project
management and systems assurance counsel, safety and risk management expertise,
construction supervision support and
technology transfer to MOR staff through
formal classroom instruction and on-the-job
training. The firm brought a wide range
of expertise to the project, but one of its
greatest contributions was to help keep the
effort on schedule by bringing practical
solutions to logistical challenges.

Millions to Benefit
From Project
The high-speed trains of the Zheng-Xi PDL
travel at speeds of up to 350 kilometers
(217 miles) per hour on an alignment that
has 77 kilometers (48 miles) of tunnels, 156
kilometers (97 miles) of earthworks and
225 kilometers (140 miles) of bridges and
viaducts. The Zheng-Xi PDL runs parallel to the Yellow River,
one of China’s great
waterways.
“Millions of
people will be positively affected by
this project. The two
major cities it connects each has about 9
million residents, and a

Mike Gillam

Mountainous terrain posed logistical challenges that were overcome with careful planning.

number of intermediate cities have between
2 and 5 million,” says PB’s Mike Gillam,
Senior Project Manager. “Previous travel time
between Zhengzhou and Xi’an was up to
11 hours, depending on the class of service.
The travel time on the new line reduces that
trip to just over two hours, so the productivity improvement is enormous.”

Challenges and Achievements
Several ground conditions were encountered during tunnel construction including competent rock, weathered limestone
rock and both hard and soft sedimentary
material. Gillam notes that modern tunnel
boring machines were not used on the
project because of their capital cost and
also because of the challenging mountainous terrain; transporting the huge machines
to their needed work locations and moving
them after a tunnel bore was completed
would have been quite difficult. As a result,
he says, “Much of the excavation work was
done by human labor, sometimes assisted
with compressed air-driven excavators.”
Tunnels were constructed 24 hours a day,
365 days a year.
Early in the project, PB developed a
comprehensive master program with a critical path for the Zheng-Xi PDL. Working

closely with its joint venture partners and
the client, PB also divided the design into
different stages and levels of completion
needed for the individual civil works elements, making it easier for the designers to
supply specific plans at appropriate stages
of the project.
In early 2007, as part of PB’s scheduling activities, the firm projected extensive
delays on the two longest tunnels (each 8
kilometers/5 miles) under construction by
local contractors.
The PB team developed a tunnel
production improvement plan and most
of its recommendations were adopted by
the contractors, resulting in on-schedule
completion.
In addition to the Zheng-Xi PDL,
PB provided construction supervision
services to the Chinese government on
the construction of the Shi-Tai PDL, a highspeed line completed on January 1, 2009.
Located farther north, the 160-kilometer
(100-mile) line runs between Shijiazhuang,
the capital of Hebei Province, and Taiyuan,
the capital of Shanxi Province. Roughly
72 kilometers (45 miles) of the alignment
are tunnels and include the 28-kilometer
(17-mile) Taihangshan Tunnel, one of the
longest in Asia. n

Notes • 33

Notes
on
Projects

ily congested Jahra Roundabout
by using new depressed roadways and flyovers to access the
business district,” says Project
Director Anas Kassem who, since
2003, has led PB in providing
design, preparation of contract
documents and tender review.
Currently PB is providing construction supervision services
on the complex 2.8-kilometer
(1.7-mile) stretch of highway
surrounding the Jahra Gate intersection. The work is being performed in association with local
partner Gulf Consult for Kuwait’s
Ministry of Public Works.
As construction proceeds
on a complicated mix of structures, including at-grade road,
flyovers, underpasses, seven
bridges, two storm water pump
stations and a storm water sea
outfall, traffic mitigation is key.
“This is a densely settled area
and the roadway threads its
way between some of Kuwait’s
newest high-rise real estate
and some of its most historic,
protected buildings,” says Keith
Horsfield, Resident Engineer.
“We’ve developed four major
First Ring Road
traffic diversions to facilitate trafPhase III of the Vasilikos Power Station in Cyprus opened in
Takes Shape
fic flow, and we’re maintaining
late 2009.
In Kuwait
an extensive public awareness
population, Cyprus is investing
Work continues on the First Ring campaign to help residents and
in infrastructure improvements
Road to complete a vital route
property owners negotiate local
that deliver reliable power—and serving downtown Kuwait City.
roads during construction.”
more of it—to visitors and resiThe southern section of the
Two additional packages
dents alike. The need for modern road has been operational for a
have been tendered to round out
and efficient power technology is decade; and during the next sev- the northern section and close
especially crucial considering that eral years, the northern section
the 15-kilometer (9-mile) loop by
many of the existing generating
will open to traffic in three phas- 2016. “Ultimately, the First Ring
units are nearing the end of their es. “Completion of the first phase Road will make a major contribudesign life and are challenged by in 2011 will allow the bulk of
tion to streamlining traffic in and
increasingly tightening European the traffic to avoid the very heav- around Kuwait City,” says Kassem.
Union emissions directives.
PB was owner’s engineer
on the Phase III development of
the Vasilikos Power Station which
was put into initial operation in
July 2009 and taken over by the
Electricity Authority of Cyprus
(EAC) on November 11, 2009.
“Cyprus has been relying on
heavy fuel oil and diesel oil to
Cyprus Adds Power
produce electricity because there
At Vasilikos
is currently no availability of gas
There is a growing demand
on the island,” says Mark Wilson,
for electrical power in Cyprus,
PB’s Senior Project Manager,
the third largest island in the
Power Generation.
Mediterranean and a popular
The combined-cycle gas
tourist destination. To keep pace turbine power plant is initially
with a steady rise in tourism, and being fired on distillate fuel
to meet the needs of its growing oil but will switch to gas-fired
operation when liquefied natural
gas becomes available on Cyprus
several years from now.
“This technology offers
cleaner energy than the existing
power plants and is far more
efficient,” says Wilson.
PB also served as owner’s
engineer on the Phase II development at Vasilikos Power
Station, operational since 2005.

34 • Notes

MTA-Bridges and Tunnels, with
construction engineering and
inspection services.
The project’s main objective was the deck replacement
and widening of the Randall’s
First Ring Road, Kuwait City
and Wards islands viaducts,
according to PB’s Sam Scozzari,
Resident Engineer for the project. The project also included
Cleaning Up
taminated land, consolidating
replacement of more than 400
In Romania
regulatory structures at a local,
bridge bearings; closing of
Romania is one step closer to
regional and national level. The
better environmental quality
result is an action plan for reha- bridge drainage; upgraded illuthanks to a European Union
bilitation of historically contami- mination; $42 million in coatings
(EU)-funded project that has
nated sites that lays the ground- of the viaduct and suspension
advised the Romanian governwork for three pilot EU Structural spans; as well as repairs to the
ment on its national contaminat- Fund applications. “This is likely concrete piers and steel spans,
anchorages and viaducts.
ed land strategy. As part of this
to unlock a multimillion-euro
To provide easier access to
project, PB staff led and complet- rehabilitation program in the
Randall’s Island, which is being
ed a year-long program workcountry,” says Pellegrino.
revitalized by the city, a new
ing with the Bucharest-based
Institute for Studies and Power
Engineering to help formulate
New York’s RFK
a plan to remediate the counBridge Updated and
try’s estimated 350,000 hectares
Upgraded
(865,000 acres) of land polluted
The largest renovation and
by landfill, mining, heavy indus- rehabilitation project to date on
try and agricultural chemicals.
the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge,
“The environmental
formerly called the Triborough
situation in Romania is dire,”
Bridge, is nearly complete. The
says Project Manager Cristina
RFK Bridge is a system of three
Pellegrino. “The country has
bridges totaling 23 kilometers
thousands of abandoned contam- (14 miles) of roadways connectinated areas. This is exacerbated ing Manhattan, Queens, and
by the fact that currently only
the Bronx as well as Randall’s
A view from the top of the RFK Bridge East River suspension
a fraction of waste in Romania
and Wards islands, which
span, facing Wards Island.
is reused or recycled,” she says,
are located in the East River
adding that “the most severe
between Manhattan and Queens.
blow to soil quality is related to Originally completed in 1936, it ramp has been constructed. Good
relationships with contractors and
an increasingly large number of
is now one of the city’s busiest
city agencies enabled a successinappropriate landfills.”
motorways.
ful addition of this ramp, done so
After reviewing details of
A project to rehabilitate
well, Scozzari notes, that the new
the country’s 1,750 documented the viaduct and suspension
ramp perfectly matches the origihistorically polluted sites, the PB spans is complete. PB in joint
nal bridge. This ramp is schedventure was part of the projteam assessed and overhauled
uled to open in mid-2010. n
ect team providing the owner,
Romania’s management of con-

Notes • 35


Jonathan Sykes


WBP Fellow and
Finalist Tackle
Timely Topics

Frank Banko

36 • Notes

High-speed rail and the effects
of explosions on dams and
levees are the topics of
research undertaken through
PB’s William Barclay Parsons
Fellowship.
Frank Banko, a Senior
Engineering Manager in the
Newark, New Jersey, office, is
the William Barclay Parsons
Fellow for 2010 for his proposal,
“Pioneering the Application
of High Speed Rail Express
Trainsets in the United States.”
Banko will look to Europe and
Asia, where high-speed rail
is a proven technology. “I’ll
study best practices in France,
Germany and Japan, where rail
cars are designed and manufactured, to see how they design,
produce and operate high
speed rail trainsets.” Knowledge
that Banko acquires will help
develop high-speed rail trainset
performance specifications, and
will support the development of
regulations in the U.S.
James Parkes, a Lead
Geotechnical Engineer in
Baltimore, is the Parsons
Fellowship finalist for his pro-

Thomas R. Kuesel

posal, “Impacts of Explosions
on Dams and Levees.”
“It has been recognized in
the industry that there exists a
possibility for a malicious event
such as an attack on a high-hazard dam or levee,” says Parkes.
“A clear and cost-effective method for analyzing the effects of
explosions on dams and levees
must be developed.”

help organizations reduce their
vulnerability,” says Sykes.
The finalist for the Michel
Fellowship was Andrew
Hodgkinson, Melbourne,
Australia, for his “Self Sustaining
Structures.” Hodgkinson,
National Technical Executive,
Sustainable Production and
Resource Efficiency, Australia,
formed and led a new design
team in PB’s Melbourne office
called Self Sustaining Structures.
The team’s first project was to
design compact, comfortable
and portable temporary living
quarters for remote operations,
called Desert Flower, which
relies only on the rain and sunshine that falls on its roof for
water, heat and power.

Henry L. Michel
Fellows Study
Sustainability
The vulnerability of oil supplies and self-sustaining housing are subjects undertaken
through PB’s Henry L. Michel
Fellowship, which is awarded
annually to promote research
related to sustainability.
Jonathan Sykes, of PB’s
London office, was named
the 2010 Henry L. Michel
Fellow for his “Proposal for Oil
Vulnerability Audits.” Sykes specializes in sustainability and carbon management. He will study
how vulnerable organizations
are to rising oil prices.
“If there is a way to provide
a better understanding of the
risks early on, then transitional
strategies could be developed to

In Memoriam:
Thomas R. Kuesel
Thomas R. Kuesel, a renowned
bridge and tunnel engineer who
was responsible for the design
of 130 bridge projects and 140
tunnels during a 43-year career
with PB, died on February 17,
2010, at the age of 83. He spent
his entire career at PB, starting
as a junior bridge engineer in
1947. He was named partner
in 1968 and in 1984 became

Robert Warshaw—an engineer
who radiated enthusiasm for
his profession and taught and
inspired many—died on January
14, 2010, at the age of 82. Having
joined PB in 1952 and retiring
Bob Warshaw
in 2008, Warshaw was the company’s longest-serving employee,
with a tenure of 56 years.
Chairman of the Board of PB’s
One of his many accomAmericas transportation complishments was the seismic joint
pany before retiring in 1990.
he invented for the Bay Area
“Tom Kuesel was one of
Rapid Transit tunnel across San
the great PB engineers of the
Francisco Bay that withstood the
last half-century,” said George
magnitude 7.1 Loma Prieta earthJ. Pierson, PB’s Chief Executive
quake in 1989. His other projects
Officer. “He made significant con- included the I-787 Interchange in
tributions to bridges and tunnels Albany; the I-84/I-87 Interchange
that are well-known to millions.” in Newburgh, New York; and
various assignments on the
Kuesel co-edited, with
PB’s John O. Bickel, the Tunnel Long Island Expressway. He was
manager of the firm’s New York
Engineering Handbook, pubhighway department from 1968
lished in 1982 and still a stanto 1972.
dard reference for design and
In 2004, Warshaw was
construction. He also published
named Civil Engineer of the Year
more than 60 technical articles
by the Metropolitan Section of
on tunnels, structures and conthe American Society of Civil
tracting practices.
Engineers.
Kuesel graduated from
Yale University in 1946 with
Grateful to his own mena degree in civil engineering
tors at PB, Warshaw became a
at the age of 19 and earned a
dedicated mentor himself. He
master’s degree in civil engineer- also taught evening courses in
ing the following year. He was
structural theory at Polytechnic
elected to the National Academy University, from which he
of Engineering in 1977. He
received his master of civil engiwas an honorary member of
neering degree.
the American Underground
“Bob personified the PB valConstruction Association. He
ues of technical excellence, colreceived the Golden Beaver
legiality and putting clients first,”
Award in Engineering in 1989
says George J. Pierson, PB’s Chief
from The Beavers, the West
Executive Officer. “He truly was
Coast heavy construction honor- one of the great engineers of PB
ary association.
and he is sorely missed.”

Emerging Professionals
Show Forward Thinking
PB’s Emerging Professionals
(EP) Paper Competition gives
employees with 10 or fewer
years of experience the opportunity to step outside their company
roles to voice their opinions and
share their ideas.
The winner in the
Technical Paper category was
Jennifer Love, a Planner in the
Tempe office, whose paper,
“Improving Pedestrian Thermal
Comfort through Urban Design,”
highlights her analysis of urban
design elements in Phoenix.
“My analysis of temperatures
in various areas of Phoenix
revealed that a drop of just a
few degrees makes places more
attractive and therefore more
likely to be patronized by residents and tourists.”
The World Paper serves as
a channel for emerging professionals to express their ideas to
the firm’s leadership team on a
topic influencing PB’s current
operations and strategic success.
Francesca Maier of Nashville
won for her paper, “Securing
PB’s Future with Virtual Design
and Construction (VDC).” Maier
argues that VDC is a novel
approach to project delivery that
implements the information contained in multidisciplinary, 3-D
design models; optimizes the
design, construction and operation of a facility; and manages
cost and schedule risks. n


In Memoriam:
Bob Warshaw

Jennifer Love



Notes
on the
Firm

Francesca Maier

2010 04 tunneling-to_the_future

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