GEOTECHNICAL ASPECTS OF ROCK TUNNELING IN CHINA (REPRINTED FROM CANADIAN TUNNELING, 1995)

To meet the huge demands of transportation, energy and other infrastru cture projects, a large volume of rock tunnelling is being carried out across the country as China embarks on her modernization plan. This p aper summaries the geotechnical issues encountered on such projects, i ncluding the various modes of rock mass instability and geological haz ards. Methods of evaluating rock mass quality and ground conditions as developed in the West are now widely used on tunnelling projects in C hina. As well Chinese engineers and researchers have also developed ge omechanical systems for rock mass classification failure modes and sup port requirements. These systems have been proven to be effective in d ealing with the complex geologic and tunnelling conditions in China. A lso described in the paper are analytical techniques currently used in China for tunnel performance prediction, including canonical analysis , expert systems, block vector analysis and advanced numerical modelli ng techniques.