Rethink of failure of underground construction- lessons learned from Taiwan

Abstract

Underground construction is widely adopted in urban area but sometimes the construction might cause severely failure. In this paper, successful interpretation of instrument data is addressed and several examples are demonstrated since geotechnical monitoring is thought to be an effective tool to avoid failure. Further, the failure may also be caused by misinterpretation of responsibilities of parties relating underground construction so responsibilities distribution in site investigation, design, construction and geotechnical monitoring are discussed. It is recommended that adequate data of site investigation shall be provided by the client and shall not leave all responsibilities to the contractor. Well- experienced experts shall be invited to evaluate the quantity and quality of data of site investigation before the project goes to tender.