Combined freeze-sealing and New Tubular Roof construction methods for seaside urban tunnel in soft ground

• This work contributes to construction of shallow depth tunnel in soft soils.
• We present construction methods for a long-span seaside tunnel.
• Combined freezing and NTR method is simulated using T-M coupling procedure.

Construction of seaside urban tunnels is significantly difficult due to the densely adjacent buildings and underground facilities in conjunction with unfavourable geological conditions. For this, this paper investigates the construction methods used for Gongbei Tunnel, which is a typical seaside tunnel connecting Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in China. The construction methods and stability of the undercutting section will be focused. In the tunnel section of interest, dozens of thick steel tubes are jacked into the soft soil, and freeze-sealing method is applied to form a thick water-proofing wall. In this study, the combined freezing and New Tubular Roof (NTR) method are simulated by thermo-mechanical coupling analysis. The temperature field obtained in the freezing process indicates that the thickness of frozen wall grows approx. 2.0 m after 50 days of freezing. Besides, the stability of the surrounding ground and supporting structures in the bench-cutting stage are also investigated. Then the thawing process is simulated and associated suggestions for post-grouting to prevent excessive thawing settlement are proposed. The numerical results show that the tunnel is stable and the influence of tunnel excavation on adjacent buildings is within the permissible range. It also shows that the designed construction methods can be used to adequately meet safety and stability standards when adopting the proposed construction and supporting system.