Insight regarding the future safety of tunnels and bridges

The project provides knowledge for determining present and future safety levels of tunnels/bridges and enables Rijkswaterstaat to make more economical and better substantiated decisions in the future with regard to renovating old tunnels/bridges to extend their lifespan. Immersed tunnels are a popular engineering method in the Netherlands because of the many waterways the roadways there must cross. As a result, almost thirty tunnels have been built in the Netherlands to date using this technique. Tunnel construction flourished most notably in the nineteen sixties and seventies.

Given the design life of these tunnels, many of them will be due for extensive renovation in the near future. A number of tunnels have sizable leaks caused by differential settlement of the underground. The objective of this research is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms behind tunnel deformation so as to control them in the future. Critical infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels and earthworks are no longer considered as inert objects, but as intelligent, self-learning objects. The SAFE-10-T project will provide a means of virtually eradicating sudden failures.