Study on the Reducing Measures to Reduce the Influence of Culvert Extension on Existing Lines in Loess Regions

Abstract

Due to the many constraint conditions, construction difficulties, and high control standards, and the impact of new line construction on existing lines, the construction of culvert extensions in widened sections of loess areas has become a form of control in railway construction projects. This work analyzes the technical difficulties of culvert extension construction schemes based on a practical engineering case. A scheme to provide culvert protection against slight disturbances is determined, and the construction schemes of the culvert extension structure and transition section filling are optimized. The rationality of culvert extension control measures and the influence of construction on the existing line are then studied based on the monitoring data for each stage. The results show that the implementation of the slight disturbance culvert protection has little influence on the existing line, and has the greatest influence during steel sheet pile construction (<0.5 mm). We symmetrically construct the culvert extension structures (transverse) and transition section filling (longitudinal and transverse) to effectively reduce the influence of differences in the deformation value between the two sides of the existing line at the same level as the existing line. The deformation of the upper side of the culvert fluctuates with the construction of the composite foundation and shows an overall upward trend, while the deformation increases first and then decreases in the transition section, and the deformation of the upper side of the culvert is larger than that of the transition section. The level gauge deformation of each side decreases abruptly at the filling stage of the bottom plate, side plate, top plate, and splayed wall. The settlement value of the level gauge of each station increases nonlinearly with the increase in the filling height of the transition section, and the settlement variation value of the transition section at each filling stage is higher than that of the upper side of the culvert.