Deep excavation in urban areas – defects of surrounding buildings at various stages of construction

Abstract

Deep excavation and tunnelling works in city centres always bring some risks to surrounding structures, especially in the case of old town centres, where the technical condition and structural stiffness of historical buildings is rather doubtful. When the new desired excavation depth goes deeper than the foundation of the surrounding buildings or when tunnelling works are conducted directly under them, the existing objects are subject to stress, vibrations and displacements imposed at almost every stage of building the new construction. The presented paper outlines, on the basis of the authors’ experience, the typical damages appearing during the supporting wall construction (sheet pile driving, piling and formation of diaphragm walls) and tunnelling works. Other damages appear due to soil mass unloading (caused by excavation stages) and horizontal loading during pre-stressing of struts or ground anchors. The selected case studies of steel sheet pile wall installation is given with regard to typical failures caused by an unplanned excavation and its impact on neighbouring structures.