Original news was published on 13 June, 2014
Crossrail, Europe’s biggest civil engineering project, is receiving critical data from the world’s first smart tunnel, operated by University of Cambridge engineers.
"A project as big as Crossrail comes with all sorts of engineering challenges,” Robert Mair, head of civil engineering and of the Center for Smart Infrastructure and Construction at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement. “One of the most important of those challenges is how you excavate large tunnels underneath urban infrastructure without causing any distress to buildings or other tunnels.”
Cambridge engineers installed an underground laboratory in the old Royal Mail Tunnel that runs just a few meters above the excavation of one of Crossrail’s new tunnels. The two tunnels run parallel to each other for more than 100 meters. This is the first time that two tunnels have been dug in London in such close proximity and parallel to each other for such a long distance
The lab contains hundreds of low-cost sensors that monitor the movement of the old tunnel as construction proceeds. The Cambridge technology is answering how much movement is happening, what form the movement is taking and whether it is within acceptable limits. In fact, the sensors can detect movements as small as one-hundredth of a millimeter, which means any potential problems can be identified and corrected before they cause any damage to the older tunnel.
“By installing the kind of sensors that can give a continuous update about how much those tunnels might be moving and what changes are taking place, we can answer a lot of important questions about the value of our current infrastructure, the future of it, whether it needs to be maintained, whether it needs to be replaced undefined all those kinds of issues can be much better quantified,” Mair said.
*NEWS SOURCE
