Role of Instrumentation and Monitoring in Underground Excavations

The use of underground space is increasing at a rapid pace all over the world and size and extent of underground space required is also growing resulting in excavations of large underground tunnels and caverns. Health of these structures need to be monitored to ensure stability of the structures and in turn safety of people and infrastructure inside the underground excavations. Design values of various parameters in planning stage need to be confirmed during excavation and post excavation stages. This can be achieved only by measuring the changes in values of the parameter. Human sensory organs cannot detect the incremental changes taking place in a dynamic environment like underground excavations. Moreover, quantitative measurements are imperative in analysing, comparing and taking firm view on any parameter. This is only possible with systematic instrumentation and monitoring as various types of instruments are commercially available for measuring the changes of important parameters that affect the safety and stability of the underground structures. Instrumentation is one of the key element of observational approach. Results of instrumentation may lead to modification of original design to suit the actual rock mass conditions.

In this paper, role of instrumentation and monitoring while constructing underground excavations are discussed.