Design and Construction of Tunnels from Shallow Rock Cover to

Mixed Ground Condition Experience from the MTR Kwun Tong

Line Extension Project
A. K. L. Kwong
Formerly MTR Corporation

B. W. Y. Suen
C. W. Y. Chu
MTR Corporation

ABSTRACT

The MTR Corporation (MTR) Kwun Tong Line Extension (KTE) project is a 2.6 km long underground
extension of the existing Kwun Tong Line (KTL) running from the current terminus at Yau Ma Tei Station
(YMT) to the new Whampoa Station (WHA) in the Whampoa District. An intermediate station at Ho Man
Tin (HOM) will serve as an interchange station with the future Shatin to Central Link (SCL).

KTE Contract 1001 comprises construction of a new station at HOM, and a combination of a short 120 m
section of twin bore single track tunnels connection with the YMT existing over-run tunnels to join with a
1180 m section single bore twin track tunnel that connects with HOM at the west end. It runs 20 m below
ground from Gascoigne Road to HOM at the site of the ex-Valley Road Estate. East of HOM there is a 585 m
section of single bore twin track and single track tunnel, running through Chatham Road North via Wuhu
Street and Tak Man Street, and extends to the new WHA.

The 12 m span tunnels from YMT to HOM were generally excavated by the drill and blast methods where
temporary rock support follows the NGI Q-system. A number of locations where very variable rock mass
conditions with localized fault zones and shear zones of highly weathered and completely weathered granite
within the rock mass were encountered during the excavation at the location between Kings Park Playground
and Prince Margret Road at 50 m below ground. Design of the soft and weak ground supports was based on
numerical modelling and a combination of steel ribs, shotcrete, spiles, or canopy tubes with grouting were
used in the mechanical excavation cycles.

The tunnel from HOM to WHA along Wuhu Street is located 20 m below ground at an undulating rockhead
zone in a densely populated area. The tunnels in mixed ground conditions of rock and soil were partly
mechanically excavated and partly blasted in rock when the rock cover was less than half tunnel span. A
combination of spiles, steel ribs and canopy tubes with top heading and bottom benching excavation cycles
were used to reduce the risk of ground settlement and vibration to the sensitive receivers above.

This paper summarizes methodologically the numerical design and the constructional aspects of the variable
ground conditions (from mixed ground to low rock cover to no rock cover) of the 2.6 km tunnels from YMT
to WHA. The extent/orientation of the fault zones, shear zones, from shallow to no rock covers is also
presented.

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Project Background and Description

The MTR Kwun Tong Line Extension (KTE) project is a 2.6 km long underground extension of the existing
Kwun Tong Line (KTL) running from the current terminus at Yau Ma Tei Station (YMT) to the new
Whampoa Station (WHA) in the Whampoa District. An intermediate station at Ho Man Tin (HOM) will
serve as an interchange station with the future Shatin to Central Link (SCL). It will provide convenient, fast
and reliable means of public transport between Yau Ma Tei and Whampoa, and will enable residents in Ho
Man Tin, Hung Hom and Whampoa area to have direct access to MTR service, saving time for interchange
from road transport to the railway network.

KTE Contract 1001 comprises construction of a new station at HOM, and a combination of a short 120 m
section of twin bore single track tunnels connection with the YMT existing over-run tunnels to join with a
1180 m section single bore twin track tunnel that connects with HOM at the west end. It runs 20 m below
ground along Gascoigne Road, crossing Wylie Road, Kings Park Playground, Prince Margret Road, MTR
East Rail, Kings Park Reservoir and reaches HOM at the site of the ex-Valley Road Estate. East of HOM
there is a 585 m section of single bore twin track and single track tunnel, running through Chatham Road
North via Wuhu Street and Tak Man Street, and extends to the new WHA.

The ground profile from YMT to WAB is relatively flat and rises gradually from approximately +8 mPD
to +10 mPD. From WAB to HOM the ground level rises steeply to +70 mPD at Kings Park reservoir and
falling steeply to approximately +40 mPD at HOM. The bottom of the East Rail deep cutting between Kings
Park and the Oi Man Estate platform is at about +8 mPD. The tunnel invert elevation varies from
approximately -18 mPD at YMT to about -34 mPD at WAB, which is the drainage low point, and at -26 mPD
at HOM. Figure 1 shows the alignment of the tunnel from YMT to WHA and Figure 2 shows the interpreted
geological section. Detailed geological description can be found in Arup (2010) and Jacobs China Ltd.
(2011).

In addition there are two construction shafts under construction, one at Fat Kwong Street Playground
(FKSP) and one for the Wylie Road Ancillary Building (WAB), which is located at Wylie Road close to the
middle point of the YMT to HOM alignment.

1.2 Geological Setting

The 1:20,000 and 1:100,000 scale geological maps of Hong Kong published by the Geotechnical Engineering
Office (GEO) (Strange and Shaw (1986) and Sewell et al. (2000)) indicate that the entire alignment of the
tunnel is within the Kowloon Granite, which varies from fine grain in the western sections of the alignment to
medium and fine to medium grain into the HOM and WHA. Typically the granite exhibits a classic
weathering profile with completely (Grade V) and highly decomposed granite (Grade IV) above moderately
decomposed granite (Grade III) which is taken as the bedrock. Grade II (slightly decomposed granite) also
occurs throughout the tunnel profile.

Superficial soils occurring above the weathered granite comprise some Alluvium, Colluvium and Fill
deposits of variable thickness. Saprolite is encountered across the entire project with thickness varies from 5
m to 20 m in general but in places like Kings Park between Wylie Road and Princess Margaret Road could be
up to more than 40 m. Grade V materials, described as CDG are comprised mainly of sand, with silt and
gravel. Grade IV is mainly as gravel size rock fragments and quartz, and generally with sand and silt
materials.

Reclamation has occurred to the south of Wuhu Street and Tak Man Street that run parallel to the former
coastline.

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 NW trending photolineaments are identified at Wylie Road and Oi Man Estate. NE trending
photolineament is indicated at Gillies Avenue South. Figure 1 summarizes the photolineaments identified by
Arup (2010) and GEO.

Figure 1. KTE Tunnel Alignment

Figure 2. Interpreted Geological Section

2 GEOLOGICAL MODEL

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As the 2.6 km long tunnel will encounter rock mass at different depths, with variable degree of rock cover and
intersection of localized fault zones and shear zones of highly weathered and completely weathered granite, a
geological design model is depicted in Figure 3 to illustrate for the same tunnel diameter, the basis for the
adoption of different design criteria that integrated with the construction methods and sequences.

When the tunnel is shallow or within the superficial deposits, soft ground tunneling technique such as
Excavation and Lateral Support System (ELS), Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) or mechanical excavation with
forepoling and face support is normally adopted. In this case, the design is normally based on empirical rule
and numerical modelling and its design governing criterion will normally be settlement controlled rather than
stresses induced.

When the tunnel gets deeper or encounters a mixed ground condition where above the springline is Grade
III/IV and below the springline is Grade III (refer to Figure 3), the design is normally based on numerical
modelling where a combination of steel ribs, shotcrete, spiles, or canopy tubes with grouting will be used in
the mechanical excavation cycles. Blasting may be allowed below the springline when the rockhead cover is
more than about half a diameter. In this case, the controlling factor will depend on the ratio between the in
situ stress magnitude 1 and the intact rock strength ci and the fracturing network of the rock mass (Martin et
al., 1999). Martin et al. (1999) modified Hoek et al. (1995) and presents in Figure 3 that at low in situ stress
magnitudes, the failure process is controlled by the continuity and distribution of the natural fractures in the
rock mass. However as in situ stress magnitudes increase, the failure process is dominated by new stress-
induced fractures growing parallel to the excavation boundary. This fracturing is generally referred to as
brittle failure. Unlike ductile materials in which shear slip surfaces can form while continuity of material is
maintained, brittle failure deals with materials for which continuity must first be disrupted before
kinematically feasible failure mechanisms can form. Using WAB to HOM as an example where the depth of
cover ranged 50 m to 90 m and the ci ranged 50 MPa to 100 MPa, the 1 / ci ratio is less than 0.013 which is
much lower than 0.15 as suggested by Martin el al. (1999) for the low stress condition.

For extremely poor rock mass where Q (Barton, 1994) ranged from 0.01 to 0.06, the Geological Strength
Index (GSI) may be correlated as follows:

(1)

with six parameters being defined as Rock Quality Designation (RQD), Number of Joint Sets (J n ), Joint
Roughness (J r ), Joint Alternation (J a ), Water Inflow (J w ) and Stress Reduction Factor (SRF).

(2)

From Hoek et al. (1995),

(3)

From Jacob (2011), J w =1 and SRF=2.5,

(4)

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 For Q is equal to 0.01, GSI is 11. For Q is equal to 0.06, GSI is 27. Both GSIs are less than 50, which is
the case for the highly fractured rock mass where the failure process is controlled by the unravelling of blocks
from the excavation surface that is kinematic controlled by unfavorable joint sets.

Figure 3. Geological Model for Design

When the tunnel gets into a depth where the rock cover is more than 0.5D to 1.0D (D being diameter of
tunnel), the design of rock support may be based on the NGI Q-system and full face drill and blast excavation
method may be adopted.

For tunnels that are situated at great depth, where the in situ stress to intact rock strength ratio is greater
than 0.4, stress-induced brittle failure or squeezing and swelling of rocks may be possible that warrants the use
of numerical modelling to estimate the extent of the plastic zone for the design of appropriate supporting
systems.

3 DESIGN BASIS

The 12 m span tunnels from YMT to WAB were generally excavated by the drill and blast methods where
temporary rock support follows the NGI Q-system. The only variable rock condition found was at YMT near
Weak Zone A in Figure 1, where spiles were prescribed and partly mechanically excavated and partly blasted
when localized C/HDG to H/MDG was encountered at the tunnel face.

From WAB to Kings Park Playground where mapping shows a low range of 0.01<Q<0.06 (Weak Zone
B), design was based on numerical model where mechanical excavation was carried out with spiles and steel
ribs installed, and shotcreted applied at every 1 m advance. In Weak Zone C where 0.01<Q, design was based
on numerical modelling and a combination of steel ribs, shotcrete, 114 mm OD canopy tubes (special trade

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name, AGF) with staged grouting, face support bars (Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer) and enlarged sidewall
concrete foundations were used. The mechanical excavation cycles started with 2 nos. of pilot tunnels (3 m
span) fully excavated with steel ribs supported as a side drift to pass the weak zone and then followed by top
heading and bottom benching for the main tunnel between the pilot tunnels. The pilot tunnels provided
valuable ground conditions before the main tunnel excavation and formed a temporary side wall support and
concrete foundation wall for the main tunnel to spread the roof loading onto the soft ground at the invert.
Ground improvement by pressure grouting above the tunnel crown was carried out before the pilot tunnels
started.

From Kings Park Playground to East Rail, very variable conditions where localized fault zones and shear
zones of highly weathered and completely weathered granite within the rock mass were encountered during
the excavation (Weak Zones D and E). Design of the soft and weak ground supports was based on numerical
modelling of 4 different ground condition cases (Figure 4) and a combination of steel ribs, shotcrete, spiles, or
AGF tubes with grouting were used in the mechanical excavation cycles.

Case 1 With at least 3 m of rock cover and MDG Q0.28

Case 2 With at least 1 m of rock cover and MDG Q0.01
Case 3 With no rock cover and C/HDG Q<0.01 (above invert) and MDG Q0.01 (below invert)
Case 4 With no rock cover and full face CDG and below invert

Figure 4. Design Package K10 - Kings Park Playground to East Rail

Plate 1 shows the highly variable ground conditions encountered within a short distance in this part of the
tunnel section.

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 Plate 1. Variable Ground Conditions between Kings Park Playground and East Rail

After passing through the Weak Zone E, the tunnel drive towards the West Cavern of HOM was generally
excavated by the drill and blast methods where temporary rock support follows the NGI Q-system. The only
variable rock condition found was at Weak Zone F, where spiles were prescribed when localized H/MDG was
encountered at the tunnel face.

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 The tunnel from HOM to WHA along Wuhu Street is located 20 m below ground at an undulating
rockhead zone in a densely populated area. When the rock cover was more than half the tunnel span, the
tunnel was generally excavated by the drill and blast methods where temporary rock support followed the NGI
Q-system.

However, when the tunnel was in mixed ground conditions with rock and soil, and in combination with
shallow or no rock cover (Weak Zones G and H), it was numerically modelled and mechanically excavated
partly in mixed ground and partly blasted in rock. A combination of spiles, steel ribs and AGF tubes with top
heading and bottom benching excavation cycles were successfully used to reduce the risk of ground settlement
and vibration to the sensitive receivers above.

Design packages covering 3 different cases in this tunnel section are shown in Figure 5 which covers the
following scenario:

Case 1 With inclined rock cover less than 1 m and CDG above crown and M/SDG below crown
Case 2 With no rock cover and inclined M/SDG below springline
Case 3 With no rock cover and inclined M/SDG below invert

Figure 5. Design Package L4 (Rock Cover < 1 m) - FKSP to WHA

4 SUMMARY OF DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION METHOD IN WEAK ZONES

Table 1 presents a summary of the simplified geological material encountered, design basis and construction
methods together with the estimated rock cover in each of the weak zones between YMT and WHA. The
exact locations of these weak zones are not disclosed for intent purpose.

The geotechnical parameters used in the numerical modelling can generally be found in Jacobs (2013) and
it basically uses the mapped Q to calculate GSI (Equation 4), and then rely on the Hoek-Brown Failure
Criterion to convert the Hoek-Browns m and s parameters into the Mohr Coulombs c and parameters for
input into the Plaxis model.

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 Table 1. Summary of Design and Construction Method in Weak Zones - YMT to WHA

The horizontal to vertical principal stress ratio was taken as 1.0 and the stress relaxation factor was taken
as 10% in the modelling.

The orientation of the fault and shear zones is generally in the NW-SE direction. This is confirmed by the
open excavation at the HOM where the northern and southern box cut exposed a fault zone with thickness of
about 8 m at -12 mPD and about 2 m at -13 mPD respectively as shown in Figure 1. The fault identified at the
northern box of HOM is believed to be the geological structure P8 identified as photolineament on the
1:20,000 geological map and also an extension of the geological structure GS15 at the intersection of Wuhu
Street and Lo Lung Hang Street. At the West Concourse of WHA, based on the records of the boreholes, pre-
drill and founding level of pipe piles around the periphery of the station box and open excavation at the base
slab, the orientation of the fault also follows the NW-SE trend with a thickness of about 2 to 6 m at around -25
mPD. At the East Concourse of WHA, similar trend of fault is also identified with a thickness of about 2 to 4
m at around -20 mPD.

5 CONCLUSION

The tunnels from YMT to WHA have provided valuable ground conditions along its route where a number of
localized fault zones and shear zones of highly weathered and completely weathered granite within the rock
mass were encountered and the tunnels were successfully excavated, supported and lining completed. There
was no distress observed at the tunnel crown or sidewalls during the excavation and all the monitoring
instruments did not record any movement.

A systematic approach has been adopted in the design to cover different scenario from more than half span
rock cover, low rock cover to full face soft ground. Design of the soft and weak ground supports was based

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on numerical modelling and a combination of steel ribs, shotcrete, spiles, or canopy tubes with grouting were
used in the mechanical excavation cycles.

Where adequate rock cover was confirmed by probing ahead, the temporary rock support followed the NGI
Q-system with drill and blast excavation methods. In areas where there was uncertainty on the adequacy of
rock cover or the presence of localized zones comprised of highly weathered and completely weathered
granite, spiles were usually adopted as a precautionary measure and partly excavated mechanically and partly
blasted in the lower bench by maintaining at least good rock cover of half tunnel span. A combination of
spiles, steel ribs and canopy tubes with top heading and bottom benching excavation cycles were successfully
used to reduce the risk of ground settlement and vibration to the sensitive receivers above.

A summary of the extent/orientation of the fault zones, shear zones, shallow to no rock covers was also
presented.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writers are grateful for the support of MTR and Jacobs China Limited. Their support contributed in
expediting the approval process. However, the contents of this paper do not necessarily reflect the views and
policies of these supporting organizations, nor does the mention of trade names and commercial products
constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

REFERENCES

Arup. 2010. Geotechnical Engineering Report, Deliverable 3.13B, Consultancy Agreement No. C1001,
Detailed Design for Yau Ma Tei to Whampoa Tunnels and Ho Man Tin Station, Volume 1 of 2, 26 p.

Barton, N. and Grimstad, E. 1994. The Q-system following twenty years of application in NMT support
selection. Felsbau, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 428-436.

Hoek, E., Kaiser, P. K. and Bawden, W. F. 1995. Support of Underground Excavation in Hard Rock,
Rotterdam, A. A. Balkema, 215 p.

Jacobs China Limited. 2011. Package A4-1, Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Engineering Report for
Contractors Design (YMT HOM), Volume 1 of 2, 65 p.

Jacobs China Limited. 2013. Package L4, Temporary Works for Tunnel Support in Mixed Ground (HOM
WHA), 275 p.

Martin, C. D., Kaiser, P. K. and McCreath, D. R. 1999. Hoek-Brown Parameters for Predicting the Depth of
Brittle Failure Around Tunnels. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, Vol. 36, pp. 136-151.

Sewell, R. J., Campbell, S. D. G., Fletcher, C. J. N., Lai, K. W. and Kirk, P. A. 2000. The Pre-Quaternary
Geology of Hong Kong. Geotechnical Control Office, Hong Kong.

Strange, P. J. and Shaw, R. 1986. Geology of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, Hong Kong Geological
Survey Memoir No. 2. Geotechnical Control Office, Hong Kong, 134 p.

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