Use of linked monitoring systems for asset protection at Finsbury Circus during SCL tunnelling for Crossrail Station

These were the opening lines of the HSE article prepared by W S Atkins “The risk to third parties from bored tunnelling in soft grounds” (Lance & Anderson, 2006)[11] and their application in today’s World is just as relevant.

Tunnelling in soft ground is one of the highest risk constructions undertaken in an urban environment (Atterwell, Yeates, & Selby, 1986)[1] and (Serratrice & Magnan, 2002)[14]. Although new tunnelling systems and machines have evolved to be very safe and reliable, the main cause of the risk is the high concentration of population and assets per square meter in the works zone of influence. This has led to the developments in other fields, such as ground investigation techniques, mitigation strategies and in the field of Instrumentation and Monitoring.