Tunnels

Changing codes & standards for a longer service life of tunnel elements

Transportation assets such as roads, bridges and tunnels are important to our everyday lives and integral to the continued success of global economies. Today, owners and managers of these assets are still challenged by ever-growing demands, unprecedented budget cuts, competing investment priorities and aging infrastructure.

Tunnel systems are generally complex and expensive in terms of capital costs. These structures often suffer premature degradation primarily due to reinforcement corrosion, which requires costly repair and maintenance strategies. At the top of the tunnel owners’ list of regularly encountered maintenance issues that can be attributed to age are defective and obsolete tunnel elements. It is therefore critical that the design/construction of new tunnels and the rehabilitation of existing ones consider high performance materials for longer service life in order to maximize safety, serviceability, and durability.

Over the years, the scope of tunnel projects has changed, and thus the requirements of materials used to construct them have also changed. The service life of these concrete tunnels is now expected to exceed 150-200 years, which far surpasses the design life originally considered by most national and international codes and standards.

An extensive experience in durability design engineering of Concrete Tunnel Elements

SIMCO is a highly-recognized expert in concrete durability design and technologies with over 25 years of experience in the design, repair and maintenance of exposed reinforced concrete structures. From project inception through to construction completion, SIMCO’s concrete experts’ team will tailor its tunnel engineering capabilities to the issues and concerns that our clients face.

For whatever tunneling challenges; for highways, rail, transit, or utilities, our team has a proven track record of engineering concrete durability designs from the simplest to the most complex tunnel projects. SIMCO combines its unique engineering knowhow, its leading-edge predictive technologies and its experience on large or small tunnel projects to provide best-in-class durability design engineering solutions for all types of underground infrastructure. That’s how SIMCO makes a difference.

New Tunnels

• Review concrete design specifications as early as the preliminary design phase
• Develop performance-based concrete design specifications for specific applications and exposure conditions
• Predict the service life in accordance to future exposure conditions
• Determine criteria for an optimal tunnel service life and plan future maintenance of all structural elements
• Conduct field inspections, condition assessments and standard and specialized laboratory tests
• Evaluate the residual service life using STADIUM® predictive modeling software
• Identify concrete deterioration mechanisms affecting the structure
• Evaluate maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation strategies based on lifecycle cost analyses and select the best intervention scenario

Existing Tunnels

• Conduct field inspections, condition assessments and standard and specialized laboratory tests
• Evaluate the residual service life using STADIUM® predictive modeling software
• Identify concrete deterioration mechanisms affecting the structure
• Evaluate maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation strategies based on lifecycle cost analyses and select the best intervention scenario