Vertical Microtunnelling technology developed for retaining wall Amsterdam

Carlos Bosma Bas Obladen

Civil Engineer (Msc) Civil Engineer (Bsc)
Strukton Betonbouw, Main Contractor, JV CSO Strukton (T&E), Main Contractor, JV CSO
Maarssen, The Netherlands Maarssen, The Netherlands
[email protected] [email protected]

Carlos Bosma received his civil engineering degree from Bas Obladen received his civil engineering degree from
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Hogeschool Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Carlos works as project engineer for JV CSO and as chief Bas is senior advisor for JV CSO. For the development of
Engineering and Work Preparation for Subcontractor the Vertical Microtunnelling Technique he participates in
Microtunnelling CMM the Review team to check the design considerations.

Summary
The municipality of Amsterdam is currently constructing the new metro line, the North/South-line.
This metro line passes through Amsterdam’s Central Station. The contractor must therefore
construct an immersed tunnel under the station platforms, the 15 tracks and the historical station
building. It must be avoided that the historical building that consists of brickwork from 1890 is
damaged. Rail traffic and rail passengers cannot be inconvenienced during construction and safety
must be guaranteed.
The realization of the retaining wall under Amsterdam Central Station is achieved by a newly
developed innovative method for installing watertight interlocked tubular steel piles to a depth of -
66 metres NAP.
Keywords: Vertical Boring, TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine), Microtunnelling, Retaining Wall,
Bore-front Stability.

1. Introduction
The Microtunnelling system has been developed within a joint elaboration by the Client and the
main contractor in order to limit and control the construction risks. The Client is represented by
“Adviesbureau” North/South-line a partnership between Royal Haskoning, Witteveen+Bos and
Ingenieursbureau Amsterdam (IBA). The station manager, ProRail, has awarded the design contract
to VOF SE, a partnership between Movares Nederland B.V. and Arcadis Infra B.V. The contract for
the crossing of Amsterdam Central Station was awarded to the JV CSO (Combinatie Strukton
Betonbouw Van Oord ACZ) on 7th of November 2002.

The new metro line, the North/South Line (in Dutch Noord/Zuidlijn), will increase the accessibility
of the city centre of Amsterdam. The line will ensure there is a fast link between Amsterdam-North,
the city centre and Amsterdam-South.
The Stationseiland (i.e. the Station Island) where Amsterdam Central Station is situated, is regarded
by experts as one of the most complex parts of the North/South Line. It consists of a brickwork
station building and a station platform. The Stationseiland is the busiest public transport junction of
the Netherlands with more than 250,000 passengers a day.
The design includes a construction pit under Amsterdam Central Station in which a tunnel element
will be immersed (see Figure 1). Special technologies have been developed using an innovative
approach that have been tested at full-scale and applied in the works. One of the significant
examples has been the development of a vertical Microtunnelling technology to construct a tubular
steel pile retaining wall under the station platform.
Fig. 1 Impression intersection North/South-line and Amsterdam Central Station
2. Geology
The subsoil of the Stationseiland is complex from a geotechnical point of view due to the
stratification, the variation in the change of these layers and its limited load-bearing capacity. The
soil profile cannot be compared with the typical Amsterdam soil profile. This is due to the fact that
the Stationseiland is an artificial construction in the bay of the IJ where a delta area has been
developed due to the estuary of the Amstel. The structure of the subsoil is very heterogeneous.
3. The design
3.1 Tubular steel pile retaining wall
Amsterdam CS consists of the station building and station platform. Extensions have been added to
the station platform as time went by. This has resulted in different foundation types, which makes
building on the settlement-sensitive station island even more complex.
The middle tunnel under the station platform is founded on an artificial sand layer. The foundations
of the roof construction and the IJ building have been built on wooden piles founded on the 2nd sand
layer. The whole of the foundation structure in combination with the settlement-sensitive soil
profile has already been settled approximately 300 millimeters since its construction in 1890.
3.2 Design criteria for the tubular steel pile retaining wall
The North/South-line tunnel alignment is situated under the centre tunnel of the station platform.
Building under the station, while operations continue, results in different (functional) preconditions.
A bored tunnel does not meet these preconditions due to the settlement sensitivity of the subsoil.
The solution is found in a construction pit with an
immersed tunnel. The cross section of the pit under the
station platform is shown in Figure 2.
The tubular steel pile retaining wall under the station
platform has the following properties:
• The retaining wall is constructed with tubular steel
piles;
• The required foundation capacity to ensure the trusses
and tracks can be taken over, is realized by bored piles
(through the tubular piles) up to -65 metres NAP
(Normal Amsterdam Level);
• The watertight interconnection between the tubular
steel piles is constructed with grout columns;
Fig. 2: Cross section retaining wall

• Executions in different phases (west – east) to ensure rail passengers are not disrupted or
inconvenienced;
• Vibration- and settlement-free execution to prevent damage to the monumental station;
 • Reaction forces may not be transferred to the station platform;
• Limited working height of 3 metres and limited logistic access.
3.3 Construction risks
An analysis was carried out within the context of the contractual common elaboration to reduce and
control construction risks. This analysis focuses on the feasibility and controllability of the set
quality requirements to be met by the working method. The result of the analysis is an overview of
the major effects on the control of the construction risks and the impact on the environment, which
consists of:
• Watertight sealing between the piles by using grout columns over a depth of approx. 30 metres;
• The decrease of load-bearing capacity of the subsoil due to oscillating movements during the
construction of the works;
• Bored piles up to the 3rd sand layer executed from the train platforms results in:
o Work takes place in the passengers’ area;
o The staircases have to be demolished to create working space for the installation of the
bored piles;
o The forces of the station platform are being transferred to the bored piles in the new
situation. A heavy structure is required due to the span between the bored piles.
4. Alternative working method: Vertical Microtunnelling
In order to control the construction risks alternative methods, technologies and possible new
developments have been investigated. These alternative methods have to comply with the set
preconditions that arose from the specifications in order to arrive at a feasible and controllable
solution. This inventory is shown in the schedule below including the possible solution:

Control measure Alternative Solution

• Lock construction creating a water • Directional Microtunnelling drilling machine
seal between tubular piles.
• Jacking or boring (vibration-free). • Segmented piles
®
• It should be possible to install piles • Leeuwankers for reaction forces from the
independently from each other. boring process.
• Applying tensile / compressive • Reaction frame for the pull down force
anchors. transferred to the drilling machine and guiding
the pile.
• Distribute load-bearing piles (3rd • Lock construction with a limited degree of
sand layer) uniformly over the wall. freedom (centimetre order).
• The working height for the piles is
limited to 3 metres.

The alternative solution includes different parts that are not available within the current state-of-the-
art techniques. These parts are incorporated in the “vertical directional Microtunnelling drilling
machine” and in the “lock construction with limited degree of freedom”.
A trial was successfully performed with an available horizontal Microtunnelling drilling machine;
three piles with lock construction were drilled up to -30 NAP to determine the feasibility of the
alternative solution.
5. Design of the Microtunnelling system
A design team with all parties represented was set up under the chairmanship of the Client. The
CMM subcontractor a Joint Venture between Strukton Infratechnieken, Van Oord ACZ and
Gebroeders Van Leeuwen Boring B.V. was also represented within this team. An independent
review team was set up instructed to review the design results.
5.1 Design of a vertical drilling machine
The issues that played a role during the design have been elaborated in the design documents. The
outlines of these design guidelines can be summarized as follows:
• Influence from gravity on the vertical boring process (only experiences gained with the
horizontal technology are currently available);
• Boring through different soil types with an average speed of at least 1 metre per hour (stiff over
consolidated and medium consolidated clay, 2nd and 3rd sand layer and intermediate layers with
silt, peat and various obstacles);
• Control of the stability of the bore front through overpressure during the production process.
(The Client has set the condition that water has to be used as boring fluid.);
• Boring (installing and removing) and pile segment handling;
• Develop a monitoring and control system (for all process variables of the boring process and
surveying parameters);
• Investigate a positioning system and determine the required working tolerances of the
Microtunnelling system.
5.1.1 Operation of the drilling machine
The drilling machine to be used is characterized by maintaining an overpressure at the excavation
front and discharging the excavated soil (vertically) against the forces of gravity.
A physical separation has been made in the drilling machine between the “excavation chamber”
where the soil is mechanically excavated by the turning cutter-wheel and the “discharge chamber”
where the excavated soil is suspended for hydraulic transportation. The excavation chamber has the
following properties:
• The excavation chamber or “the space in the cutter-wheel” has an opening of approximately 25%
of the excavated face;
• The excavation chamber has a conic shape;
• Crushers have been included just before the openings to the discharge chamber to ensure
obstacles to be transported through the hydraulic system.

The discharge chamber has the following properties:

• Physical separation between the excavation and the discharge chamber through a perforated
plate. The excavated soil is transported through the perforated plate to the discharge chamber.
The openings in this plate have an area of approximately 8% of the excavated area;
• The overpressure of the bore front is realized by controlling the pressure in the discharge
chamber.
5.1.2 Control of the bore-front stability
Control of the pressure in the excavation chamber will depend on many variables. These variables
can all be set and adjusted by the driller who is using an automatic regulation.
This regulation ensures a constant pressure in the discharge chamber related to the hydrostatic
pressure. The depth increase will automatically be corrected by the regulation. The regulation
including test results is schematically shown in Figure 3. The regulation consists of a PID
(proportional, integrating, differentiating) regulator and will regulate the RPM of the discharge
pump based on the pressure in the discharge chamber. The other system components can be
adjusted while the bore front pressure is kept constant (i.e. the quantity of front water, the pull down
force, etc.).The result is a regulation of the bore-front stability within a margin of approximately 0.1
bars.
Fig 3: Regulation schema and test results

5.2 Vertical Microtunnelling logistics system

The installation of the tubular steel piles will take place from the centre tunnel under the station
platform of Amsterdam CS. The access from and to this tunnel will be from the work site on one
end of the tunnel.
5.2.1 Reaction Frame and portal crane
A reaction frame has been developed for handling the pile and the drilling machine (see Figure 4):
• The reaction frame is anchored using Leeuwankers® before
boring starts. These anchors can be loaded with tensile and
compressive forces;
• The anchors have been installed with a rake to ensure they
can absorb horizontal forces;
• The reaction frame has an adjustable top clamp and a fixed
bottom clamp to keep the pile in position;
• The pull down force is 250 tons and the pull up force is 125
tons;
• The top clamp can rotate to correct the twisting of the pile;
• The reaction frame has retractable wheels that run on rails for
transportation.

Fig 4: Animation Microtunnelling system

A portal crane was designed to transport the drilling machine and pile segments:
• The portal crane uses the same rails as the reaction frame;
• The wheels of the reaction frame are retracted and the portal crane runs over the reaction frame
during drilling;
• The crane will transport the drilling machine and pile sections to the correct location;
• The crane will extract the drilling machine from the pile when it has reached the final depth.
5.2.2 Internal pipe sections inside the pile segments
The internal pipe sections include the power supply, hydraulic hoses, control cables, charge and
discharge pipes for the drilling process. The following aspects apply to the internal pipe sections:
• The internal pipe sections have the same length as the
pile sections. Once the pile has reached the final depth,
the internal pipe sections and the drilling machine will be
extracted to be reused for the next pile.
• Two pipes in the internal pipe section are used for charge
and discharge pipes. The other two are used for the
monitoring systems.
• A lift can be included in the internal pipe sections (see
Figure 5)

Fig 5: Internal pipe section and lift

5.2.3 Installing and removing the drilling machine

The drilling machine must be removed once the pile has reached the final depth. The following
solutions have been chosen in the design to ensure installation and removing is possible:
• The bottom pipe section (the cone) that holds the drilling machine has special guiding plates.
This ensures that the drilling machine can only be fixed into the pile section in one way;
• Inflatable rubber tubes are provided to create a watertight fixing;
• Inflatable rubbers with grippers are provided for the force transfer;
• The cutter-wheel of the drilling machine is equipped with teeth, which will be retracted when the
machine is removed.
5.2.4 Pile sections
After the design of the portal crane and reaction frame, a maximum length of the pile segments of
1.85 metres remains within the available 3 metre working height. The tubular steel pile retaining
wall consists of 45 piles per wall of which 15 are long piles (+1.5 m to -66 m NAP) and 30 are short
piles (+1.5 m to -31 m NAP). This represents a total of 2100 connections! A bolt connection was
developed to exclude the coupling of the sections from the critical process cycle time. This
connection can be fixed parallel to the drilling process. Other advantages are:
• All bolt holes are manufactured by a numerical processed drilling machine;
• The flange is machined which reduces the non-straightness of the tubular steel pile segments;
• The quality control of the connections takes place at the factory.

56 M30 bolts quality 12.9 (1200N/mm² breaking stress and 1080N/mm² yield stress) must be
installed for each connection as a result of the high loads.
5.3 Location determination and implementation tolerances

5.3.1 Tolerance analysis

The tolerances are determined by different components of the system. A tolerance analysis was
carried out to determine the required tolerances in the lock construction. The following deviations
have been included a.o. issues: The positioning of the pile head, vertical pile deviation, rotation of
the pile, straightness of the pile segments, etc. An analysis was carried out by assigning a
probability distribution to each variable with a Monte Carlo simulation.
The result of the probability distribution of the pile top and the design of the lock construction are
shown in Figure 6. The simulation has shown that the main influence is caused by vertical pile
deviation (60%) followed by the straightness of the pile segments (25%) and the positioning of the
pile head (20%). The geometry and the required degree of freedom of the lock construction were
determined based on this tolerance analysis.

Deviation 75mm 50mm 25mm Gem. 25mm 50mm 75mm

Simulation
Two piles -X 0% 0,7% 6,9% 8,4mm 22,8% 1,9% 0%
Y 0% 1,5% 14,6% 0,3mm 14,6% 1,3% 0%
Intm.Pile X 0% 0,3% 6,9% 4,3mm 11,1% 0,5% 0%
Y 0% 0,6% 4,1% 0,1mm 10,9% 0,6% 0%

Fig. 6 Probability distribution lock construction tolerances and geometry lock construction
5.3.2 Position adjustment
Vertical deviations of 0.5% to 1.0% of the depth are normal values for tubular steel piles. This
results in a deviation of 15 up to 30 centimetres at a depth of 30 metres. The tolerance analysis
showed that the deviation can be limited to approximately 5 centimetres by applying position
adjustments.
The cutter-wheel of the drilling machine excavates a larger borehole (1.92 metres) compared to the
diameter of the pile segments (1.82 metres). The annulus is supported with bentonite. The
adjustment is realized by the eccentric movement of the cutter-wheel, the bottom part will follow
this correction.
The position of the drilling machine must be known exactly to be able to adjust the deviation.
Special surveying and monitoring systems were developed for this purpose to display and log
deviation values real time. Applied surveying systems:
• Automatic Plumbing;
• Inclinometers in the drilling machine;
• Leveling system on the top flange;
• The slope is measured with a slope indicator in a tube fixed to the tubular steel pile to determine
the final position.
5.4 Process and quality control
Because of the many parameters in the boring process, the execution of a new technology and the
sensitivity of the station building and station platform, an effective process and quality control
system has been developed. The following components are part of this system:
• Process control. The parameters of the drilling system are continuously logged to analyze and
adjust the process;
• Quality control. Specific work instructions, parameter plans and settings for the drilling machine
have been implemented to realize the process within narrow bandwidths. The input for these
instructions is obtained from process analyses as well as from other issues;
• Geotechnical and position monitoring (see for a detailed description of the monitoring system at
Amsterdam Central Station the paper “Monitoring as a tool for the Observational method” [1].

Programs have been developed by the main contractor to analyze the process (approximately 60
parameters are logged every 2 seconds).
Results of the process, quality control and monitoring are part of the completion documents to
report the realized quality to the Client.
6. The Microtunnelling system after drilling 45 piles
The drilling of the piles for the western retaining wall carried out with the Microtunnelling system
was completed on 6th of February 2007. The results:
• 29 short piles (32 metres) and 16 long piles (67 metres);
• Maximum production of 11 segments per 24-hour day (20 metres);
• Lock construction tolerances were not exceeded (a maximum deviation of approx. 9 centimetres
and an average of approx. 3 centimetre have been realized for an individual pile).
7. Vertical Microtunnelling in the future
The second phase, the eastern retaining wall, will start at the end of 2007 and should be ready
halfway through 2008.
Future applications:
• Drilling vibration-free of segmented foundation piles (already realized for the extension of the
IBIS Hotel in Amsterdam);
• Drilling through old foundations;
• Large diameter piles for quay walls and foundations for (offshore) wind turbines;
• Vertical storage.

The newly developed vertical Microtunnelling technology can be considered quite an achievement.
The only disadvantage: the top of the tubular steel pile is only visible after all this effort. The rest
has disappeared underground.
A comparison between the depths of the Microtunnelling pile in the ground, with the height of the
Shell tower above the ground (on the northern bank of the IJ) is made in Figure 8.
Microtunnelling technology has achieved a depth of -66 metres under NAP in Amsterdam. This is
not the limit for this technology. Where the limit is, remains a challenge for the future!

Fig. 8 Comparison depths Microtunnelling pile left (67m) and height Shell-tower right (80m)

8. References
[1] LANGHORST O., KAPTEIN G., OBLADEN B. and BOSMA C., “Monitoring as a tool for
the Observational Method”, IABSE Proceedings, September 2007.