Artificial Intelligence Applications for Tunneling

Abstract

Geotechnical uncertainty is the governing source of risk on urban tunnel projects. A typical preconstruction geotechnical site investigation for a tunnel project involves vertical and/or inclined boreholes spaced at 50-m to 75-m intervals along alignments often extending for kilometers. This leads to a sampling rate of less than 0.1 percent of the ground. The result is a very high level of geotechnical and geological uncertainty, with reliance on desktop study and understanding of geological processes to help fill in very large information gaps.