Abstract.
Rising competitive pressure in the construction business, ever tighter schedules being set up by the clients and ongoing disputes between engineering geologists and civil engineers about the role of geotechnical engineers have - in the last few years - led to increasing discussions between engineers and geologists about the allocation of competences during the design process of underground structures. In the course of this debate, which is often polemic and anything but objective, important information is quite frequently lost - a development which may not only be to the disadvantage of the client but which may also do damage to the reputation of the professions involved. The design procedure of the new Austrian guideline for the “geomechanical design of underground structures” requires a close collaboration of geologists, geotechnical and civil engineers, yet without allocating competences. While preparing the tender documents for the first construction lot of the Northern feeder line of the Brenner base tunnel, the necessity of a close cooperation of the involved professions became apparent due to the complex geological situation encountered in the project area and the enormous amount of data available. Despite these difficult boundary conditions, the successful application of the guideline was last but not least the result of the joint efforts of the multidisciplinary design team.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Rights and permissions
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schwarz, L., Eder, S., Mattle, B., Hammer, H. Austrian Guideline for Geomechanical Design of Tunnels - Necessity for Cooperation between Geologists, Geotechnical and Civil Engineers. In: Hack, R., Azzam, R., Charlier, R. (eds) Engineering Geology for Infrastructure Planning in Europe. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, vol 104. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39918-6_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39918-6_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-21075-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39918-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive