Vulnerability, Uncertainty, and Risk ASCE 2014 419

The State of Art of Risk Management Standards on Tunnels and Underground

Works in China
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Qunfang Hu1 and Hongwei Huang2

1
Shanghai Institute of Disaster Prevention and Relief, Tongji University, 1239 Siping
RD, China, P.O. Box 200092, Shanghai , PH (86) 21-65983449; FAX (86) 21-
65987989; email: huqunf@tongji.edu.cn
2
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping RD, China,
P.O. Box 200092, Shanghai, PH (86) 21-65989273; FAX (86) 21-65982951 email:
huanghw@tongji.edu.cn

ABSTRACT

The increasing attention of engineering risk management is paid more and

more in China now. More than ten years ago, risk assessment was only used for very
large scale infrastructure projects and also focused on the projects economic risk.
After 2002, engineering risk management is warmly recommended in China large
scale infrastructure construction. Some projects accidents were happened
continuously which lead to a lot of economic lost and severe injury. All those big
projects accident arouses us to take some measures for dealing with risks. Our
government realized that project risk management (RM) could manage the
engineering construction risks and published some new guidelines or standards for
large scale projects. All the project RM guidelines or standards are used mainly in
large infrastructure projects (tunnels, roads, railways, bridges, and harbor works) to
manage the technical risks during the Projects feasibility study, design and
construction phases. The present article addresses the state of art of risk management
on tunnels and underground works in china. This feature and functionalities of the
Project PM application are illustrated from national data of accidents and casualties
from 2003 to 2011 which can reduce the hazards and control the economic loss
significantly.

INTRODUCTION

The increasing attention of engineering risk management is paid more and

more in China recent years. More than several ten years ago, risk assessment was
only used for very large infrastructure projects and also focused on the projects
economic risk, such as Three Gorges Hydropower Station (1991) and Shanghai 1st
Line Metro (1993). The designers would calculate the potential risk of economic loss
during the large scale project construction, especially construction material price
fluctuation. In 2002 quantitative risk assessment was firstly used for the project
schemes comparison among tunnel and bridge when crossing The Yangtze River from
Pudong District to Chongming Island in Shanghai. The Yangtze River Tunnel of
Shanghai is the biggest diameter in 2008 all around the world. The report risk

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analysis of the project includes 17 special technology research topics, including

environmental risk, river regime risk, hydrological risk, geotechnical risk, tunnel
design risk and tunnel construction risk etc. It is a milestone for risk management of
Chinese tunnel engineering which formed the compressive risk assessment for large
scale tunneling engineering. After 2002 engineering risk management is warmly
recommended in some large scale infrastructure construction like bridges, railways
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etc. Unfortunately, many metro tunnels were built for Beijing Olympic Game 2008
and Shanghai Expo 2010. Some projects accidents were often happened
continuously from 2003 to 2010. For example, the accident of Metro Line No. 4
leaded to RMB 1 billion (about $ 0.16 billion) in Shanghai, Hangzhou Metro Line
No.1 caused 21 deaths and 4 ascendances. All those big projects accident arouses us
to take some measures for dealing with risks, especially in tunneling and underground
works.
Project Risk Management (project RM) is defined as all activities and
measures for dealing with technical risks for managing a project, and widely used in
all the project phases which include the preliminary, feasibility study, design and
construction for all big projects from National level. Our government and designers
realized that project RM could be a good solution which can manage the engineering
construction risks. The China Engineering Society organized some experts from
different companies, universities, and institutes to draw up some documents for risk
management. Then some guidelines and standards are published for large scale
projects like subway tunnel, railway and bridges. The first Guideline for risk
management for construction of tunnel and underground works edited by H. W.
Huang and Q. F. Hu was issued in 2007 by Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development of the Peoples Republic of China (MOHURD). Then it is updated as a
National Code for risk management of underground works in urban rail transit in
2012. Some other ministries issued their own engineering risk management
documents or code, like Provisional regulation of Risk Assessment and risk
Management of Railway tunnels revised issued in 2007 by Ministry of Railways of
the Peoples Republic of China ( MOCR), Guideline of Safety Risk Management of
Highway Bridge and Tunnel Design issued in 2010 by Ministry of Transport of the
Peoples republic of China( MOT) and Guideline of Safety Risk Management of
Highway Bridge and Tunnel Construction issued in 2011 by Ministry of Transport of
the Peoples republic of China (MOT). All the project RM guidelines or standards are
used mainly in large infrastructure projects (like tunnels, roads, railways, bridges, and
harbor works) to manage the technical risks during the Projects feasibility study,
design and construction phases. Furthermore, some large public clients required the
application of project RM contractually. And projects clients had accountability to
politicians, by demonstrating that they applied project RM in order to minimize
additional and unforeseen project costs, contractors might reduce their failure costs
by applying project RM.

THE GUIDELINE AND CODE OF CHINA TUNNEL ENGINEERING

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Tunneling and underground construction works impose many risks on all

parties involved as well as on those not directly involved in the project. The very
nature of tunnel projects implies that any potential tunnel owner will be facing with
considerable risks when building and developing such a project. Due to the inherent
uncertainties, including geology like ground and groundwater conditions, there might
be significant cost overrun and delay risks as well as environmental risks. Also, as
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demonstrated by spectacular tunnel collapses and other disasters happened in the

recent past, there is a potential for large scale accidents during tunneling work.
Furthermore, for tunnels in urban areas there is a big risk of damage to a range of
third party persons and property, which will be of particular concern where heritage
designated buildings are involved. Finally, there is a risk that the problems which the
tunneling project cause to the public will give rise to public protests affecting the
course of the project, even worse social instability.
Traditionally, risks have been managed indirectly through the engineering
decisions taken during the project design and construction phase. There are many
shortcomings that there is lack of a standard file to implement and check. Therefore,
The International Tunneling Association (ITA) publishes a report to, in accordance
with its statutes, facilitate the exchange of information, in order: to encourage
planning of the subsurface for the benefit of the public, environment and sustainable
development to promote advances in planning, design, construction, maintenance and
safety of tunnels and underground space, by bringing together information thereon
and by studying questions related thereto. Guidelines for tunneling risk management:
International Tunneling Association, Working Group No. 2 is finished in 2004. The
guidelines consider that present risk management processes can be significantly
improved by using systematic risk management techniques throughout the tunnel
project development. By the use of these techniques potential problems can be clearly
identified such that appropriate risk mitigation measures can be implemented in a
timely manner. The guideline are edited and reviewed from all around world, and
some China tunneling experience and suggestion were purposed by us.
The guideline of risk management for construction of tunnel and underground
works is drawn up in 2005 after ITAs guideline is printed in 2004.The draft is
organized by China Engineering society and edited from different organizations like
university, research and design institutes, and companies. It covers all main
construction phases from projects planning, preliminary and early Design, tendering
and contract negotiation and construction. It is defined clearly the guideline object in
order to standardize the risk management of China's subway and underground
engineering construction, manage risk effective control of project construction,
reduce all kinds of risk accident, casualties and economic losses, control the project
environmental impact, security engineering safety, quality and progress of
construction. Some features of the guideline are shown as follows:
(1) The risk acceptance criterion of the guideline is established according to as
low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) to obtain the greatest safe objective. The
guideline gives the risk theory about risk occurrence during the tunneling (See Figure
1). It purposes the flowchart of risk management for tunnel and underground works
(See Figure 2).

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Figure 1. The occurrence risk theory of tunnel and underground works.

Figure 2. The flowcharts of risk management of tunnel and underground works.

(2) Considering the feature of China Tunneling risk, six typical risk
consequences are classified in five classes or intervals like economic loss, injuries,
damage to third party, time delay, harm to the environment and Social credit losses.
(3) The target of risk management in the stage of tunnel project planning is to
find the major risk sources which may lead to the project failure or decide the final
scheme like unfavorable geological conditions, tunnel alignment and environmental
conditions. The risk management is to ensure the coherence of the overall planning
and environment planning and city, and reduce the design, construction and operation
risk caused by inadequate planning project. The use of risk management from the
early stages of a project, where major decisions such as choice of alignment and
selection of construction methods can be influenced, is essential.
(4) The risk management of engineering feasibility study is an important stage
because there is a general project design. The risk management requires carrying out

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the risk survey of the project in person and finding the potential or inherent risk
factors. Through the identification and assessment of construction risk, it can
optimize the feasible scheme to avoid and reduce the risks due to tunnel alignment,
location and construction method and make preparation for the design, construction
and safety engineering caused by unreasonable design. Some project risk control
measures were purposed during the risk assessment in the stage of engineering
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feasibility study.
(5) The tunnel and underground engineering design stage includes:
engineering detailed geological and environmental investigation, preliminary design
and construction drawing design. This stage is the technical foundation of
construction safety, and it is the key stage of risk management to reduce the technical
risks. As is known, the geological condition of tunnel project is the most important
factors for its construction safety. Through the process of examination and
demonstration of engineering geological and environmental survey, the risk
management pays attention to avoid the risk of engineering geological investigation.
The risk management of early design is to control and reduce the design mistakes or
poor construction caused engineering function defects, structural damage and
engineering accident. At the same time, through the design of engineering structures
to further clarify the major risk sources, some special risk control measures are
studied to make sure the tunnel construction safety. The risk management of
construction design is to finish the reliable identification of risk sources and
classification management, to ensure the safe implementation of the construction
drawing design scheme. Some effective control methods or measures of construction
are put forward to the major risk for specific risk management plan.
(6) The risk management of construction phase is to control the building risk
during tunneling. It includes two stages of risk management: construction preparation
and construction process. The construction phase is the core process of project risk
management. The probability and loss of risks may be changed with the progress of
the project construction. Therefore, risk management of project construction stage
should be carried out based on the previous stage of risk management. And the
dynamic risk management is a good method to control the changing or new risks in
the construction process of tunnel and underground works. Moreover, the guideline
has a clear responsibility to risk management of engineering construction participants
considering the work content or unit of engineering construction.
The guideline of risk management for construction or subway and
underground works are put into practice from 2007 to 2011. Our government thought
it is a guideline which has no legal feature. Then the code for risk management of
underground works in urban rail transit is purposed to be prepared. The code is edited
based on extensive investigation and research, the theory and the practice of risk
management in different cities rail transit project construction in recent years,
especially from the guidelines implement experience and references to the relevant
international standards. The code content includes a total of 9 chapters and 5
appendices. The chapters from No. 1st to 4th are the basic theory of risk management.
Some other chapters from No. 5th to 9th covers all tunneling construction phase
among project planning, feasibility research, investigation and design, tending and
contract negotiation, and construction. And the flowcharts of risk management are
updated in the code (see Figure 3). The requirement and key points are explained

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clearly in the national code (see Figure 4). The national code is edited for more than 6
years based on a large number of engineering practice and experts suggestion. It is
issued and implemented in 2012, which marks a new stage for risk management in
China. Moreover, it provides a reference documents for this country to carry out the
risk management with the cooperation with international company.
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Figure 3. The updated flowcharts of risk management of tunnel and

underground works.
Construction phase Main content Key points of Risk management

Risk assessment
Project Planning Risk report Risk inventory
Major risk factors

Risk survey in site

Risk evaluation
Feasibility research report Risk treatment
Risk evaluation
Geological
investigation
Investigation and General design
Design Risk document Risk reigstraion
Preliminary design

Detail design

Tending docments
Tending and
Biding documents Risk contract Risk insurance
contract negotiation
Cotract negitiation
Construction
preparation
Construction
Constrution
Installation and Dynamic risk and
debugging of Risk management
Risk record
vehicles and
electrical system

Trial operation and

Project acceptance

Figure 4. Key points of the whole risk management process of tunnel and
underground works.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF TUNNEL ACCIDENTS

It is fortunately that Shanghai Yangtze River Tunnels built in 2005-2009 and

the risk management was carried out the risk management. It is a successful
application which is shown in the whole phases of risk management for helping the

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clients and builders to control the construction risks. Then most of urban subway
tunnels and mountainous road tunnels and bridges are required to implement the
project RM after the guideline was issued and implemented in 2007. The risk
management of tunnel and underground works may be done in the preliminary phase
by the government, bided in the feasibility and contracting phase by public clients
and managed in the contracting, design and construction phase by contractors and
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engineers. Some important projects will invite a third team help the clients and
builders understand the project RM conclusions if it is possible, and guide them to
use the method for controlling the projects risks. All national data of accidents and
casualties from 2003 to 2011 (see Figure 5) is collected to prove that the project RM
is a useful tool which can reduce the hazards and control the economic loss
significantly. There were many tunnel accidents which lead to severe casualties in
2006 and 2008. When project RM were carried out completely, there was no serious
risks or severe lost happened during the recent tunneling construction in China with
the code issued.

Figure 5. The number, deaths and collapse of subway tunnel construction

accidents from 2003 to 2011 in China

CONCLUSION

Tunnel and underground work is a kind of high risk engineering which needs
to strengthen risk management according to the engineering experiment and 2003-
2011 accident statistics in China. It is known that controlling tunnel risks is to rely on
not only advanced technologies but also risk management. The guideline (2007) and
code (2012) of tunnel and underground work were issued as a milestone for our
engineering construction. They will improve the construction risk control ability and
reduce the risk loss. The key point of the implementation of risk management in
tunnel construction is to identify potential risk sources firstly, make the corresponding
preventive measures and prepare the emergency rescue plan in advance. The dynamic
risk management is established on an information based construction and site
monitoring. The purpose of two documents is to indicate to owners what is
recommended industry best-practice for risk management and present guideline or

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code to designers as to the preparation and implementation of a comprehensive tunnel

risk management system in China.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding support by China National Scientific Research Fund (NO. 41102172) is

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gratefully acknowledged.

REFERENCES

F. Wang, H. W. Huang, etc. (2010). Dynamic Risk Management for Simultaneous

Construction of Stations in Rail Transit Systems. Chinese Journal of
Underground Space and Engineering, 6(5): 1027-1032.
H. W. Huang (2006). State of the art of the research on risk management in
construction of tunnel and underground works. Chinese Journal of
Underground Space and Engineering, 2(1): 13-20.
International Tunnel Association (ITA), Working Group No. 2 (2002). Guidelines for
tunneling risk management.
Ministry of Construction, the People's Republic of China (2007). Guideline of risk
management for construction of subway and underground works. Beijing:
China Architecture Building Press.
National Code of the People's Republic of China (2012). Code for Risk Management
of Underground Works in Urban Rail Transit. Beijing: China Architecture
Building Press.
Q. F. Hu, H. W. Huang (2006). Study on the Modeling of Risk Acceptance Criteria for
Tunnel and Underground Engineering. Chinese Journal of Underground
Space and Engineering, 2006, 2(1): 60-64.
Q. H. Qian, X. L. Rong (2008). State issues and relevant recommendations for
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Journal of Rock Mechanics and Engineering, 27 (4): 649-655.
S. Degn Eskesen et al (2004). Guidelines for tunneling risk management:
International Tunnelling Association, Working Group No. 2. Tunnelling and
Underground Space Technology, 19: 217-237.
The British Tunneling Society (2003). The joint code of practice for risk assessment
of tunnel works in the UK.
The International Tunneling Insurance Group (2006). A code of practice for risk
management of tunnel works.

Vulnerability, Uncertainty, and Risk