John Burland’s Deep-Excavation- and Tunnelling-Related Research and Industry Involvement

Abstract

During the time that Professor John Burland was an expert witness for the Parliamentary hearings for the Jubilee Line Extension Project (JLEP), he realised that although tunnels had been constructed in London for more than a century, there were very few well documented case studies describing the response of buildings to tunnelling-induced settlement. Professor Burland had extensive knowledge of the effects of ground movement on buildings, having studied and published his seminal work with Professor Peter Wroth in the 1970s which he with others developed into a staged process for assessing potential structural damage from excavation-induced ground movements. Construction of the JLEP provided an ideal opportunity to compile a set of exemplary case studies (involving different structural forms, foundation types, tunnelling methods and geological conditions) and he harnessed this to its full extent. At the start, a number of ‘gaps in knowledge’ were identified and these were addressed over the following years of monitoring and data analysis. The research culminated in a two-volume book that is still widely referenced almost twenty years later. In this paper a background to Professor Burland’s tunnelling- and deep-excavation-related research is given and the gaps in knowledge are summarised along with how they were answered through the JLEP research findings. They are reinforced with other more recent tunnelling projects in London that he has been involved with, in particular the Crossrail project, thus furthering the understanding of ground and structural response to tunnelling, benefitting both industry and academia.