Real-Time Insight in Geotechnical Risks: Monitoring during the Observational Method

Designing challenges engineers to develop both economically attractive and safe designs. This might seem a paradox, but with the application of the observational method, wherein safety is checked by real-time monitoring, economic design and safety are united. The observational method is recently successfully applied in the Netherlands during the...

Observational Method, Case A2 Maastricht

The A2 tunnel in Maastricht has been built within a dry building pit with a maximum depth of 22 meters with sheet pile walls, suspended in a cement bentonite trench supported by struts at 2 to 4 levels. Dewatering is done by deepwells. The excavation reaches into Limestone layers so the maximum mobilized passive resistance of the sheet pile wall...