Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Large Caverns for Metro Stations in Buenos Aires

J. G. Laiún
SRK Consulting Argentina, Argentina.
E. A. Zielonka
Geoconsult Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A. O. Sfriso
SRK Consulting Argentina, Argentina.

ABSTRACT: Buenos Aires Metro Line H, in Argentina runs N-S, at the west side of the city's
downtown area. An extension of the line started in 2011. A TBM tunnel and one cut&cover station
will be built southbound in estuary soft holocene soils; CTM (conventional tunneling method) tunnel
and three cavern stations are being built northbound in stiff cemented silts and clays. The experience
accumulated in the last fifteen years has allowed for continuous advancements in the construction
methodologies used for tunnels and underground caverns in stiff soils. Nowadays, the Line H
northbound caverns - approximately 135m long and with a +200m2 face - are being excavated full
face with excellent performance, far better than previous experiences where more conservative,
staggered excavation procedures were employed. In this paper, the evolution of the CTM techniques
in Buenos Aires´s big metro caverns is reviewed; the advanges and disadvantages of the changes in
procedures are discussed and different optimization alternatives awaiting to be developed are
described.

Keywords: CTM tunnels, caverns, construction procedures.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 BUENOS AIRES SOILS

Extension of Line H is an interesting challenge: Buenos Aires City soils have been described in
C2 northbound extension consists in four new other contributions (Bolognesi 1975, Fidalgo et
caverns and 2km of two lane CTM tunnels, al 1975, Núñez 1986, Codevilla & Sfriso 2011).
while the southbound A0/A1 extension faces Briefly, the Pampeano formation undeneath
very poor geotechnical conditions that require Buenos Aires downtown area is a modified
the use of a TBM (Figure 1). Loess, overconsolidated by dessication and
Northbound, engineering challenges stand for cemented with calcium carbonate in nodule and
the optimization of already very efficient matrix impregnation forms. Except for the
construction procedures. Big caverns that heaved upper three to six meters, penetration
required eighteen months for excavation in 2005 resistance is systematically N SPT > 20 with some
and eight months in 2007 are now being built in heavily cemented zones that exhibit very weak
only five months. Southbound, engineering rock behavior and NSPT > 50.
challenges are more related to feasibility. A Particular features of the formation are: i)
two-lane TBM is just too big to fit in the fissures induce a high secondary permeability;
available space, and bottom stability of the ii) thin layers of non cohesive loamy sands can
access shafts is marginal; costs can easily be found at depths 20m and below; iii) close to
escape from control in such adverse conditions. the bottom of the formation and right on top of
In this paper, the project is introduced, the pliocene clean sands, a poorly cemented non
geological and geotechnical conditions is fissured sub-stratum of greenish clays acts as an
described, the evolution of the CTM tech-niques hydraulic seal. Pampeano soils are good for
in Buenos Aires´s big metro caverns is reviewed underground construction due to high stiffness,
and some of the most significative challenges reliable compressive strength, rapid drainage
encountered are discussed. and good frictional behavior when drained.
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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Figure 1. Extension of Line H, Buenos Aires Metro.

The max allowable unsupported drift is about The use of shotcrete as primary support and the
2.5m due to crown instability of the fissured soil subsequent evolution of tunnelling procedures
mass (Sfriso 2006, Núñez 2007). Table 1 lists a started in 1998 and is reported elsewhere (Sfriso
typical set of material parameters used for the 2006, 2007, 2008). For big caverns,
design of underground excavations (Sfriso et al construction procedures remained conservative
2008, Codevilla & Sfriso 2011). for longer time. Echeverria and Villa Urquiza
stations were executed using the german method
Table 1. Design material pars, Pampeano Formation. and required up to 18 months for completion of
Parameter Units 0m-8m 8m-30m 30m-40m
excavation. Auxiliary transverse galleries
cu kPa 50-100 110-220 40-120 sparkled the plastification of intermediate
u ° 10-20 0-10 0 pillars, induced surface settlements 35 mm and
c´ kPa 10-25 25-50 15-30 required temporary propping (Figure 3).
´ ° 30-32 30-34 29-32
 ° 0-3 0-6 0-3
E50 MPa 60-100 70-150 60-90
Eur MPa 150-250 180-300 140-220
m - 0.0-0.4 0.0-0.4 0.0-0.4
 - 0.20-0.30 0.20-0.30 0.20-0.30
Rf - 0.80-0.90 0.80-0.90 0.80-0.90

3 EVOLUTION OF TUNNELLING
PROCEDURES IN BUENOS AIRES

Figure 2 shows the excavation of the first Metro

Line A in 1912.

Figure 3. Temporary propping of auxiliary galleries to

reduce surface settlements, Echeverría Station.

The experience served to change to full face

excavation at Corrientes Station. The cavern has
18.9m x 14.1m (220 m2) under only 9.0m of
overburden. Excavation was completed in 7
months with surface settlements below 20mm.
The case is fully reported in Sfriso (2007,
2008), and Sfriso & Laiún (2012).
Figure 2. Open pit excavation of Line A in 1912.
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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Another milestone is the garage-workshop at Urban growth favours regions of good soil
Line A, the first tunnel executed with one pass quality; when these regions are exhausted,
lining method (Figure 4). The primary support growth continues at marginal areas. That is the
has 0.90m side-wall and 0.35m in the crown. case of the River Plate coastline in Buenos
The construction procedure is similar to that Aires, where the Line E extension was
used in the Corrientes station. The Metro excecuted recently. This line is located at the
Authority required a waterproof tunnel, and eroded eastmost portion of the Pampeano
therefore a membrane spray was applied to the Formation; it crosses man-made fills and thin
inner face and covered by a thin shotcrete layers of non cohesive sandy soils turns more
(Sfriso & Laiún 2012). usual. Significant challenges were faced during
the excavation of the Correo Central Station due
to bottom instability (Sfriso & Laiún 2012). The
solution used in this case consisted in short
invert advances 2.2m long and inmediate
girder/shotrcrete support (Figure 6).

4 EXTENSIÓN OF LINE H (2011-2013)

4.1 Description
The C2 section of Line H consists in four
stations linked together by three sections of two-
lane tunnels with a total length of 2050m. The
Figure 4. First one-pass lining at garage-workshop first three stations, Córdoba, Santa Fe and Las
in Line A. Heras, are 135m long caverns with a cross
section of 220m2. The last station, Plaza
The solution adopted for the garage-workshop Francia, has been deferred to 2017 and might
at Line B was different. The main contractor change to an open pit excavation. The project
chose to use a temporary shotcrete invert includes a transversal stope located near
(Figure 5). The extra cost for the adopted Cordoba Station to accommodate an electrical
solution was compensated by the higher speed substation.
of construction compared to the cast-in-place
concrete used at Line A and Corrientes Station. 4.2 Excavation faces
This cavern, 460m long and 200m2 face, was
excavated in seven months at four simultaneous Three ramps (Figure 7) provide access to the
faces, achieving advances of 8m to 10m per tunnel faces. The ramps start at road level
week for the full cycle. through an open trench shored with piles and go
underground where the overburden is 2.5meters.

4.3 Tunnels
The typical tunnel section is 10m wide, with a
55m2 cross section and 9.0m to 14.0m
overburden, fully below the water table; as such,
soil must be systematically drained in advance
to simplify excavation works and marine
removal.
The excavation methodology consists in full-
face heading, 15cm thick plain shotcrete with
girders and “elephant feets”. Excavation and
soil removal is performed using conventional
excavators, while the fine profiling is done by
Figure 5. All-shotcrete solution for garage-workshop hand using jackhammers.
in Line B.
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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Figure 6. Correo Central station. CTM invert.

The use of reticulated metal truss embedded it is placed manually, as robots have not been
in the shotcrete and spaced according to the systematically used for Metro projects.
excavation advance is the normal practice for
tunnels in subways. The advance lengths usually
4.4 Caverns
adopted depend on the geothechnical quality
and the hydrogeological condition that prevail at After the good experience at Corrientes Station,
the working face and may vary between 1.0m the contractor was adviced and decided to repeat
and 2.5 meters. the same construction procedure for the three
caverns in this project.
The construction methodology consists in a
CTM full-face excavation using two backhoe
equipments located at two benches, producing
two independent working faces, but keeping the
closure of the structural ring within one
diameter of the tunnel face. The procedure is
described by Sfriso (2007, 2010). The complete
cycle allows for 6m to 8m advance per week.
The cross-section, construction procedure and
pictures are shown in Figures 8 to 11.
The particular challenge of the three caverns
of sector C2 when compared to Corrientes
Station is that the geotechnical conditions are
less favourable. In the particular case of Las
Figure 7. Typical ramp cross section. Heras Station, placed at a cliff, it has a highly
variable overburden with a minimum of only 5
It is required that a final concrete lining be meters for a 19m wide cavern.
installed. This is not a geotechnical requirement The primary lining is made of shotcrete
but an owner’s decision based on serviceability 0.30m to 0.45m thick, 20kg/m girders and
and durability considerations. Specifications rebars at the side-walls. Between the primary
require that this final lining be built using cast- lining and the final concrete lining a 4mm thick
in-place plain concrete. Shotcrete is rarely Masterseal 345 sprayed membrane is applied.
accepted for secondary linings; when employed, This membrane was used before in the
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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Corrientes Station and the Line A warehouse- some degree of injection was necessary to
garage with aceptable success. However, control leakage.
absolute watertightness was never achieved, and

Figure 8. Cross section of Las Heras, Santa Fé and Córdoba stations.

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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Figure 9. Longitudinal sketches of construction stages, Las Heras, Santa Fé and Córdoba stations.

Figure 10. Las Heras, Santa Fé, Córdoba stations. Construction stages.
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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Figure 11. Construction stages of the caverns.

Predicted settlement
Undrained
Drained

Figure 12. Las Heras station. Settlement vs distance to excavation face. Shallow monitoring point at Pr +8981.

Santa Fé – in Córdoba – in Las Heras –

progress progress finished

Intervention
of the conduit

Manual Mechanical
excavation excavation

Figure 13. Accumulated distance to the face of the main excavation [m] vs. time [days].

In the tunnels, soil excavation is done by two and shaping of the bench is manually executed
high capacity backhoe excavators; the digging using pneumatic hammers.

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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

Round length depends on the ground described, the evolution of the CTM tech-niques
conditions; but is usually restricted to one meter in Buenos Aires´s big metro caverns is
by the Metro Authority. The temporary reviewed, and different engineering challenges
shotcrete lining is manualy sprayed in two are briefly discussed.
stages to complete the design thickess 30cm to The development of big cavern construction
45cm. occured during the last ten years in Buenos
As a result of the urgency to meet deadlines Aires city allowed for a sustained progress and a
and speed up the cavern execution, an additional continuous develpoment of excavation and
excavation front was opened at each station and support construction methodologies. It has been
accessed through shafts. These additional faces training ground for the design teams, construc-
were used to excavate manually, by top-heading tors and for the supervision authorities as well.
method, the crown of the tunnel and execute the The simultaneous excavation of the three
temporary lining, building 1.4m footings. Those caverns – Córdoba, Santa Fe and Las Heras
excavated top sections are found encountered stations – as described in this paper allowed for
afterwards by the main mechanical excavation a consolidation, in a practically definitive way,
front. of the full face CTM excavation techniques as
the most economic, safe and efficient exca-
vation methodology for Buenos Aires big
4.5 Behavior caverns.
Figure 12 shows the measured settlement of the The current advance of the excavation works,
caverns, showing a maximum value ot 21mm. which is close to 70% for section C2, shows
The estimations obtained from a 3D finite nowadays the deadeline of 2015 as challenging
elements model using Plaxis were in the range but attainable. Modern and safer construction
18.5mm to 22.5mm for drained and undrained procedures, the reduction of concrete thickness,
conditions respectively. This is an excellent the use of shotcrete as secondary linings and it´s
agreement between measured and computed possible integration to the primary liner in a
settlements. Unfortunately, not much instru- composite structure, the use of robots for the
mentation is placed in the caverns, and therefore application of shotcrete and, finally, the
it is not easy to state that this matching also implementation of more reliable monitoring
applies to other ground behavior indicators such techniques, are still some awaiting points which
as tilting, ground stresses or structural loading need to be developed in the close future.
of linings.
Figure 13 shows the evolution of the main
excavation faces for each station. It’s observed ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
that the average advance rate for the final
sections its reaches 8m per week. The authors wish to acknowledge the support of
In Las Heras station there were some delays the constructors Techint, Dycasa and Roggio for
caused by the interference of a main sewer pipe the colaboration and permission to use the
situated near the cavern’s crown. The duct was material, to the Metro Authority for their
deteriorated and had to be repaired after an condifence and support, and to the whole team
unusually strong rainfall that generated water of SRK Consulting and Geoconsult Buenos
pressure and broke it, forcing to stop excavation Aires offices. The senior author also wishes to
works. It can be observed 10m to 15m step acknowledge Prof. Eduardo Núñez for his
advances produced by the secondary faces. This permanent advice and discussion in tunnelling
change of procedure generated an inefficiency topics.
on the excavation performance and delayed the
construction. It is a leason learned: advice
against opening secondary fronts. REFERENCES

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 Proceedings of the World Tunnel Congress 2014 – Tunnels for a better Life. Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.

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