Imetrum Contributes to Awarding Winning ‘Smart Tunnel’ Project

At the recent International Tunnelling & Underground Space Awards, the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) won the Ground Investigation and Monitoring Award for its innovative “Smart Tunnel” project.

As part of the Smart Tunnel project lead by Mehdi Alhaddad, the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), has installed Imetrum’s novel camera-based precision monitoring system alongside their ground-breaking technologies in the Royal Mail Tunnel in Central London. Ring shearing, convergence and rotation were monitored for nine months to understand the effects of nearby Crossrail tunneling works.

Although the system installed comprises just four cameras, it remotely monitored movement at 250 different points within the tunnel. Running continuously for nine months, Imetrum’s VX-M system monitored movement of these targets, densely spread over a distance of 30 m.

Imetrum’s system allowed engineers to see how each cast iron ring in the tunnel moves in relation to the next, and also measures the horizontal and vertical convergence of the tunnel. This data was then fed into a customized project dashboard, so that Cambridge engineers could easily monitor the tunnel from a range of sensors, including fiber optics, CSATTAR digital image correlation system (developed in CSIC) and a wireless network of displacement transducers (LPDTs) and tilt meters.

During the project a substantial amount of tunneling and station enlargement took place underneath Liverpool Street Station, some of it within 2 m of the historic Royal Mail tunnel.
Kenichi Soga, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Cambridge, endorsed the choice of monitoring equipment. “We collected baseline data for a few months prior to the tunnel boring machine launch, and continued throughout tunneling works. Imetrum’s data is of a very high resolution for a non-contact system, and has contributed to the overall understanding of the movement of bolted segmental tunnels and has boosted our confidence in the systems that we are developing here in Cambridge. The whole Smart tunnel team should be proud of their work, and its recognition at the recent International Tunnelling Association Awards.”

Paul Waterfall Imetrum’s project leader: “It was an honor to be chosen for such a prestigious project and the award is well-deserved. Imetrum’s system is ideal for projects of this type and we pride ourselves in working closely with our customers to help them achieve their aims.”