National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
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UNDERGROUND ENGINEERING FOR
SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Committee on Underground Engineering
for Sustainable Development

Committee on Geological and Geotechnical Engineering

Board on Earth Sciences and Resources

Division on Earth and Life Studies

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.

www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CMMI-0946245. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations contained in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. government.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-27824-9

International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-27824-4
ISBN: 0-309-27827-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013932381

Additional copies of this report are available for sale from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu/.

Cover: Cover design by Michele de la Menardiere. Top left is a screw conveyor (used to remove material excavated from a tunnel) of the world’s largest tunnel boring machine being constructed for tunnelling beneath downtown Seattle. Top right is the inside of an underground utilidor in Amsterdam; courtesy of H. Admiraal. Middle left is a laser scanned image of a building foundation under construction; courtesy of Y. Hashash. Bottom is a train departing from a Washington, D.C. underground Metro station.

Copyright 2013 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.

www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

COMMITTEE ON UNDERGROUND GEOENGINEERING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

PAUL H. GILBERT (Chair), Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. (retired), Edmonds, Washington

SAMUEL T. ARIARATNAM, Arizona State University, Tempe

NANCY RUTLEDGE CONNERY, Independent Consultant, Brunswick, Maine

GARY ENGLISH, Seattle Fire Department, Washington

CONRAD W. FELICE, HNTB Corporation, Bellevue, Washington

YOUSSEF HASHASH, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

CHRIS T. HENDRICKSON, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

PRISCILLA P. NELSON, New Jersey Institute of Technology, West Orange

RAYMOND L. STERLING, Louisiana Technical University (retired), Minneapolis, Minnesota

GEORGE J. TAMARO, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, Bristol, Rhode Island

FULVIO TONON, University of Texas at Austin, Texas

National Research Council Staff

SAMMANTHA L. MAGSINO, Study Director

MIRSADA KARALIC-LONCAREVIC, Senior Program Associate

NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate

COURTNEY R. GIBBS, Program Associate

JASON R. ORTEGO, Research Associate (until June 2012)

CHANDA T. IJAMES, Senior Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

COMMITTEE ON GEOLOGICAL AND GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

EDWARD KAVAZANJIAN, JR (Chair), Arizona State University, Tempe

JOHN T. CHRISTIAN, Consulting Engineer, Burlington, Massachusetts

PATRICIA J. CULLIGAN, Columbia University, New York, New York

DEBORAH J. GOODINGS, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

MURRAY W. HITZMAN, Colorado School of Mines, Golden

JAMES R. RICE, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

National Research Council Staff

SAMMANTHA L. MAGSINO, Senior Program Officer

CHANDA T. IJAMES, Senior Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES

CORALE L. BRIERLEY (Chair), Brierley Consultancy, LLC, Denver, Colorado

SUSAN L. CUTTER, University of South Carolina, Columbia

WILLIAM L. GRAF, University of South Carolina, Columbia

MURRAY W. HITZMAN, Colorado School of Mines, Golden

EDWARD KAVAZANJIAN, JR, Arizona State University, Tempe

ANN S. MAEST, Stratus Consulting, Boulder, Colorado

DAVID R. MAIDMENT, University of Texas, Austin

ROBERT MCMASTER, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

M. MEGHAN MILLER, UNAVCO, Inc., Boulder, Colorado

ISABEL P. MONTAÑEZ, University of California, Davis

CLAUDIA INÉS MORA, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico

BRIJ M. MOUDGIL, University of Florida, Gainesville

CLAYTON R. NICHOLS, Idaho Operations Office (retired), Ocean Park, Washington

HENRY N. POLLACK, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

DAVID T. SANDWELL, University of California, San Diego

PETER M. SHEARER, University of California, San Diego

REGINAL SPILLER, Azimuth Investments, LLC, Houston, Texas

GENE WHITNEY, Independent Consultant, Washington, D.C.

National Research Council Staff

ELIZABETH A. EIDE, Director

ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer

SAMMANTHA L. MAGSINO, Senior Program Officer

MARK D. LANGE, Program Officer

NICHOLAS D. ROGERS, Financial and Research Associate

COURTNEY R. GIBBS, Program Associate

ERIC J. EDKIN, Senior Program Assistant

CHANDA T. IJAMES, Senior Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

Preface

Underground infrastructure presents unique challenges for engineers because usable underground space is limited in its extent and is not easily observed or accessible. The safety, health, and welfare of the public at large are among the civil engineer’s primary concerns while designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating physical infrastructure, including underground infrastructure. Underground engineers must rely on the skills and expert knowledge of all members of an interdisciplinary team to carry out their respective professional obligations within their scopes, budgets, and schedules.

A concept has recently been making its way into infrastructure systems requirements to be satisfied by the engineer: sustainability. There are numerous definitions of sustainability, but this report refers to sustainability as the ability to obtain and use resources to meet current needs and improve standards of living without compromising the ability of those in the future to do the same. Sustainable urban development includes the selective use of materials and resources and consideration of cost effectiveness, functionality, safety, aesthetics, and longevity. The concept of sustainability changes the scale of many engineering projects. Engineering for sustainability means that engineers will need to move beyond traditional practice and consider their projects as part of a far larger physical and social system. They will need to think about the functionality and behaviors of their projects over long time periods—perhaps well beyond the project’s service life. This is especially true of underground infrastructure, the impacts of which on society can be widespread and beneficial, but the failure of which can be devastating, and the remnants of which—post-useful service life—can affect society and the use of the underground for centuries into the future.

The committee was provided a detailed statement of task intended to define

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
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the role of underground engineering and works in sustainable urban development, as well as to provide direction for a future research track that supports such engineering. The broad and complex nature of the task necessitated only high-level consideration of its numerous points. The committee determined that simply responding one by one to each of the bulleted items in the statement of task would not fully respond to the intent of the task as described by the study sponsors. Instead, the committee tackled each bullet through discussions of the definition of sustainability, the evolution of underground use, potential contributions of the underground to sustainable urban development, health and safety in the underground, technological challenges of underground engineering, and research and training needed to increase capacity for underground engineering that supports sustainable development.

The direction of committee deliberations and the report were informed through multiple discussions with the study sponsors. Dr. Richard Fragaszy of the National Science Foundation provided numerous important insights regarding the concept of sustainability. Dr. Jonathon Porter of the Federal Highway Administration also spoke with the committee to describe his agency’s expectations regarding the committee task, and answered the committee’s questions with care. Committee deliberations and writings were also informed through excellent presentations during open sessions of committee meetings by Mr. Gordon Feller, Cisco Systems; Dr. Edward Garboczi, National Institute for Standards and Technology; Mr. Michael Grahek, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; Mr. F. G. Wyman Jones, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority; Mr. Richard Little, Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, University of Southern California; Dr. Harvey Parker, Harvey Parker and Associates, Inc; Mr. Kevin Peterson, Peterson Design; Dr. Helen Reeves, British Geological Survey; Mr. Henry A. Russel, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Inc.; Dr. Benedict Schwegler, Jr., Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development; and Dr. Raymond Sterling, Louisiana Technical University. Numerous others also contributed to the committee process through less formal discussions with individual committee members and National Research Council (NRC) staff. Although there are too many to list here, the committee owes a debt to each of these people.

The committee is also grateful to the numerous NRC staff that provided direction, assistance in text development, and logistical and research support over the duration of the project. Their contributions to this process kept us moving forward, focused on the statement of task, well fed, and well informed. Our NRC study director, Sammantha Magsino, was particularly valuable to the committee in turning the many original text drafts on a range of topics from each committee member into coherent and consistent sections, chapters, and finally the report.

The study process has made it clear to the committee that the underground engineering needed to develop urban sustainability will require engineers in professional practice to rethink how they have traditionally delivered their work products. It will also require those in research and education to consider new multidisciplinary

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

approaches to improving technologies and increasing capacities. Engineering the underground permanently changes the underground—a valuable, and irreplaceable resource. It is the ethical responsibility of all making those changes to anticipate and understand the impacts of those changes to the larger physical and social infrastructures over time to avoid harming future generations, and, in fact, to help those future generations to thrive.

Adding to or changing the systems of systems that comprise urban infrastructure will demand that underground engineers become more multidisciplinary in their approaches and that they more comprehensively communicate and rely on the expertise of engineering scientists, planners, architects, and other professionals from all contributing disciplines. This report presents a foundation for how this professional transition can be made, and it presents a framework for new education, training, and research strategies to prepare engineers and all their colleagues for the future.

Paul H. Gilbert, P.E., NAE

Chair

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
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Acknowledgment of Reviewers

This report has been reviewed in draft form by persons chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of the independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards of objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:

Arthur Bendelius, A & G Consultants Inc., Fayetteville, Georgia

Brenda Bolhke, Independent Consultant, Great Falls, Virginia

Joseph P. Colaco, CBM Engineers, Houston, Texas

Louise K. Comfort, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Herbert H. Einstein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

Derek Elsworth, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Marc Pisano, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Charles Fairhurst, Itasca Consulting Group, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
×

comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2013. Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14670.
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For thousands of years, the underground has provided humans refuge, useful resources, physical support for surface structures, and a place for spiritual or artistic expression. More recently, many urban services have been placed underground. Over this time, humans have rarely considered how underground space can contribute to or be engineered to maximize its contribution to the sustainability of society. As human activities begin to change the planet and population struggle to maintain satisfactory standards of living, placing new infrastructure and related facilities underground may be the most successful way to encourage or support the redirection of urban development into sustainable patterns. Well maintained, resilient, and adequately performing underground infrastructure, therefore, becomes an essential part of sustainability, but much remains to be learned about improving the sustainability of underground infrastructure itself.

At the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Research Council (NRC) conducted a study to consider sustainable underground development in the urban environment, to identify research needed to maximize opportunities for using underground space, and to enhance understanding among the public and technical communities of the role of underground engineering in urban sustainability.

Underground Engineering for Sustainable Urban Development explains the findings of researchers and practitioners with expertise in geotechnical engineering, underground design and construction, trenchless technologies, risk assessment, visualization techniques for geotechnical applications, sustainable infrastructure development, life cycle assessment, infrastructure policy and planning, and fire prevention, safety and ventilation in the underground. This report is intended to inform a future research track and will be of interest to a broad audience including those in the private and public sectors engaged in urban and facility planning and design, underground construction, and safety and security.

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