Field Monitoring of the Deformation and Internal Forces of the Surrounding Rock and Support Structures in the Construction of a Super-Span High-Speed Railway Tunnel—A Case Study

A super-span tunnel that has the characteristics of a large excavation area, a small high-span ratio and a significant spatial effect exhibits a complex mechanical response during the excavation process. In this paper, taking the Badaling Great Wall station in Beijing, China as the engineering background, a case study of field monitoring a super-span tunnel has been presented. A typical monitoring section was selected in the super-span transition section of the tunnel and the deformation and forces of both the surrounding rock and the support structures were systematically monitored. The dynamic evolution and the spatial distribution characteristics of the monitoring data, including the internal displacement of the surrounding rock, the tunnel displacement, the contact pressure between the surrounding rock and the primary supports, the contact pressure between the primary and secondary supports, the axial forces in the bolts and cables, the internal forces in both the steel arches and the secondary supports and the internal stresses of the surrounding rock, were analyzed. The results of the monitoring and the analyses have shown that the deformation and the forces acting on both the surrounding rock and the tunnel’s lining are directly related to the construction procedures, the geological conditions and the locations in the super-span tunnel. According to the results, a few suggestions to improve the construction of the tunnel have been proposed.