Scientific Management and Maintenance for Long-term Stability
2 min readThe preliminary program research of Xiang’ an Tunnel took eight years, the construction took four years and eight months, but the design lifetime of it was up to one hundred years, so the management and maintenance during operation has a long way to go.
Xiangan Tunnel was China’s first undersea tunnel, so the maintenance and management methods for traditional mountain tunnels were not suitable for the maintenance and management of the undersea tunnel. The tunnel is the key junction in and out Xiamen Island, and the only cross-sea tunnel in the passageways in and out the island. Especially under the inclement weather conditions like typhoons, fog, etc., the Xiangan Tunnel will be the only accessible channel in and out of the island.
To this end, the Xiangan Tunnel’s construction units, management and maintenance unitsattached great importance to the management and maintenance work so they implemented scientific management and maintenance into every stage of the construction. As early as thebeginning of the Xiangan Tunnel construction, the scientific management and maintenance had was considered as an important area and was been deployed in advance. The related research projects were carried out in the design and construction period, such as “research on undersea tunnel surrounding rock classification”,”research on undersea tunnel construction monitoringtechnology”,”research on undersea tunnel civil engineering structures maintenance and repair technology”, and “research on undersea tunnel long-term monitoring”, which achieved a large number of research results. These results were fed back to the design and construction, and the structural health monitoring system was installed to provide maximum convenience for the maintenance and management.
To further normalize the operation of the maintenance and management, in the late construction period and early operation period, the construction unit and the maintenance and management units jointly developed the undersea tunnel maintenance and management system, and developed the local standards of Fujian Province “Technical Regulations of Undersea Tunnel Maintenance and Management”.
The undersea tunnel maintenance and management system was developed based on the characteristics and the actual demand of Xiangan Tunnel. Applying advanced technologies in the tunnel engineering structure and electromechanical equipment maintenance, combining with modern technologies such as the traffic management, the project management, the system theory and the informatization methods,a undersea tunnel maintenance and management system with the features of “specialization, standardization, programmed, systematic, and preventive”was developed.
These research results and the practical experience in maintenance and management had provided scientific support for the scientific maintenance and management and the long-term stability of Xiang’ an Tunnel. Since its opening on April 26,2010, it was operated in good condition, with no accidents occurring in maintenance and management.
