Tunneling in Khimti Hydropower Project, central Nepal

Abstract

The role of geology is very important in any underground excavation. Proper geological investigation reduces the overall cost of a project and saves time. It is important to understand and be able to predict the behaviour of a rock mass before designing the support system. In good quality rock, the self-supporting capacity of rock mass should be used to its maximum advantage and the amount of rock support kept to a minimum. In the Khimti Hydropower Project the tunnel support will be designed to take optimum advantage of the self-supporting capacity of rock mass and the correct choice of support systems. The rocks encountered in the tunnels at Khimti will be logged in accordance with the Q-classification system. The experience in desigining tunnel support that has been developed in Norway will be used to this project as well.