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  The 7.8 km long second tube of the Ulriken Tunnel represents a milestone in Norwegian tunnelling; for the first time a tunnel boring machine (TBM) is used to drive a railway tunnel. With a diameter of 9.3 m, the selected gripper TBM also has the largest diameter ever bored in Norway. After a general description of the project, the paper1 describes selected aspects of the TBM project. The Ulriken Tunnel is part of the “Bergensbanen”, the railway line between Oslo and Bergen in Norway (Fig. 1). The existing tunnel, which was opened in 1964, is 7.7 km long and is situated between the stations at Årna and Bergen (Fig. 2). Due to the very high load factor of passenger traffic (120 trains a day) and goods traffic (14 trains a day) on the single-track line, and also in order to improve safety, the Norwegian Transport Ministry decided in 2009 to upgrade the line to two tracks including the construction of a second tube for the Ulriken Tunnel. The excavation of the 7.8 km long second tube of the Ulriken Tunnel was originally intended to be by drill and blast. In December 2012, shortly before tendering, Norwegian Railways (Jernbaneverket) however decided to pursue the alternative “mechanized tunnelling with TBM” and this was then tendered parallel with drill and blast. This decision was a great challenge for the intended design team, consisting of Norconsult AS and Basler & Hofmann AG. The production of a design for mechanized tunnelling of the second tube ready for tendering and the preparation of all documents necessary to tender both alternatives had to be undertaken in a very short time. After the evaluation of all eleven bids, in May 2014 the decision fell in favour of the alternative “mechanized tunnelling with TBM” from the joint venture of Skanska Norge AS and Strabag AG. The contract volume is about 1.353 billion Norwegian kroner (about 165 million euros at the time of award). TBM tunnelling is still far from standard practice in Norway; most of the

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Jet grouting is a widely used technique for soil stabilisation, which provides support to geotechnical structures and buildings.  Jet grouting soil structure displacement occasionally pre-sgtressing

This paper focuses on a new generation of hot smoke tests, using premixed propane flames as a fire source.  Tunnel Safety hot smoke tests FDS premixed flames realistic smoke tests computer models simulations