Upward Shield Tunneling from Deep Underground Stormwater Storage Pipes in the Central Areas

The Waterworks & Sewerage Bureau of the city of Nagoya is proceeding with flood control projects throughout the city, in consideration of damages the city suffered from the unprecedented volume of rainfall in September 2000.To proceed with these flood control projects smoothly, it was necessary to minimize the influence of the construction on underground facilities such as railroads and lifelines, terrestrial traffic systems, and normal activities of citizens, especially in the central area of the city.To construct the chambers that lead stormwater to the stormwater storage pipe located 30 m below the surface in the central area of the city, we used the upward shield tunneling method (Figure. 1), which tunneled the chambers upward from the underground facilities to the surface. This method enabled us to perform the construction with minimal influence on the surrounding environment.This paper describes the outline of the construction.