Mill Wood's Double Barrel Replacement Tunnels: Fid-Bau Portal

Mill Wood's Double Barrel Replacement Tunnels

Al-Bataineh, M. / Fernando, S. / Samarakoon, S.

Construction of the Mill Woods Double Barrel commenced in 2009 and is expected to be completed by 2015. The total cost is expected to be $56 million. This project encountered several design, political, and geotechnical challenges, each of which demanded a quick but precise response from the project team. The design factor corresponds to the project team's mandate to evaluate the best way of excavating the tunnels by utilizing the existing equipment available to the City of Edmonton. The political factor emerged during the project team's decision-making process of determining which section of the project should be constructed first and put in service. The geotechnical factor led to the team needing to revise the tunnel alignment and change the tunnel-boring machine to accommodate the change to the tunnel. This paper will describe each of these factors and the required changes in detail and detail the procedure that the project team followed to arrive at its decisions.