DFI Magazine September/October 2020 - 107

FEATURE

ARTICLE

Diaphragm Walls for Suez Canal Tunnel

Casting operation with 3 mixer

The Suez Canal serves as a major waterway
for navigation between Europe and Asia
without having to circumnavigate Africa.
This artificial canal was built in the mid1800s in Egypt, west of the Sinai Peninsula,
and connects Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to the Suez on the Red Sea. It
consists of two different sections, the
northern one of which is the focus of this
article, and extends from Port Said to the
Great Bitter Lake, south of Ismailia (the
southern one connects the lake to Suez).
In 2010, as a result of expansion works,
the Suez Canal's length reached 120.1 mi
(193.3 km), its width rose to 672.5 to
738.2 ft (205 to 225 m), and the depth was
increased to 78.7 ft (24 m), enabling the
transit of ships with a draft (draught) of up
to 66 ft (20.12 m).
Then in 2014, Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the
commencement of works to double a part
of the canal. Thanks to this expansion, 97
ships, without limits of dimension, are able
to transit the waterway on a daily basis.
Moreover, the project included
upgrading of road and railway networks
and expansion and construction of five
trading ports in the Port Said area.

AUTHORS

The project, amounting to over $7.2
billion (€ 6.4 billion), was entrusted to the
Egyptian Engineering Authority of the
Armed Forces (EAAF).

North Road Tunnel
As a part of the Canal Region Development
Plan, the Egyptian government awarded
the contract for the construction of twintube road tunnels and a railway tunnel
under the Suez Canal to two major
Egyptian companies: The Arab Contractors
(AC) and Orascom Construction Industries (OCI). The railway tunnel aspect was
cancelled in 2017.

Path of road tunnels beneath Suez Canal,
south of Port Said

This article focuses on the construction
of one tunnel of the twin-tube road tunnel,
which connects Port Fuad Road, on the
east side of Suez Canal, to Port Said -
Ismailia Highway on the canal's west side.
The two road tunnels, located about 12.4
mi (20 km) south of Port Said, allow
bypassing the need to use ferries. They will
contribute to the expansion of North Sinai,
helping enhance the industrial area and the
coastal connection between the Sinai
Peninsula and the Nile Delta.
The project involved constructing the
northernmost of the two parallel underpasses. Each extends about 2.4 mi
(3.9 km), at an axis distance ranging from
139.4 ft (42.5 m) at the tunnel entrances, to
98.4 ft (30 m) in the central area, underneath the Suez Canal. These high-traffic
density twin tunnels include a two-lane
carriageway executed by adopting different
foundation techniques.
Cut and cover sections and open
U-sections were used for the tunnel ramps,
whereas multicellular shafts were used for
the tunnel boring machine (TBM) launching
and reception zones. Structural diaphragm
walls were adopted for the execution of the
aforementioned retaining structures.

Giuseppe Lui and Federico Fanti, Trevi

DEEP FOUNDATIONS * SEPT/OCT 2020 * 107
DFI Magazine September/October 2020

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