Book

Description

In the context of the rapid development of infrastructure, underground engineering, and transportation tunnel projects today, risk control and occupational safety and health management play a decisive role in a project's success and sustainability. This monograph is compiled to offer a comprehensive, systematic, and highly practical perspective, tightly combining tunneling technical theory with occupational safety and health risk management and assessment methodologies. The book outlines an overview of tunneling techniques - ranging from excavation methods under diverse geological conditions to the fundamental procedures of the drill-and-blast method, alongside lessons learned from actual accidents. Building upon this technical foundation, it provides theoretical frameworks for hazard identification and risk assessment methodologies. Furthermore, it breaks down the specific dangerous and harmful factors directly affecting workers during critical operational steps, such as face drilling and blasting, mucking, rock/earth transport, and tunnel support installation. Through this analysis, an occupational safety and health risk assessment methodology tailored for drill-and-blast tunneling operations is established, with its efficacy demonstrated through a real-world application at a tunnel construction site in Vietnam. On this basis, the book introduces the algorithm design, database construction, and user interface for a dedicated software application aimed at automating the risk assessment process (https://atvsld.vn). Synthesized from practical field operations and scientific research, this book serves as a valuable reference for underground construction engineers, project managers, contractors, researchers, and occupational safety officers on their journey to developing safe and efficient underground infrastructure.