Examples of building response to excavation and tunneling

Monitoring of ground movements around tunnels and excavations on the Washington Metro led to development of procedures for assessing ground loss or movements at the boundaries of the excavation or tunnel and the distribution of movements through the soil mass to the ground surface and to adjacent structures (Cording and Hansmire, 1975, O’Rourke and Cording, 1974). As the field investigations progressed in Washington, instrumentation and observations were concentrated on the effect of ground movements on structures. (Boscardin and Cording, 1989). More recently, a research program consisting of numerical and model studies correlated with field observations was conducted to assess the relation of building distortion and damage to excavation-induced ground movements. This paper provides examples of building damage and distortion resulting from excavation or tunneling and evaluates the behavior of the buildings using methods developed in previous studies. The buildings are on shallow foundations in U.S.cities. Most are masonry bearing wall structures built in the 1800s or early 1900s.