THE WORK OF THE UNDERGROUND CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH COUNCIL

Current and future national activities with respect to underground space and underground construction are briefly reviewed, the purposes of the Research Council are stated, and some of its activities are reviewed. The Council of 50 members is a voluntary effort dedicated to defining and improving the technology of underground construction, and to encouraging greater use of the subsurface for appropriate purposes. Most activities are performed through task committees. The result of some of these activities was the publication of a report. "Use of underground space to achieve National Goals", which indicated a potential annual economic saving by use of underground space of approximately 60 billion a year. Technical topics which have received attention are: the application of geophysics to the prediction of underground conditions; and the problems posed by underground construction, blasting and tunneling. The development is planned of guidelines to demonstrate the benefits of instrumentation of selected portions of tunnel test sections. Work is also planned on defining the optimum geotechnical investigations that need to be made in tunnels, and on the topic of solidification grouting. Another major activity closely associated with it is the Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference. The need is recognized for increasing vommunication not only between engineers but also between architects, lawyers, etc. A quarterly journal concerned with problems of the underground is planned.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Published in the Proceedings of the Symposium on the Development and Utilization of Underground Space, March 5-7, 1975, Kansas City, Mo., sponsored by the Department of Geosciences, University of Missouri, Kansas City.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Science Foundation

  1800 G Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20550
• Authors:
  • Fairhurst, C
• Conference:
  • Published in the Proceedings of the Symposium on the Development and Utilization of Underground Space, March 5-7, 1975, Kansas City, Mo., sponsored by the Department of Geosciences, University of Missouri, Kansas City.
• Publication Date: 1975-3

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 103-105

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Documents; Economics; Excavation; Forecasting; Geological surveying; Grouting; Guidelines; Information dissemination; Instrumentation; Presplitting (Blasting); Research; Technology; Test sections; Tunneling; Underground structures
• Uncontrolled Terms: Publications
• Old TRIS Terms: Geometric mean; Rapid excavation; Subsurface explorations
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Data and Information Technology; Economics; Geotechnology; Highways; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00130641
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 7 1976 12:00AM