Rock grouting to ensure a sufficiently watertight tunnel currently accounts for 20–30% of excavation costs where there is a requirement to maintain the groundwater level due to buildings and/or sensitive external environments. New knowledge on the topic is necessary in order to improve grouting work, increase quality and optimise execution. This will lead to reduced material consumption and time and cost savings that benefit all parties, not least society, which finances projects through public clients via the state budget.
The starting point is that TIGHT shall contribute to further developing the Norwegian grouting tradition that has already been in use for many decades, while also building greater practical expertise on what physically happens in the rock mass when it is subjected to high-pressure grouting. This competence building will hopefully create room for innovation and technology development among the participating companies.
The purpose of the project is therefore to build a higher level of competence and improve the understanding of rock grouting using high pressure.
Final report
The project will develop competence in the tunnelling industry in Norway and provide it with new knowledge. The purpose of the project is to optimise an important part of the work carried out when excavating tunnels and rock caverns. Today there are many unanswered questions related to grouting execution, and this work is often considered very costly and time-consuming. Not least, it appears unpredictable, with a great deal of uncertainty and risk associated with it. The research required to answer these questions will contribute to research-based innovation, as new technology will be developed as a result of the goal of optimising high-pressure rock grouting.
The TIGHT research project provides a unique opportunity to bring together different actors to build further competence in Norway on how the rock mass can be grouted optimally.
We have therefore drawn on skilled players in industry connected to the tunnelling sector, and TIGHT also has strong international participation from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, BeFo in Sweden and KIGAM in Korea.
SINTEF, NGI and NTNU will carry out the research, which also includes one PhD. Industry partners participating in the project are: Normet Norge AS, GMA, BASF Norge AS, Rescon Mapei AS, Andersen Mek. Verksted AS, Bever Control, LNS AS, Veidekke ASA and GeoVita AS. SVV and JBV will be active collaboration partners in the project as public clients.
TIGHT is funded through the Research Council of Norway as a KPN (Knowledge-building Project for Industry) within the BIA programme (User-driven Research-based Innovation Arena), with a total budget of approx. NOK 17 million. SINTEF is the contract partner and project owner towards the Research Council of Norway.