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Book review |
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Hazardous Gases Underground; Applications to Tunnel Engineering. By Barry R. Doyle, Marcel Dekker, NYC, NY, 2001, 375pp. $175, ISBN 0-8247-0483-5
Sedimentary, the most abundant solid-earth medium on the planet, serves as host medium for the majority of tunnel alignment currently under construction. Next to its general characteristics in terms of standup time and ground supports, is the propensity of such rock to generate, transmit and harbour hazardous gases of high potential impact on tunellers and later users of tunnels.
Author Doyle also identifies hazardous gases found in unconsolidated (soil) ground of tunnelling and prevalent in urban areas, now the thrust of the larger and more complex of all tunnelling ground, and often lying in and below derelict properties.
First world health and safety concerns today generally preclude disasters related to gases in the operationand maintenance phases of tunnel use, but each and every ongoing tunnelling project should consideredthe danger of encountering such gases in construction. The most prevalent of concerns are the disruption and cost impacts on encountering unanticipated gases in tunnelling.
Doyle sets down a wide menu and variety of gases and causative conditions for the reader to anticipate on the basis of the usual pre-construction information. Members of the usual professions associated with tunnelling will be familiar with his simple terms. Doyle has a book that you cannot afford not to know about and to be as familiar with as your duties are likely to bring you in contact with hazardous gases.
The very nature of tunnelling,
