Braced excavation - Excavation in general

A total of twenty one papers were grouped in this session. As the title of this session implies, these papers covered a wide spectrum of topics related to deep excavations. The reporters have divided these papers under two main themes: wall movement and control of wall movement, and more general causes of movement. The main conclusions the reporters can draw is that in many practical situations where control of movement is important, the retaining system is designed to be sufficiently stiff so that movement is reduced to a very small amount. In that situation, the analysis is less sensitive to variation in soil parameters than to the nature of the supporting structure. Wall movement is not the only potential source of ground movements during deep excavation. This must be recognised, else any back analysis or design will not be correct.