The Delivery Tunnel North, Lesotho Highlands Water Project

The Delivery Tunnel North starts in Lesotho and continues into South Africa. It is divided into two sections by the Caledon and Little Caledon rivers. It runs through the mudrocks and sandstones of the Tarkastad Subgroup, and the Elliot and Molteno Formations. The tunnel was excavated by a double-shield tunnel boring machine, except for the sections beneath the two rivers, which were constructed by drill and blast methods. The tunnel boring machine was selected to bore through the anticipated changing ground conditions and also was capable of installing the segmental lining of the tunnel. Boreability tests showed that the sandstones and siltstones had good boreability, but that it was very low in the dolerite dykes. At depth, the weaker mudstones presented the worst tunnelling conditions, giving rise to squeezing ground and to shear failure with accompanying overbreak. Initially a small amount of cracking occurred in the tunnel lining but this was reduced significantly as experience was gained. Cracking was observed predominantly in the weaker rock types, and this was probably associated with overbreak.