Chris Haberfield

Dr Chris Haberfield BSc, BE(Hons), PhD, FIEAust, CPEng, RPEQ

Principal, Golder Associates, Melbourne, Australia

Biography

Dr Chris Haberfield is a Principal Geotechnical Engineer with Golder Associates Pty Ltd working out of their Melbourne, Australia office. He concurrently holds the position of Research Associate with the Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia. He has over 38 years of experience in researching, teaching and practising in geotechnical engineering. His experience is wide-ranging encompassing large building projects, mines, reclamations, ports and infrastructure projects primarily within Australia, Asia and the Middle East. These projects have involved shallow and deep (piled) foundations, deep excavations, retention systems, ground improvement, earthworks, tunnels, shafts and slopes.

Dr Haberfield is a past Vice President of the International Society for Rock Mechanics and a past Chairman of the Australian Geomechanics Society. He has been recognised for his work in foundation structure interaction and the analysis, design and construction of bored piles in soft, weak and weathered rock being awarded the AGS 2007 EH Davis Award and the ISSMGE 2017 Gregory Tschebotarioff Lecture.

Abstract

Temporary support of deep basement excavations in rock

C.M. Haberfield, A.L.E. Lochaden & D.R. Paul

Golder Associates Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia

Deep basements have become common in our modern cities. Whilst the analysis and design of retention systems for deep basements in soil are relatively well established, the same cannot be said for deep basement retention systems in rock. In many instances the design of retention systems in rock are based on a soil mechanics approach and as a result often ignore unique aspects of rock mass behaviour that can significantly impact the performance of these retention systems. It is important that the characteristics of the rock mass are well understood and are quantified during the ground investigation. Some of the aspects of retention system design and analysis that are set out in this paper only became apparent following unsatisfactory performance of a retention system. Due to the sensitivity surrounding such unsatisfactory performance, it has not been possible to include the specific case studies. As a result, this paper provides an overview of the many aspects involved in respect to ground investigations, analysis, design and construction of deep basement retention systems in rock that are required to mitigate against unsatisfactory performance. This paper is restricted to temporary embedded wall retention systems that are installed to allow the construction of the permanent basement structure.