Engineering Challenges for Sustainable Underground Use

This volume comprises a set of high-quality, refereed papers that address the different aspects related to the geotechnical and structural design and construction of deep excavations, tunnels and underground space facilities as well as the effect of their construction on the surroundings. The papers cover planning, design, modeling, monitoring and construction aspects of these essential structures. This volume is part of the proceedings of the 1st GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures, Egypt 2017.

Sherif W. Agaiby,

Prof. Dr. Sherif Wissa Agaiby is the Director of the Geotechnical and Heavy Civil Engineering Department at Dar Al-Handasah Consultants (Shair and Partners). Dr Agaiby earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Cairo University, Egypt in 1983 and 1987, respectively, and his Ph.D. from CornellUniversity, Ithaca, NY, USA in 1991. Dr. Agaiby taught and conducted research in most fields of Geotechnical Engineering as a university faculty member (Cairo University; 1983 - 2004). Since joining Dar Al-Handasah, Dr. Agaiby has been actively involved in consulting and has participated in the planning, analyzing, designing, and providing during construction follow-up for major engineering projects worldwide. Dr. Agaiby is involved in many national and international scientific activities including: Chairperson of the  Professional Image Committee, International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), 2013 to 2017; Board Member, Council of Foundation of ITA-CET, Foundation for Education and Training on Tunneling and Underground Space Use; member of the Egyptian Code of Practice for Geotechnical Engineering and Foundations on Rock committee and the Site Investigation committee; member of the Egyptian Code of Practice committee for the Design and Construction of Tunnels and Underground Structures.

Piergiorgio Grasso,

Piergiorgio Grasso is the founder, President and Principal Engineer of Geodata Engineering, which is a consultancy company specialised in the design consultancy of underground infrastructures, both in urban environments and in mountain areas. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in civil engineering from the Politecnico di Torino of Italy, in 1976.

Geodata is based in Italy and operating world-wide, since 1984. Geodata has designed and supervised the construction of over 4,000 km of tunnels and more than 3,300 projects in over 50 countries.

Geodata specialises in managing and resolving complex issues relating to:

• tunnels and excavation in urban areas

• long and deep tunnels

• complex underground structures

Piergiorgio Grasso served ITA (International Tunnelling Association) as Board Member, Vice-President and Expert from 2005 to 2013, he is Vice-President and Co-Founder of ITA-CET, Foundation for Education and Training on Tunnelling and Underground Space Use.

Piergiorgio Grasso has published over 200 articles on geoengineeering and tunnelling. He is co-author of two books: the first volume ‘Geomechanical Principles in the Design of Tunnels and Caverns in Rock’, which was published by Elsevier in 1992, and ‘Mechanized Tunnelling In Urban Areas–Design methodology and Construction control’ by Vittorio Guglielmetti, Piergiorgio Grasso, Ashraf Mahtab, Shulin Xu (Geodata S.p.A., Turin, Italy) Editors - published by Taylor and Francis (November 2007).