Gilgle Gibe 2 Tunnel Revised Final

Gibe II Hydropower Plant
Company name
Background of the project
• Gibe II hydropower plant is the second stage of the

Gibe-Omo hydroelectric cascade which includes
Gibe I and Gibe III (all in operation),
koysha(under construction).
• The 420 megawatt project, southwest of Addis
Ababa, was said it will increase Ethiopia's
electricity generation capacity by 38 percent.
• It includes one of Africa’s longest hydraulic
tunnel, more than 25 km long below the Fofa
mountains.
• Designed by Studio Pietrangeli, with engineering
supervision by ELC- Electroconsult.
Project Name Gilgle Gibe II
Client Ethiopian government(EEP)
Project cost 500 million euro
Project area The Lower Valley of the Omo
River, Ethiopia.
 Italy’s funding (59%) is added to the € 50 million (13%)

credit from the European Investment Bank to finance the
electromechanical supplies; the Ethiopian contribution
amounts to at least € 103.5 million (28%).
Main features
• Gravity Dam ( H = 49 m, L = 140 m )

• Main Roads ( 65 km )
• Power Tunnel ( L = 25.8 km, D = 6 m )
• Penstocks ( No. 2, L = 1.1 km, D = 3.6 ÷ 2.8 m )
• Surge Shaft ( H = 95.5 m, D = 18 m )
• Outdoor Power House ( No. 4 Pelton turbines IP =
4x105 MW )
• 400 kV Switchyard
Tunnel construction and challenges
• The TBMs selected for the headrace drives were two

6.98m diameter DSUs that would bore from either end of
the tunnel, on Inlet and Outlet drives.
Water Conveyance Project Main Data
Purpose HPP (432 MW)
Tunnel Length 25.8 Km
Internal Tunnel Diameter 6.3 m
Design Discharge 100 M3/s
Design Internal Pressure min 2. bar and max. 7 bar
Lining Geometrical Characteristics
Segment Type Hexagonal
Segment Thickness 25 cm
Segmental Lining Outside Diameter 6,800 mm
Segmental Lining Final Internal 6,300 mm
Segment Width 1,600 mm
type of lining : hexagonal precast concrete segmental lining
Challenges Encountered
• The TBMs encountered 24 geological difficulties, or

classified, ‘events’, of varying scale and nature on the
headrace excavations.
• 15 in the Inlet drive and nine in the Outlet drive.
• By far the most difficult to overcome was Event 19, on
the Inlet drive.
• Event 19 was happened in October 2006 during the
construction of the tunnel
• The failure was happened when the tunneling crew hit a
pocket of wet earth along a major fault line at the location
of 4 kilometers from the tunnel inlet
• Only 4 kilometers into the boring Wet and humid mud
under a pressure of as much as 40 Bars and with
temperatures reaching 40 centigrade gushed out ..
Event 19
• At the end of October 2006, the TBM was

pushed back as consequence of the sudden
extrusion and collapse of the tunnel face
against the cutter head and the front shield.
• The tunnel face moved towards the TBM 40-
60mm/hour.
• The TBM has been pushed back more than
60 cm and displaced laterally more than 40
cm.
• Efforts were made first to open a small
tunnel over the TBM to start to release the
shield but high rock pressures prevented
success.
• Next, a Back Chamber was to be opened up
fully around the TBM and also an exploratory
adit was excavated to the left from which
boreholes would be drilled to probe the weak
rock mass nearer the fault.
Tail TBM Shield damaged and bent
Lining segment moved and severely damaged
Overview of the TBM shield left part and installed lining segments
Extruding mud in the Exploratory Adit
• In June 2007 a collapse of the front face started at the left
Exploratory Adit
• producing three controlled leaching of about 3500 m3 of
mud, which filled the all Adit, and about 80m of the
power tunnel
Extruding mud in the power tunnel
Strategies used As mitigation for the mud
problem
The solution to these series of unforeseen events involved
(i) building a new 230meters of bypass tunnel, changing
the original layout(direction) of the tunnel,
(ii) dredging as much as 40,000 cubic meter of mud
continuously for 2 years (between October 2006 –
August 2008), and
(iii) filling out the failed section of the tunnel with concrete.
• To facilitate TBM steering at the excavation resuming and
to reinforce the pillar between the two tunnels, in the
transition zone the old tunnel has been filled with
concrete.
• The TBM has been refurbished and re-assembled in the
tunnel.
• The excavation diameter was enlarged from 6980mm to
7074mm.
• The TBM was relaunched in August 2008 on
a bypass route(230m) around the fault,
through which resin injection was used to
help consolidate the clayey basalt and to
limit squeezing,
• Beyond the fault the TBM rejoined the
headrace alignment.
• The success of the intervention was possible only after
the releasing of the pressure and the stresses acting in the
area and surrounding the TBM.
• Some numbers are significant for the Event 19:
 3500m3 of mud flowed and removed

 39600m3 of water drained during the intervention
 230m of Exploratory Adit excavated with traditional
method
 1600 m of investigation boreholes
• About ten days after the project was completed, about 15
m of the 26 km headrace tunnel collapsed.
• The collapse may have been attributed it to structural

failure caused by expedited construction and a lack of
proper studies.
• The investigations have revealed the cause to be a
rockfall at a zone of undetected, weak ground above and
well behind the tunnel lining.
• It is believed the weak rock mass, comprising some loose

large blocks in weak soil, was agitated by hydraulic
pressure variations induced by the active headrace.
• The official statement of the construction firm Salini
Costruttori, released two weeks after the official
inauguration was that "an unforeseen geological event
provoked a 'cave in' and a huge rock fall involving about
15m of the 26km headrace tunnel.
• The tunnel was repaired and the station operational again
on December 26, 2010
Thank you

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Gibe II Hydropower Plant

• Gibe II hydropower plant is the second stage of the

 Italy’s funding (59%) is added to the € 50 million (13%)

• Gravity Dam ( H = 49 m, L = 140 m )

• The TBMs selected for the headrace drives were two

• The TBMs encountered 24 geological difficulties, or

• At the end of October 2006, the TBM was

 3500m3 of mud flowed and removed

• The collapse may have been attributed it to structural

• It is believed the weak rock mass, comprising some loose

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