UCIMS: Advances in geotechnical construction and performance monitoring

The Crossrail project currently under construction in Central London has been described as “The Big Dig on Steroids”, obviously referencing the Central Artery/Tunnel project in Boston completed in 2007. To address the multiple demands for timely construction performance monitoring, Crossrail envisioned the underground construction information management system (UCIMS) to monitor construction progress and structural health along the entire route, with a network of geotechnical instruments (i.e. slope inclinometers, extensometers, piezometers, etc.) and tunnel boring machine (TBM) position information. The UCIMS is a geospatially referenced relational database that was developed using an open source geographic information system (GIS) that allowed all stakeholders near immediate feedback of construction performance. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief history of geotechnical and structural monitoring software, to describe the structure and operation of the UCIMS, and to demonstrate how the functionality afforded by this system provided the requisite feedback to the stakeholders. Examples will be given regarding how the data management and visualization concepts incorporated into the UCIMS advanced the geotechnical construction industry