Measured Building Settlements Due to Excavation in Soft Clays

A 26 m deep metro station was excavated in the soft clays within downtown Shanghai, where exist many commercial and residential buildings. The minimum distance between the excavation and the buildings in the proximity was only 7 m. In order to ensure the safety of the adjacent buildings and associated facilities, building settlements were monitored throughout the construction. Field data indicated that the buildings underwent significant settlements during construction. The magnitudes of building settlements were governed by the distances between buildings and excavation pit, structural types, and foundation types. Based on the analysis of field measurements, some interesting findings about excavation-induced building settlements were obtained.