This practical and design-oriented book focuses on ground characterization and structural calculation, as part of the active structural design methodology. With a focus on rock tunnelling it offers a comprehensive rather than a topic-based perspective, deriving sound tunnel design criteria and methods from basic principles. Ground characterization includes excavations, site investigation, and in situ stress determination, culminating in geotechnical classifications. The book then deals with various construction methods and their appropriate calculations, which range from constitutive models for the stress-strain behaviour of an excavation and tunnel support elements to a full stress–strain analysis methodology.

The heavily practical approach of the book draws on the authors’ twenty years of tunnelling experience in Spain and South America. It will help any young or established professional who wants to develop a career in the underground field across both civil engineering and geology. As it incorporates the very fundamentals of tunneling design, it can be used as a support for tunneling courses or as a textbook for master’s and PhD courses.

Benjamín Celada was Chief Tunnel Engineer at Hunosa and Potasas de Navarra S.A. before founding Geocontrol S.A. He has also worked for twenty years as Professor of Underground Works at the Polytechnic Mining University in Madrid, Spain.

Z. T. Bieniawski directed the Rock Mechanics Department of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria, then taught at the Pennsylvania State University for twenty years.