Environmental aspects

Environmental aspects are often a crucial issue that is taken into account for the feasibility of a tunnel project. Therefore, they must be considered as a constraint that influences the design. Natural resources and ground water preservation, muck disposal and its reuse, interference with nearby structures and population due to soil and water pollution, the emission of dust, noise and vibrations must be considered and properly nullified or minimised. The design pro-cess should therefore include and design the mitigation measures needed to minimize the im-pact of the various environmental hazards. In this chapter the key issues of the most im-portant environmental aspects are presented and discussed.