Protection and Monitoring of Three Temples Close to the Excavation of a Tunnel in Guadalajara, Mexico

Abstract

Because of the threat that the excavation of the tunnel would damage adjacent buildings, soil stabilization works were carried out in the areas adjacent to the tunnel. Moreover, three important historic temples were retrofitted to reduce their vulnerability, and a network of automatic sensors was installed and operated to monitor their structural behavior. The paper describes the structural engineering studies carried out for the diagnosis as well as those related to the design of the retrofitting of the three buildings. The behavior of the three temples during the stabilization works of the subsoil and during the passage of the tunneling machine is discussed. In general terms, the performance of the three temples was satisfactory; the only damage consisted in the reopening of some preexisting cracks, which were repaired soon after the passage of the boring machine. The case of the temple of San Francisco required some additional studies: environmental vibration measurements were performed to determine the dynamic properties of the structure before and after the passage of tunneling machine in order to detect possible damage, as well as to determine the effect of the changes in the soil properties in the seismic response of the temple.