Statistical analysis of major tunnel construction accidents in China from 2010 to 2020

The increase of transport mileage and expansion of underground space foster rapid development in tunnel engineering, particularly in China. China has the largest number of existing tunnels, and the growth rate has doubled over the past decade; whereas varied geographical environments, complex geological conditions, and incomplete management systems result in frequent tunnel construction accidents. The existing studies mostly focused on an individual accident type or operation stage, and the databases built decades ago are becoming obsolete to match developing construction concepts and technologies. Motivated by this concern, this paper conducts the statistical analysis on 48 cases of major tunnel construction accidents (MTCA, defined as an accident that results in more than three deaths) in China from 2010 to 2020, and examines the accident characteristics, including classification, time, region, location, construction method, and risk source. Based on the above time-space distributions of MTCA, two critical scientific issues concerning the safe construction of underground tunnels are discussed, including how to accurately evaluate the resilient network of hazards -vulnerable tunnel engineering, and how to build an efficient monitoring-mitigation-rescue system. The purpose is to provide a theoretical foundation for developing a database-driven management system that improves the resilience of tunnel construction to multiple hazards.