Engineering investigations into the cause of cracking and damage to a house on poor ground in the vicinity of tunnelling, a deep excavation and building works

This paper describes engineering investigations into the serious masonry cracking and concrete spalling of a two-storey detached house in Singapore. The investigations comprised monitoring, modelling and an archival study of the building, and were required to determine whether the damage was caused by building, bored tunnelling and/or deep excavation works in the vicinity of the house around the time the damage was reported. The house had an elaborate structural history and was located in an area where the geology comprised very soft marine clay, loose fluvial sand and a shallow groundwater table.