GB/T 50838-2015Standard for urban utility tunnel engineering (English PDF)

1 General provisions

1.0.1 The document states that it was drawn up in order to make intensive use of urban construction land, to raise the safety and the level of construction of urban engineering pipelines, to arrange in a coordinated way the laying of urban engineering pipelines inside utility tunnels, and to make the construction of urban utility tunnel works safe and suitable, economically reasonable, technically advanced and convenient for construction and maintenance.

1.0.2 It applies to the planning, the design, the construction and acceptance, and the maintenance management of newly built, extended and reconstructed urban utility tunnel works.

1.0.3 Utility tunnel construction is to follow the principles quoted in the text as planning first, moderately ahead of demand, adaptation to local conditions and overall coordination, and is to bring out the combined benefits of the utility tunnel.

1.0.4 Besides this document, the planning, design, construction and acceptance and maintenance management of utility tunnel works are to comply with the relevant current national standards.

2.1 Terms

2.1.1 utility tunnel - a structure built underground in a city, together with its ancillary facilities, to accommodate two or more kinds of urban engineering pipeline, whose internal space allows people to pass through. Three types are distinguished: trunk utility tunnel, branch utility tunnel and small utility tunnel.

2.1.2 trunk utility tunnel - a utility tunnel that mainly accommodates the trunk engineering pipelines of the city and that generally does not serve the users along its route directly.

2.1.3 branch utility tunnel - a utility tunnel that accommodates urban distribution engineering pipelines and serves users directly.

2.1.4 small utility tunnel - a utility tunnel that accommodates small-scale pipe networks or terminal distribution engineering pipelines and serves users directly.

2.1.5 urban engineering pipeline - municipal public pipelines inside the city built to meet living and production needs: water supply, stormwater, sewage, reclaimed water, natural gas, heat, electric power, communication and the like. Industrial pipelines are excluded.

2.1.6 communication cable - the collective name for the conductors that carry information data as electrical or optical signals, including optical communication cables, communication cables and the signal transmission cables of intelligent extra-low-voltage systems.

2.1.7 cast-in-site utility tunnel - a utility tunnel cast integrally in concrete on site.

2.1.8 precast utility tunnel - a utility tunnel cast and formed segment by segment in a factory and assembled on site into one whole.

2.1.9 junction for pipe or cable - the place where the pipelines inside the utility tunnel meet the directly buried pipelines outside it.

2.1.10 sump pit - a structure used to collect water leaking into the utility tunnel or water emptied from the pipes.

2.1.11 safety mark - a nameplate or colour marking set up for the classified management of the pipelines inside the utility tunnel, for safety guidance and for warning.

2.1.12 compartment - an enclosed space for laying pipelines, separated by the structure itself or by fire walls.

2.2 Symbols

2.2.1 Material properties: one symbol is listed, for the design value of the tensile strength of prestressing tendons or bolts.

2.2.2 Actions and action effects: design value of bending moment; design value and characteristic value of the bending moment at the transverse joint of a precast utility tunnel segment; design value of the bending moment in the cast-in-place part of a precast segment; design value of axial force; design value of the axial force at the transverse joint of a precast segment; design value of the axial force in the cast-in-place part of a precast segment.

2.2.3 Geometrical parameters: sectional area of the gasket groove; sectional area of the gasket; sectional area of the prestressing tendon or bolt; section depth; depth of the concrete compression zone; relative rotation angle of the joint of a precast utility tunnel.

2.2.4 A further group of symbols for calculation coefficients and other quantities is announced at the foot of the page; its entries fall on a page that is not among the extracted images.

3 Basic requirements

3.0.1 Urban engineering pipelines for water supply, stormwater, sewage, reclaimed water, natural gas, heat, electric power and communication may be placed in a utility tunnel.

3.0.2 The clause is marked in the printed text as deleted, and is replaced by 3.0.2A: the construction of utility tunnel works is to conform to the special plan for utility tunnel works.

3.0.3 Utility tunnel works are to be planned and built in the important sections of the city and in the areas dense with pipelines, in combination with new district construction, old city renewal and new, extended or reconstructed roads.

3.0.4 Pipelines under the trunk roads of new urban districts should be placed in a utility tunnel, and the utility tunnel is to be built at the same time as the trunk road. In the old areas of a city, utility tunnel construction should be carried out together with the development of underground space, old city renewal, road reconstruction and the reconstruction of the main underground pipelines.

3.0.5 The planning and construction of utility tunnel works are to be connected and coordinated with underground space, environmental landscape and other related urban infrastructure.

3.0.6 The clause is marked as deleted, and is replaced by 3.0.6A: the construction of utility tunnel works is to comply with the relevant provisions of the current mandatory national engineering construction specification GB 55028 on special facilities projects.

3.0.7 The clause is marked as deleted, and is replaced by 3.0.7A, which requires that trunk and branch utility tunnels be built together with the fire protection, power supply, lighting, monitoring and alarm, ventilation, drainage and marking ancillary systems, and that small utility tunnels be built together with ventilation, drainage, fire protection, marking, intrusion prevention and other ancillary facilities according to the operation and maintenance needs of the pipelines placed in them.

3.0.8 The planning, design, construction and maintenance of utility tunnel works are to be coordinated with the various engineering pipelines.

3.0.9 The clause is marked as deleted, and is replaced by 3.0.9A: the pipelines placed in a utility tunnel are to be given a special pipeline design.

3.0.10 The design of the engineering pipelines placed in a utility tunnel is to comply with the provisions of the overall design of the utility tunnel and with the current national design standards for the corresponding pipelines.

3.0.11 The safety signs of a utility tunnel are to comply with the relevant provisions of the current national standard GB 2894 on safety signs and the guideline for their use.

4.1 Plan - General requirements

4.1.1 The planning of utility tunnel works is to meet the requirements of the urban master plan, its planning horizon is to be consistent with the urban master plan, and space is to be reserved for long-term development.

4.1.2 The planning of utility tunnel works is to be connected with the planning of urban underground space, with the special plans for engineering pipelines and with the integrated pipeline plan.

4.1.3 The planning of utility tunnel works is to keep to the principles of adaptation to local conditions, combination of near-term and long-term needs, unified planning and coordinated construction.

4.1.4 The clause is marked as deleted, and is replaced by 4.1.4A: the special plan for utility tunnel works is to coordinate the layout of above-ground and underground space and to coordinate the spatial relationship between the utility tunnel works and other above-ground and underground works.

4.1.5 The planning of utility tunnel works is to contain the plane layout, the cross-section, the position and the near-term construction programme.

4.2 Plan - Systematic plan

4.2.1 The layout of utility tunnels is to suit the functional zoning of the city, the layout of the construction land and the road network plan.

4.2.2 The clause is marked as deleted, and is replaced by 4.2.2A: the special plan for utility tunnel works is to comply with the relevant provisions of the current mandatory national engineering construction specification GB 55028 on special facilities projects.

4.2.3 Utility tunnels are to be coordinated with underground traffic, underground commercial development, underground civil air defence facilities and other related construction projects.

4.2.4 The clause is marked as deleted, without a replacement clause on the page read.

4.2.5 The clause lists the circumstances in which a utility tunnel should be adopted. Only the first item is legible on the pages available: urban trunk roads with heavy traffic or with many underground pipelines, and roads built together with rail works. The remaining items fall on a page that is not among the extracted images and are not reproduced here.

Note on the designation change made by the 2024 partial revision Change of title and of standard number

Announcement No. 214 of 2024 of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, dated 29 November 2024 and reproduced in the volume, approves the partially revised provisions of the national standard GB 50838-2015 and puts them into force from 1 April 2025.

The same announcement changes the title of the standard from Technical code for urban utility tunnel engineering to Technical standard for urban utility tunnel engineering, and changes the number of the standard from GB 50838-2015 to GB/T 50838-2015. The move from GB to GB/T takes the document out of the mandatory national standards and into the recommended ones, which is why this record carries the prefix GB/T and the recommended type.

The announcement also repeals section 3.3 of the national standard GB 55028-2022 on special facilities projects and rewrites item 2 of its clause 3.1.1, so that a branch utility tunnel or a small utility tunnel is to be used when urban distribution engineering pipelines are laid.

The cover of the volume examined carries the new Chinese title, the English title Standard for urban utility tunnel engineering, the number GB/T 50838-2015 and the marking 2024 edition, while the issue date of 22 May 2015 and the implementation date of 1 June 2015 of the original edition are kept at the foot of the cover.

The body of the document has not been rewritten to match: clauses 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 still call the document a code rather than a standard. The wording is reported as printed.

Note on the printed English contents Wording found in the English contents page

The English contents page of the volume prints entry 6.2 as Water supply and resurgent water pipeline. The corresponding Chinese heading covers water supply and reclaimed water pipelines; the English word used by the issuing body is kept above as printed.

The same page prints entry 8.4 as Cast-in-place concrete utility tunnel and entry 9.3 as Cast-in-site concrete utility tunnel for the same kind of structure. Both spellings are kept as printed.