Abstract:Wuhan Yangtze River Tunnel(WYRT),which is the first tunnel crossing through the Yangtze River,will be the main road for connecting two towns,namely,Wuchang and Hankou in urban area of Wuhan City,China. Because the geological condition in Wuhan City is much complicated,shielding tunnel method is employed for the river-crossing part,and cut and cover method is applied to the approach tunneling. It is very important to reduce the influences of construction on surrounding environment,including buildings and pipelines. Numerical simulation method is used to predict the influences of construction on the ground settlement herein. The prediction results of ground settlement resulted from the ground loss of tunneling is presented. The results indicate that the influences resulted from tunneling on the ground surface are comparatively small when the distance to tunnel axial is more than 50 meters. With the ground loss rate increasing,the range of plastic zone of soil surrounding tunnels increases;the slope of ground settlement curve increasing results from the plastic yielding zone increasing between two bores;critical ground loss rate increases with the overburden depth in tunnel area. Making the ground loss rate to be less than 2% is very effective to minimize the ground settlement,so as to minimize the effect on surrounding buildings and pipelines. The influence of tunneling on the ground settlement decreases with the overburden depth increasing in tunnel area. Protective measures should be taken for the buildings and pipelines in range of 50 meters around the tunnel.