Abstract:The prominent issues in tunnel design and safety control,especially the design of tunnel in complex surrounding rock are highlighted based on the analysis of existing classification methods of rock. The existing methods of rock classification are unsuitable for the complex rock conditions and strict requirements of environmental control. Moreover,they provide little guidance for tunneling in complex conditions. In this paper,the concept of safety of surrounding rock and support system of tunnel is proposed based on the surrounding rock control. The safety of tunnelling in complex surrounding rock with limited self-stability is studied. The safety evaluation model of surrounding rock is proposed. The importance of ground pre-reinforcement in weak ground tunneling is illustrated and the analysis method considering the effects of ground pre-reinforcement is proposed. The relationship between the scale of surrounding rock and its response is established based on the analysis of the scale effect and the structure effect(time effect) of surrounding rock. Meanwhile,the factors that affect the tunnelling stability are analyzed in the mesoscopic level. The safety evaluation system of surrounding rock under complex geological conditions is established based on the analysis of the relationship between surrounding rock and tunnel support. The deformation ahead of tunnel face,the failure zone ahead of tunnel face and the effectiveness of ground reinforcement are taken as the key parameters to classify the tunnel safety in complex conditions. An evaluation system of tunnel safety composed of nine indices is therefore put forward. A project is also given to introduce the use of the proposed classification method of tunnel safety.