The excavation of rock and deep based facilities presents major cost and technical challenges. Proposals for tunneling are mostly based on using tunnel boring machines. Excavation by drill and blast methods, with many advantages, are also possible. Drill and blast methods are less sensitive to rock quality and to changes in tunneling direction. Many attempts, over time and by different people, have been made to reduce the cyclic inefficiencies of the drill and blast method in confined headings. There has been little effort to integrate technologies and techniques developed from one project to another. A previous study by AER, relative to mining applications indicated that the majority of subsystems have been developed but not integrated into an effective mechanism. This study will review explosive excavation technology, relative to the type of tunnels and construction schedules envisioned in a deep basing, to determine the feasibility of developing an effective automated, continuous, explosive excavation system for possible use in both the construction phase and in the post attack digout phase.
