In tunneling, it is very important to select the correct tunneling machines. Choosing a wrong method may be very costly to the company. There are many parameters affecting the decision stage of selection of the tunneling machine. Geology (C1), ground conditions (C2), tunnel properties (C3), geo-environmental hazard (C4), technical properties of machines (C5), and project properties (C6) are the main selection criteria. Using these topics and the sub-criteria belonging to each topic, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy method is employed to select the most suitable tunneling machine. Tunnel boring machines are mainly divided into two as hard and soft ground machines. The number of tunnels under cities constitute a large amount due to subways, underground roads, etc. These tunnels are mostly shallow tunnels. Therefore, the variety of soft ground tunneling machines increase. In this research, soft ground type machines and their parameters are evaluated. After evaluation with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, geology (C1) turned out to be the factor most influencing the selection of machine type, and M3 (EPBM) is found to be the most suitable machine for soft ground conditions. In addition, the research method and the study results are thought to be helpful in selecting the machine type for other tunnels which will soon be started in Turkey.
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