San Xavier Mine Training Tunnel Design

To prepare for highly strenuous situations dealing with monitoring and protecting international borders, it is necessary to train border agents in an environment that simulates potential conditions. Two underground tunnels will be constructed 100 feet underground in the San Xavier Underground Mining Laboratory to be used for the training of present and future Border Patrol agents. A 3-by-5-foot tunnel was designed to simulate underground conditions in which agents could move on foot. A second tunnel, 3 feet by 2 feet, was designed to mimic underground conditions that would require agents to crawl. MineSight and Roscience RS2 were used to produce the excavation design and stability analysis, respectively. Ventilation design was created in VentSim.