What is a tunnel defect register?
A tunnel defect register is the list of every defect recorded in a tunnel lining, with where it is, what it is, who is fixing it and whether the fix has been accepted. In DEFECTED the register is the app itself rather than a spreadsheet kept beside it. Each defect sits on a tunnel drive, a ring number and a clock position, carries a defect type and a work stream (injection, labour or investigation), and moves through To Do, In Progress, Done and Validated. Crews update it on their phones at the defect, with no signal needed, and engineers see the same register from the surface. Because the list in the tunnel and the list in the office are one list, there is no end-of-shift re-typing and no second copy to reconcile. Every status change is written to the defect's history by the database, so the register also answers who did what, and when.
How does DEFECTED locate a defect in the tunnel?
Every defect is pinned to a tunnel drive, a ring and a clock position. Rings are numbered from the launch end, so a crew walking the tunnel finds ring 1583 the way they always have. The clock position is tapped on a clock face, 1 to 12, or set to N/A where a position does not apply. Defects outside the rings, in a cross passage or listed as general items, keep their own location rather than being forced onto a ring number. The ring list shows each ring's defects with their type, company and status, so a crew can see what is left on the rings in front of them and an engineer can see where the open work is concentrated. The same references follow the defect into photos, reports and exports, so the location on a PDF matches the location on the phone exactly.
Which defect types does the register use?
DEFECTED uses a fixed taxonomy of segmental lining defect types, each tied to a work stream. Injection types include joint leaks, segment leaks, wet cracks, segment gaps, invert leaks and cracks, grout socket leaks, spear bolt leaks and cross passage items such as joint leaks and grout boxes. Labour types include crack inducers, drill holes, cleaning, spalls, potholes, honeycombing, dry cracks and embedded foreign material. Damaged ferrules sit in an investigation stream. The work stream decides which crew sees the defect, so injection technicians see injection work and labour crews see theirs. Names that arrive in an engineer's source file are matched to the taxonomy, ignoring case and spacing, with known aliases mapped onto the canonical type. A value that matches nothing is flagged for review instead of quietly becoming a new type.
The full list, with what each type means and how it is evidenced, is in the guide to segmental lining defect types.
Can we import the defect list we were issued?
Yes. A project engineer or admin can import the issued master defect list from Excel. The import reads the file, checks every row and shows what it found before anything is written: a blank or duplicate item reference, a blank defect type or an unrecognised value each put the row into review with the reason. The preview then shows what the commit will add and change. Each imported defect keeps its item reference, which is the key for every later import, so a reissued list updates the same defects instead of duplicating them. Status columns are treated carefully: a row marked done in the file can close a defect with no field work on it, but a defect with field work already recorded is flagged for manual review, and existing injection defects are never closed by a file. On Sydney Metro West Portion 1, 3,158 defects came in from the issued DLP master defect list this way.
A separate import adds other lists from .xlsx, .xls or .csv files, mapping their columns onto the register without changing existing defects. The DLP defect register guide walks through the whole cycle.
What statuses does a defect go through?
A defect starts as To Do, moves to In Progress when a crew starts work, and to Done when the crew has finished. Done means awaiting validation, not closed: the after photo must be attached before Done unlocks, and the defect then lands in the engineer's queue, oldest first. An engineer or project admin either validates it, which closes it, or sends it back with a required comment saying what needs fixing. A sent-back defect returns to In Progress with the engineer's words, name and time at the top, and the badges on a validated defect record whether it passed first time or after rework, and how many times. The database accepts the Validated status only from its own validation function, which checks the person's role, so a validation cannot come from anywhere else.
What comes out of the register?
Everything the client needs is generated from the same records, so the numbers agree across documents. The defect register exports as a CSV for a chosen period and filters, and as PDF or Excel by day, week, month or ring range. Each shift produces a daily work record with rings, clock positions, packers, product, photo pairs and status, and the principal contractor gets a weekly report across companies. Closeout photos download as a ZIP of the original after photos with a manifest. An audit pack bundles the period's exports into one ZIP with an index of what each file is. Where the project uses Autodesk Construction Cloud, validated defects are exported as ACC upload files, and DEFECTED keeps track of which have already gone.
Where to go from here
- See how a register runs on a live job in the Sydney Metro West Portion 1 case study.
- Read how the injection side is recorded in injection records.
- Running ACC already? See DEFECTED alongside Procore or ACC.