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The current first generation of Eurocodes is a suite of ten European standards for the design of buildings and civil engineering works, whose implementation started in 2010. EN 1990 sets the basis of structural design, with the other Eurocodes dealing with different materials and specific aspects of design. Geotechnical aspects of design are covered by EN 1997 "Geotechnical design", usually called Eurocode 7. The evolution of the Eurocodes started in 2012 and the main objectives of their revision were to incorporate improvements that reflect the state‐of‐the‐art in engineering design and the needs of the civil engineering market, to improve the ease‐of‐use and to harmonize practice between countries. While the original version was developed largely based on soil mechanics, the aim was that the revised version treats soil and rock on an equal basis. The second generation of the Eurocodes is now nearly finished, and the revised EN 1997 is expected to be formally approved in 2024. This paper is the first of a set of six informative papers on the revised Eurocodes and rock engineering, prepared by members of the Rock Engineering Platform of CEN/TC250/SC7, a group of rock engineering experts that has been assisting in drafting EN 1997 from a rock‐engineering perspective. The paper presents the main changes to EN 1990 and EN 1997 as far as they affect geotechnical and rock engineering design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current Eurocode revision process is sought to improve Eurocode 7 for application to rock engineering, while including only techniques and procedures that are in widespread customary use. The revision process has exposed much about the application of the Eurocodes to rock engineering, thereby offering hints as to what material should be included in the next revision – tentatively suggested for publication in 2035. Crucially, ideas have developed about how rock engineering practice may need to develop to embrace the principles on which the Eurocodes are based. In particular, aspects of determining the properties of rock masses, and design verification by observational methods, partial factors, numerical modelling, and prescriptive rules are all thought to require significant improvement or dramatic modification. This paper highlights challenges identified regarding the application of the Eurocodes to rock engineering, and which will need to be addressed in the future. Ideas are presented about how these challenges may be overcome, but these are given in the spirit of stimulating ongoing conversation within the rock mechanics and rock engineering community rather than presenting definite proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second generation of Eurocode 7 aims at covering ground, including both soil and rock. Current practice of ground engineering forms the basis, and the aim is to include rock engineering, improving ease of use, harmonization of regulations, and covering new developments. This paper deals with EN 1997 part 1 addressing the general rules of geotechnical design, connected to EN 1990, the basis of structural and geotechnical design, and parts 2 and 3 of EN 1997. The design process from ground investigation to the verification of limit states is illustrated with a focus on rock engineering. The following topics are dealt with in more detail: Geotechnical Categories: They are now based on Consequence Classes and newly introduced Geotechnical Complexity Classes. A limit state design to be sufficient has to be combined with other checks depending on these classes.Replacement of the Design Approaches of the current Eurocode 7: Ultimate limit states will be verified by a combination of Verification Cases with partial factors on actions and action effects, and sets of partial factors on ground properties and resistances, respectively.Application of numerical methods, where a ULS‐verification with two sets of partial factors is defined.Use of probabilistic methods in design by calculation, especially appropriate in cases where properties of discontinuities govern the design.Practice of the Observational Method, including design variants and regulations about their choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]