Abstract: Through the analysis of failure mechanism of high stress soft rock tunnel excavation, the hole-shaped support model for pressure relief (surrounding rock-material of pressure relief- steel bracket) has been built, the supporting principle of pore pressure relief has been analyzed, and the support pattern for pressure relief in heavily stressed and soft rock roadway has been put forward . By making use of the software of RFPA, the evolutionary process of surrounding rock failure before and after the supporting in the rectangle roadway has been imitated. The result indicates that, when there is no support in the roadway, there is overall damage with fractures in both sides mainly ; when using steel shed support, the damage in the sides and bottoms will induce a wide range of roof abscission layer, rock falling and collapse of the steel shed; when adopting the hole-shaped support for pressure relief, surrounding rock stress can release through the compression of the pressure relief materials . So there is no obvious deformation in roadway surface, and the support is lossless, which indicates that this kind of support can reduce the surrounding rock stress, and enhance safety of roadway. It provides a new method of supporting for the heavily stressed soft rock roadway.

Key words: mining engineering, heavily stressed soft rock, roadway, the hole-shaped support for pressure relief