Grouting reinforcement plays an important role in repairing fractures and improving the strength of the surrounding rock. To address practical engineering challenges such as caving and chip off-falling of surrounding rock in deep roadways, normal splitting was adopted to prefabricate fractures on rock samples gathered from underground coal mines. This was done to better match the rock fracture specimen with actual conditions. Based on the elementary unit of a fracture surface, systematic experiments were conducted on the tensile properties of rock fractures after grouting reinforcement, and the shear properties were studied after considering the presence of gas. As per the results, the tensile strength of rock fractures increased with the increase in viscosity of grout, but the overall tensile strength was relatively low. The overall tensile effect of surrounding rock was improved less by grouting approach. When the presence of fracture gas in grouting was considered, the peak shear strength of fractures after grouting was 8.34–29.9% less than that without considering the fracture gas. The cemented pore surface produced by unsaturated cementation in the grouting reinforcement was the main cause of reduction in cohesion and frictional angle of rock fractures. The conclusions of this study have great significance for guiding engineering grouting and evaluating the grouting effect.

Massive deformation often occurs when deep coalmine roadways pass through a fault zone due to the poor integrity of rock mass and high tectonic stress. To study deformation characteristics of the surrounding rock in the fault zone of a coalmine, a roadway passing through the FD1041 fault zone in China’s Gugui coalfield was investigated in this research. The geo-stress characteristics of this fault zone were analyzed based on the Mohr failure theory. Furthermore, a three-dimensional model for the experimental roadway in the FD1041 fault zone was built and calculated by a numerical program based on the distinct element method. Stability conditions of the roadway, using several types of support methods, were calculated and compared. Calculation results indicated that pre-grouting provides favorable conditions for the stability of a roadway in a fault zone. Finally, an optimized support strategy was proposed and implemented in the experimental roadway. Monitored results demonstrated that the optimized support strategy is appropriate for this fault zone.

With the increase in the mining depth of coal mines in China, the problem of large deformation of roadways owing to high-ground pressure has become prominent even under enhanced support systems. To reduce the high pressure on the surrounding rock, this study investigates a pressure-relief method for deep roadways using drilling borehole groups. Based on a deep roadway in the Huainan mining area of China, the influences of drilling parameters, such as borehole diameter, length, and arrangement were investigated. The results indicate that the fan-shaped arrangement of the borehole group can compensate for the dilatancy deformation of the surrounding rock. The peak stress of the surrounding rock is reduced and transferred to the inner part of the surrounding rock. Furthermore, a field experiment was conducted on an experimental roadway. The deformation of the roadway was monitored and compared with that of an adjacent roadway that did not apply the pressure-relief method. The monitoring results indicated that the deformation of the experimental roadway was significantly reduced.