In this paper, engineering geological properties of the entrance portal section of Konakönü Tunnel,  located on Black Sea Coastal Highway, Turkey, is studied. Moderately weathered basaltic and andesitic tuffs orderly to be driven by the entrance portal section. Tunnel portal design in weak rock presents  some special challenges to the designers, since misjudgements in the design of tunnel can lead to very  costly failures. The entrance portal was analyzed by empirical and numerical methods. Both field and  laboratory studies were carried out during this study. Field studies involved geological mapping,  detailed discontinuity surveying and sampling. Laboratory tests were carried out to determine the  physico-mechanical and elastical properties of rock units. For this purpose, tunnel stability analyses  were performed at the entrance portal section. The RMR (rock mass rating), Q (rock mass quality), RMi  (rock mass index), NATM (new Austrian  tunnelling method) and GSI (geological strength index) systems were employed for empirical rock mass quality determination and  preliminary tunnel portal  support design. The parameters calculated by the empirical methods were used as input parameters for the  FEM  (finite element method) analysis. The results from the two methods were compared and  preliminary support designs were carried out. This comparison suggests that for more reliable support  design, empirical and finite element methods should be combined.