Engineering: turning ideas into reality - Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee Contents


Memorandum 159

Submission from David Hutchinson, Civil Engineer, Network Rail (Channel Tunnel Rail Link) Limited

1.  Summary

    -  This submission concentrates on the contribution of geo-engineering to the operation and maintenance of the UK's railway infrastructure.

    -  It briefly indicates how geo-engineering in the railway industry helps reduce the affect of climate change on the operation of the railway and helps reduce carbon emissions from the railway and from transport in general.

2.  Introduction

  2.1  This document has been drafted for submission to the UK Parliament's Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee for their third case history in their inquiry into engineering. It has been written to supplement the submission by the Ground Forum, but from the viewpoint of a major owner of geo-engineered structures in the UK. However, the opinions expressed in the document are those of the author and not necessarily those of Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, or Network Rail (Channel Tunnel Rail Link) Limited.

  2.2  Railways are an efficient and environmentally friendly way of moving people and goods from place to place. A significant portion of the railway infrastructure, by value, and by volume, lies in geo-engineered structures. These include embankments, cuttings, track formation, tunnels, retaining walls, drainage systems, sea defences and the foundations to bridges, viaducts, stations and line side structures.

  2.3  The majority of the UK's railway geo-engineered structures were built over 100 years ago, and many of them over 150 year ago, well before the formalisation of the science, some would say art, of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering. These geo-engineered structures were built to different specifications, using different techniques and in some case different materials, from those that would be used today. These structures are now reaching the end of the 120 year design lives that such structures would nowadays be normally designed for. Yet there is no plan to replace these old geo-engineered structures; they are being worked harder than ever, carrying ever greater numbers of passenger and freight trains. The cost of their replacement would be truly astronomic, and the consequential disruption totally unacceptable to the public. So now more than ever before they need nurturing and maintaining by professional engineers, technicians and construction workers skilled in geotechnical analysis, design and construction techniques, so that they can continue to serve for another 100 years or more.

3.  The current and potential roles of engineering and engineers in geo-engineering solutions to climate change

  3.1  Without an efficient and effective national, and international, railway system the use of fossil fuels in the UK would undoubtedly rise. Electricity, rather than fossil fuel, is used to power the majority of the UK railway systems, whereas all other major transport systems use mostly fossil fuel. Electricity, of course, can and is being generated by renewable energy sources. Geo-engineering skills are essential to the maintenance of the aging infrastructure and to maintaining and enhancing the reliability and hence the attractiveness of the existing railway networks to passengers and freight. In particular geotechnical engineers will be required to find solutions to the deterioration caused by the expected future extremes of weather caused by climate change. These include flooding causing embankment erosion, excessive rainfall leading to landslips, and long periods of dry weather causing soil shrinkage and subsidence. Geo-engineering is also an essential part of the maintenance and repair of more recently built railway infrastructure, for example the remediation of the recent fire damage to the north bore of the Channel Tunnel.

  3.2  The construction of new national and international railways will reduce the demand for other forms of travel, including national and international air travel, and hence reduce the production of greenhouse gases. Geotechnical engineers are essential members of the railway design and construction teams and provide geo-engineered solutions to minimise land take, minimise disturbance and adverse environmental impact, minimise the need to move soil and rock during construction works, and to take positive measures to enhance the environment around the new railways, while still providing value for money. The design and construction of the High Speed 1 railway provides an excellent UK case history of the input of geotechnical engineers to the successful completion, on time and on budget, of the first main line railway to be constructed in the UK for over 100 years.

4.  National and international research activity, and research funding, related to geo-engineering, and the relationship between, and interface with, this field and research conducted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

  4.1  Network Rail is a leader in the rail industry, which uses a wide range of engineering disciplines, just one of which is geo-engineering. The company has limited funds for geo-engineering research activity of its own, but it does actively support a number of academic initiatives by supplying information to outside research organisations and by providing them with access to the railway infrastructure.

  4.2  Network Rail is a partner in the BIONICS project at Newcastle University which aims to establish a database of high-quality embankment performance data to enable future research into the interaction of climate, vegetation and engineering on the behaviour of infrastructure earthworks. Network Rail is a stakeholder in the CRANIUM project which is developing new methodologies for analysing uncertainty and making robust risk-based decisions for infrastructure design and management in the face of climate change funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as part of the initiative on building knowledge for a changing climate. Network Rail (CTRL) Ltd, who operate and maintain the High Speed Railway, are collaborating with both Southampton and Birmingham Universities in their research in to track, track ballast and track sub-ballast design using modern geotechnical principles.

  4.3  In addition to formal research undertaken to improve the knowledge base in geo-engineering, much is learnt by the observation of the performance of real structures, of which Network Rail is one of the largest owners in the UK. The dissemination of that information to the wider geo-engineering profession helps both academics and practicing professionals to develop ever more efficient geo-engineering solutions. Network Rail geotechnical engineering staff are active contributors to the profession, publishing technical papers to technical conferences and in the technical press, as well as providing news items for technical journals, and speaking at technical conferences and professional meetings.

  4.4  Most research in geotechnical engineering, such as that above, is directed to the more efficient use of land or the more efficient use of soil, rock and other geo-engineering materials, including the use of waste materials from the railway and other industries. The smaller the volume of material that needs to be moved around to maintain old railways or to build new railways the smaller the volumes of greenhouse gases created during construction operations. The fewer disruptions to trains caused by failures of geo-engineered infrastructure the more reliable the railways and the more used they will become.

5.  The status of geo-engineering technologies in government, industry and academia

  5.1  Historically in Network Rail geo-engineering has generally been managed by non-specialist civil engineers. Over the last 10 years Network Rail has increasingly realised the need to retain a specialist geotechnical capability within the civil engineering departments of each of its five territories if the railway is to become more reliable, more cost effective to run and more attractive to its customers. The status of the geotechnical engineering departments within Network Rail is on a par with those for structures (bridges) and for buildings (such as stations), and civil engineering is on a par with the other engineering disciplines such as signalling, track, electrical power supply.

6.  Geo-engineering and engaging young people in the engineering profession

  6.1  Network Rail recruits engineering graduates from a range of disciplines into the railway industry. Network Rail runs civil engineering training schemes which leads to chartered membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which is the natural "home profession" for many geo-engineers. Once chartered, a graduate would be encouraged to consider specialising in geotechnical engineering, as one of a range of special or general disciplines within the civil engineering profession.

7.  The role of engineers in informing policy-makers and the public regarding the potential costs, benefits and research status of different geo-engineering schemes

  7.1  For Network Rail the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), and its board appointed by the Secretary of State, is the key organisation that it must inform regarding the way that Network Rail manages the railway network and the way in which it meets the needs of its users. The ORR makes recommendations to the government for funding for railway maintenance and for enhancements promoted by Network Rail. Geotechnical engineers are actively engaged in those areas of the proposed schemes which require their expertise.

October 2008





 
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