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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