Output details
15 - General Engineering
University of Southampton
Wet winter pore pressures in railway embankments
Significance of output:
Since 2000, several wet winters with return periods of greater than 1 year in 20 have caused more than 50 ultimate limit state failures in railway earthworks in the South-East of England. Earthwork failures periodically cause train derailments, and are ‘the greatest risk faced by the railway’ (John Lane, Rail Safety and Standards Board, john.lane@rssb.co.uk). The paper makes conclusions to aid the assessment of risk of failure within clay embankments. Its principal conclusions have been incorporated within the update to the London Underground design standard (1-054 Civil Engineering – Earth Structures, London Underground, December 2010).