TYNMEAD BRIDGE
Key Project Details
Client: Network Rail
Sector: Rail
Services: Instrumentation & Monitoring
The Instrumentation & Monitoring department of Central Alliance (CA) recently completed a successful installation of remote monitoring equipment to automate railway embankment monitoring in the southwest of England. The site, which contains In-Place Inclinometers (IPIs), Piezometers, and trackbed Cant & Twist Tiltmeters, revealed insights during a recent movement in the embankment across all the instruments.
This project involves monitoring the deflection and water level below a railway embankment. The embankment has been manually monitored with monthly visits to measure 3 no. inclinometers and 2 no. standpipes. Last year the I&M department installed cant and twist track-bed sensors, to measure direct movement of the railway that would compromise the safety of passing trains.
Last month in a bid to reduce the carbon foot print from commuting, improving safety by applying Network Rail’s goal to “keep boots off ballast”, and increase data quality and quantity, CA installed remotely monitored IPIs and Piezometers into the existing boreholes.
Hourly data monitoring of In-Place Inclinometers (IPI’s) and piezometer water level sensors has been available since the installation of the instruments through our new flagship instrumentation and data monitoring software for ground investigation, “Sight Automation”.
During the period between March and April, movement was measured on the embankment’s IPI coinciding with in increased ground water pressure, caused by the prolonged rainfall over that period. Following this movement, a later movement was detected on the trackbed, causing an automated alarm to be issued to Network Rail for further investigation.
Movement of the embankment can be seen at 3-4m in depth since installation of IPI just over a month ago, a total deflection of 10mm has been recorded, with the largest jump happening over a 2 day period coinciding with the groundwater level increase.
In conclusion, this event demonstrates the improved data quality and understanding provided by remote monitoring using our in-house software. Monthly manual monitoring would have missed that the movement was likely to changing ground water conditions which can only be seen on the time plot data. With climate change causing an exponential increase in extreme weather events our infrastructure is at an increased risk of failures highlighting the need to advance monitoring techniques.
The Instrumentation & Monitoring department of Central Alliance (CA) recently completed a successful installation of remote monitoring equipment to automate railway embankment monitoring in the southwest of England. The site, which contains In-Place Inclinometers (IPIs), Piezometers, and trackbed Cant & Twist Tiltmeters, revealed insights during a recent movement in the embankment across all the instruments.
This project involves monitoring the deflection and water level below a railway embankment. The embankment has been manually monitored with monthly visits to measure 3 no. inclinometers and 2 no. standpipes. Last year the I&M department installed cant and twist track-bed sensors, to measure direct movement of the railway that would compromise the safety of passing trains.
Last month in a bid to reduce the carbon foot print from commuting, improving safety by applying Network Rail’s goal to “keep boots off ballast”, and increase data quality and quantity, CA installed remotely monitored IPIs and Piezometers into the existing boreholes.
Hourly data monitoring of In-Place Inclinometers (IPI’s) and piezometer water level sensors has been available since the installation of the instruments through our new flagship instrumentation and data monitoring software for ground investigation, “Sight Automation”.
During the period between March and April, movement was measured on the embankment’s IPI coinciding with in increased ground water pressure, caused by the prolonged rainfall over that period. Following this movement, a later movement was detected on the trackbed, causing an automated alarm to be issued to Network Rail for further investigation.
Movement of the embankment can be seen at 3-4m in depth since installation of IPI just over a month ago, a total deflection of 10mm has been recorded, with the largest jump happening over a 2 day period coinciding with the groundwater level increase.
In conclusion, this event demonstrates the improved data quality and understanding provided by remote monitoring using our in-house software. Monthly manual monitoring would have missed that the movement was likely to changing ground water conditions which can only be seen on the time plot data. With climate change causing an exponential increase in extreme weather events our infrastructure is at an increased risk of failures highlighting the need to advance monitoring techniques.
Key Project Details
Client: Network Rail
Sector: Rail
Services: Instrumentation & Monitoring
