Mitigating Railway Slope Risks with Earthwork Monitoring for Network Rail at Hooley Cutting
Hooley Cutting on the main London to Brighton line has often proved problematic for Network Rail. Steep sided beyond 70 degrees, but vertical in places, the site has suffered from occasional slope failures which have caused disruption to railway.
Summary of works
Client – Network Rail
Duration 2007 – Current
Monitoring System – Draw Wire Sensors, Rain Gauge, Real-time cameras Bespoke build of ARGUS Monitoring Software
To mitigate risk at this site, Network Rail called in ITM Monitoring, now SOCOTEC Monitoring UK Ltd, to assist in the design of a monitoring system to alert engineers to the occurrence of any slope failure. After inspecting the site ITM Monitoring and Network Rail agreed on a system to measure change in shape of the drapery containment fence at the toe of the slope, which would result from a slope failure.
To achieve this ITM Monitoring installed a system of draw wire sensors to measure, in near real time, the distance from the drapery net to the king post retaining wall in the CESS. Data from these were sent via on site data logger direct into our ARGUS Monitoring software. To help validate any alarm notifications from site, two real time cameras were installed above the tunnel portal viewing down the cutting, images from which are viewed live via the ARGUS site.
