铁路论文；ES-LANE（英文）.pdfVIP

UNDERSTANDING GEOTECHNICAL IMPACT OF VEGETATION ON UK’S RAILWAY EARTHWORKS Stuart Hardy Tony O’Brien John Lane Mott MacDonald Mott MacDonald Rail Safety and Standards Board St. Anne House St. Anne House Evergreen House Wellesley Road Wellesley Road 160 Euston Road Croydon CR9 2UL Croydon CR9 2UL London NW1 2DX UK UK UK stuart.hardy@ anthony.obrien@ john.lane@rssb.co.uk KEYWORDS: Geotechnics, vegetation, slope stability, pore pressures, progressive failure, strain softening, numerical analysis INTRODUCTION The vast majority of railway embankments and cuttings in the UK are more than 100 years old. Embankments were constructed using non-engineered (“dumped”) clay fill and cuttings were excavated at an angle based on previous experience of failures or simply the land take that was available. Over time, there have been numerous recorded incidents of slope instability and it is recognised that this is an area of ongoing risk and source of disruption for the railway network. This paper discusses the effect that vegetation has on the stability of earthworks that make up the UK’s transport infrastructure. THE EFFECT OF VEGETATION ON SLOPE BEHAVIOUR The influence that vegetation has on slope behaviour has only begun to be addressed in detail in the last 10 years. During the early proliferation of earth structures throughout the country to carry either railway tracks or canals, vegetation was routinely controlled to minimise the risk of fire on slopes emanating from the use of coal burning steam engines. Vegetation control bei