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Climate projections suggest that the UK will be increasingly affected by climate-induced hazards in the future, exacerbating the potential for multihazard events to occur. This paper explores the extent to which climate resilience is being embedded in current and future rail transport infrastructure projects in London through use of a multihazard approach. It concludes that a multihazard approach is a relatively new concept and is therefore not currently being considered widely. However, opportunities for decision makers to explore its value to mitigate climate risks through collaborative working and further research exist – this paper recommends that two main stages are required to achieve this. Route 1 requires climate/hazard experts to identify and characterise the different hazard interactions that could occur, including their impact on the UK/London. Following this, route 2 involves the creation of multidisciplinary workshops to identify any multihazard vulnerabilities associated with different rail assets – potentially highlighting areas where further research is required. The paper concludes that although a London rail context has been adopted in order to understand the relevance of a multihazard approach, there is opportunity for it to be considered across many different sectors in the UK and the wider civil engineering industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many clay railway embankments in the UK are well over 100 years old, and now suffer from a range of stability and serviceability problems. A common means of remediating earthworks that have either suffered, or are assessed as being at risk of, deep-seated slope failure is to install a row of discrete piles along the mid-slope. This paper presents field data from a 9 m high, pile-stabilised embankment at Mill Hill, north London. Initial pore water pressure measurements had shown that the trees present on the earthwork maintained low pore water pressures during winter; thus the trees were left in place after piling to aid stability. The piles initially bent upslope, as a result of inward shrinkage of the embankment over a period of dry weather, before then being loaded by shallower downslope movements of the clay. Later cycles of seasonal movement caused a small but gradual ratcheting upward of pile bending moments. The largest bending moments measured over 6 years of monitoring were those resulting from the initial inward shrinkage of embankment, which reached about 25% of the design capacity of the piles. At the end of the monitoring period, the measured bending moments resulting from shallower downslope ground movements were about 20% of the pile design capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this article are to demonstrate the successes and failures of the £100 million London Cycle Network plus project and to discuss the standard of the highway engineering schemes delivered, particularly in relation to their overall effect on ride quality as defined by the cycling level of service assessment set out in the 2014 London cycling design standards. By highlighting areas where changes could have been made to improve the delivery of the project, it is hoped that lessons can be learnt for future projects of this type. The design approaches of each of London's 33 local authorities were cross-referenced against cycling growth and pedal cycle collisions. From the analysis, the project is shown to have had a positive impact on promoting cycling growth in central London but little identifiable impact on collisions. The article also shows how a reliance on shared-use footways as a design practice could reduce the propensity for people to cycle. As a conclusion, it is suggested that ride quality should be the primary measure of success even if, in reality, the cost of delivering this and the impact it may have on other road users may render the highest levels of service difficult to achieve at present. The paper is relevant to all those seeking to manage or set up major transport projects with time-constrained objectives. It will be of particular interest to those involved in the planning or delivery of cycling infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) response of a 23 m long thermal pile previously tested at Lambeth College in London, UK was investigated by conducting a THM finite-element analysis using an advanced thermoelastoplastic constitutive model. It was found that the thermal conductivity of the soil and the reloading/swelling stiffness parameter of the model largely govern the behaviour of the thermal pile when the simulated results were compared to the measured data for pile head displacement, distributed strain inside the pile and ground temperatures during the cooling and heating cycles. The pile head movement is mainly affected by the thermal expansion coefficient of the pile concrete as well as the location of the neutral point, where the shaft resistance direction changes from the mechanical loading only condition. Additionally, the results show that the thermally generated axial stresses in the pile are governed by the magnitude of soil stiffness along the pile depth as well as by the relative values of thermally induced expansion/contraction of three materials (concrete, soil skeleton and pore water). The effect of the thermally induced plastic behaviour of the soil was limited in the Lambeth College case due to the heavily overconsolidated nature of London Clay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]