Earthworks asset management

Although new earthworks are still constructed, particularly for road and rail infrastructure, the majority of infrastructure in the UK and Europe relies on earthworks constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A majority of the rail and water supply infrastructure is over 100 years old and major motorway development was carried out in the period 1960–1990. The result of this is that major asset owners in the UK such as the Highways Agency, Network Rail and Transport for London, together with local authorities have, since the 1980s, developed systems for inspection and maintenance of earthworks assets. In addition, most major asset owners are constrained by property boundaries with respect to upgrade, and most projects, particularly motorway and trunk road widening, involve the modification of existing earthworks to provide additional lane width.