Recent developments in the inspection of railway bridges

Since the privatisation of British Rail, examination of Railway Bridges has been undertaken by consultants under contract to Railtrack and latterly Network Rail. Since that time there have been a number of changes and innovation. As an example, Network Rail have implemented a more qualitative approach to Inspection of Bridges called Structures Condition Marking Index (SCMI). Since privatisation the method of reporting has changed considerably moving to fully electronic reports even utilising simple CAD packages. This paper contains a review of the reasons why the SCMI system was implemented by Network Rail, how it has affected the examination process and what information it provides.

Since 1997 Atkins Rail have been responsible for examining all the structures on Network Rails Southern Zone and more recently (2001) Scotland Zone. There are approximately 20,000 structures in the South and 50,000 in Scotland, the portfolio of structures includes, viaducts, overbridges, underbridges, culverts, retaining walls and signal structures. Atkins operates teams of approximately 30 examiners in both areas to deliver the examination of all these structures on a yearly basis. This paper will review how Atkins' examines such large volumes of structures, how the data is collected and what innovations have been implemented or are planned to aid Network Rail in the condition management of their aged structures portfolio.

• Introduction

• Types of Examination

• Types of Structures Examined

• Geographic Areas Covered

• Bridge Bash

• Staffing

• Examination Process

• Recent Changes and Innovation