Increasing road network resilience to the impacts of ground movement due to climate change: a case study from Lincolnshire, UK

Abstract

The UK road network is deteriorating due to ageing infrastructure, climate change and increasing traffic. Due to community and economic reliance on a functioning road system, there is an urgent requirement to build resilience. The roads of south Lincolnshire have high susceptibility to ground movement due to the underlying geology. Deposits such as peat, tidal flat deposits and alluvium have a high susceptibility to compress, particularly when loaded or through loss of water content driven by climate change or lowering of water in drainage channels. The shallow foundations of Lincolnshire's rural evolved roads, originating from old mud tracks, are poorly constructed, increasing their vulnerability to movement. Types of damage include longitudinal cracking, edge failure and uneven long-section profiles. Through knowledge exchange, data sharing and collaboration between the British Geological Survey and Lincolnshire County Council, a direct relationship between road condition and geohazard susceptibility has been demonstrated; showing compressible ground has a greater correlation with road damage than originally considered. This suggests improved understanding of the relationships between the geological, climatic and anthropogenic driving forces on ground movement and road damage enables more informed repair prioritization, decision support and improved bespoke road repair practices, increasing future resilience of road networks. Thematic collection: This article is part of the Climate change and resilience in Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/climate-change-and-resilience-in-engineering-geology-and-hydrogeology