Abstract
Abstract. Unclassified roads comprise 60 % of the road network in the United Kingdom (UK). The resilience of this locally important network is declining. It is considered by the Institution of Civil Engineers to be "at risk" and is ranked 26th in the world. Many factors contribute to the degradation and ultimate failure of particular road sections. However, several UK local authorities have identified that in drought conditions, road sections founded upon shrink–swell susceptible clay soils undergo significant deterioration compared with sections on non-susceptible soils. This arises from the local road network having little, if any, structural foundations. Consequently, droughts in East Anglia have resulted in millions of pounds of damage, leading authorities to seek emergency governmental funding. This paper assesses the use of soil-related geohazard assessments in providing soil-informed maintenance strategies for the asset management of the locally important road network of the UK. A case study draws upon the UK administrative county of Lincolnshire, where road assessment data have been analysed against mapped clay-subsidence risk. This reveals a statistically significant relationship between road condition and susceptible clay soils. Furthermore, incorporation of UKCP09 future climate projections within the geohazard models has highlighted roads likely to be at future risk of clay-related subsidence.
Highlights
Minor, or non-strategic, roads which are owned and managed by local authorities represent 98 % of the overall network in the United Kingdom (UK) (Defra, 2013)
As clayrelated shrink–swell is the dominant form of ground movement in the UK, this paper examines the impact of clayrelated shrink–swell on road infrastructure
Our results suggest that a spatial and statistical relationship exists between clay-related subsidence risk and Coarse Visual Inspection (CVI) value
Summary
Non-strategic, roads which are owned and managed by local authorities represent 98 % of the overall network in the United Kingdom (UK) (Defra, 2013). The unclassified road network represents 60 % of this minor network (DfT, 2011) supporting local communities, society and the wider economy. The Institution of Civil Engineers regards one-third of the UK’s road network to be in urgent need of maintenance, stating that immediate action required to improve road conditions is its top priority (ICE, 2014). Several UK local authorities have argued that during drought conditions, changing moisture contents in underlying soils, in particular those clay soils prone to volumetric shrinking and swelling, have resulted in considerable structural damage to their highway networks (Table 1). Highway assets themselves exacerbate developing drought conditions by prohibiting the permeation of water into the underlying soils (Harrison et al, 2012)
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