Prepared by: James Leung Date: 17/03/2019

Title: “Discuss the impact on design of highway structures when taking into account
health, safety and environmental risks for construction and maintenance
operations”

Plan

1) Introduction
 Explain what the essay is going to focus on. Why is safety important.
2) Main body
 Design
i. ERIC
ii. Standards – safer structures for users, contractors & workers
iii. CDM 2015 regulation
iv. Example of design, smart motorways
 Maintenance
i. Longevity of structures – reduction of costs of repairs/renovations
ii. Example: Inspection of highway bridges
 Construction
3) Conclusion
 1) Introduction

The aim of this paper is to discuss the impact of health, safety and environment risks on design,
construction and maintenance of highway structures. The work produced will be based on my
personal experience working predominantly on principal highway structure inspections and smart
motorway projects. Health, safety and environment risks can arise throughout highway projects
from design, construction, maintenance and demolition that can affect anyone. It is therefore as a
designer we can make decisions to significantly reduce these risks. The earlier the decisions made by
the designer, the greater the effect on construction health, safety and environment and the
influence of later design choices.

2) Main body

For the purpose of this paper I will focus on three main stages of the structure’s life; Design,
Maintenance and Construction giving evidence from my experience and my own knowledge.

In the United Kingdom health, safety and welfare requirements are covered under the Health and
Safety at work Act 1974 under the Health and safety executive (HSE). This legislation deals with
employer’s duties and states: “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and
welfare of all their employees whilst they are at work”. More specifically for the construction
industry are the construction design and management regulations 2015 (CDM).

2.1 Design

Under the CDM regulations (2015) it states that the designer’s main duty is to:

 Ensure the client is aware of their duties under the legislation before any design work
commences
 Eliminate and reduce foreseeable risks to anyone that could be affected by the project
 Cooperate with others involved in the project and to ensure reporting of instances where
they or others are working in a way that puts them or anyone else in danger
 To comply with the general principal principles of prevention with the main aim of
elimination foreseeable risks. Where this is not possible, the designer takes steps to reduce
the risk and control them through the design process and provide information about the
remaining risks to others to help them fulfil their duties.

Designers often consider health and safety in their design by utilising the principles of Eliminate,
Reduce, Isolate and control (ERIC). This hierarchy of control is used to remove or reduce the number
of risks. Elimination is the removal of the hazard, for example working on smart motorways by
reusing existing gantry bases (which are structurally adequate) it eliminates the need for the
installation of a new concrete base. Reduction is to minimise the risk for example by using
prefabricated gantries it reduces the amount of time needed on site for construction. Isolation is to
separate the risk from the personnel it could affect for example for a bridge inspection a full road
closure can isolate the inspectors from a live running highway. Control is considered as a safe system
of works or procedures to carry out the works. For example again going back to the previous
example of the bridge inspection, we can control the hazard (live traffic) by using traffic
management cones and temporary lights.

During the design process safety is the most obvious consideration and we take this in the form of
fulfilling all requirements provided by various standards (Eurocodes and Design Manuals for Roads
and Bridges). A factor of safety increases the safety of people and reduces the risks of failure of the
structure. Designers must ensure they check all relevant ultimate as well as serviceability limit states
in order to create safe structures for users and contractors during construction works and those who
maintain them.

Environmental risks also play a key role when designing structures. An example mentioned
previously is the through the re-use of existing infrastructure and future-proofing designs for future
reuse. ThBefore a proposed construction development is properly considered an EIA must be
produced, the purpose is to highlight the environmental effects.

2.2 Maintenance

Maintenance is a key stage in a structure’s lifespan and nowadays engineers pay more attention to
the maintenance of the bridge is connected with the longevity of these structures as well as the
reduction of the costs of repairs or renovations. This in turn affects the design process as designers
must consider safe access to inspect these structures. For example during the design of sheet piles
on the M62 smart motorway, it was decided the piles would not be encased in concrete in order for
easier inspection at future visits. Also a minimum offset from the cabinets to the face of the sheet
piles needed to be kept in order for space for personnel to inspect these structures during the
maintenance stage. This small detail of increasing the offset of the sheet pile affected the design. As
the designer I was in constant contact with a geotechnical engineer who gave me all soil parameters
and the length of the piles.

Another project I am involved with that involves maintenance is Network Rail’s Civil Assessment
Framework Association (CAFA) which requires personnel to undertake bridge inspections. Bridges
can either span over rail or road. Railway safety is paramount and required multiple measures to
been put in place to ensure all personnel are competent and understand the site specific risks before
going on site. A safe system of works is collated and given out to all inspectors. All site personnel
has to ensure they undertaken the personal track safety (PTS) course or have at least a track visitor
permit before going on the track.

2.3 Construction

As a designer it is our duty to minimise the risk of those constructing the structure. Designers will
ensure that all risk which cannot be eliminated or adequately controlled and which may not be
immediately apparent to the contractor are clearly identified. As a minimum this will involve
effective use of SHE boxes on drawings to highlight the risks associated. For example as part of the
Civils Development package I was involved with the repair schedule and encapsulation drawing of a
steel truss bridge. On the drawing a proposed methodology was noted with the risks identified as
SHE boxes next to it.

3) Conclusion

When considering a design of a structure there are many health and safety and environmental
considerations which have to be taken into account
EIA-Enviromental impact assessment.

As a designer health and safety for me is creating an environment for people

As a civil engineer my experience has predominantly been in transportation infrastructure projects.

The purpose of the essay is to explain the health a

In this essay, I will discuss some of the factors I consider to be important in ensuring Civil Engineering
projects can be delivered in a sustainable manner. I will draw upon examples from my own
professional experience as a designer and project manager of light, heavy and high speed railway
infrastructure schemes. I will also touch upon experience gained from the design and build of a
community centre in rural Uganda.

A popular definition of sustainability, supported by the United Nations is “meeting the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This
means that we, as engineers, need to develop and deliver infrastructure projects with this ethos at
the core. To refine our focus, we can break down the key components of sustainability into the
‘three pillars’; Environmental, Social and Economic.

Rail projects are particularly challenging from a sustainability perspective; by their very nature, a rail
scheme may span tens and hundreds of kilometres. This means the number of interfaces with other
infrastructure, the public and environmental constraints are increased compared to a ‘traditional’
one-site project. The railway is also a heavily regulated industry, preferring standardised solutions,
which tends to stifle innovation and curtail our ability as designers to push boundaries and innovate
to improve the sustainable credentials of our projects.

One such way in which rail projects can be delivered sustainably is through re-use of existing
infrastructure and future-proofing designs for future reuse. The fundamental principle behind this
factor is that it may be more cost-effective and could minimise disruption to an existing asset to
modify it as opposed to a demolition and re-build. As designer’s, we must take care in specifying
appropriate solutions to problems that make the most effective use of materials. For example,
whilst working as a Scheme Project Manager (SPM) seconded to Network Rail, I managed a
programme of modifications to existing platforms and structures throughout the North West of
England with the purpose of ‘gauge-clearing’ a new fleet of electric rolling stock to safely operate on
the network – i.e. with no potential for vehicles to collide with existing infrastructure. Through
proposing modifications in the form of coper slab set-backs rather than re-building the platforms,
the project successfully extended the life of the existing infrastructure. This approach also
minimised time on site, thus reducing the risk of incident and improving safety performance.

Further to this, future-proofing our designs will mitigate the need for future generations to spend
resource on alterations or improvements. For example, whilst designing the rail alignment for a
new, non-electrified freight link, I identified the need for a box tunnel structure to cross under the
M6. I ensured my vertical alignment left sufficient clearance from rail level to soffit so as to comply
with the Network Rail Track Design Handbook guidelines for electrified lines. One of the biggest
costs of electrifying existing rail lines is the extensive programme of structural modifications along
the route to provide sufficient clearances for overhead wires. In the future, should this line need to
be electrified, the clearance will be such that no structural modifications will be required and will
result in a more economic electrification scheme.

During design development and refinement of a rail scheme, there are multiple opportunities to
create more sustainable solutions. For a new rail link/scheme, the first opportunity arises during
high level feasibility assessments and route optioneering. Early stages in the project life-cycle allow
the greatest improvements to sustainability to be made before the scope becomes more fixed.
Whilst carrying out initial optioneering for High Speed rail routes between HS2 Phase 2 and Scotland,
I found it to be an exercise in balancing the environmental, social and economic aspects of the
design. To serve the greatest number of people, the design needed to allow for stopping at major
population centres such as York, Wigan, Durham, Carlisle, Edinburgh and Glasgow. This has the
impact of designing an alignment to fit around urban areas, which could lead to demolition of
property and unsightly elevated structures. I came up with a solution to re-use existing
infrastructure using grade separated junctions to tie-in to the existing East and West Coast Mainlines
before reaching urban areas and allowing existing stations to be used (albeit with some
modifications for longer trains, etc).

The use of technology such as Geographical Information Systems during the route optioneering
stage provides a clear view of environmentally sensitive areas that should be avoided. Specialist
Sites of Scientific Interest, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are all protected
under UK legislation such as the Environment Act 1995. In my route optioneering for HS2,
completely avoiding these areas was an example of good practice from an environmental
perspective, but often required a trade-off with economic factors; avoiding a national park may
require a longer route over more challenging terrain, which ultimately increases costs and impacts
on end to end journey times.

One technique I employed during design development of high speed options was the concept of
earthwork balance and minimising of cut and fill. Through my horizontal alignments design, I
ensured that topographical contours were followed where possible to prevent unnecessary changes
in elevation and mitigate the need for large extents of cutting, embankment, viaduct and tunnels. I
analysed the amount of cut and fill in my vertical alignment design and tried to balance where
possible. This approach aimed to minimise the amount of disposed material and maximise the re-
use of spoil on a localised level. This reduces vehicle movements in transporting material and so
reduces construction cost and the amount of fossil fuels used. Simplifying the construction process
also reduces the man-hours spent on site in a potentially dangerous environment.

There are also techniques that a rail engineer can use to reduce the environmental impacts of a
scheme once in operation. The main impacts of a new rail link will be acoustics (noise and vibration)
and visual impact. Noise and vibration emitted from a railway is caused by many factors, including
tight curvature causing wheel flanges to grind against the rail head, poor geometrical design causing
train bogies to be operating on opposing curve flexure and grind against the rail head, elevation of
the alignment, condition of the rails and type of locomotive used amongst others. During design of a
new freight link for St Helen’s Council, I designed my alignment in co-ordination with an acoustics
engineer. Through maximising the radii of curvature and driving my alignment into a modest
cutting, a lot of the noise and vibration impact on adjacent residential sites was mitigated, meaning
only a modest acoustic barrier was required to maintain noise levels to affected properties in line
with World Health Organisation guidelines. Another technique I used whilst working on HS2 was to
use existing transport corridors, such as following motorways, so that the visual impact was reduced.
Economically, the use of a technique called ‘Value Engineering’ (VE) can be used to refine a design to
create a more cost-effective solution. VE is concerned with the relationship between function and
cost; it should not be viewed as a cost cutting exercise, rather it is a method of maintaining or
increasing the core functionality of a design whilst reducing or maintaining the overall cost. Whilst
working as SPM at Network Rail, I was managing a new station scheme at Maghull for the Client,
Merseytravel. After initial estimates were higher than expected, the Client wished to refine the
scope of their design. I led a VE workshop which analysed the core function of the station and
associated station building and aimed to maintain these whilst looking for cost-saving opportunities.
Such examples of initiatives we discussed were reducing the size of the very large waiting area (to be
more in-keeping with other Merseytravel stations) and investigating how the contractor could make
use of blockades to implement more cost-effective construction techniques such as modular
platforms. These solutions resulted in a scheme now estimated to fit within the Client’s budget.

Sourcing and types of construction materials used can increase the positive impact on sustainability
that rail projects can achieve. Steel rails and concrete sleepers represent two very resource-
intensive materials that are commonplace in the industry – and are required in vast quantities.
Economically, sourcing of UK-manufactured steel contributes to the national economy and creates
and maintains employment. Furthermore, sourcing local aggregate and raw materials for concrete
sleepers will reduce the carbon footprint of a scheme and contribute to boosting the local economy
affected by the scheme. One such technique I have investigated in a number of rail freight siding
schemes I have designed is the use of re-conditioned rails. Used rails, which may have been worn
down over time, have the head re-profiled to a standard at which they can be used again. I believe
such an approach is appropriate for rail freight sidings because speed of operation and frequency of
use are that much lower than on a mainline railway – where you would most likely specify new rails.
This can represent an economic benefit in the form of a capital cost saving of up to 50% and
environmentally, re-uses infrastructure which is resource-intensive to produce.

Although the rail industry does not often provide too much opportunity for innovation, I was able to
specify, design and build with sustainable construction materials and techniques whilst working as
design team lead for a community centre in Uganda with engineering charity Engineers for Overseas
Development North West. Specification of materials which are environmentally sustainable are all
the more important when working in developing countries such as Uganda as natural resources are
all the more scarce and valuable. In this instance, I researched the applicability and use of
Interlocking Stabilised Soil Bricks (ISSB). ISSB are manufactured using locally sourced soil and
modest amounts of cement, making them a highly sustainable alternative to kiln-fired clay bricks
(which result in a lot of deforestation). The manufacturing process is also much simpler and less
material intensive, requiring only a lever-arm brick press and a small team of workers. Once cured,
these bricks have a more reliable compressive strength value comparable to the local clay bricks
(which are often poor quality), giving greater confidence in design input parameters.

Socially, civil engineering projects can look to take into account the opinions and ideas of local
communities at an early stage through public consultation events. This serves to improve public
perception of a scheme and enables a project to understand the key concerns of the community and
opportunities for design improvement. Ultimately, civil engineering projects aim to provide
improvements in infrastructure and living standards so that society is able to meet its current needs,
along with providing for the needs of future generations; a public consultation is just one way in
which these needs can be fully understood by a project team.
For railways in particular, projects have social sustainability built in to their very core. New stations,
new rail links and journey time improvement schemes all have the aim of creating quicker, more
efficient means of getting from A to B. This contributes positively to society by bringing
employment, recreational activities and families closer together.

In conclusion, there are a number of ways in which rail projects can be delivered in a sustainable
manner. Economically, we can seek to improve value within our schemes by increasing function and
reducing expenditure. Environmentally, we should carefully source materials, design alignments to
protect environmentally sensitive areas and follow natural topography and existing transport
corridors and look for opportunity to extend the life of existing assets. Socially, rail infrastructure
projects aim to improve peoples’ ability to travel efficiently and can do so through providing new rail
links and stations. Through the factors and techniques outlined in this essay, along with many
others, the three pillars of sustainability can, and should be, at the core of our design solutions.