Research project

Assessment, Costing and Enhancement of Long-Life, Long-Linear Assets (ACHILLES)

Project overview

ACHILLES was led by Newcastle University and also included universities at Bath, Durham, Leeds and Loughborough, as well as the British Geological Survey. The Transportation Group worked closely with the Infrastructure group at the University of Southampton.

ACHILLES focused on long-linear assets that are critical to the delivery of services over long distances such as road and rail embankments and cuttings, pipeline bedding and flood protection structures. Transportation group’s work provided economic forecasting and decision support at the asset, route and network levels. More specifically, a model of Whole Life Costs of interventions was developed and the social costs of service disruptions considered. Risks and uncertainty were analysed using Monte Carlo Simulation within a Bayesian hierarchical structure. Decision making using a variant of minimax regret has been developed.

An analysis of infrastructure assets on the London–Bristol corridor has been undertaken as part of a Simulation and Modelling theme (SaM). This then contributed to the Design and Decision (DaD) theme which also considered the cost and benefits of improved information, for example from remote monitoring of slope condition.

Further information is available from the ACHILLES website.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Joel Smethurst BEng PhD GMICE FHEA

Professor

Research interests

  • Deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure subject to both seasonal cycles of wetting and drying and applied traffic loading
  • The effect of extreme weather events and climate change on the performance of earthworks (cuttings and embankments) and flood levees
  • The effects of vegetation transpiration and root reinforcement on the performance of earthworks
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Other researchers

Professor William Powrie

Professor of Geotechnical Engineering

Research interests

  • Railway track and trackbed behaviour and performance
  • Geotechnical transportation infrastructure (earthworks, retaining walls, tunnels)
  • Groundwater and groundwater control
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Professor John Preston

Professor in Rail Transport

Research interests

  • Demand, capacity and cost modelling for sustainable transport infrastructure.
  • The design, monitoring and evaluation of transport interventions designed to promote sustainable choices.
  • The determination of pathways for future mobility transitions to net zero carbon.
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Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Research outputs

Kevin M. Briggs, Yuderka Trinidad Gonzalez, Gerrit J. Meijer, William Powrie, Simon Butler & Nick Sartain, 2024, Canadian Geotechnical Journal
Type: article
Kevin M. Briggs, Yuderka Trinidad González, William Powrie, Simon Butler & Nick Sartain, 2023, Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 57(1)
Type: article
K.M. Briggs, F.A. Loveridge & S. Glendinning, 2017, Engineering Geology, 219, 107-117
Type: article