Geotechnical monitoring
Heterogeneous or problematic ground conditions can cause unpredictable behaviour with devastating consequences for the construction of new infrastructure and the maintenance of existing assets.
James Fisher Strainstall (JF Strainstall) provides monitoring solutions for the rail network across all regions of the UK and Ireland, as well as serving the international market.
JF Strainstall caters to needs in a number of disciplines including structures, geotechnical and drainage assets as well as new rail infrastructure and track projects. We are part of the Rail Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS) and manages its work to meet the strictest health and safety requirements dictated by the industry. Including group companies James Fisher Testing Services (formerlyTestcnsult), JF Strainstall has been monitoring on civil structures since the mid-1960s.
Live monitored assets include:
- Earthworks (embankments and cuttings) and rock faces
- Drainage assets and flooding
- Bridges
- Tunnels
- Level Crossings
- Track Monitoring to NR/L2/CIV/177
- Critical Rail Temperature
- Rail Switches & Crossings
- Retaining walls
- Sea defences
- Construction sites
JF Strainstall use cutting edge monitoring technology, including battery powered and self-powered sensors. These communicate data over a long range (up to 15-20km) to a centralised 4G gateway, which uploads this to the company’s proprietary web accessible data platform, SAMS™. Information is processed, analysed and displayed to provide useful visualisations and help informed decision making.
Sensing can include:
- Groundwater pressure
- Earth displacements, load or settlement
- Water levels and flow rates
- Scour
- Debris accumulation
- Weather conditions, including rainfall
- Tilt or structural rotations
- Vibration
- Deformation
- Load, stress/strains
- Displacement of rail, cant, twist
- Over height/weight warnings
JF Strainstall pioneers technological implementation, having developed custom systems and sensors for a range of applications on rail. These systems help asset managers with some of the challenges that they face to maintain infrastructure and passenger service as well as building sustainability and resilience into the network.
- Our flood monitoring systems are used as part of Network Rail’s Extreme Weather plan for a number of sites across the UK.
- We are pioneering the use of monitoring technology for scour monitoring on bridges
- Rock fall monitoring systems developed by JF Strainstall are used by rail control centres to monitor the safety of the line and implement temporary speed restrictions or stop trains in rock fall-prone areas
- We install a range of solutions for embankments
- We install a range of solutions for structural monitoring
- We operate over height warning systems
- We develop solutions for rail stress, temperature and buckling
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