Modern Earth Structures for Transport Engineering

Nowadays, demands on modern civil engineering structures require not only safe technical solutions, but also additional approaches, involving ecological, sociological and economical aspects. This book reacts on these new requirements with a focus on earth structures for transport engineering, mainly for motorways and railways. Technical demands have to be adequately related to the risk with which the design and execution are connected. Soil used for the construction, together with subsoil, are natural materials with a high degree of inhomogeneity. Therefore, the risk when constructing with such materials is much higher than for structures utilizing man-made materials. The engineering approach is firstly focused on the geotechnical risk identification and subsequently on the reduction of this risk. Geotechnical risk is linked to the uncertainties for individual phases of the design and construction processes. Ground model, geotechnical design model, calculation model and structure execution are the main phases of the above-mentioned processes. Risk reduction involves the lowering of the range of uncertainties for individual phases, guaranteeing safe and optimal technical solutions. Eurocode 7 "Geotechnical design" creates a general frame of this risk identification and reduction approach. Earth structures are offering great opportunities for sustainability approach. Therefore, the possibilities how to decrease consumption of land (greenfields), energy and natural aggregates are at the centre of interest. In parallel to sustainability, the principles of availability and affordability for transport infrastructures are discussed. The main aim there is to eliminate the impact of interaction of the transport infrastructure with natural and man-made hazards, thus guaranteeing long-term functionality. This book will be of interest to specialists responsible for transport infrastructure planning, investors (project owners) of motorways and railways and environmental engineers. The main focus is on those responsible for geotechnical investigations, earth structures design and on contractors of such structures.