Punctured rail tunnel renews calls for better utility/infrastructure information

Source: Geomatics World






It was only train driver vigilance and a measure of good luck that prevented a serious rail accident on Network Rail’s Northern City Line tunnel between Old Street and Essex Road stations in London on March 8th 2013. A driver reported seeing water pouring through the roof of the tunnel as he passed through. Then a second driver, who was sent with an out-ofservice train to investigate, found a pile boring bit and debris on the tracks. The incident was caused by piling from a building site 13m above the tunnel puncturing the tunnel lining.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published its report on 14th February 2014 – eleven months after the incident. The investigation found that no one knew about the tunnel beneath the site. The tunnel route is not shown on OSMasterMap or historical OS mapping. The presence of a tunnel is hinted-at, somewhat cryptically in the registered title for the site, which states: “So much of the sub-soil as was vested in the Great Northern and City Railway is excluded from the registration”.

The tunnel is owned by Network Rail, but because the developer was not aware of its presence, a search had not been requested. The local authority also failed to pick up the presence of the underground railway during the planning application process for the same reasons. Concerning mapping, some, but not all railway tunnels are shown on OS mapping. The report does not make a recommendation concerning this apparent inconsistency but instead recommends that railway infrastructure owners should publish information concerning railways that are not shown on OS maps.

You can read more at

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2014/report032014.cfm

Boundaries: procedures for boundary identification, demarcation and dispute resolution 3rd ed 2014 RICS

This new 3rd edition guidance note is essential reading for all RICS members interested in boundary dispute practice (England and Wales) and will also act as an effective refresher for experienced practitioners. 

Boundaries: procedures for boundary identification, demarcation and dispute resolution, 3rd edition (England and Wales) 
http://epicms.rics.org/uk/knowledge/professional-guidance/guidance-notes/boundaries-procedures-for-boundary-identification-demarcation-and-dispute-resolution-3rd-edition/ 

This new edition is fully updated and revised, contains several restructured sections and focuses on the essential processes behind setting up a project all the way from the initial contact stage, to the contract, to the report and possible litigation procedures. Ordnance Survey and Land Registry have had extensive input into this new edition and the expert working group have also added new sections on airspace and substrata, party structures and the addition of the new ‘survey accuracy banding table’. The appendixes have been further strengthened by the addition of new ‘model’ examples of boundary agreements, terms of business for boundary disputes, entering neighbouring land and in-depth explanations on highway issues and essential terms. 

The importance of boundary research, measured field surveys and advice on best practice survey techniques and final report are outlined. The guidance note also contains extensive listings of further reading and online resources. The guidance note also explains the concept of 'general boundaries' and how boundary demarcation (determined/fixed) is part of the dispute resolution process. 

This guidance note was prepared by the a specialist working group of the RICS Boundaries and Party Walls Working Group (B&PWWG), the Mapping and Positioning Practice Panel (MAPPP) and the Geomatics International Professional Group Board (GIPGB). The B&PWWG is a cross-professional group specialist panel of technical and chartered surveyors from the building, land surveying (Geomatics) and rural areas of practice, and brings together some of the leading and most distinguished professional surveyors working within the arena of neighbour disputes. 

Summary 
The physical extent of property ownership and rights of use are basic attributes of land and buildings and are capable of being evaluated by property professionals. Uncertainty of the extent of ownership and its associated rights affects the physical use and rights to repair, maintain, gain access to and obtain value of the land.

Snake Grid Lecture at RICS

We attended a lecture last night on the Snake Grid co-ordinate system at Parliament Square, London.

I would like to congratulate both Chris Preston - Network Rail and Jonathan Iliffe - UCL on delivering a well structure and thought through lecture.  The lecture helped to improve our knowledge on reasons for distortions in co-ordinate systems and variables that can affect scale factor.  They delivered a succinct explanation of the snake grid co-ordinate system and the advantages of using such a system. 

When working on projects that extend for a few kilometres, engineers and surveyors are  accustomed to the concept of a local site grid that effectively makes a flat Earth  assumption.

As projects grow beyond a few kilometres, however, it becomes necessary to introduce a  projected coordinate system – and then all those working on the site have the problem of  making scale factor corrections. If there is a significant height range across the project  then there is the added problem of making reductions to sea level or any other standard  reference height.

The SnakeGrid solution provides a coordinate grid system that maintains a unity scale  factor along a trend line that follows the project in plan and height.

In this way, projects such as railways, highways and pipelines that extend for hundreds of  kilometres can have a single seamless grid with a scale factor distortion less than a few  parts per million along the whole project and for several kilometres on either side.



For more information visit: http://www.snakegrid.org