SatSense and Network Rail

This category is open to any company that can show excellence through new product or technology development for the ground engineering industry between January 2022 and January 2023. Entrants must demonstrate how the innovative new product or technology has delivered benefits in health and safety, in-use performance, sustainability or cost during on site delivery of a geotechnical project. Evidence to show how the product or technology can improve the performance or quality of service that the purchasing company offers to its clients is essential.

Rail network earthwork monitoring using InSAR

SatSense worked with Network Rail to investigate the usability of InSAR for earthwork monitoring across the UK rail network. InSAR is a remote sensing technique which can measure ground motion, with potentially useful applications across the geotechnical sector. InSAR has the potential to help Network Rail and geotechnical engineers more broadly with network-wide monitoring and maintenance prioritisation. In this project, we explored the advantages and disadvantages of using InSAR over the range of conditions encountered across the rail network. We compared InSAR with traditional in-situ monitoring used by Network Rail and found good agreement in terms of risk classification and measurement of movement. We developed an automated earthwork risk classification model using InSAR derived risk metrics and machine learning which showed promising results. InSAR has the potential to reduce track-side site visits, improving safety, reliability and sustainability, whilst also reducing costs by helping prioritise maintenance and detecting precursory movements.