scope:

With the exception of the following wall types, this document applies to all Retaining Walls throughout their entire lifecycle, including non-operational assets. 

• Minor Retaining Walls;

• River training walls managed as Coastal, Estuarine and River Defences;

• Catch walls and netting;

• Boundary walls, including acoustic barriers;

• Free standing walls;

• Walls providing edge protection against falls from height;

• Wing walls, spandrels, headwalls and abutments that are managed as part of a bridge, culvert or tunnel;

• Ballast boards that are managed as part of the track formation;

• Platform riser walls;

• Reinforced soil slopes, with or without soil nails or other mechanical anchors whose face angle is less than 70 degrees to the horizontal and are managed as earthworks.

NOTE: This process is currently limited to train derailment risk only; other risks continue to be managed using separate processes.

Purpose 

This module sets out the risk-based procedures for prioritising Retaining Walls, and the associated management activities carried out on those walls.

The overarching purpose is to manage the train derailment safety risk of Retaining Wall Functional Failure that could result in a safety related incident.