Vintage WINES

Researchers have been awarded a £1.4 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (

) to fund research into a monitoring system for ageing infrastructure.

Dr Kenichi Soga, Dr Campbell Middleton, Professor Robert Mair and Dr Peter Bennett from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering are part of a team awarded £1.4 million from the EPSRC 'Wired and Wireless Intelligent Networked Systems' (WINES) research grant to fund the 'Smart infrastructure' project.

One of the greatest challenges facing civil engineers is the stewardship of ageing infrastructure. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the networks of tunnels, pipelines and bridges that lie beneath and above the major cities around the world. Much of this infrastructure was constructed more than half a century ago, and there is widespread evidence of its deterioration.

For example, tunnels, particularly old ones, are prone to being influenced by activities such as adjacent construction, such as piling, deep excavations and other tunnel construction. Excessive leakage and pipe bursts are frequent and usually unanticipated. Importantly, underground structures often cannot be inspected when they are being used by trains or due to other physical constraints.