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Network Rail UTX guide
A pipe, duct or cable taken under a railway is an undertrack crossing, a UTX, and it goes through a fixed sequence with Network Rail before the drill turns, then the works themselves with the track watched throughout, then a set of records. This guide walks through every stage in order. What each submission is for, what goes into it, where the site information goes in (the boreholes, the utility search, the track and topographical surveys), what we need from you at each point, and what you hold at the end. It is written for whoever has to programme and pay for the crossing, and it assumes you have never done one.
A crossing under the railway is third-party work on an operating line, so Network Rail control it more closely than a road crossing. Two of their standards work together. NR/L2/CIV/044 is the technical rulebook for undertrack crossings, where the crossing sits, how deep, how it is built, how ground movement is controlled and how the track is monitored. NR/L2/CIV/003 is the engineering assurance standard, the approval in principle and the design and check certificates the design has to pass through. Around both sits an asset protection agreement between Network Rail and the party the crossing is for, which we call the scheme owner in this guide (the client, or the utility whose service it is). The scheme owner is the applicant. We provide the design package, commission the independent check, and install the crossing.
One thing to hold onto all the way through. Network Rail review and accept. They do not design, and they do not check. The design and the independent check are both provided by the applicant’s side, which in practice means us, and Network Rail confirm the assurance is in place and accept the result. That is why the roles and the checker are sorted out first, before anything is submitted.
If you have read our CD 622 guide for a National Highways road, six things are different under a railway. The ground investigation is required, not a decision. The depth is set by a 5mm limit on track movement, not by a cover figure. The independent check is done by a separate company. There is an agreement the scheme owner signs. The monitoring is of the track itself, with trains running over it. And the approvals are certificates on Network Rail’s forms rather than a chain of certified reports. If you want the short version and a price, the Network Rail UTX page is the place. This is the long version.
At a glance
| Stage | What it contains | Where the site information goes | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 Before the first submission | Network Rail Asset Protection engaged, the asset protection agreement, the wayleave applied for, the roles named, the independent checker accepted | The utility records search starts now | Where the crossing is, what is going in it, who the scheme owner is, the land either side of the railway, your dates |
| 1 Approval in Principle (FORMA) | Site constraints, the desk study, the utility records, the method and why, the alignment, preliminary calculations and drawings, the risk assessment, the contingency plan | Utility records, any existing ground investigation, any survey you already hold | Sign-off on the line and what is going in, anything you hold, the wayleave application in, the agreement, your say-so on the checker |
| 2 Ground investigation and the baseline survey | Boreholes each side of the railway with laboratory testing, the track baseline and dilapidation survey, the topographical survey, the monitoring targets set | The boreholes and test results, the topographical survey, the track baseline | Land access for the borehole rig, your decision on any investigation beyond the minimum, the track survey arranged through Asset Protection |
| 3 The design | The ground model, the ground investigation and design reports, the settlement, heave and pipe loading calculations, the drawings, the track monitoring plan, the risk assessment | The utility survey, the calculations, the drawings, the monitoring plan | Final pipe or duct requirements, agreed pit positions, answers to anything Network Rail direct at the scheme owner |
| 4 The independent check and the certificate (FORMB) | The Category 3 check by a separate company, the design and check certificate for the crossing, a temporary works certificate where the pits need one | Everything above, certified | Nothing new usually |
| 5 Before site | Method statements to Network Rail at least 20 working days ahead, the monitoring plans accepted, construction drawings, contingency and emergency plans, any possession booked | Nothing new, the paperwork is finalised | The agreement in force, the wayleave granted, a named contact for the readings, any possession booked |
| 6 The works, with the track monitored | Baseline readings, monitoring on the approach, the pilot bore accepted before reaming, the track read against the trigger levels, spoil and fluid reconciled every shift | Every reading, the drilling records, the as-built | Site access, the named contact available |
| 7 Records and close-out | The full record set and as-built drawings to Network Rail within six weeks, the monitoring record, the Health and Safety File | Everything above, closed out and on record | Nothing, you receive it |
Network Rail’s standard covers open-cut crossings as well as trenchless ones. Everything below is the standard read for a trenchless crossing, a directional drill or a rammed casing, with the open-cut content left out. Where a stage names a clause, that is where it comes from in NR/L2/CIV/044.
Stage 0
More is set up before the first form goes in on a railway than on a road, and the earlier it is done the less it holds up the job. Five things.
One more that is easy to miss. Network Rail want every existing service near the crossing found before anything is dug, and that includes the boreholes. So the records search begins here, not when the rig arrives.
| Where the site information goes | The utility records search starts now. Network Rail want every existing service near the crossing found before anything is dug, and that includes the boreholes, so the records are asked for on day one rather than when the rig arrives. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | Where the crossing is, what is being installed, who the scheme owner is, whose land sits either side of the railway, and when you would like it in the ground. Each one is explained in this section. |
| Then | Asset Protection engaged, the agreement in place, the wayleave applied for, the roles named and the independent checker accepted. The first submission can be written. |
Stage 1
The Approval in Principle, the AiP, is the opening submission. It is Network Rail agreeing the basis of the design before the detailed design is done, on their FORMA certificate (Form 001 on older jobs). It carries more than its name suggests, because Network Rail want the whole shape of the job, the constraints, the desk study, the method, the risks and a first pass at the numbers, in front of them before anything is fixed.
It is at this review that Network Rail’s Track Maintenance Engineer advises what movement the track can tolerate. The standard’s figure is 5mm of settlement or heave at track level, and on constrained track it can be less. A fully endorsed AiP is valid for three years provided construction starts within that time.
| Where the site information goes | The utility records search, gathered from the utility companies, from Network Rail’s own records and from their drainage engineer, and any ground investigation, borehole logs or surveys that already exist on or near the line. If site-specific boreholes have already been put down, the AiP is supported by them. If not, they follow it, which is the usual case. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | Your sign-off on the line and on what is going in it, anything you already hold on the site, the wayleave application put in, the agreement signed or in hand, and your say-so on the checker we propose. |
| Then | Network Rail review it and send back their comments, we answer them, and the FORMA is endorsed. It stays valid for three years provided construction starts within that time. On to the ground. |
Stage 2
This is the site work between the AiP and the design, and there are two halves to it. The ground investigation tells the design what the ground is. The baseline survey records what the track and the land look like before anything is done, so that anything that moves later can be measured.
Network Rail’s standard requires the design of a trenchless crossing to be based on a ground investigation, done to the British Standard for site investigation and Eurocode 7, and it sets the minimum. Two exploratory holes, one on each side of the crossing, no further than 20m from the railway boundary, as close to the line of the crossing as possible without being on it, taken down below the lowest part of the crossing, with laboratory testing to confirm the soil properties, groundwater monitoring, gas monitoring and contamination testing. If the two holes disagree with each other, more investigation is needed before the works can go ahead. Where the ground is soft enough we dig trial pits ourselves. The boreholes and the laboratory testing we arrange through specialist ground investigation firms, specifying the tests that matter for a bore, and we interpret the results for the crossing. The results are written up in a ground investigation report and feed a ground model with a geological long section showing the groundwater.
After the AiP has gone in and before the design and check certificate, a baseline survey is carried out. It covers the railway lines and the infrastructure around them, any embankment or cutting, the general topography (this is where the topographical survey along the line goes), and a look at any existing surface abnormalities along the line of the crossing outside the railway fence. It includes a dilapidation survey, a record of the condition of every Network Rail asset near the crossing, so nobody can later argue about what was already there. The survey targets that the track monitoring will read are set at the same time and their starting positions recorded. If a long time passes between the survey and the works, it might need to be repeated and the targets cleaned and reset, because maintenance on the line can invalidate it.
The work on the track itself is arranged with Network Rail through Asset Protection. It can need a short closure of the line, which Network Rail schedule, and the standard says to allow for that in the programme.
| Where the site information goes | The boreholes and the laboratory results, the topographical survey along the line, and the track baseline and dilapidation record. Everything the design will be built on and everything the works will be measured against. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | Access to the land on each side of the railway for the borehole rig, your decision on any investigation beyond the minimum two holes, and the track survey arranged in your name through Asset Protection. |
| Then | The ground model is built and the design is done against it. Allow time for the laboratory testing, because the settlement calculation cannot be finished without the results. |
Stage 3
The design is the crossing as it will be built and the proof that it will behave, and it is what the independent checker and Network Rail will read most closely. On older jobs its basis went in on a Statement of Design Intent, Form 002. On the current lettered forms that content rides inside the FORMA and FORMB package, and Network Rail’s Asset Protection engineer confirms what they want on your job.
The utility survey on the ground goes in here, the located services plotted onto the drawings with the clearance to each. The calculations, the drawings and the monitoring plan all attach. Because we design and install, the method and the monitoring thresholds in the design are ones we know can be achieved on site.
| Where the site information goes | The utility survey on the ground plotted onto the drawings with the clearance to each service, the settlement, heave and pipe loading calculations, the drawings, and the track monitoring plan the survey company will work to. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | The final pipe or duct requirements confirmed, agreement on where the pits sit, and answers to anything Network Rail direct at the scheme owner. |
| Then | The design goes to the independent checker with the reports and the calculations behind it. |
Stage 4
The finished design goes to the independent checker, and the result is the design and check certificate, Network Rail’s FORMB (Form 003 on older jobs). This is the stage most often misunderstood on a rail crossing, so it is worth being clear about who does what.
Network Rail then review the certificate and accept it. It is worth repeating that they do not do the check. It is two opinions on the design, ours and the checker’s, and Network Rail confirm the process was followed. Once accepted, the construction drawings are stamped Approved for Construction and the calculations marked final.
| Where the site information goes | Nothing new. Everything above is now certified, and the ground investigation and design reports are issued in final with the certificate. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | Usually nothing new. The certificates go to Network Rail in your name as the applicant, through Asset Protection. |
| Then | Network Rail review and accept the certificate. The construction drawings are stamped Approved for Construction, and the works can be planned. |
Stage 5
Between the certificate and the rig arriving there is a set of things Network Rail need in hand, and a set of dates that only Network Rail can give.
| Where the site information goes | Nothing new. The plans and method statements written earlier are finalised and accepted, and the monitoring targets on the track are checked, cleaned or reset if time has passed since they were put in. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | The agreement in force and the wayleave granted, a named person on your side for the monitoring readings, and any possession booked well ahead if one is wanted. |
| Then | Rig on site. |
Stage 6
This is the stage all the approvals were for. The design said how much the track would move. The works prove it, reading by reading, with the line open above.
The track monitoring is carried out by a specialist survey company or by the employer’s engineers, never by the drilling crew, and always to the accepted Track Monitoring Plan. We plan the works around it and stop when it says stop. On a Network Rail crossing it is the track that is watched, targets on the rails and on the structures beside them, so it is track monitoring rather than the surface monitoring of a road crossing, though it is looking for the same things, settlement, heave and any other ground movement.
| Where the site information goes | Every monitoring reading, the drilling records, the spoil and fluid reconciliation sheets, the pilot bore survey and the as-built survey of the installed line and levels. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | Access to the pits and the compound each day, and your named contact available while we are under the railway. |
| Then | Pipe in, monitoring run to the agreed end, records collated. The last stage closes it out. |
Stage 7
The last stage is the record. Network Rail’s standard says a full set of record information, including the as-constructed drawings, is issued to Network Rail Asset Protection within six weeks of finishing on site, and the schedule of what is kept was agreed back at the AiP.
Network Rail then check the crossing is recorded on their digital asset database, if their system is available for it, so it can be found by anyone planning work on that stretch of line in future.
| Where the site information goes | Everything above, closed out and on Network Rail’s record. |
|---|---|
| What we need from you | Nothing. You receive the record set for your Health and Safety File. |
| Then | The crossing is complete on Network Rail’s record and, if their system is available, on their digital asset database, so the next person to dig near the railway can find it. |
The certificates that carry a crossing through approval belong to NR/L2/CIV/003, and they have been renamed over the years, which causes real confusion in old paperwork. The current forms are lettered. FORMA is the Certificate of Approval in Principle, FORMB the Certificate of Design and Check for the permanent works, FORMC the same for temporary works. Earlier issues numbered them, Form 001 for the Approval in Principle, Form 002 for the Statement of Design Intent and Form 003 for the design and check certificate, and both generations turn up in our own completed jobs. One thing to keep separate. Network Rail also publish standard drawings for open-cut crossings called NR/CIV/SD/FORMA/610 and FORMB/610, and they are drawings, not these certificates.
A crossing with an internal diameter over 2.0m is managed as a structure on top of the UTX process, which pulls in the full Network Rail structures regime. A normal utility crossing sits well under that size.
Where a route crosses both a National Highways road and a railway, both processes run, each with its own authority, its own submissions and its own monitoring. Our CD 622 guide walks through the road side the same way this page walks through the rail side. A river or a canal on the same route is its own regime again, walked through in our FRA3 river crossing guide and our canal crossing guide.
Months, not weeks, and most of the time goes at the front end. Network Rail’s standard does not give an overall figure, but the pieces add up. Asset Protection has to be engaged and the agreement and the wayleave put in place before the first submission. The Approval in Principle is reviewed and commented on before it is endorsed. The ground investigation has its own lead time and the laboratory testing has another before the design can be finished. The independent checker needs time with the design. The method statements go in at least 20 working days before the works and any possession or line closure is booked well ahead of that. Then the records within six weeks at the end.
The things that shorten it are all at the front. Engaging Asset Protection straight away, getting the agreement and the wayleave application moving in parallel with the AiP rather than after it, sending us anything you already hold on the site, and lining up the checker early. The stages run in sequence, so any delay early on pushes the end date back by the same amount.
Questions answered
Yes. A crossing under the railway is third-party work on an operating line, so Network Rail oversee it through their Asset Protection team under an asset protection agreement. For a routine utility crossing that is usually a Basic Asset Protection Agreement, a BAPA, on what Network Rail call the Outside Party route (an Outside Party is anyone working near the railway who is not Network Rail or a contractor working for them). It is signed by the scheme owner, the client or the utility whose service it is, and we deliver the crossing under them. It commits the scheme owner to controlling ground movement, working under Network Rail's access rules, paying Network Rail's costs and handing over the design certificates. Separately, the scheme owner applies for a wayleave or easement, the legal permission to have the pipe under Network Rail's land, and that application goes in before the Approval in Principle. We tell you what to send and when.
No. Network Rail's standard requires the design of a trenchless crossing to be based on a ground investigation, and it sets a minimum, two exploratory holes, one on each side of the crossing, within 20m of the railway boundary, as close to the line of the crossing as possible without being on it, and taken down below the lowest part of the crossing, with laboratory testing, groundwater, gas and contamination checks. If the two holes disagree with each other, more investigation is needed before the works can go ahead. That is a real difference from a National Highways crossing, where the number of boreholes is a decision. We dig trial pits ourselves where the ground is soft enough and arrange the boreholes and laboratory testing through specialist ground investigation firms, then interpret the results for the bore.
In two places. The records search comes first and goes into the Approval in Principle. Network Rail's standard asks for a full utility search with the statutory undertakers (the water, gas, power and telecoms companies), a request to Network Rail's own records department for their buried services, and a request to Network Rail's drainage engineer for the track drainage, and every service found goes on the drawings. The survey on the ground, the electromagnetic and ground-penetrating radar locate along the line with covers lifted to read depths, feeds the design and goes onto the design drawings with the clearance to each service. When the crew arrive they sweep the line again before breaking ground and prove anything critical by hand.
The track monitoring is carried out by a specialist survey company or by the employer's engineers, never by the drilling crew, and always to a Track Monitoring Plan agreed with Network Rail. Survey targets are fixed to the rails and to any nearby structures, a baseline is read before the works, and the track is read on the approach, through the drill and for an agreed period after, against stepped trigger levels with an action written against each. The readings are reviewed by the engineers before the bore is allowed under the railway, and they come to you and to Network Rail as the job runs. The line normally stays open while we drill, that is what the monitoring is for, and we prefer to work without a possession where we can, but in some cases Network Rail, the employer or the client will insist on one, and setting the targets on the track can need a short closure of the line, which Network Rail schedule.
They are the certificates in Network Rail's engineering assurance standard, NR/L2/CIV/003, that carry a crossing through approval. FORMA is the Certificate of Approval in Principle, Network Rail agreeing the basis of the design before the detailed design is done. FORMB is the Certificate of Design and Check for the permanent works, the crossing that stays in the ground, and there is almost always one. FORMC is the same for temporary works, needed only where the temporary engineering near the track, a deep thrust pit or sheet piling say, puts the railway at risk. Earlier issues of the standard numbered the same forms, Form 001 for the Approval in Principle, Form 002 for the Statement of Design Intent and Form 003 for the design and check certificate, and both generations turn up in our own completed jobs. On the current lettered forms the design intent rides inside the FORMA and FORMB package rather than as a separate certificate. Network Rail's Asset Protection engineer confirms which forms apply on your job, and we submit on whichever they ask for.
The Track Monitoring Plan sets stepped trigger levels around the movement the design predicts, with an action against each step, and the contingency and emergency plans say who does what and how quickly. At the lower steps that means more frequent readings and a review of the drilling parameters. At the top it means stopping the works, and Network Rail can step in and take protective measures on the track themselves if they judge the railway is at risk. The plans also cover the other events Network Rail want covered, unexpected ground or water, drilling fluid going missing, spoil that does not match progress, and a hole appearing at the surface. Because the line is normally open, movement is being watched with trains running over it, which is why the readings are reviewed before the bore goes under and why the reconciliation of spoil and fluid is done every shift.
The full record set and the as-built drawings go to Network Rail Asset Protection within six weeks of finishing on site, and you hold the same. That is the endorsed FORMA, the FORMB (and FORMC if there was one) with the independent check, the ground investigation and design reports, the drawings and calculations, the monitoring plans, the baseline and every monitoring reading, the drilling records with the spoil and fluid reconciliation, the material certificates, the final line and level, and the as-built drawings for your Health and Safety File. If a tolerance was missed on site, a post-installation statement goes with it recording the departure and confirming there is no risk to the railway. Network Rail then check the crossing is on their digital asset database.
Yes. High Speed 1, the line from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel, is looked after by Network Rail (High Speed) under its own Asset Protection handbook, and it is stricter. Undertrack crossings shallower than 4.8m are not permitted there, and it runs its own set of forms. The shape of the process, agreement, approval in principle, independent check, monitored works, records, is the same, but the figures and the paperwork are not, so if your crossing is under HS1 tell us at the start.
Related
The short version, what we do on a UTX and the approvals we carry it through.
Read more →The undertrack crossings we have drilled for Network Rail and the rail contractors.
Read more →The bore profiles, settlement and loading calculations and approval packs behind a UTX.
Read more →Send us the line, the service and where the pits can go, and we will tell you which stages your crossing needs, what we already hold, and what we need from you.