Scour is now confirmed by Moray Council as the likely principal cause of the Garmouth Viaduct collapse over the River Spey on 14 December, after an abrupt change in the river’s flow path is thought to have undermined the masonry or concrete support piers. Engineers are assessing how localised bed erosion and altered hydraulic conditions around the pier foundations triggered the failure. The case will sharpen scrutiny of scour risk assessments, real-time river monitoring and foundation protection measures on older rail and footbridges in dynamic gravel-bed rivers.

A newly built breeze block retaining wall collapsed into a deep excavation on Old Coast Guard’s Road, Poole, crushing 69-year-old steel-fixer Patrick Grant and prompting a £100,000 fine for principal contractor Matrod Frampton Limited. HSE found the wall had been backfilled before the mortar had set, there was no temporary works design for the wall or other structures, and no temporary works co-ordinator or supervisor had been appointed despite a safety report warning eight days earlier. Rescue was further delayed by reliance on an unstable ladder and the absence of an excavation emergency plan.

Storms Amy and Benjamin have already flooded homes, closed key A-roads and rail links, and overwhelmed ageing culverts and combined sewers, exposing how far UK drainage and flood defences lag current rainfall intensities. Early-season events are overtopping river embankments and bypassing 1-in-100-year design standards in several catchments, forcing emergency pumping and temporary barriers in urban centres. For civil and geotechnical engineers, the message is tighter design margins, more storage and conveyance capacity, and accelerated retrofit of surface water systems before peak winter storms arrive.