Geomechanics.io

A slope collapse at an open pit gold mine near Policarpa in Colombia’s Nariño department has killed 13 workers and injured seven, after a night-time landslide buried crews who were later recovered by firefighters and residents using excavators. Local authorities have not confirmed whether the operation had mining permits, despite witnesses saying around 50 people, mainly from the Quillacinga Indigenous group and including four victims from one family, regularly worked the site. The incident again exposes geotechnical and safety risks at Colombia’s largely unregulated artisanal and illegal gold mines, which involve an estimated 200,000–400,000 people.

B&O Developments and director Sanjay Swaminaryan were fined at City of London Magistrates’ Court after members of the public reported unsafe roof work on a Kings Cross site to the Health and Safety Executive. The prosecution centred on workers operating at height without adequate edge protection or fall-arrest systems, breaching the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The case signals that HSE will act on public reports of poor temporary access, scaffolding and roof-work controls, with direct implications for contractors’ site supervision and CDM compliance.

Venezuela’s government and opposition have agreed to jointly seek the return of about 31 tonnes of gold, worth roughly US$4.4 billion, held in the Bank of England’s vaults beneath Threadneedle Street to fund reconstruction after June’s earthquakes that killed more than 6,000 people and damaged homes, hospitals and infrastructure. The bullion, about one-fifth of Venezuela’s reported 161-tonne reserves in 2018, has been frozen since 2018 amid UK recognition of Juan Guaidó over Nicolás Maduro. Any release is expected to involve complex UK court proceedings and strict transparency safeguards on reconstruction spending.

Asbestos management consultancy Acorn Analytical Services has expanded its contracts team, promoting long-serving staff member David Kelsey to senior contracts manager and elevating Ellis Bastable and Charlie Dalby to contracts managers. Kelsey, one of Acorn’s first full-time employees with nearly 13 years’ service, will oversee the contracts department, manage two contracts managers and ensure nationwide deployment of asbestos analysts. Bastable and Dalby, both former asbestos analysts who gained BOHS P402 surveying qualifications, will now manage client asbestos portfolios, coordinate removal works and arrange analytical support.

A 15‑year review of the Environment Agency’s Thames Estuary 2100 (TE2100) Plan finds sea levels in the estuary are rising faster than earlier design assumptions, putting additional pressure on the 520‑square‑kilometre flood risk management area. The findings are expected to trigger earlier or more extensive upgrades to defences including the Thames Barrier, raised tidal walls and embankments, and secondary barriers on tributaries. For geotechnical and civil engineers, this signals a need to revisit crest levels, overtopping criteria, and foundation performance under higher hydraulic loading over the plan horizon to 2100.

Fourteen illegal chrome miners were found dead and at least eight injured after a cave-in near an abandoned shaft by the Nkaneng informal settlement, close to Marikana in South Africa’s North West province, with the collapse estimated around 21:00 on Monday. Police have intensified action against illegal chrome operations in the province, seizing 20 trucks and 15 excavators over the past two years and arresting survivors on suspicion of illegal mining. The incident underlines ongoing geotechnical and safety risks where informal miners re-enter abandoned gold, platinum and chrome workings without ground support or regulated access control.

A worker at the Sellafield nuclear decommissioning site “died suddenly” during the week commencing 6 July, prompting an immediate review by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). ONR has confirmed the death was not work-related and that there was no radiological or conventional safety incident affecting the wider site. Routine regulatory oversight of Sellafield’s legacy waste facilities, spent fuel management and construction activities continues unchanged, with no impact reported on nuclear safety cases or site operations.

The British Geological Survey has launched a four‑year ground investigation of the River Tweed catchment to characterise groundwater behaviour and its interaction with river levels for improved flood forecasting. Work will include installing new monitoring boreholes, logging groundwater heads and flow paths, and integrating hydrogeological data with existing river‑gauge and rainfall records across the cross‑border catchment. Findings are expected to refine flood models used by local authorities and infrastructure owners, particularly for groundwater‑dominated flood events and prolonged saturation of transport and drainage assets.

Wildfire seasons in Western Canada are intensifying, with 2023 seeing more than 2,240 fires burning 2.84 million hectares in B.C. and insured losses of $720 million in the Okanagan/Shuswap and $1.3 billion from the 2024 Jasper fire, forcing repeated evacuations at sites such as Artemis Gold’s Blackwater and Cameco’s Cigar Lake. Operators and insurers are now treating wildfire as a core business-interruption risk, driving investment in backup generation for long transmission corridors, detailed continuity planning, and stricter underwriting. Engineers are also redesigning mine layouts and buildings for fire, favouring sites on ridge tops, wider building separation, non-combustible steel roofing and use of natural and linear infrastructure firebreaks.

National Trust and United Utilities are installing a series of timber “leaky dams” on moorland and farmland above the Stubbins Estate in Lancashire in a two‑year natural flood management programme to slow runoff into the River Irwell. The structures are designed to back up high flows in small headwater channels while allowing baseflow to pass, temporarily storing stormwater on the floodplain and in upstream depressions. For civil and drainage engineers, the scheme signals continued deployment of low‑cost, nature‑based attenuation measures alongside conventional hard‑engineered defences in upland catchments.

Construction recorded the highest number of worker fatalities in Britain in 2025/26, according to new Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures on work-related deaths. Although absolute numbers are not yet broken down publicly by sub-sector, the data place construction ahead of manufacturing, agriculture and waste, continuing a long-term pattern of disproportionate risk. The figures will sharpen scrutiny of temporary works design, work-at-height controls and plant–people interface management on sites, particularly for SMEs and subcontractor-heavy projects.

Recent major earthquakes in Venezuela and the southern Philippines have exposed how delayed mapping of landslides and liquefaction can mask the worst damage for days, especially in remote mountain valleys and low-lying coastal plains. Geoscientists are pushing for rapid post-event zonation using satellite interferometry, UAV photogrammetry and pre-existing susceptibility maps to identify blocked river valleys, buried roads and lateral spreading along reclaimed or alluvial ground. For geotechnical teams, this means integrating near-real-time remote sensing with ground reconnaissance to prioritise slope stabilisation, bridge access and lifeline corridor repairs.

Two shallow earthquakes of magnitude 7.1 and 6.8 struck near Caracas and La Guaira within hours, collapsing mid‑rise reinforced concrete apartment blocks and older unreinforced masonry in hillside barrios, with hundreds confirmed dead and thousands displaced. Liquefaction, lateral spreading and rockfalls have damaged key transport links, including sections of the Caracas–La Guaira motorway and port access roads, complicating access for rescue equipment and temporary shoring. Geotechnical teams are racing to assess slope stability on steep, weathered tropical soils and to prioritise demolition versus retrofit of heavily cracked shear‑wall structures.

A joint venture contractor on HS2 has been fined £400,000 after a 20 t tipper truck left the edge of an excavation ramp, leaving the driver with multiple serious injuries. The incident involved a temporary earthworks access ramp where the truck overran the unprotected edge and rolled into the excavation. The case signals renewed scrutiny of haul road and ramp design, edge protection, and traffic management on major UK infrastructure sites, particularly for heavy earthmoving plant.

Calls are growing for the UK Government to consult coastal erosion communities more regularly when updating Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs), which guide long-term decisions on hold-the-line, managed realignment and no-active-intervention policies. Local authorities and residents argue that current SMP review cycles and engagement processes do not adequately reflect rapid cliff retreat, increased storm surge impacts and changing sediment transport patterns on vulnerable frontages. More frequent, structured consultation could influence choices on hard defences versus nature-based solutions, funding priorities and property loss compensation frameworks.

EDF and Trillium Flow Services UK have each received two improvement notices from the Office for Nuclear Regulation over asbestos-related shortfalls at the Torness nuclear power station in East Lothian, Scotland. ONR inspectors identified deficiencies in how asbestos-containing materials were identified and controlled during maintenance activities, prompting formal enforcement action. Contractors and asset owners working on ageing nuclear infrastructure should expect closer scrutiny of asbestos registers, method statements and supervision where legacy insulation and gaskets remain in service.

Farm machinery and agricultural vehicles have struck overhead powerlines and other electrical assets 22 times in the past 12 months in the North West of England, prompting a formal safety warning from the regional network operator. Incidents typically involve high-reach kit such as telehandlers, slurry tankers and combine harvesters contacting 11kV and 33kV lines on field margins and farm access tracks. Civil and farm infrastructure designers are being urged to review clearance envelopes, access road alignments and signage to reduce strike risk during peak harvesting and slurry-spreading operations.

Improvement notices have been served by the Office for Nuclear Regulation to EDF and Trillium Flow Services UK Ltd after potential asbestos exposure during a March 2026 valve overhaul on the steam system at Torness Nuclear Power Station, East Lothian. ONR found asbestos had been identified and removed from a similar valve in 2024 but not entered into the site asbestos register, which is meant to be the central record for location and condition of asbestos and was reportedly not consistently consulted in maintenance planning. EDF has suspended all in-house asbestos removal while it addresses failures under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, with Trillium also cited for inadequate work-log close-out and pre-maintenance asbestos assessment.

Temporary platform collapse on a Roots Contractors Limited site left drilling operative Steve Zschoch with a fractured neck after he was “folded up like a concertina” beneath the failed structure while working for subcontractor Diacutt Limited. Both firms have now been fined for safety failings relating to the design, installation and verification of the temporary working platform, which was being used for drilling operations. The case reinforces the need for formal temporary works design checks, competent supervision and load-path verification for access platforms on small civil and infrastructure projects.

Sinkholes discovered by Network Rail engineers on a rail bridge outside Purley have forced the closure of all lines between Purley and East Croydon, severing direct rail links between central London and Gatwick Airport. The defect was identified during planned engineering works, prompting immediate suspension of services on this key section of the Brighton Main Line. Geotechnical teams now face urgent investigation of foundation conditions and void extent beneath the bridge, with stabilisation and monitoring requirements likely to dictate the duration of disruption.

Esso has been fined £1M by the UK Health and Safety Executive after 2.4t of highly flammable liquefied petroleum gas leaked from ageing plant at ExxonMobil’s Fawley Refinery due to failures in managing equipment integrity. The incident, which exposed workers to “life-threatening risks”, stemmed from inadequate inspection and maintenance of pipework and associated fittings in a hazardous area of the site. Process safety engineers and asset managers are likely to face closer scrutiny of inspection regimes, corrosion monitoring, and lifecycle replacement strategies for high-pressure LPG systems.

£50M of government funding has been pledged to upgrade flood resilience in Somerset after “severe” winter flooding earlier this year. The package is expected to support works such as raising and strengthening existing earth embankments on the Somerset Levels, improving pump stations and sluices on key drainage rhynes, and expanding temporary and permanent flood storage. For civil and geotechnical teams, the focus will be on embankment stability in saturated ground, long-term seepage control, and designing assets for more frequent high-intensity rainfall.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck offshore Mindanao, Philippines, at a depth of about 32 km, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 130 across Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental and neighbouring provinces. Strong shaking triggered widespread liquefaction, lateral spreading and coastal slope failures, damaging bridges, port facilities and low-rise reinforced concrete buildings with soft-storey behaviour. Engineers are prioritising rapid assessment of pile-supported structures on reclaimed land, stability of coastal embankments and the integrity of lifeline corridors linking key mining and agricultural areas.

South West Water has been fined £1.85M at Exeter Magistrates’ Court after a Cryptosporidium contamination at the Hillhead treatment works left tens of thousands of Devon customers without potable tap water in summer 2026. The DWI prosecution centred on failures in disinfection and monitoring barriers required under the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations, including inadequate protozoa control and delayed public notification. Other water companies are now ramping up enforcement and risk reviews of treatment works, with particular focus on UV systems, filtration integrity and contingency planning for microbial outbreaks.