Dr Michael Burrow MA (Cantab), PhD

Dr Michael Burrow

Department of Civil Engineering
Senior Lecturer
Convenor of MSc Road Management and Engineering

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 5079
Email
m.p.n.burrow@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Civil Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Michael Burrow is a senior lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering.  He leads the University of Birmingham’s world renowned team of road specialists which developed a suite of cutting edge road asset management decision support tools, the products of which are used world-wide. He is also a Deputy Director of Education in the School of Engineering (Civil Engineering).

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Birmingham, 1998 
  • MA, University of Cambridge, 1999 
  • BA, University of Cambridge, 1994

Biography

Dr Michael Burrow is a senior lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering.  He leads the University of Birmingham’s world renowned team of road specialists which developed a suite of cutting edge road asset management decision support tools, the products of which are used world-wide. He is also a Deputy Director of Education in the School of Engineering (Civil Engineering).

Dr Burrow's research focus is associated with pro-poor sustainable infrastructure asset design and management and he is currently actively involved in research projects worth over £4million. Amongst these he currently leads three large road management research projects; one funded by the Ethiopian Roads Authority is associated with improving the sustainability of Ethiopia’s national roads; the second is a DFID funded project through RECAP which is improving rural road asset management in Sub-Saharan Africa. The third project, funded by the TSB, concerns the development of automated means of assessing at assessing local road condition at traffic speeds.

He is the Infrastructure thematic lead for the Evidence and Knowledge for Development (K4D), a £7.5million DFID funded research and learning programme. The programme is delivered by a consortium, headed by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, in which the University of Birmingham plays a leading role. 

Dr Burrow publishes his research widely and has more than 80 peer reviewed publications in the area of infrastructure design and management.

Dr Burrow’s teaching focus mirrors his research and his specialisation is that of road asset management.  He has worked with partners from over 23 countries worldwide and has links with industry internationally.  He has a number of external appointments including acting as the Chairman of Highway Management Services Ltd (HMS), which provides highway maintenance management software and consultancy to road agencies worldwide.

Teaching

Teaching Programmes

Road Management and Engineering MSc Programme

  • Roads and the environment
  • Road Asset Management

Senior Road Executives Programme

  • Road Maintenance Management

Postgraduate supervision

 

  • Road deterioration modelling
  • Potential impact of climate change on road drainage
  • Road Safety
  • Railway investment appraisal
  • Railway maintenance
  • Railway maintenance management

Research

Research themes

  • Road Asset Management 
  • Railway Asset Management 
  • Railway Economics 
  • Railway Maintenance

Research activity

Road and Railway Asset Management

1) Resilience of the UK transport network to the potential impact of climate change

Co-investigator FUTURENET Project

Scope: A consortium led by the University of Birmingham been awarded funding for this major four year, £1.5million, research project starting in June 2009 to examine how to make the UK’s transport systems resilient to climate change. This innovative project will identify what the UK’s transport system will look like in 2050 and investigate to ensure that it will be able to cope with the effects of climate change.

To fully appreciate the impact of climate change on our transport systems it is important that we understand not just how it looks and is used now, but how that will change over the coming decades. So to assess the resilience of the transport network in 2050 it will be necessary to take into account the likely technology and infrastructure changes, as well as changes in climate and extreme weather events.

The project will attempt to answer questions such as: what will be the critical thresholds of extreme weather that cause disruption or accidents; how susceptible are different modes to extreme events; and what are the likely implications for maintenance and renewal costs?

2) Road Asset Management
a. CRISPS – Climate resilient sustainable road pavement surfacings.
Team Leader. The aim of this 18-month project is to achieve an affordable high-volume road resilient to climate change and traffic demands, by assessing the suitability of three global best practice types of road surfacing technologies for use in LICs to counter the impacts of climate change, namely Modified Epoxy Chip Seals (MECS), Modified Epoxy Asphalt Surfaces (MEAS) and Fibre Mastic Asphalt (FMA) respectively. To achieve the above a team of world leading academic institutions, practitioners and an international road membership organisation have been assembled. The consortium is led by the University of Birmingham (UoB) in collaboration with the University of Auckland (UoA), the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and the International Road Federation (IRF) Geneva.
b. PhD project – Road deterioration modelling
b. PhD project – Potential impacts of climate change on road drainage

3) Railway Asset Management
a. PhD project – Railway maintenance standards

4) Railway Economics
a. PhD project – Railway Investment Appraisal

5) Railway Maintenance
a. Fines migration

Other activities

  • Director of Highway Management Services Ltd. (road asset management)
  • Consultant to Waterman Plc (road & railway asset management)
  • Consultant to five Capitals (environmental consultancy)

Publications

List of Journal Publications since 2007

  1. Damaging Effects of Railway Dynamic Wheel Loads on Railway Foundations.  Transportation Research Record (TRR), Journal of the Transportation Research Board.  Washington D.C., USA.
  2. Akena, R., Schmid, F., Burrow, M.P.N. (2017).  Driving Style for Better Fuel Economy.  Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport 170 June 2017 Issue TR3, pp 131–139.
  3. Torbaghan, M.E., Burrow, M.P.N and Hunt, D.V.L., ElCheikh, M. (2016).  Risk-based framework (RBF) for a UK Pan-European Supergrid.  Energy. 
  4. ElCheikh, M. and Burrow, M.P.N. (2016). Uncertainties in Forecasting Maintenance Costs for Asset Management: Application to an Aging Canal System (2016). ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering.  DOI: 10.1061/AJRUA6.0000890.
  5. Rasul, J., Burrow, M.P.N., Ghataora, G.S. (2016). Consideration of the deterioration of stabilised subgrade soils in analytical pavement design.  Transportation Geotechnics 9 96–109.
  6. Burrow, M.P.N., Evdorides, H., Ghataora, G.S., Petts, R., Snaith, M.S. (2016). The evidence for rural road technology in low income countries.  Transport. Proceedings Institution of Civil Engineers.
  7. Luiu, C., Tight, M.R. and Burrow, M.P.N. (2016).  The unmet travel needs of the older population: a review of the literature. Transport Reviews.
  8. Xiaohui Zhang, Burrow, M.P.N, and Shunhua Zhou (2015). An Investigation of Subgrade Differential Settlement on the Dynamic Response of the Vehicle Slab-Track System.  Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Part F.  Institution of Mechanical Engineers.  doi:10.1177/0954409715613538
  9. Torbaghan, M.E., Burrow, M.P.N and Hunt, D.V.L. (2015).  Risk assessment for a UK-Pan European Supergrid.  Int. J. Energy Res., 39: 1564–1578. 
  10. Schlotjes, M.R, Burrow, M.P.N, Evdorides, H and Henning T.F.P. (2015). Using SVM to Predict the Probability of Pavement Failure.  168(3) (Pavement engineering themed issue) of Transport. Proceedings Institution of Civil Engineers.  DOI: 10.1680/tran.12.00084.
  11. Torbaghan, M.E., Hunt, D., Burrow, M.P.N. (2014).  Supergrid: projecting interconnection capacities for the UK.  .  Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Engineering Sustainability. 167(6) pp. 249-263.
  12. Schlotjes, M. R., Henning, T.F.P., Burrow, M.P.N., and St George, J. D. (2013). Descriptive fault trees for structural pavement failure mechanisms. Road & transport research, 22(4), 3-14.
  13. El-Cheikh, M., D. Al Sheikh, D. and Burrow, M.P.N. (2013).  Project Appraisal of Rail Projects Using Fuzzy Sets Theory. The International Journal of Railway Technology, Volume 2 – Issue 1 pp 39-62.
  14. Jin Shi, Chan, A.C, .Burrow, M.P.N. (2013).  Influence of unsupported sleepers on the dynamic response of a heavy haul railway embankment.  Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Part F.  Institution of Mechanical Engineers. doi:10.1177/0954409713495016.  Volume 227 Issue 6 November 2013 pp. 656 - 666.
  15. Burrow, M.P.N, Evdorides, H., Savva, M., and Wehbi, M (2013).  The benefits of sustainable road management: a case study. Transport. Institution of Civil Engineers.  Vol. 166, (4), doi.org/10.1680/tran.11.00075.
  16. Burrow, M.P.N., Ghataora, G.S. and Gunn D. (2013).  An investigation of the suitability of the construction of an old railway embankment for a new freight route.  International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering.  Vol 7. (3). 292 – 303.  DOI 10.1179/1938636213Z.00000000029.
  17. Evdorides, H., Burrow, M.P.N. S Suleiman (2013).  A methodology to model the variability in pavement performance. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Transport. Vol. 166, (4), DOI: 10.1680/tran.11.00068.
  18. Jin Shi, Burrow, M.P.N., Chan, A.C. and Wang, Y.J.  (2013).  Measurements and simulation of the dynamic responses of a bridge-subgrade transition zone below a heavy haul railway line.  Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Part F.  227(3) 254–268.  Institution of Mechanical Engineers. DOI: 10.1177/0954409712460979.
  19. Evdorides, H., Nyoagbe, C. and Burrow, M.P.N. Strategies to clear road maintenance backlog (2012).  Municipal Engineer, Institution of Civil Engineers.  Volume 165 Issue ME4.  Pages 205–213.  doi.org/10.1680/muen.12.00003.
  20. Rogers et al., (2012). Condition assessment of the buried utility service infrastructure. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology.  Volume 28, March 2012, Pp 331–344.
  21. Rogers et al., (2012). Condition assessment of the surface and buried infrastructure – A proposal for integration.  Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology.  Volume 28, March 2012, Pp 202–211.
  22. Burrow, M.P.N., Ghataora, G.S. and Evdorides H. (2011).  Railway Foundation Design Principles.  International Journal of Engineering and Architecture.  Volume 5, No. 3  pp 222-230.
  23. Burrow, M.P.N., Naito, S. and Evdorides H. (2009).  A Network Level Railway Track Maintenance Management Model.  Railways 2009.  Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.  Issue No. 2117.  pp 66-76.  Washington, USA.
  24. Zhao, J., Chan, A.H.C. and Burrow, M.P.N. (2009).  A genetic-algorithm-based approach for scheduling the renewal of railway track components.  Proc. IMechE Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit 233 (6) pp 533 – 541.
  25. Burrow, M.P.N., Chan, A. H.C, and Shein, A. (2007).  Falling weight deflectometer based inverse analysis of ballasted railway tracks.  Geotechnical Engineering, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 160 July 2007 Issue GE3.  pp 169–177.
  26. Zhao, J., Chan, A.H.C. and Burrow, M.P.N. (2007).  Probabilistic Model for Predicting Rail Breaks and Controlling the Risk of Derailment.  Railways 2007.  Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.  Issue No. 1995.  pp 76-83.
  27. Burrow, M.P.N., Bowness D. and Ghataora, G.S. (2007).  A comparison of railway track foundation design methods.  Proc. IMechE Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit. Vol 221, No F1, pp 1 – 12.
  28. Zhao, J., Chan, A.H.C. and Burrow, M.P.N. (2007).  Reliability analysis and maintenance decision for railway sleepers using track condition information.  Journal of the Operational Research Society 58, 1047 –1055. 

Conferences

  1. Burrow, M.P.N, Ghataora, G.S., Roberts, C., Bains, N. and Clarke, M (2009) Technology transfer in railways. Railway Engineering 2009, London, U.K.
  2. Burrow, M.P.N, Ghataora, G.S., Evdorides, H, Gunn, D.A., Reeves, D. A. and Chambers, J. (2009) Design considerations for new freight routes on old Victorian embankments. Railway Engineering 2009, London, U.K. 
  3. Ghataora, G.S. Burrow, M.P.N. (2009). Large scale tests on a lightweight composite manhole chamber to be used adjacent to railway lines. Railway Engineering 2009, London, U.K. 
  4. Ghataora, G.S. Burrow, M.P.N. (2009) Composites at ballast/subgrade interface in railway track foundations. Railway Engineering 2009, London, U.K.
  5. DA Gunn, M Kirkham, E Haslam, J Chambers, A Lacinska, & A Milodowski, G Ghataora, M Burrow, R Sellers & N Dixon (2009). Moisture Measurements in Embankments: Long Term Stability and Ageing. Railway Engineering 2009, London, U.K.

Books and Book Chapters

  1. Ghataora G.S. and Burrow M.P.N. (2010). Railway Foundations. In Geotechnical Engineering Handbook. J. Ross Publishing, Inc
  2. Burrow, M.P, Fonseca Teixeira, P. Tore Dahlberg T. and Berggren E. (2010). Track Stiffness Considerations for High Speed Railway Lines. In Railway Transportation: Policies, Technology and Perspectives. Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

View all publications in research portal