Guidance

Transport hazard summary: reservoir dam collapse

Provides information about the unlikely event of a reservoir dam collapse and its impact on transport infrastructure.

• From: Department for Transport and Met Office
• Published: 16 December 2025

Documents

Transport hazard summary: reservoir dam collapse

PDF, 994 KB, 10 pages

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Details

This summary explains some of the main risks to transport in the unlikely event of a reservoir dam collapse, including sudden flooding and destruction of transport infrastructure. It also provides advice to help mitigate and plan for these risks.

Direct impacts from reservoir dam collapse include:

• sudden, life-threatening flooding from a reservoir that can destroy transport infrastructure
• power outages and disruption to communications infrastructure, affecting electric trains, signalling systems and emergency services

This forms part of the Transport hazards summaries series, which helps organisations understand hazards that can impact UK transport.

Published 16 December 2025