Safe and efficient transport infrastructure is a fundamental requirement to facilitate and encourage the movement of goods and people throughout the European Union. There is approximately 215,400 km of rail lines in the EU which represent a significant asset. Many of the rail networks in Eastern Europe and in parts of Western Europe were developed more than 150 years ago.
These networks were not built to conform to modern standards and suffer from low levels of investment and in some cases poor maintenance strategies. Replacement costs for civil engineering infrastructure items such as rail track, bridges and tunnels are prohibitive. In the current economic climate it is vital that we maintain and develop our transport network and optimize the use of all resources. It is essential therefore those methods used to analyse and monitor the existing infrastructure result in realistic scientific assessments of safety which allow the effective programming of remedial works. The SMARTRAIL (Smart Maintenance Analysis and RemediaTion of RAIL infrastructure) project aims to bring together experts in the fields of rail and road transport infrastructure to develop state of the art inspection; monitoring and assessment techniques which will allow rail operators manage ageing infrastructure networks in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner.
Historic levels of low investment, poor maintenance strategies and the deleterious effects of climate change (for example scour of bridge foundations due to flooding and rainfall induced landslides) has resulted in critical elements of the rail network such as bridges, tunnels and earthworks being at significant risk of failure. The consequence of failures of major infrastructure elements is severe and can include loss of life, significant replacement costs (typically measured in millions of Euros) and line closures which can often last for months.
The SMARTRAIL vision is to provide a framework for infrastructure operators to ensure the safe, reliable and efficient operation of ageing European railway networks. This will be achieved through a holistic approach which will consider input from state of the art inspection, assessment and remediation techniques and use this data to consider “what if” scenarios using whole life cycle cost models. These models will allow the infrastructure operators to make rational decisions on the best use of limited funding which will be committed to the long-term maintenance of the rail infrastructure networks.
The SMARTRAIL vision and project working packages were presented by Dr. Phd Kenneth Gavin, coordinator and chair of the Executive Board of SMARTRAIL, during the Railway Days Summit in Bucharest. We wanted to learn more about this project and how can it offer support to rail infrastructure managers in order to overcome most of the problems mentioned above. In this short interview for Railway Pro we have tried to find the answers to some of these questions from Michael Robson, Managing Director – Robson’s International Rail Consultancy and former EIM Secretary General, actively involved in the project.
Railway PRO: How can SMARTRAIL project help Infrastructure Managers to extend the service life of existing infrastructure?
Michael Robson: I have chosen four areas to comment on: Bridge Scour, Rehabilitation of Open Tracks, Rehabilitation of Bridges and Use of technology.
1. Bridge Scour is a major issue for Infrastructure Managers and can result in catastrophic failure of a bridge which if it occurs causes disruption to services, major safety risk and a major cost to replace/repair. The SMARTRAIL project is developing and testing numerical models in this area which will enable Infrastructure Managers to use data obtained from monitoring changes in the natural frequency of the bridge foundation piles to determine the effect of bridge scour.
By using this method the costs of having to employ divers to carry out regular inspections can be reduced, the risk of catastrophic failure and its impact on train performance and capacity will also be reduced.
2. Rehabilitation of Open Track which is again a big problem for a number of Infrastructure Managers due to mud being pumped up between the sleepers following ballast degradation and poor subsoil conditions. Trials have taken place using Geogrids and Geotextiles to reduce this which has the effect of negating the need for temporary speed restrictions and constant interventions both of which reduce capacity, performance and increase costs. The effectiveness of these techniques is being measured and the results are proving positive.
3. Rehabilitation of bridges is a way of extending the life of a bridge and thus deferring a costly renewal and downtime on the network whilst the renewal work takes place. Laboratory tests are being carried out on a recently removed bridge to asses the effect of strengthening the bridge with ultra high performance reinforced concrete which may allow life extension of many older bridges across the network and provide a cost effective solution instead of replacement.
Work is also taking place to measure the use of different types of material in the transition zones to improve their stability and thus reduce maintenance costs.
4. Use of Modern Technology is a way of harnessing off the shelf products, which are becoming cheaper, to monitor the effectiveness of the infrastructure allowing for remedial work to take place at the most beneficial time i.e move from find and fix to repair and prevent. This measuring technology is being used on a bridge in Poland to carry out Weigh in Motion measurements thus providing real time structure health monitoring allowing accurate and timely interventions to repair the bridge whilst maintaining the level of safety required, in Croatia to measure stress on transition zones, it has further applications which may be beneficial in remote areas which are not easily accessible.
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