SUSTAINABLE BRIDGES: Assessment for future traffic demands and longer lives

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 03.0535-1

Key words (English)

Health monitoring; assessment; inspection; repair; strenghening

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: 001653

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 6. Frame Research Programme - 1.6.2 Urspr. Progr. Sustainable surface transport

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
Eidg. Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt EMPA

Abstract (English)

In order to double (or even treble) the transportation by rail during the coming 20 years the capacity of the railway bridges needs to be increased. The objectives of this project are to:
-Increase the transport capacity of existing bridges by allowing axle loads up to 33 tons for freight traffic with moderate speeds or for speeds up to 350 km/hour for passenger traffic with low axle loads -Increase the residual service lives of existing bridges with up to 25 % -Enhance management, strengthening, and repair systems.
Much research has been carried out on various topics related to this area but there is a need for integration, innovative development and testing in order to establish procedures for the effective management and safe upgrading of railway bridges. The following work will be carried out:
-To start-up, existing bridge types in Europe will be investigated and mapped in order to find critical areas for each different type (WP 1).
-Guidance and review by the infrastructure owners will be provided throughout the project (WP2). Increased rail traffic interoperability between countries is one objective.
-Condition Assessment and Inspection methods will be developed based on new research results (WP 3).
-Loads, Capacity and Resistance of Structures will be studied and new methods will be developed for such evaluation. Present and future loads and load distributions will be investigated (WP 4).
-Monitoring methods will be developed based on new sensor, data communication and IT technologies (WP 5). -Repair and Strengthening methods will be developed using e.g. carbon fibres (WP 6).
-Tests and demonstrations of the new methods will be carried out on several existing and new bridges (WP7-8).
-Training activities will be carried out to disseminate the results to bridge owners, consultants and contractors (WP 9).

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 03.0535-1