Investigation of railroad bridge approach problems along heavy haul freight lines.

PDFBriefRR 15-10Railroad bridgesBridge approachesRailroad tracksTrain track dynamicsFreight trainsData collectionInstrumentationUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Railroad AdministrationUnited States. Federal Railroad AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionUnder a contract with the Federal RailroadAdministration (FRA), the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign (UIUC) is investigating different factors thatcontribute to the problem of differential movement atrailroad track transitions The research objective is todevelop new design and rehabilitation methods tomitigate the problem of differential movement at tracktransitions. In order to achieve this goal, UIUCresearchers are using geotechnical instrumentation andperformance monitoring equipment to quantify thecontributions of different substructure layers todifferential movement at railroad bridge approaches. Aspart of the study, UIUC instrumented two undergradebridge approaches on Norfolk Southern Railway\u2019s (NS)N-Line mainline near Ingleside, WV, to investigate thefrequent deterioration in track geometry at these sites.This report provides a brief overview of theinstrumentation activity, the data acquisition approach,and preliminary results