Road and Rail Infrastructure III

The 3rd International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure – CETRA 2014 was organized by the University of Zagreb - Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department for Transportation Engineering. The Conference was held in Split, Croatia. Split is the largest city in Dalmatia and the second largest city in Croatia, and it is also one of “Croatian Champions of Tourism”. The 1st International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure (CETRA 2010) was held on 17-18 May 2010 in Opatija. The 2nd International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure (CETRA 2012) was held on 7-9 May 2012 in Dubrovnik. A great interest of participants in topics and themes from the field of road and rail infrastructure, as shown during the CETRA 2010 conference (140 papers from 29 countries) and CETRA 2012 conference (142 papers from 39 countries), justified the Department of Transportation Engineering's decision to organise once again an international event of such great significance. Positive comments received from participants in past conferences motivated the Department for Transportation Engineering of the Faculty of Civil Engineering - University of Zagreb to continue with the organization of this international event. The CETRA conference has established itself as a venue where scientific and professional information from the field of road and rail infrastructure is exchanged. The idea on linking research organisations and economic operators has been the guiding concept for the realisation of this conference. Conferences of this kind are undoubtedly a proper place for bringing closer together the economy and university operators, and for facilitating communication and establishing greater confidence that might result in cooperation on new projects, especially those that contribute to greater competition. Lectures organized in the scope of the conference are based on interesting technical solutions and on new knowledge from the field of transport infrastructure as gained on already realised projects, projects currently at the planning stage, and those now under construction, in all parts of the world. In addition to authors from the academic community, lectures were also presented by practical authors, the idea being to ensure the best possible synergy between the theory and practice. Because of a great interest for the themes from the field of road and rail infrastructure, as shown during the past two conferences (CETRA 2010 and CETRA 2012), the Department for Transportation Engineering of the Faculty of Civil Engineering – Zagreb assumed the responsibility to organise the CETRA conference in this year as well. Our goal for the International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure – CETRA is to have all published papers indexed in scientific databases in order to achieve greater recognition for the conference itself, for published papers, and for their authors. As the serial publication entitled Road and Rail Infrastructure has been achieved with this third conference, the precondition has been fulfilled to obtain the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), which was the condition for starting procedure for registering this publication in scientific databases. The procedure has already been initiated. The third International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure – CETRA 2014 - is organised in this year in order to bring together scientists and experts from the fields of road and railway engineering, and to present them with yet another opportunity to share results of their research, findings and innovations, analyze problems encountered in everyday engineering practice, and offer possible solutions for a more efficient planning, design, construction, and maintenance of various transport infrastructure facilities and projects. CETRA 2014 covers many areas: traffic planning and modelling, infrastructure projects, infrastructure management, road pavements, rail track superstructure, construction and maintenance, transport geotechnics, tunnels and bridges, structural monitoring and maintenance, computer techniques and simulations, noise and vibration, innovation and new technology, urban transport, integrated timetables on railways, rail traffic management systems, vehicle dynamics, traffic safety, and bicycle traffic. CETRA 2014 attracted a large number of papers and presentations from 35 countries and 47 universities. More than 146 papers were presented at the conference and are grouped together in these proceedings entitled Road and Rail Infrastructure III. The papers are conveniently divided into twelve chapters: Rail Infrastructure Projects Design, Construction, Maintenance and Management, Road Infrastructure Projects Construction, Maintenance and Management, Road Traffic Planning and Modelling, Road Pavements, Rail Vehicle-Track Interaction, Structural Monitoring and Maintenance, Transport Geotechnics, Integrated Timetables on Railways, Traffic Safety, Environmental Protection, Urban Transport and Passenger services: baggage storage and boarding. The organizers of the conference wish to express their thanks to all businesses and institutions that provided their valuable support to this Conference. Special thanks are extended to the University of Zagreb, Croatian Railways – HŽ Infrastruktura, and Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, for their assistance in organizing the workshop on Implementation of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in South and East Europe. The Editor commends all authors for excellent papers contributed to these proceedings, and wishes to thank members of the International Academic Scientific Committee, and numerous experts who participated in the review process. The gratitude is also extended to all participants for deciding to come to Split and take part in CETRA 2014. We believe that these CETRA 2014 proceedings entitled Road and Rail Infrastructure III will be, just like the preceding two proceedings from the CETRA cycle, highly interesting and useful to all experts exhibiting a scientific and professional interest in road and rail infrastructure