The asset management of railways on soft soils

ProRail BV, Utrecht, The Netherlands

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Abstract

ProRail is the infrastructure manager of the Dutch railway network. ProRail manages approximately 3000 km of rail embankments, most of which were built before 1920. They were constructed at a time when there were no regulations or standards available and each train company had its own way of constructing railways. These embankments function perfectly every day under intense use, even the ones constructed on soft soils. After publication of the new Dutch standards for existing structures, it was unknown if the network would comply. As ProRail is obliged to keep the safety and availability of the network high, a better understanding of embankment stability is necessary, including the best way to monitor and more efficient improvement measures. This led to the start of Programme Rail Embankment in 2020. This programme consists of four parts which are carried out by different companies and institutions for the past 5 years: National Network Analyses of Embankments (NNAE); Research programme (RESET); Testing ground to gain more and better measures to improve the embankments; Implementation. Now that the first part of the programme is reaching the end, it is time to look back and share some of the (preliminary) results. The NNAE is finished completely and Deltares is starting the final year of the RESET programme, while TU Delft is halfway through the programme. The first pilots have been carried out, and different monitoring techniques were and are still being tested. This paper gives an overview of the Programme Rail Embankment and shares the experience of the programme and its most noteworthy tests.