Sol Solution
High-Yield Geophysical / Geotechnical Characterisation of Existing Railway Tracks
- This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine Issue 3 2022.
Sol Solution (geotechnical consultancy) has developed innovative methodologies and tools for stealth geophysical / geotechnical investigations, to help ballasted track infrastructure managers with maintenance / renewal planning on revenue service lines.
Rail is the most sustainable mode of transport in these trying times of climate change. Railway infrastructure is widely spread out in many developed countries of the world. Most track is ballasted, old and has been maintained and partly renewed to mainly meet the change of rolling stock (from steam train to diesel, to electric) and safety standards.
Given the extent of these existing networks and the global trend towards increasing capacity and safety, the asset manager needs decision-making support for maintenance / renewal programmes taking into account existing substructure features such as geotechnical properties.
To address this new need of the industry, Sol Solution has developed a new methodology for railway track characterisation based on the coupled use of geophysical and geotechnical tests, providing the asset manager with key point indicators helping with the optimisation of the maintenance / renewal strategy. This methodology complies with all the constraints of revenue service lines (limited possession time, difficult access, non-destructive testing etc.)
