Railway Bridge Assessments

Assessment of railway bridges has been carried out by Institute of Railway Technology in the context of heavy haul operations, with the specific objectives of:

• rating capacity relative to current and proposed axle loads; and

• estimating the remaining life of the bridges.

Assessment procedures have been based on standard codes of practice, including AREA, ANZRC and UIC. Field measurement programs include inspection of bridge structures, measurement of axle load distributions, strains within bridge structures and the derivation of dynamic amplification factors.

Achievements

• Accurate estimation of bridge capacity and remaining life.

• Implementation of higher axle loads.