Rail Infrastructure Resilience: A Best-Practices Handbook

Economic growth, security and sustainability across Europe are at risk due to ageing railway infrastructure systems. At present, the majority of such systems are aging and some have even reached their initial design lives. These issues align with a major challenge in civil engineering: how to restore and improve urban infrastructure and built environments. Policy, environmental and physical barriers must be addressed and overcome. The complex and interconnected nature of the problem means that there is a need for academia, industry, communities and governments to work collaboratively. The challenges posed by extreme events from natural and man-made disasters are urgent.

Rail Infrastructure Resilience: A Best-Practices Handbook presents developed improvement methods for rail infrastructure systems, toward resilience to extreme conditions. It shows how best to use new information in the engineering design, maintenance, construction and renewal of rail infrastructure resilience, through knowledge exchange and capability development. The book presents the outcome of a major European research project, known as the RISEN project. RISEN aimed to enhance knowledge creation and transfer using both international and intersectoral secondment mechanisms among European Advanced Rail Research Universities and SMEs, and Non-EU, leading rail universities, providing methodological approaches and practical tools for restoring and improving railway infrastructure systems for extreme events. Edited and written by members of this project, this book will be essential reading for researchers and practitioners hoping to find practical solutions to the challenges of rail infrastructure resilience.

• Offers a best-practices handbook for rail infrastructure resilience from the leaders in the field
• Paints a holistic picture of the rail transport system, showing that infrastructure maintenance intervention can be enhanced through advanced monitoring systems and resilience design
• Presents rail infrastructure resilience and advanced condition monitoring, allowing a better understanding of the critical maintenance, renewal and retrofit needs of railways
• Considers how academia, industry, communities and governments can work collaboratively in order to tackle aggregated problems in rail infrastructure resilience
• Presents the findings from the RISEN project, the leading European project on enhancing knowledge creation and transfer of expertise on rail infrastructure resilience

Professor Rui Calcada is Full Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto, in Portugal, Head of the Civil Engineering Department, and Coordinator of the CSF-Centre of Competence in Railways. He is a Member of the Scientific Council of FEUP, and a Member of the Management Board of the R&D unit CONSTRUCT, in the Institute of R&D in Structures and Construction. He received his PhD and Habillation in civil engineering from the University of Porto. His research focusses include advanced models for analysis of the train-infrastructure dynamic interaction; dynamic effects on bridges and transition zones; fatigue assessment for railway bridges; track-structure interaction; condition monitoring systems; and advanced algorithms for condition assessment of railway infrastructure. He is the Principle Investigator of 12 major research projects. He currently works on the European Commission’s RISEN Project (Rail Infrastructure Systems Engineering Network), which has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program.

Dr Sakdirat Kaewunruen is Senior Lecturer in Railway and Civil Engineering in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is also Coordinator of the RISEN project. He has extensive industry experience in the field of structural, civil and track engineering both in industry and academia. With over 14 years in the rail industry and regulatory environments prior to joining academia, he has an array of research interests, including rail engineering, track design, track components, structural and geotechnical engineering, maintenance and construction. He received his PhD in civil engineering from the University of Wollongong in Australia, and has also completed an Emerging Leader Program with the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He coordinates the EU-funded RISEN project and is a CI of S-CODE. He has lead numerous projects, sits on various industry committees, and has published widely in the field.