Railways

Taking into account the age of the Slovenian railway infrastructure, and the fact that much of it is out of date, large-scale improvement and renewal works are needed. This means that, if this infrastructure has to be based on the concept of sustainability, and thus resistant to the ever more numerous storms which are due to climate change, then larger-scale investigations of the subsoil upon which railway lines are built will be needed, as well as the selection of high quality materials for placing beneath railway tracks. Using the most up-to-date equipment, new types of railway construction, which will be resistant not only to extreme weather conditions but also to earthquakes, are being developed.

With the aim of achieving the highest possible quality of reconstruction and renovation works, ZAG performs the following work:

• external quality control of materials to be used in the loadbearing structure of railway-lines (ballast and sub-ballast),
• external quality control of prestressed and passive geotechnical anchors (link to GT anchors),
• performance of specialized tests of unbound materials (the large direct shear box test),
• organization of test fields, with the installation of geosynthetic sheets,
• anti-noise protection,
• LCA – Life Cycle Assessments of the improvement of railway ballast structures.

Interoperability

In accordance with the provisions of the EU Directive 2008/57/EC on the interoperability of the rail system within the EC ZAG has been authorized by the Ministry of Transport of RS as Notified Body No. 1404 for the evaluation of the conformity of the components of interoperability and their suitability for the use and implementation of procedures for verification of the subsystem in the structural field of the infrastructure and railway vehicles. See: List of the requirements for interoperability and List of authorized persons.

References

Optimization of the design of ballast and sub-ballast, with and without the use of geosynthetic sheets

ARRS 2008 – 2011

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External quality control of material used for renovation works of railway-lines in the eastern part of Slovenia?

Ministry of the Economy, 2013 – 2015

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SMART RAIL – Sustainable Maintenance and Analysis of Rail Transport Infrastructure

FP7 2011 – 2014

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Non-destructive determination of the shear properties of stone material by means of a 3D optical scanner

ELEA, European Cohesion Funds, 2012 – 2015

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Development of bridge abutments made of reinforced earth

LINEAL 2012 – 2015