High-speed Railway Geotechnical Problems

Distinguished Professor Daichao Sheng

The current NSW state government is committed to the delivery of fast and high-speed railways in the state, with the short to medium-term focus on upgrading and optimising existing routes with target train speed of 200 km/hour, and the medium to long-term focus on building new routes with train speed over 250 km/hour. While it might be cost-effective and viable for Australia to import all transport components such as vehicles and control systems, we have to accommodate our ground conditions on which the high-speed railways are built. In this regards, geotechnical issues represent the key technical challenges for building high-speed railways in Australia. This talk presents some overseas perspectives of high-speed railway geotechnics, including some unique geotechnical problems like ground vibration and critical train speed, mud pumping and embankment degradation and cold region geotechnics.

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