BRITISH TRY ASPHALT IN RAILROAD ROADBEDS

The British Railway Board's Railway Technical Centre has installed a trial section of asphalt concrete track bed at a site near this Midlands town. The specially-designed asphalt mixture was placed 230 mm (9 in.) thick in three passes of a paving machine, with compaction following each pass. The 19 m (60 ft) lengths of rail were affixed to baseplates on concrete track units that had been cemented to the asphalt track bed with a polyester resin mortar. The installation, fully instrumented, is being monitored for stresses and deflection during daily traffic that comprises 15 passenger and 25 freight trains. An advantage cited by Technical Centre engineers is that asphalt roadbeds can be subjected to traffic loadings within hours of placement, whereas portland cement concrete roadbeds require extended periods before being placed in service, with consequently lengthy disruption of traffic. Experimental and service use of asphalt in railroad roadbeds has also been reported from Italy and Japan/ and the Asphalt Institute has available a pertinent publication in Railway Roadbeds for Tomorrow (IS-167). /ART/

• Corporate Authors:

  Asphalt Institute

  2696 Research Park Drive
  Lexington, KY  United States  40511-8480
• Publication Date: 1976-5

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 3
• Serial:
  • Asphalt Institute Newsletter
  • Volume: 16
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Asphalt Institute

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt; Asphalt concrete; Concrete; Deflection; Instrumentation; Location; Mixtures; Mortar; Pavement subgrade; Pavers; Polyester resins; Portland cement concrete; Railroad tracks; Railroads; Stresses; Traffic
• Old TRIS Terms: Placement
• Subject Areas: Highways; Materials; Operations and Traffic Management; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00139601
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 6 1976 12:00AM