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Besides being an important part of transport infrastructure, railway facilities require constant service. Arrangement of reliable connecting roads to them is a key aspect of the process. In this context, geosynthetics play a significant role by providing effective solutions for soil reinforcement and increasing structure stability.
What is geosynthetics?
Geosynthetics are materials designed for securing an engineering project durability. They may be made of polymers, fiber glass or composite materials and are utilized in various areas of construction including road construction and infrastructural projects.
Geosynthetics use in construction of connecting roads to railroad infrastructure enables solving a number of important issues:
- Soil reinforcement. Geosynthetics allow soil reinforcement and prevention of its shear under loads from trains and other heavy equipment.
- Reliability increase. The usage of geosynthetics increases reliability of connecting roads, lowering the risk of damage and securing a structure durability.
- Drainage improvement. Some geosynthetics types enable improvement of soil draining properties, which is particularly important under conditions of high humidity or heavy precipitation.
- Saving time and resources. Geosynthetics use allows reduction of construction time and the volume of required resources through process optimization and lower requirement of costly engineering.
Geosynthetics selection
Selection of relevant geosynthetics is particularly important for securing durability and stability of connecting roads to railway infrastructure. Woven geotextile and volumetric geogrids stand out in the variety of available options thanks to their unique properties and benefits.
Woven geotextile is made by bonding of synthetic fibers that provides it with high tensile strength and durability. Geotextile use in construction of connecting roads to railway infrastructure has several essential aspects:
- High mechanical strength: Woven geotextile has high resistance to tear and mechanical damage, which is critically important for withstanding railway transport heavy loads.
- Soil stabilization: This material provides effective soil stabilization, preventing its wash-out and erosion, which enables keeping the shape of a connecting road intact.
- Filtering properties: Woven geotextile has excellent filtering properties enabling water evacuation and preventing a drainage system clogging and deterioration.
Woven geotextile is represented by Geospan GT PP and Geospan PET in Geospan range. They are effectively used in acid and alkaline soils. Moreover, they are resistant to impacts of UV rays, water, fungi, rodents, insects, plant roots, vibration, temperature drops and other external impacts.
Volumetric geogrid
Volumetric geogrid is another important element in the range of geosynthetics for reinforcement of connecting roads.
- Weak soil reinforcement: Geogrid is a 3D structure integrated with and reinforcing soil thus increasing a road bearing capacity.
- Counter-erosive effect: Geogrid structure effectively reduces the surface water flow rate thus preventing erosion of the soil around railways.
- Counter-erosive effect: Geogrid structure effectively reduces the surface water flow rate thus preventing erosion of the soil around railways.
Volumetric geogrid is represented by Geospan GC (GCP) in Geospan range. Its effectiveness has been proven by many years of application in construction of connecting roads to railway infrastructure, including erosion protection of embankment slopes, protection of inundated embankments against base destruction, and reinforcement of weak embankment foundations.
Conclusions
Geosynthetics add up to effective solutions to reinforcement of connecting roads to railway infrastructure with their durability ensured. Their use allows lowering of damage risks, increase in structure reliability and decrease in construction and maintenance costs. Introduction of advanced geosynthetics technologies in infrastructural projects is an important step toward stability and safety of railroad transport.
