Developments in Road Pavement Construction and Railway Track Technology for a Sustainable Surface Transportation Infrastructure

During the last three decades synergetic effects between road and railway track technology was utilised to implement and improve ballastless track technology especially for high-speed railway lines. But implementation of road pavement technologies into railway engineering also requires certain modifications and adaptations with respect to the special and mostly sharper requirements of railway tracks especially for high speed networks. The main feature of ballastless track structures is the elastic connection between rails and treated layers (asphalt or concrete), which also define the bearing capacity for road pavements. The main design characteristics and properties of ballastless tracks to handle the given vertical and horizontal loading are shown as well as the experiences on ballastless track technology. Asphalt and concrete pavement technologies have been successfully adopted from road construction into main line tracks and urban rail- transportation networks which fosters further developments to fit with the demands of the future society.