Globally, governments face the challenge of meeting modern transportation requirements including interconnectivity, reliability, safety and resilience of infrastructure networks.
Geotechnics of Transport Infrastructure
Green and resilient transport infrastructure
This includes the use of novel materials to meet environmental sustainability requirements to reducing urban heat island effects from transportation infrastructure.
This research theme focuses on fundamental and applied global and national research challenges at each stage of the modernised transportation life cycle from innovative design, novel materials, and modern construction technologies to accommodate increased traffic capacity while improving safety, stability and liveability standards.
Key focus areas
- Behaviour of roads and rail substructure including field, laboratory testing, and prototype physical modelling
- Advanced material characterisation and processing techniques
- energy-absorbing properties of track substructure
- use of marginal fills such as coal-wash and slag in lieu of natural aggregates
- particle interlocking via geogrids for improved stability
- effective ground improvement methods including vacuum consolidation, dynamic compaction, chemical treatment and bio-stabilisation.
Applications: (a) coal wash as road substructure and (b) use of geo-composite to stabilise rail track.
