Causes of Misalignment of Concrete Tracks in Railroad Tunnels in Cold Weather

Abstract

For railway tunnels, concrete tracks are better than gravel tracks in terms of their life cycle cost (LCC), which includes initial construction and maintenance costs. Concrete tracks should have high-quality roadbed corresponding to the high-performance superstructure with high rigidity and high quality. Low-quality concrete tracks are more likely to be damaged due to the uplift deformation of the roadbed. In particular, some sections of railway tunnels where inverted concrete is not installed, misalignment occurs in some cases due to roadbed elevation. Because of these track misalignments, the operation speed of trains is limited in some sections of public railway tunnels, which causes problems in railway operation. Therefore, in this study, track misalignment and floor elevation are measured for a target railway tunnel; the inflow of groundwater is confirmed through drilling. In addition, rainfall and temperature data are analyzed using data from the Korea Meteorological Administration.