Criticality Assessment of Railway Bridges

Abstract

The paper Criticality Assessment of Railway Bridges presents current research results at the University of Zilina. Transport as part of the critical infrastructure of the state is one of the key sectors. Rail transport is one of the critical infrastructure subsectors, consisting of point, line and area objects. Rail bridges and tunnels are currently one of the most important railway infrastructures. Their disruption or failure could lead to the cessation of rail transport on the route involved and the consequent complicated provision of alternative transport. In the case of international routes, this situation would lead to significant economic losses and a negative impact on the transport serviceability of residents and freight forwarders. In order to maintain the continuity of railway transport on the most important routes, it is appropriate to identify and evaluate all critical bridges in a timely manner and to give them increased protection against identified threats. Based on this, the paper presents a tool for criterion-based assessment of the railway bridges criticality. The tool is based on the evaluation of technical and economic parameters. Technical parameters are e.g. the bridging height, the length of the bridge object, the load of the bridge object, the number of pillars, the material of the bridge object or the age of the bridge object. On the other hand, the economic parameters are focused on the economic losses or the intensity of traffic on the bridge object from the point of view of the economy or the number of transported persons. The combination of these parameters allows the evaluator to analyse the criticality of railway bridges both in terms of their structure and social contribution.