In a sustainable society, rail transport of passenger and goods will need to grow, almost certainly by increasing axle loads and train speeds & frequency. The aim of the EU 6th Framework funded project Sustainable Bridges - Assessment for Future Traffic Demands and Longer Lives is to prepare the
whole railway bridge related supply chain for this challenge.
This is being done by improving existing analysis and resistance assessment methods, creating new testing and monitoring systems and investigating novel repair and strengthening techniques that require less disruption to traffic during implementation. The residual lifetime of existing bridges should also be increased by enhanced analysis, strengthening and repair systems.
The project, which started in December 2003 and will finish in late 2007, is divided into 9 Work Packages with 26 technical and scientific partners from 12 countries cooperating under the guidance of six European rail authorities. The new methods developed by the project, and the results of trial applications carried out on existing bridges will be presented and discussed during the conference.
The conference is addressed to all parts of the bridge supply chain: owners, consultants, contractors and researchers as well as to all other bodies involved in the process of bridge management.
