FUGRO has been awarded a contract to survey Scotland’s entire rail network to support the continued safe passage of trains. The work will see Network Rail provided with an holistic gauging database, which will include clearance data from the track to lineside structures, platforms, objects and the train-to-train passing interface.
Approximately 1750 miles will be surveyed, spanning 93 different route sections and 638 station platforms. The firm’s train-mounted RILA monitoring system will be utilised to remove the need for surveyors, thus delivering a ‘defined’ health and safety benefit with ‘unrivalled’ speed of survey data acquisition.
Engineers and asset managers will be able to view simultaneously acquired video and RILA data in a desktop environment served through an intuitive and secure web portal which integrates 2D and 3D data to provide a 3D representation or ‘track twin’ of the railway corridor.
Fugro said this is particularly pertinent to Scotland’s railway as much of the network covers remote, difficult-to-access areas. It added that the track twin will enable a range of engineering, asset management and maintenance applications – including track ballast quantity and distribution, earthworks, and vegetation management. In addition, it will also support the design of future electrification projects.
Rikkert Wienia, Fugro’s rail manager for Europe and Africa, said, “We are delighted to contribute to this valuable network resource that supports effective clearance assessment and risk management. Our RILA technology will provide Scotland’s Railway with complete up-to-date asset Geo-data to meet their gauging requirements and offer the possibility of using the same data for a range of other engineering and asset management applications.”