Railway bridge approaches under heavy axle load traffic: problems, causes, and remedies

This article presents findings from projects conducted by the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. concerning track maintenance problems associated with bridge approaches of railway track. Field tests for determining root causes of, and evaluating remedies for, such problems were conducted at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing near Pueblo, Colorado, and at a number of revenue service sites in the United States. Investigations covered ballast deck concrete bridges with concrete ties, open deck steel bridges with wood ties, and their approaches.