Geogrid reinforced railway embankment on piles- Monitaring
Abstract
To cross an area of deep, soft, organic soil deposits in northern Germany, the embankment of a double track trunk railway line is founded on cast iron piles and concrete pile caps. The embankment has a height of 2.5 m, it is reinforced by 3 layers of polyester geogrids. The performance of the reinforcerment and of the piles is monitored by strain gauges, rod extensometers, acceleration transducers and conventional surveying. The first part of the geogrid reinforced embankment has been in service for more than 2 years. The measurements reveal the anticipated deformations and satisfactory performance of the novel structure.
Conclusion
For a geogrid reinforced railway embankment founded on piles, a monitoring program was developed and implemented. Since almost two years, the instrumentation has performed very well and yielded reliable data for the evaluation of the performance of the geogrid reinforced structure. The measurements indicate that the structure responds to the dead and live loads in a satisfactory manner, and that a sufficient margin of safety with respect to stability as well as adequate servicebility can be assigned to the geogrid reinforced embankment.