Railway subgrade using asphalt layers

In Poland, preparations are underway for the construction of High-Speed Rail (HSR). Discussions among experts and in the media primarily concern appropriate rolling stock, railway line routes, start and completion dates for construction, and, of course, financing. The author is not a specialist in this field. Their field of expertise is road pavements, especially asphalt ones. This article presents a specific issue, not addressed in media discussions, but significant for the durability of the railway lines being built – the use of asphalt layers in railway track construction.HISTORY AND FUTURE
The first high-speed railway connecting Tokyo and Osaka (the historic Tokaido Shinkansen train, also known as the bullet train, photo 1) was built in Japan and opened for use in 1964. Initially, the Shinkansen speed was 210 km/h, but it later increased to 270 km/h.
Since that date, high-speed rail lines have been built in 14 countries. The current and future state of High-Speed Rail is presented in Table 1 (Lincoln Institute report, Cambridge, USA [1]).
Photo 1. (…)

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