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USQ, Austrak and Laing O'Rourke collaborate

15 Oct '18

3 min read

Courtesy: University of Southern Queensland

The University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Austrak and Laing O’Rourke are collaborating to develop composite technology in a $10 million project. The consortium has secured $3 million grant from the Australian government Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P) initiative, to increase innovation and develop new technologies for industries in Australia.

The fibre reinforced polymer composites will replace timber bridge transoms, which are subject to warping and rotting, proving costly and disruptive due to constant repair.

Australia has the sixth largest rail network in the world and it is estimated that nearly 90 per cent of the existing timber sleepers and transoms will need replacement in the next 10 years, including the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge’s rail deck.

The project will build on existing research at USQ, to commercialise materials and manufacturing technologies where it has been proven that strategically using polymer composites resulted in sleeper technology that required significantly less volume of material whilst complying with all strength and stiffness requirements of a railway system.

USQ Professor Peter Schubel said the research partnership highlighted a successful collaboration that will bring a step-change technology to an otherwise conservative sector. “A major gap in the rail industry market was identified, leading to numerous research activities at USQ in transoms for a cost effective, robust and sustainable technology."

“By working directly with Austrak and Laing O’Rourke, we can ensure the technology is delivered at the right cost point and commercialised to its full potential to rehabilitate the nation’s rail network,” Schubel said.

“For the past 20 years, USQ has dedicated significant research effort into developing innovative sleeper and transom technologies based on polymer composite materials, so it’s extremely rewarding to see the culmination of this work formulate the design and manufacturing of this new technology,” Schubel added.

Rail sleeper and timber transom replacement is a global industry worth over $1.3 billion per year. It is projected that in the next five years, Australian rail-track asset owners will move from a traditional timber-based system (with a limited lifespan of 15 years) to that of an engineered composites system (with a lifespan of 50 years).

Austrak general manager Murray Adams said they were looking forward to exploring the use of polymer composites for railway transoms and sleepers as a commercially viable alternative. “We foresee a large demand for innovative technology to replace the traditional bridge transoms in the near future and as the largest railway sleeper producer in Australia, we’re responding to the rail sectors need for alternative materials to timber.”

“Through the CRC-P programme and in partnership with USQ and Laing O’Rourke, we would like to improve our understanding of composite technology, so that better designs can be developed to reduce the overall costs of composite transom decks and beams to the point where it is commercially viable,” Adams said. (SV)

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