The UAE is planning the development of an extensive national railway system (Etihad Rail) connecting the country’s principal commercial, industrial, and residential hubs through a state-of-the-art freight and passenger network. Even though the railway has several advantages over roads, there are major drawbacks, such as maintenance costs due to track deterioration, which limits its implementation. In particular, ballast, a layer consisting of coarse angular aggregates placed underneath the sleepers, and a vital component of railway tracks as it provides stability and drainage is the main cause of track maintenance needs. The main objective of SUPERTRACK is to engineer new high-performance, sustainable ballast to drastically increase the lifespan of the track, decrease the level of maintenance, and potentially the level of noise and vibration. Lab testing of locally available natural and recycled materials, and smart technologies will be used together with constitutive and finite element modeling to develop enhanced solutions.
