Geomorphotechnical Map for Railway Mainline Infrastructure Improvement. A case study from Romania

Railway mainline improvement along critical sectors with high gradients and affected by natural hazards is a tough objective to be achieved by engineering projects. The present paper analyses a typical section of the Romanian railway network, where an old technical solution (within 8 km of rail there are eight curve sectors, 170-250 m in radius each and with gradients as high as 25-27‰.) limited the efficiency of rail traffic. The main cause for accident instances and increased maintenance costs over this section used to be line configuration but, recently, landslide occurrences definitely became a factor worth weighting upon in infrastructure planning as they are known to have interrupted the traffic for months. The geomorphotechnical map (focuses on engineering works as an indicator of major geomorphic limitations) was validated with the help of field data and the geotechnical diagram analysis. The objective is mapping and analysis of the relationship between railway infrastructure and morphodynamic features in order to obtain a map of a practical significance. Our study concludes by proposing new solutions for traffic improvement considering that this section will be a section of the Southern Branch of the IV-th Pan European Corridor, connecting Central Europe to Turkey and Greece.