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Engineering

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

2013

Infrastructure

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Should Users Pay The Toll For Australia's Infrastructure Problem?, Garry Bowditch Jan 2013

Should Users Pay The Toll For Australia's Infrastructure Problem?, Garry Bowditch

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Australia spends more on infrastructure today than at any stage in its history. Yet governments are unable to meet demand and don't expect ever to do so. What can governments do to keep up with escalating demand and community expectations for infrastructure? Reserve Bank assistant governor Philip Lowe says tolls and levies could be the answer to more efficiently funding the transport infrastructure we need - infrastructure he says would boost productivity and improve living standards. Tolls are just one issue likely to be debated as part of the Productivity Commission's current inquiry into infrastructure costs, which is considering how …


Australia's Infrastructure Cost Conundrum, Garry Bowditch Jan 2013

Australia's Infrastructure Cost Conundrum, Garry Bowditch

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Infrastructure is about the long-term growth and prosperity of a nation, but Australia will get very little of this benefit if the cost of building it continues to rapidly escalate. Australia is becoming increasingly uncompetitive in design and delivery of major projects. This is an unacceptable situation, and a newly commissioned multi-state inquiry by the SMART Infrastructure Facility will identify the key causes and make recommendations to help secure better value for taxpayers' money. Australian jurisdictions have experienced sharp rises in the cost of delivering mega-projects. In the pre-GFC mining construction boom period of the mid-2000s construction costs were 20-30% …


Rail Track Infrastructure For Enhanced Speed - Analysis Design And Construction Challenges, Buddhima Indraratna, Sanjay Shrawan Nimbalkar, Jayan Sylaja J S Vinod Jan 2013

Rail Track Infrastructure For Enhanced Speed - Analysis Design And Construction Challenges, Buddhima Indraratna, Sanjay Shrawan Nimbalkar, Jayan Sylaja J S Vinod

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Rail is one of the largest transportation modes offering freight and passenger traffic in rapidly developing nations, including India. Conscious efforts to improve productivity, modernization and technology upgrading have led to an impressive growth in railways. Large-scale physical modeling, sophisticated numerical modeling and full-scale field monitoring often provide significant knowledge to better understand track performance and to extend the current state-of-the-art in design. A series of large-scale laboratory tests were conducted to establish relationships between (i) ballast breakage and train speed, (ii) ballast fouling and strength and (iii) interface strength and geogrids. Comprehensive field trials were carried out on instrumented …