The annual UIC PoSE autumn meeting took place this year in Zagreb, Croatia.
From Tuesday 17 September to Thursday 19 September 2013, 18 members of the PoSE met in Zagreb at the invitation of Croatian colleagues from HŽ Infrastruktura.
The meeting started with a normal session for project reports and information exchange on current issues.
In the morning session some colleagues from the EU SMARTRAIL project also joined the meeting and presented their project and the current status of some test sites in Croatia which were visited the next day during the traditional technical visit. In particular they explained the strengthening of the Sava Bridge in Zagreb and the reconstruction of the Ličanka Bridge.
There was very good and fruitful discussion between the PoSE and SMARTRAIL members – mostly academic experts.
In the afternoon session, at the invitation of PoSE, the Turkish Railway Organisation (TCDD) presented the construction of the new third Bosphorus Bridge near Istanbul. After the presentation there was fruitful discussion on some technical items including the load parameters and some fatigue calculation factors. PoSE commented on the choice of the alpha factor for LM71 for the calculation of the bridge. The Turkish colleagues and contractors expressed their thanks for the technical discussion and the important comments from PoSE members. TCDD will probably join PoSE in future to obtain information directly from the experts.
PoSE discussed some additional technical items and made decisions about some leaflets. Due to the very old status and the change of construction UIC leaflet 717-3 R is no longer valid and will be withdrawn. If there is a need in future the leaflet will be discussed again.
On the second day the aforementioned visits took place.
It was remarkable how the different bridges were in such good state. It was also very interesting to see the old manufacturing process of riveting. Only very few people still have this knowledge of working with glowing rivets and special techniques.
Croatian Railways will increase this construction and strengthening work on the load capacity of the bridges up to the general European level of D4 and are therefore prepared for future demands.
On the third day the last few remaining items of the agenda were discussed, in particular the connections with further European projects and work on European Standards.
The Chairman thanked the Croatian colleagues for the good organisation and the wonderful weather during the technical visits.
