Prestressing systems for railroad concrete crossties originated from the need to redistribute and localize prestressing forces to regions where they are required and, thus, optimize the design and counteract the appearance of the predominant cracking patterns. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 46: Adaptive Prestressing System for Concrete Crossties: Prototype Development details a product that features railroad concrete crossties that incorp...

The Federal Railway Administration track safety standards require rigorous visual inspections of tracks based on their operating speed. These inspections can be as frequent as twice per week. They are carried out using hy-rail (highway/rail) vehicles, with the trained inspector using a set of hand tools (such as track level, string line, and gauges) to further measure locations that appear to be out of compliance. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final ...

Trespassing along railroad rights-of-way continues to be the leading cause of rail-related fatalities in the U.S., demanding innovative solutions to gain deeper insight into trespassing behaviors. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 50: An Artificial Intelligence Aided Forward-Facing Camera Video Data Analytics System for Rail Safety proposes a technology solution to improve the railroad industry’s ability to understand trespasser trends and t...

The problem of deterioration of railroad system, in particular the decay of railroad bridges, has been noted by departments of transportation. Budgets for railroad infrastructure repair and maintenance are limited, but safety of operations must be ensured. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 43: Augmenting Reality for Safer Inspections of Railroad Infrastructure and Operations explores using AR to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of monitor...

Automated detection of locomotive and train air leaks could reduce the time and labor necessary to find air leaks, reduce locomotive fuel consumption and exhaust emissions, and at the same time improve employee safety. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 48: Autonomous Detection of Compressed Air Leaks on Trains details the development of a proof-of-concept system to autonomously detect compressed air leaks on moving trains.

The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 45: Development of a Fatigue Load for Railway Bridges examines the behavior of typical railcar configurations and provides a fatigue evaluation method consistent with the loading behavior of railway equipment on bridge spans.

Spikes, together with tie plates and timber ties, are the dominant track components in North American freight railroads. Recent inspections have identified frequent broken spikes in certain tracks. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 44: Laser-Based Non-destructive Spike Defect Inspection System aims to develop a low-cost, non-destructive and contact-free intelligent inspection system, that is field-deployable on a geometry car, high-rail vehi...

Approximately 1,282 fatalities on U.S. interstate highways in 2020 were due to nighttime road departures. A new ultra-bright retroreflective lane marking tape can save lives as well as offer both a very short payback period and a very substantial benefit/cost ratio over its useful lifetime. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's NCHRP IDEA Final Report for Project 228: A Retroreflective Road Lane Marking Tape 1,000X Brighter than Existing Technology details a new product whic...

Traditionally, bridge inspectors conduct manual inspections or touch the bridges’ surface to feel their transverse displacement. In order to collect displacements from bridges, sensors are added to bridge components. However, sensor installation costs money, has safety concerns, and involves track time. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 37: Measuring Behavior of Railroad Bridges under Revenue Traffic using Lasers and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles...

Thermite weld improvement is important because it is a major concern for the North American railways and it is crucial to meet the network demands in terms of safety, reliability and ridership operations The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 38: Minimization of Weld Failures by Means of Gas and Shrinkage Porosity Reduction seeks to identify new methods for rail life extension by improving the fatigue resistance of thermite welds.