The United Kingdom is experiencing a record-breaking heatwave and the rail and road infrastructure is not coping so well. Is Australia's any better?
The United Kingdom is in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave and its infrastructure is not coping so well, with rail lines expanding by as much as nine kilometres in the heat.Its railway tracks cannot cope with air temperatures above 30CBritain recorded its highest-ever temperature of 40C on Tuesday, which scorched fields and damaged airport runways, melted roads and shut train tracks.
The steel rail can expand or contract significantly in the summer and winter, pushing and pulling the railway out of shape. In some countries where the force from high temperatures cannot be contained by sleepers and ballast, they use a solid concrete slab to hold the rails in place. It also said that rails stressed to the same degree as those in very hot countries could make them less resilient to low temperatures in the winter.
By painting parts of the rails white so they absorbed less heat, analysing track stability in winter and making adjustments before the summer, the network said the rails were less likely to buckle.
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