Quantum Technology - Potential for Railway Infrastructure (QT-PRI)


About the project

QT-PRI is a collaboration between RSK, Atkins, Network Rail and the University of Birmingham (UoB) to establish the Quantum Technology (QT) gravity sensor market opportunities against assessment of current geophysical technologies. Our aim is to detect and assess the condition of assets buried beneath the railway network, such as the drainage network, as well as water flow through the railway earthworks. 

There are over 190,000 railway earthworks and buried assets exceeding 6,000 km. The incomplete asset inventory significantly limits the development of frameworks as investigations need to be carried out in order to determine where these assets may reside. This can have an impact on the day-to-day operational running of the rail network.
Currently, geophysical sensors are commercially used to detect the location of ducts and pipes in roads, and has limited success on the railways, but they are rarely used to detect the asset condition or the condition of the parent asset (earthwork) itself.

Therefore, QT-PRI will open up a new market for QT gravity sensors by: 

1) Assessing, in detail, the capability and limitations of QT gravity sensors by benchmarking them against current geophysical sensors for the railway environment; 

2) Increasing the marketplace for the sensors by engaging with the client base, excellent dissemination activities, and practical field demonstrations.

A member of the geophysics team at RSK undertaking a microgravity survey to determine areas of failure beneath the track.
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