Austrak, Laing O’Rourke, and USQ Collaborate

Austrak, Laing O’Rourke and the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) have joined forces to develop polymer composite solutions for bridge transoms in a US$ 10 million project titled Polymer Composite Transoms for Rail Bridge Deck Replacement (CompTrans). The consortium secured $3 million grant funding from the Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre Projects (CRC-P) initiative to increase innovation and develop new technologies for industries in Australia. The fiber reinforced polymer composites will replace traditional timber bridge transoms, which are subject to warping and rotting, proving costly and disruptive due to constant repair. Austrak General Manager, Murray Adams, said they were looking forward to exploring the use of polymer composites for railway transoms and sleepers as a commercially viable alternative. The project will build on existing research at USQ’s Centre for Future Materials to commercialize materials and manufacturing technologies where it has been proven that strategically using polymer composites, results in sleeper/transom technology that requires significantly less volume of material whilst complying with all strength and stiffness requirements of a railway system.