Implementation of rail roughness control: how to deal with a non- ideal world

In 2015, rail roughness control was first applied on a significant scale on the Dutch conventional rail network. Due to a traffic increase between Groningen and Leeuwarden (about 60 km), the noise emission was expected to exceed the legal limits obliging ProRail to take counter measures. Traditional noise mitigation measures (noise barriers) were planned, but it takes some time before these are in effect. ProRail decided to use rail roughness control to bridge this timespan. The grinding company, the infrastructure manager and the monitoring and consultancy company together shaped a program to control the roughness. In this paper, we will show the complete process of the implementation of a rail roughness control program in a real-life situation. We specified the desired noise reduction, based on the legal requirements and translated this into a desired rail condition. We then devised and carried out a monitoring program: a combination of periodic stationary and dynamic (on-board) measurements. We will describe how we dealt with real-life situations such as changes in superstructure, bridges, switches, speed variations etc. and how the monitoring results can be communicated with the authorities, to show that the achieved rail condition is in compliance with the legal limits.