The Betuweroute is a double track freight railway line under construction connecting the world port of Rotterdam to the European hinterland. The western part of this 160 kilometres of new railway line runs through densely populated, the typically Dutch polder areas. The soil conditions in this area are very poor. Due to political debates, resulting in serious delays, short construction times were required. A traditional embankment of sand fill was preferred, however at the start of the project it was uncertain whether stability and settlement requirements could be met. Further the new embankment had to be constructed parallel to an existing railway line and the important A15/E31 motorway. To deal with these risks an extensive online monitoring program was developed to enable the practical use of the observational method. The online monitoring approach, as an integral part of the risk management system, enabled a significant reduction of total project costs. Monitoring data, which partially has been collected fully automated, was stored in a central database. Software tools were developed to present the monitoring data in a ready to interpret format. To serve the many parties involved in the project the database could be assessed from virtually everywhere using internet technology. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.
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