Mitigation measures for the protection of coastal railways in the Flysch of Western Liguria

Abstract

In the countries bordered by the sea, it’s common to have an infrastructure in proximity or on the coastlines. The strategic value of transportation systems along the sea is still fundamental for commercial, emergency and touristic purposes. The sea level and the action of the sea waves are relevant issues for the safety and protection of the infrastructure. The Genova-Ventimiglia railway runs along the coast of the Liguria region of Italy. The meteoric events and the sea storms between November 2019 and June 2020 caused different issues along a stretch of the line. The paper presents the study, the planning and the design of the mitigation measures. An investigation campaign involved both the existing structures and the geological context. The structures on the sea are investigated with GPRs analyses and specific tests performed by rock-climbers during the night disruptions of the line. The geotechnical-geomechanical tests revealed a scenario with the western Liguria Flysch in different facies. ETS Srl has also implemented and deployed a marine Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) for the bathymetric survey. The processed data are integrated with the topographic survey to obtain a 3D reconstruction of both the above-sea and undersea surface. The aforementioned data are used for the study, the characterization of the materials and the design of the solution to reinforce the existing structures and mitigate the erosion effect near the line.