Road, Railway, Airport Laboratory

The laboratory

One of the main objectives of the Roads, Railways and Airports Laboratory is to provide third parties with opinions on the suitability or otherwise of materials to be used in the construction of civil engineering structures and transport infrastructures.

The Roads Railways Airports Laboratory is authorized by law to issue official certificates, in compliance with Italian and European acceptance standards regarding the quality of materials used in the construction of civil engineering works and for transport infrastructures.
To this end, the Roads, Railways, Airports Laboratory has traditional and advanced instruments for:
  • the study and characterization of earth and stone aggregates
  • the study and quality verification of bituminous conglomerate mixtures
  • the study and quality control of concrete mixes
  • on-site control of the characteristics of the materials used
  • high-performance tests for the detection of functional parameters (adhesion, regularity, load-bearing capacity) of road superstructures

The research

The Roads, Railways, Airports Laboratory operates as a research facility in the field of soils for applications in transport infrastructures, as well as in the field of characterization of bituminous conglomerates, of their constituent elements (inert and binder), cement and bituminous mixtures, up to the monitoring of the functionality parameters (adherence, regularity, load-bearing capacity) of road superstructures (through high-performance tests).

The integrated use of innovative techniques and instruments, available at the Laboratory, allows for a complete knowledge framework of the degradation of materials used in road infrastructures, also through the execution of traffic surveys with the aid of automatic vehicle flow detectors.
The previous lines of research have recently been joined by the investigation of advanced maintenance techniques for road and railway structures (bridges, viaducts, junctions, etc.) in order to develop extensive intervention techniques capable of requalifying and re-functionalizing the infrastructure assets. This field of research requires the identification of innovative techniques and technologies that are only possible through experimentation and simulation of the behavior of materials in highly specialized laboratories.

Services

The Laboratory routinely carries out tests on behalf of third parties for companies and public and private clients. On some occasions of particular technical and scientific importance, collaboration agreements, research protocols and others are signed, among which an excerpt is reported below.

  • Laboratory testing and investigation service for the works to speed up the Palermo – Agrigento railway line, Lercara Friddi construction site. UNIKORE / Cariboni Strade e Gallerie Spa agreement (2012)
  • Technical-scientific collaboration with the Technical Offices of the Regional Province of Trapani (TP) in order to proceed with the study of the geometric and functional requalification of the SP21 intersection at the access to the Trapani Birgi Airport “V. Florio – UNIKORE/Province of Trapani Agreement (2013)
  • NOISE MONITORING SERVICE as part of the preliminary consolidation and static safety works for the development of the basin and subsequent investigations and checks preparatory to the general project for the completion of the 150,000 dwt Dry Dock – Palermo Port Authority (2015)
  • Technical Assistance of the “Laboratorio di Strade Ferrovie Aeroporti” aimed at guaranteeing the quality of the structural reinforcement interventions carried out during the years 2017 and 2018 on the flight infrastructures of the Palermo Falcone Borsellino Airport. Two-year Memorandum of Understanding UNIKORE / GESAP (2017-2018)
  • Laboratory activity for mix design of aggregates for a plant located in c.da Ficilino in the Municipality of Nicosia (EN) – One-year research agreement UNIKORE / Nord Sud Impianti (2020)
  • Scientific support and investigation activities during the construction site for the works of “structural rehabilitation of the Euno viaduct and the ramps of the Enna junction at km 120+00 of the A19 Palermo – Catania” – Unikore/Anas Research Protocol (2021)

Contacts and where we are

Organization

The Roads Railways Airports Laboratory is part of the Kore Platform research facility at the Santa Panasia campus of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. The Structure Manager is assisted by the Laboratory Manager; the latter coordinates the activities of the test personnel.

Contacts

Roads, Railways and Airports Laboratory
areadidatticaericerca@unikore.it
0935 536356

Site

Kore Platform Building – Santa Panasia Science and Technology Center, 94100 – Enna