Canadian Rail Research Laboratory

Congratulations Mona Ahmadirad, PhD, EIT on your latest journal publication.

The Canadian Railway Ground Hazard Research Program (RGHRP) has been at the forefront of geohazard research, bringing together academia, industry, and government to enhance railway safety and resilience. It includes partnerships between Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPKC), Transport Canada (Transport Canada - Transports Canada), Geological Survey of Canada, University of Alberta (UAlberta Geotechnical Centre), Queen’s University, University of Saskatchewan, École de technologie supérieure and several other private consulting collaborators. In February, the Geotechnical Centre hosted the RGHRP annual workshop; the presentations are now available through the RGHRP Website. https://lnkd.in/gEbGSEk7 #engineering #railway #groundhazard #geotechnical

A group of graduate students have just completed two weeks of spring research, covering four research projects and 13 different rock slope sites. They used a combination of remote sensing techniques, including UAV (drone) photogrammetry, terrestrial LiDAR, and GigaPan photography. The aim is to use this data to identify rockfalls or slope instabilities that have occurred over the winter. The last surveys were conducted in the Fall of 2024. I, Jen Stogowski, had the pleasure of joining them for the first week of their fieldwork. I had the opportunity to assist the students and learn more about their research projects firsthand. This allowed me to observe and ask questions, which opened up the dialogue to discuss safety practices with the students. We discussed hazards at each location and identified areas that could be improved, discussing together how we would implement those improvements. Essa Gierc, Julian Solano, Weiwei Han, Swarna Bhowmick, Renato Macciotta #safetyculture #fieldwork #safety #research #photogrammetry #slopemonitoring #geotech

Exciting news to share! We’re kicking off a new collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Satellite InSAR has become a vital tool for proactive geohazard monitoring. However, in heavily vegetated regions like Western Canada, traditional C-band data can fall short. That’s where L-band radar such as ALOS-2 comes in. Its longer wavelengths can penetrate canopy, making it ideal for these conditions. At Canadian Rail Research Laboratory, we’ll be using our in-house InSAR processing code, iNFA, to analyze high-resolution ALOS-2 data graciously provided by JAXA. This is part of a broader monitoring campaign that also includes cost-effective GNSS deployments and LiDAR scans. By combining data from these different sources, we aim to gain deeper insights into the movement of landslides that threaten key railway corridors in northeastern British Columbia. I’m excited to be part of this project as a co-investigator, working alongside Drs. Hendry and Macciotta as principal investigators. I’ll be sharing updates here, so stay tuned if you’re interested. UAlberta Geotechnical Centre #JAXA #InSAR #iNFA #CaRRL #Lanslides #GeoHazards #Monitoring #LiDAR #GNSS #L_Band #UAlberta #Geotechnical #Canada #RGHRP

Congratulations to Mona Ahmadirad, PhD, EIT for successfully defending her PhD last week. It has been a privilege to have you as part of our research group and we wish you all the best on your future endeavors! Mona was Co-Supervised by Michael Hendry and Dr. Lianne Lefsrud, P.Eng. and her research was on “Impacts of the Enhanced Train Control (ETC) System on Train Operators in Canadian Railways,” integrates machine learning-driven safety analysis, human factors, and train control systems to identify key factors influencing train operator performance and assess the impact of automation on workload. Her findings support proactive risk management and human-centered automation, contributing to safer and more efficient railway operations. We would like to recognize and thank Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Transport Canada - Transports Canada, CN, and Alberta Innovates for their support. #risk #management #automation #humanfactors #railway

For 22 years, the Canadian Railway Ground Hazard Research Program (RGHRP) has been at the forefront of geohazard research, bringing together academia, industry, and government to enhance railway safety and resilience. It includes partnerships between Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPKC), Transport Canada (Transport Canada - Transports Canada), Geological Survey of Canada, University of Alberta (UAlberta Geotechnical Centre), Queen’s University, University of Saskatchewan, École de technologie supérieure and several other private consulting collaborators. Last week, we continued this tradition at our annual workshop, this time hosted by the Geotechnical Centre, which included insightful presentations from our department: 1. “Advanced space-borne monitoring using iNFA at railway corridors from British Columbia to Manitoba” by Sohrab Sharifi 2. “Leveraging deep learning to forecast time-series displacements: Insights from the case of Ripley” by Sohrab Sharifi 3. “Update on the Three Valley Gap Rock Slope Monitoring” by Essa Gierc 4. “Deformation behaviour of peat soil foundation under heavy railway loads using numerical modelling –Case study: Anzac site, Alberta, Canada” by Farshad Astaraki 5. “SparkFun V2.0: Advancing and Field Testing a Low-Cost dGNSS System” jointly presented by Lucas Vidal and Julian Solano 6. “Assiniboine River Valley CN Mile 184.4 – Residual Shear Strength Investigation and Instrumentation Update” by Ian Adams We appreciate everyone who participated and contributed to another successful RGHRP workshop. Looking forward to another year of collaboration and innovation! Sohrab Sharifi Essa Gierc Farshad Astaraki Julian Solano Lucas Vidal, E.I.T. Ian Adams

We are pleased to have been part of this collaborative project with Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), National Research Council Canada / Conseil national de recherches Canada, and Transport Canada - Transports Canada. #research #rail #transportation #transport #technology