Additive Construction: Digital Construction Technology for Polylactide Railroad Tracks

In contrast to traditionally manufactured railroad tracks, additively constructed railroad tracks can be designed to integrate with naturally occurring landscapes and topographical features, thus reducing earthwork efforts and minimizing material waste, and making the enterprise of railroad construction more sustainable and cost-effective. Furthermore, by using such three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, rail track construction can effectively benefit from futuristic and transformative digital construction (DC) technologies for effective construction management and project delivery. In this paper, the additive construction (AC) and DC of rail tracks is explored, and a pathway to full digital manufacture is suggested. Prototype tracks using polylactide (PLA) for micro-people movers were additively printed and load tested to illustrate the challenges of onsite AC, and how the additive and digital construction framework may be used for offering problem solutions.