UST: News

11 September 2001

Took part in the work of the International Scientific-Practical Conference "City-forming Technologies of the 21st century"

Staff members of "Unitsky SPC" Company took part in the work of the problem and thematic section "Transportation, roads, bridges, tunnels and communications" held within the framework of the international scientific-practical conference "City-forming Technologies of the 21^st Century" in the Conference-hall of "Transstroi" Corporation.

Chairman of the section was Mr. Vladimir Brezhnev, President of "Transstroi" Corporation.

Executive Secretary - Sergei Vlasov, Executive Director of Tunnel Association of Russia, Academician, Academy of Transportation of Russia.

Report: "UST - a city-forming technology of the 21^st century" was presented by Deputy General Designer of "Unitsky SPC".

Participants of the section included more than 80 higher officials and professionals from various organizations and enterprises of Russia, Sweden, Germany.

In the course of the Conference experts of "Unitsky SPC" arranged an exhibition to demonstrate an operational UST model, passenger modules and separate components of a track structure. The report and exhibition aroused great interest among the professionals of the Corporation and other participants of the international Conference.

Based on the outcomes of the section discussions it was decided to include in the final Resolution a proposal recognizing a UST as one of the most promising modes of off-street urban and suburban transportation. The final resolution of the conference was submitted to the Government of Moscow.

International scientific-practical conference "City-forming Technologies of the 21^st Century was devoted to the 300^th anniversary of the system of engineering and technical education in Russia.

The Conference was organised by the Government of Moscow, World Federation of Engineering Organisations, International and Russian Unions of Scientific and Engineering Public Organizations with the appropriate support provided by UNESCO, Government of Russia, Russian Ministry of Education, Ministry for Industry and Science of Russia, Ministry of Energy, Rosaviacosmos, Russian Academy of Science, Academy of Engineering Sciences of the Russian Federation, Association of Technical Universities, Association of Engineering Education of Russia, Russian Union for the Development of Scientific Cities, "Transstroi" Corporation, State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman, Russian Chemical Technological University named after D.I. Mendeleyev, leading scientific-production associations and educational institutions of Moscow.

Theses of the report "UST - a city-forming technology of the 21^st century"

A UST is a new transportation system having no analogues in the world. Academician Anatoly Yunitskiy, the author of the system has been involved in the design and development works for more than 20 years. There is a great number of publications and monographs devoted to UST. In 1998-2000 a grant was allocated for the implementation of design and development works for UST within the framework of the United Nations Centre for Human settlements (Habitat) project. It is planned to promote the work for the UN Programme in 2002-2004. Support to the development of a UST was given by the RF Ministry of Transportation and Administration of Moscow Region.

A UST section with the total length of 150 m was manufactured and its installation is close to completion in the town of Ozyory in Moscow Region.

Key Engineering Concept. To a first approximation, a UST seems to be similar to a cable road in which a straight rail is fixed above the cables with the supports of variable height. However, in order to achieve a many-fold increase in the carrying capacity of such system the cables and a rail-tube are to be pre-stressed. Cables made of the high-strength wire of 4-5 mm diameter are installed in a hollow rail-tube. Its internal space is filled with pressurized high-strength concrete with special additions which in the course of solidification creates additional radial stress of the rail-tube. A system of stretching devices helps to achieve the required rigidity of a track structure which exceeds that of the ordinary bridge structures. Pre-stressed rail-strings are fixed by anchor supports located at the distance of 1-2 km from one another and capable to bear horizontal and vertical load; there are also intermediate supports installed every 50-100 meters and capable to bear only vertical loads.

Place of a UST in the transportation structure of a megalopolis. There is a currently observed worldwide trend towards the restricted construction of heavy metro and simultaneous development of economically efficient, environmentally friendly, practically noiseless, comfortable light rail transportation (LRT) which in many cases also becomes a decoration of streets. Developers of a UST regard the proposed system as a considerable supplement to other transportation systems already operating or proposed.

A special emphasis in the report is made on the UST advantages as compared with other transportation means and, in particular, its small land requirements (0.01-0.02 ha/km) for the installation of foundations for the supports, a possibility to build above-street routes (second transportation floor not disturbing the ground transportation system).

State-of-art with the development works. By the present time the following works have been implemented:

Project investigations were carried out to test track structures and transportation modules for various purposes (passenger and freight) and various climatic conditions;
Mathematical models for a track structure and transportation module suspensions, and computerised models were prepared to examine the system's behavior in terms of its dynamics at low (under 150 km/hour) and high (up to 400 km/hour) travel speeds;
Demonstration models were produced including an operational UST model with the length of 100 m at scale 1:5;
Principal full-scale fragments of a track structure were manufactured and tested; tests proved the theoretical statements of a high carrying capacity of a track structure;
Technical proposals were made to build a pilot-experimental section of a UST in Krasnoyarsk Krai;
A full-scale stand of a 150 m track structure was built in the town of Ozyory in Moscow Region; assembly of auxiliary stand components is close to completion;
A special "Rail-wheel" stand is under construction to test the system dynamics at high speeds;
A stand model for a future internal-combustion engine is under preparation which is characterised by the improved energy and ecological characteristics as compared with the current level.

On the whole, the development level of a UST makes it possible to start construction of routes of any length and any purposes using traditional and new tested engineering solutions.

Conclusion. Development of a UST opens up one of the most promising directions in the promotion of advanced transport-building which is attributed to its relatively low construction costs and a possibility to pay back the expenses, its profitability determined by passenger flows, etc., a possibility to create new job opportunities.

It is expected that a UST will find its niche among other existing modes of transportation and will make it possible to ease the traffic load during the rush hours and to improve transportation service between a megalopolis and satellite towns.