Civil Engineering Faculty Publications
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
8-27-2026
Abstract
The United States railway is a critical part of the national infrastructure and economy. Heatwaves are a major weather event that can cause major disruptions and affect the stable operation of the railway. Failure in part of the rail network may have a ripple effect on the rest of the network. As such, there is a need to study the effect of weather on rail networks that require re-routing. The goal of this paper is to investigate the vulnerability of the contiguous United States rail infrastructure against disruptions to operations caused by extreme heat events. This goal is achieved by developing a computational model that utilizes a graph theory approach combined with risk analysis to study the vulnerability of rails based on the difference between their Rail Neutral Temperature (RNT) and the temperature using extreme heat events. In addition, the model can quantify the impact of failure, considering the extra travel distances of alternative routes. Ultimately, the model can identify rail segments with high severity which can support decisions to improve rail segments, build new alternative routes, and accordingly increase the overall resilience of the rail infrastructure.
Recommended Citation
Gutierrez, Gabby, Gasser G. Ali, and Constantine Tarawneh. "Evaluating the Impacts of Extreme Temperature Events on the US Rail Network." In Construction Research Congress 2026, pp. 85-94. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784487006.009
First Page
85
Publication Title
Construction Research Congress 2026 Advanced Technologies Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics in Construction Selected Papers from Construction Research Congress 2026
Streaming Media
DOI
10.1061/9780784487006.009
Comments
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