Feasibility Studies and Design of High-Speed Railway (TGV) Projects in Portugal

Portugal is starting a large program of high-speed train routes connecting the main cities in the country and these cities to central Europe throughout Spain. The country has a very wide range of lithological types and the main routes cross some important hilly zones. These facts, together with the severe geometric restrictions associated with the High-Speed Trains, attach an important role to Engineering Geology both at the Feasibility stage and at the Design stage of the projects. The paper illustrates this important role with examples of studies currently under way in Portugal.