Traffic has increased tremendously in recent years and it will no doubt continue growing even more in the future: Moving from place to place has to happen faster and more efficiently. Growth of transportation of goods and passengers, increasing demand for energy-efficiency and therefore demand to reduce emissions are key factors when finding solutions to development of modern infrastructure.

All these requirements lead to a higher demand for more load capacity of cargo or passenger ships and railway wagon underframes, more efficient and effective structures of railways and bridges, and new approaches to utilize geography in more eco-friendly ways. Establishing, building and maintaining modern infrastructure is challenging especially in high-speed rail (HSR) structures due to the significantly faster speed of rail transportation.

It can be said that the railway construction has earlier been dominated by facts relating to the manufacturers of electrical-, electronic- and maglev-technologies, but the proper track construction technology has been underdeveloped. Large track construction investment cost per length indicates that the political variables or public policy has been strongly involved in the railway construction in addition to economic variables.

Construction industry in general demands for a new kind of culture and system that will be safer and better performing in every way. The need for more advanced steel frames in buildings have increased remarkably due to the demand for sustainability in structures. But it is no doubt a fact that current steel solutions are not fulfilling all characteristics of a modern safe structure: Improvements in steel frames has to be made. Sustainability is also a key element when discussing about structures of windmills where nacelle’s weight or tower’s resonance with the wind has caused issues.