Examensarbetet ingår i den slutliga delen av kandidatutbildningen i naturresursteknik och utgör 15 högskolepoäng. Utbildningen är inriktad mot geologi och det avslutande arbetet ska ha anknytning till ämnet. Under våren 2012 presenterade representanter för LKAB förslaget att basera examensarbetet på att dokumentera hållfastheten hos bergarter från Kiirunavaaras liggvägg med hjälp av punktlasttestning. Tidigare undersökningar av hållfastheten hos bergarterna i Kiirunavaara har främst gjorts genom enaxiella tryckhållfasthetsmätningar. Det finns ett behov av att undersöka hållfastheten hos bergarterna i Kiirunavaara då gruvbrytningen sker djupare ned i jordskorpan och kraven på säkerheten ständigt ökar.

As we travel more and more by train it becomes increasingly important that the time we spend traveling, is of great quality. This has been the foundation of this master thesis and has shaped the outcome of it. The traveling experience, that is, the experience of the landscape that flashes by outside the train window, is an important aspect in railway planning and an aspect that should be taken into greater consideration. The purpose of this master thesis has been to examine how to compose or improve the travel experience for an already planned high speed railway and how the travel experience can be combined with other aspects, which have claims on the landscape. This thesis is based on a literature study and a case study of Ostlänken. The work describes Ostlänken, a planned high speed railway in Sweden between Järna and Linköping, with top speeds at 300-320 kilometers per hour.

The different material layers as part of a road construction fill all a function so theroad becomes durable, safe, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. Recently, anew group of construction materials started to play an important role in roadconstruction ? geosynthetics.This thesis addresses the two most common types ofgeosynthetics used in modern road construction, namely geogrids and geotextiles.The most common use of geogrids is reinforcement of poor subgrade by usinggeogrid soil reinforcement, which occurs when road material particles wedge inthe geogrid?s mesh. Geotextiles act partly as a barrier that prevents the finermaterial in the below ground from being mixed with coarser upper material andalso act as a load spreader.Road contractors often face a choice of whether geogrids and/or geotextiles areappropriate in a particular road project and also how much profit the choice mightbring. This phase in the tender calculation process is the intended scope of thisthesis.The thesis deals with both the "hard" cost-function aspects and the "softer" values e.g.