Supporting the long term stability and safety of the 4th Pan-European corridor
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Summary:
Romania - Curtici - Rehabilitation of Curtici-Simeria frontier railway
BontexGeo
During the a part of the rehabilitation of the 4th Pan-European Corridor over 2.000.000 m² of BS nonwoven was supplied to Romania to be used as a separation and filtration layer in order to increase the long term stability of the construction.
The 4th Pan-European corridor runs between Germany and Greece/Romania/Turkey and is part of the Pan-European corridors that improve the connectivity within Europe. Rehabilitation of these railway structures improves and ensures long term stable and safe rail traffic.
One part of the rehabilitation program was a project called ‘Rehabilitation of Curtici-Simeria Frontier Railway’, which is a component of the Pan-European corridor for trains with a maximum speed of 160 km/h running through Romania.
In order to ensure good technical conditions for the trains, that travel at speeds up to 160 km/h, across this Pan-European Corridor and a high level of safety for the rail traffic, the rehabilitation of the infrastructure is performed.
A problem that needs to be addressed in railway rehabilitation, is the so-called pumping effect. This is a complex phenomenon involving the migration of fine soft subgrade particles into the coarser ballast/sub-ballast, thus leading to a faster deterioration of the support.
As a solution Tipptex BS nonwoven geotextiles were introduced into the construction as a separation and filtration layer between the fine subgrade and the subbase. This prevents the movement of soil particles the subbase, therefore minimizing the risk of instability caused by the pumping effect and increasing the lifetime of the structure while lowering the maintenance cost.
In total over 2.000.000 m² of BS nonwoven for the project ‘Rehabilitation of Curtici-Simeria Frontier Railway’ in Romania were supplied, making it one of the biggest projects we have done up until now. A critical parameter in the successful end to this project was our ability to reliably deliver large volumes in time.