QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE

The rail line Stuttgart-Mannheim is approximately 99 kilometres long and one of the first high-speed rail lines in Germany that is authorised for up to 280 km/h. It was built between 1976 and 1991 and put into operation in 1991. Due to the high speed the wear of rails, but also of sleepers and of the underground structure is much higher than in normal rail traffic. After 25 years it was thus time to renovate and replace individual points and rail sections – and everything had to be finished during 664 hours complete shutdown of the rails.

FIRE AT THE POINTS FACTORY OF DB NETZ AG IN WITTEN

After work preparation was finished, we were notified on 23rd July 2015 that a production hall at the point factory Witten was burning. At that moment we did not yet realise, what effects this fire would have for us on our construction site. One week after that we were invited for an emergency meeting at DB Netz AG in Karlsruhe. It is important to know that for construction sites of DB Netz AG the construction material, like for example ballast, sleepers, rails, as well as points are delivered by the customer. During this meeting we were thus informed that a total of eight points and six rail expansion joints would not be produced in time. Due to the fire and the re-planning of delivery dates of points the master plan was completely scrambled. We were obliged to develop a new time schedule, taking into account the omitted performances. After re-planning was terminated, the first works could begin on 17th August 2015.

COMPLETE SHUTDOWN BETWEEN VAIHINGEN/ENZ AND KRAICHTAL

The first shutdown state included the renewal of 14 points. The section between Vaihingen/Enz and Kraichtal was completely shut down for 336 hours to do this. During this time, the gangs of Track Construction were busy all around the clock, in order to replace the 14 points, four of which were exceptional of the form EW 60 – 2500 with 30 tons own weight each, as well as approximately 8,000 tons of old ballast. This was only possible thanks to the intensive performance of our machine operators, who proved their efficiency with seven road rail excavators and one loading caterpillar. But also the colleagues in the field Track Construction Engineering carried out their work drawing on their experience and transported the pre-assembled points precisely to the planned installation sites by means of the track construction crane KRC 1200. After the professional fitting and installation by our track construction employees, the specialists of the tamping machine could align the points to the correct height and direction. After the points were situated at the correct site to the millimetre, our welders marched up, in order to weld a total of 274 rail joints.

COMPLETE AND PARTIAL SHUTDOWN BETWEEN VAIHINGEN/ ENZ AND SCHWIEBERDINGEN

During the second shutdown stage, six points of the type 1200 were renewed in the Markstein tunnel in Vaihingen/Enz during 216 hours complete shutdown. In advance the ballast on the Enztal bridge was cleaned, processed and complemented, on a section of 3 km, during a shutdown of one half of the track. Our track construction train UM 2 “Schwobapfeil“ replaced the 3 km of track during the subsequent complete shutdown. For the renewal of the points in Vaihingen four pre-assembled points were transported from the assembly site in Kraichtal to the site of installation by rail vehicle. Two further points were dismounted to a large part, as the substructure needed to be improved by means of a formation protection layer. After that, the old points were re-installed, as the newly ordered points had been destroyed by the fire in Witten.