RAIL.ONE Group, the leading international manufacturer of concrete sleepers, as well as systems provider for railway tracks, has further consolidated its market presence in Asia by winning new contracts and projects in South Korea.
CONTRACT FOR SUPERVISION
For the second section of the high-speed rail line from Seoul to Busan – known as the Kyungbu Line – RAIL.ONE, with home office in Neumarkt, Germany, recently won a contract for supervision services. Up to five supervisors will provide support in the areas of project management, track construction, surveying, sleeper installation and rail welding. The first engineers will begin their work in October of 2007, and are scheduled to complete their efforts around the middle of 2009.
All services will be provided as part of track construction for the Kyungbu Line, Phase 2, Project Section 4. The RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system will be installed in this area over a section approximately 60 km long.
CONTRACT FOR THE DELIVERY OF CONCRETE BI-BLOCK SLEEPERS
As contracted by Sampyo E&C, the RAIL.ONE Group will supply around 150,000 concrete bi-block sleepers from the RHEDA 2000 system, for construction of the high-speed line from Seoul to Busan.
Production of the sleepers will take place in the recently completed production plant in Sangju, in the province of Gyeongsangbuk-do, in the southern half of Korea. The rail fastening system SFC from Pandrol will also be used for the first time.
ASIAN SUCCESS FOR BALLASTLESS TRACK
For RAIL.ONE GmbH these two contracts represent a significant success for its ballastless track technology in Asia. Richard Ziegler, CEO of RAIL.ONE, and his management colleague Hans Bachmann, responsible for sales, are all the more pleased with these two contracts: “By combination of supervision and sleeper delivery, we can provide support services for planning and extending to installation, to achieve uniformly high quality.”
This has highly encouraged the company, especially with respect to award of Project Section 5 of the Kyungbu Line, as well as additional projects in South Korea.
THE RHEDA 2000 BALLASTLESS TRACK SYSTEM
The RHEDA 2000 ballastless track system represents the top development stage of the RHEDA family. Its essential enhancement with respect to the previous track models is in the new application of an especially adapted bi-block lattice-truss sleeper, as well as in the combination of infill concrete and a reinforced trough slab to provide a homogeneous concrete track-supporting layer.
Together with the concrete bed that encloses them, the concrete sleepers – featuring non-prestressed-reinforcement – accordingly create a quasi-monolithic structure: a model that can be uniformly implemented with a minimum of structural height on all track substructure suited for non-ballasted tracks.
As a result of its end-to-end system technology, the RHEDA 2000 ballastless track system is effectively suited for application on earth sub-base, over bridges, in tunnels, as well as throughout turnout zones. In installation areas sensitive to vibrations, RHEDA 2000 can be executed with a spring-mass system. As a result of the mass of the concrete track system, supported as it is on elastic damper elements, vibrations acting on the surroundings are eliminated or reduced.
ABOUT RAIL.ONE
RAIL.ONE, previously known as Pfleiderer track systems, conducts business with the goal of providing comprehensively oriented systems and engineering for the entire field of railway tracks and their many and varied requirements. With its patented RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system, the company has also achieved an internationally leading position in the area of high-speed rail transportation.
In addition, RAIL.ONE manufactures main-track and turnout sleepers made of concrete. In these areas, RAIL.ONE GmbH – in close collaboration with its customers and partners – as one-stop supplier performs all activities involved in product development, manufacture, and application of concrete sleepers: beginning with engineering; including production, supply, and lo-gistics; and extending to quality management.
With its plants in Germany, China, South Korea, Romania, Spain, and Hungary, RAIL.ONE annually produces more than 2.5 million main-track sleepers, as well as over 600,000 liner metres of turnout sleepers. In 2006, the company achieved annual sales of approximately €150 million.