Deteriorating railway and metro lines from increased use calls for renewal of tracks, but with only short service breaks available.
To extend the life-cycle of the track, the conversion of existing ballasted tracks into slab tracks during renewal provides a significant advantage for railway operators around the world.
Usually, existing tracks face a high traffic flow, and for renewal works only short service breaks during night times are available.
To allow slab track construction in concrete design during short closures, it is necessary to use as many prefabricated elements as possible in order to minimise work on-site and enhance quality.
For this purpose, Sonneville AG has developed a concrete slab track solution combining pre-assembled short concrete panels with the advantages of the LVT slab track system: LVT Panel.
As the first reference in the Swiss Federal Railways network, ten LVT Panels were installed at the beginning of December 2017, each with four LVT standard supports, manufactured by Vigier Rail, during the rehabilitation of the Axentunnel on the access route to Ceneri and Gotthard Base Tunnels.
The advantages of LVT Panel include:
- Use of the approved LVT system
- LVT supports integrated in a concrete panel
- Short concrete panels holding 4 supports for easy transport and installation
- One basic design for all track geometries
- Fast installation procedure in short closures
- Reduced need of in-situ concrete on site
- Immediate operation with temporarily reduced speed
- Full vibration attenuation performance of LVT system
- Functional drainage