Renewal and Rehabilitation Worksites with GCF

New projects in Grand Est and Hauts-de-France

Along Line 001 000 between Paris Est and Mulhouse-Ville, GCF S.p.A. has been engaged since the end of March in the renewal of the section between Troyes, capital of the Aube department, and the town of Bar-sur-Aube, both located in the French Grand Est region.

On the double-track line, the worksite operates at night from Monday to Friday for approximately 7 hours under simultaneous Temporary Traffic Interruptions (TTI) on both tracks, except for a few sporadic 2-hour temporary interruptions during daytime hours.

Around 40 workers are involved in the renewal of the rails on track 2 - approximately 14 km of line, between PK 245+700 and 259+709 - and in the complete replacement of rails and sleepers on both tracks, as well as ballast rehabilitation, on the sections involving 8 level crossings: nos. 133, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141 and 142.

In particular, the works will consist of the on-site unloading of Long Welded Rails (LWR), the replacement of the existing rails and the thermal adjustment of the new LWR on both rails (left and right), with approximately 200 aluminothermic welds planned.
A Matisa B50D tamping machine and a stabilizer are being used for track levelling operations. Two logistics yards have been set up in Chaumont and Bricon la Poste for housing the machinery in use, storing new rails and sleepers, stockpiling ballast and removing old rails. In Chaumont, buildings and functional areas for worksite personnel have also been installed, including offices, canteens and dormitories.
A self-contained site caravan, moved from time to time close to the active work areas, is dedicated to the daily briefings held before the start of operations. Completion of the worksite is scheduled for the first half of June.

In Hauts-de-France, rehabilitation works on Line 267 000

Meanwhile, returning from the Luxembourg worksite (7,244 metres of renewed track and 7,566 metres rehabilitated), the TR C75-2C ballast cleaning machine stopped in Hauts-de-France to operate in tandem with ETF’s renewal train (Vinci Group) on the ETF RGI Lot 4 project along Line 267 000 between Leval and Hirson. The line is already well known to GCF - Transalp Renouvellement, as it hosted in 2020 an unprecedented Suite Rapide renewal worksite where the two GCF convoys operated together as a single spectacular “mobile factory” made up of 182 rolling units extending continuously for more than 3 kilometres.

Over the past few weeks, along the approximately 42-kilometre double-track section between Hirson and Leval, electrified at 25,000V, GCF launched the worksite which, during its first operational phase, produced 1,238 metres of ballast rehabilitation. Line works, carried out during daytime hours (with stockpiling activities in the yards and machinery maintenance taking place at night), were planned in two phases: first, rehabilitation followed by tamping and profiling of track 2 (from PK 97+463 to PK 83+688), and subsequently of track 1 (from PK 95+663 to PK 97+549).

Rock-cut sections and numerous “blue zones” required the adoption of particularly stringent safety measures. More than twenty workers are employed on the worksite, for which, in addition to the C75-2C ballast cleaner, a B4539 tamping machine, an R21 ballast profiler and a Plasser 109-3X tamping machine have been deployed.

The project - carried out subject to the activities of the ETF work train, itself dependent on the interruptions granted by SNCF - is expected to involve the rehabilitation of 1,591 metres of line on track 1 and 8,958 metres on track 2. The works will also affect 7 level crossings, including 2 to be completely renewed: level crossing no. 91 on track V2 and level crossing no. 96 crossing both tracks.
 

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