RAIL.ONE achieves double project success in South Korea

RHEDA 2000® Ballastless Track System

* Contract for supervision.

* Contract for the delivery of bi-block concrete sleepers.

Neumarkt, Germany, 22 October 2007 – RAIL.ONE Group, the successful 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 already 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 here.

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, after Phase 1 of the Kyungbu Line was primarily constructed with conventionally ballasted track – but when they were then able to convince Korean planners of the benefits of applying ballastless track technology for Phase 2: “By combination of supervision and sleeper delivery, we can provide support services for planning and extending to installation, to achieve uniformly high quality”. This all 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 until now 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 subbase, 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 the PCM RAILONE Group

The PCM RAILONE Group has been manufacturing concrete sleepers and track systems for urban transit and long-distance rail transportation for over 60 years. The technology leader also offers its expertise in the fields of engineering and plant construction. Its customer-driven innovations fulfill the highest quality standards and are installed around the world

The PCM RAILONE Group is comprised of several companies and eleven production facilities with a presence in Germany, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Hungary, Turkey, the United States, Canada and lndia. lt maintains annual capacities of over 5 million track sleepers and 840,000 linear meters of turnout sleepers. RAILONE produces optimized products and custom solutions with over 550 employees around the world.