Trakcja PRKiI – Overnight Installation of a Span near Rzeszów
It took just over 2.5 hours to position a 240-tonne span on a new railway viaduct being built in Klęczany on the Kraków – Rzeszów line. On the night of 29 to 30 May this year, Trakcja PRKiI, which is responsible for the modernisation of the line, carried out the operation of installing a 63 m long and 6.5 m wide span on two supports using a specialist crane.
The span was assembled (welded) from 6 main elements and 17 cross-girders next to the railway embankment within 10 days, and the joints were then protected with anti-corrosion paint. At the same time, two supports were built, 62 m apart measured between the bearing axes. Thanks to detailed preparations lasting almost a year, the operation took much less time than initially assumed. The works required closing national road no. 4 running under the viaduct and switching off the voltage in the traction network on the adjacent active track. However, the operation did not cause any disruption to rail traffic, because the night-time break in train traffic was used. The span was moved using a crane 48 metres high with a lifting capacity of 600 tonnes. Nearly 15 workers and 5 Trakcja PRKiI engineers supervising the works took part in the operation.
The new viaduct, designed for a speed of 160 km/h, will not only remove the local speed restriction for trains but also improve road traffic, because the horizontal clearance between the abutments will increase by 15.3 metres, measured perpendicular to the road axis. The construction of the viaduct also requires correcting the curve of the railway line over a length of more than 500 metres. The next operation, positioning the span beneath the second track, will be carried out in the first quarter of next year.
