Trakcja PRKiI S.A. is the general contractor for the maintenance depot for trains of the Łódź Agglomeration Railway (ŁKA). Construction works were completed in September, and with them technical acceptance of the equipment in the individual disciplines began. In just 12 months – the foundation stone was laid on 11 October 2013 – a fully equipped hall 140 metres long and 40 metres wide was built.
The facility consists of four parts: a repair and service section with three tracks, a washing facility housing the fourth track, and an office and staff-amenities area with a warehouse. The depot is equipped with many modern devices used for the daily servicing and ongoing repairs of ŁKA trains.
The individual tracks house: an underfloor wheel lathe, a laser station for measuring wheelsets, a scale for measuring wheel load, a drop pit and a sanding station. The environmentally friendly washing facility also carries out processes such as de-icing, toilet waste removal and watering.
The washing facility, located inside the ŁKA depot hall, is the first device of its kind used for servicing rolling stock. Washing a train takes a maximum of 30 minutes, although the full process, owing to safety procedures connected among other things with switching off the voltage in the traction network, extends to about an hour. The shape of the brushes and the length of their individual parts have been suitably adapted to the shape of the unit, which guarantees that it is washed thoroughly.
The cost of construction was more than PLN 55.2 million net.
