North-South Railway Line

North-South Railway Line
South extension

575 km

LENGTH

Brazil

COUNTRY

€74,1 M

BUDGET

The North-South Railway Line is one of the most important railway projects in the country. With an extension of 2,257 km, it was conceived as the backbone of the country for the transport of grain and agricultural products, crossing four of the five Brazilian regions.

Azvi

Description of works

Azvi was responsible for the execution of works of different types and scope over 575 km, from track assembly, with Azvi’s own machinery and personnel sent to the area, to the maintenance of this infrastructure.

These works were carried out on two sections between the towns of Palmas Uruaçu, in the states of Goiás and Tocantins.

South Extension. PK 719-1029. State of Goias

The contract included the drafting of the project and execution of specific works (earthworks, consolidation of embankments, level crossings construction and drainage works), on a 99.9 km stretch and the maintenance work on 310 km (cleaning and maintenance of embankments, reconstruction and cleaning of drainage works, maintenance of the Public Domain, track formation cleaning, replacement of sleepers, track levelling and switch gear maintenance) are included in the contract.

South Extension. PK 1029-1294. States of Goias and Tocatins

For this 265 km section, the contract was for the design and execution of various construction and maintenance works.

Construction works consist of earthworks, consolidation of embankments, level crossings construction and drainage works.

Finally, maintenance works such as cleaning and maintenance of embankments, reconstruction and cleaning of drainage works, maintenance of the Public Domain, track formation cleaning, replacement of sleepers, track levelling and switch gear maintenance are also carried out.

Background

The various sections of the line between Palmas and Uruaçu were executed by different contractors between 2007 and 2012.

However, not all of the work was n completed, and several issues remained, including: , : large unstable cuttings without protection, high embankments built on land with insufficient load-bearing capacity, deficiencies in surface drainage, power lines crossing the line without complying with the regulatory gauge, and unfinished viaducts and crossings.

Azvi

Azvi

Main challenges

A new country. For this project, we had to establish operations in a new country, with a different language, and no prior knowledge of the area, subcontractors or suppliers. The execution process also differed significantly form our usual practises. In spite of all these challenges , the team made a very important contribution, demonstrating its implication and expertise in the works undertaken. , Due to its characteristics, this project one of the most emblematic among those to be executed by Azvi, , marking a significant milestone in the company’s internationalisation.

Simultaneous project design and execution. From the beginning of the works, it was necessary to draft the different projects and execute the works simultaneously in order to meet the established deadline, with the support of Azvi’s Central Technical Office in Seville.

Long distances. The extensive length of the section, and the distance from the country’s logistic centres in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,(about 1,500 km), in addition to the remoteness and poor communication with the nearby towns (40/50 km), made the materials logistics extremely complicated. ,It was necessary to make stockpiles in each pit,to be able to produce the concrete in situ due to the lack of concrete plants in the area.

Adaptation of machinery. The machines sent to Brazil, a Plasser P 303 tamping machine and a Plasser Theurer SSP 203 profiling machine, had to be adapted to the Brazilian width of 1.6 m. It was also necessary to improve their cooling system at the destination due to the high temperatures in the area.

Large amount of manpower. Another of the major conditioning factors was the extensive labour force required often with minimal training Their s transfer and distribution across the work sites, together with complicated access routes and deficient mobile phone and internet communications, further complicated the logistics.