The work to build the new railway line will provide to the more than 200,000 Luxembourg citizens, who cross the border to France by train every day, with more reliable and punctual transport.
Sarens, world leader in heavy lifting, engineered transport and crane rental, has contributed to these works with the installation of the OA14 Bowstring bridge, which is 200 metres long, 40 m high and weighs 5,850 tons.
According to data from the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL), approximately 55% of the delays on Luxembourg's rail infrastructure are caused by the current saturation due to the significant increase of passengers over the last 20 years. The line that's currently being constructed, which will link Luxembourg and Bettenbourg, close to the German border and approximately 7 km long, will make a decisive contribution to decongesting this basic infrastructure for the country's transport and thus will reduce the delays accumulated daily by the more than 200,000 citizens who cross the border to France every day.
Three major hydraulic and intersection structures will be included as part of this major project. The first of these, called OA14, is located at the junction of the A3 motorway without any intermediate support south of the town of Howald, while the second (OA05 and OA06), also known as the "flyover", is located at the intersection with the existing northern railway line in Bettembourg.
The SM MMP consortium, part of the Matiere group, called on the expertise of Sarens in the erection and installation of bridges and road infrastructures for the installation of the new OA14 bridge, of strategic importance for the development of this extension. To raise the bridge structure, which weighs 5,850 tons, Sarens used successive "pack & jack" operations, for each of which a project specific configuration of supports on the SPMT (self-propelled modular transporter).
In total, five pack & jack operations were required to bring the bridge to the final height, so that installation of the bridge could be done using SPMT’s for the final placement of the bridge. One of the main challenges in this respect was to maximise the operability of the maneuver, as it was necessary to interrupt traffic on the A3 motorway during the night of 7th to 8th of October in order to carry it out. From that moment on, the Sarens technical team mobilised for this job positioned the entire bridge structure longitudinally for 150 metres and other 40 metres lengthwise until reaching its final location. In total, the entire operation was completed in approximately three and a half hours, which reduced the time needed to shut down traffic on the motorway.
The creation of a new rail line is part of the strategy of the Luxembourg Ministry of Mobility and CFL to drive a continuous improvement of public transport in the country. Since the first studies in 2015, both parties have aimed to increase the number of seats available on trains by up to 46% by 2026, which requires increasing the frequency of trains and the reliability of arrival times. In addition to the construction of the two new tracks on this route, the Luxembourg station is being adapted to accommodate the new rail traffic, which is scheduled to be completed in 2026.
Over the past few years, Sarens has established itself as a strategic player in the international rail sector. It recently completed work on the installation of a new pedestrian bridge between the Hazebrouck railway station (France) and its car park. Previously, Sarens worked on the installation of an 8,400 tons railway bridge on the A1 motorway in Amsterdam (Netherlands), or on the replacement of a railway bridge in the city centre of Stockholm (Sweden) using the "floatover" method, among other major projects.
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