HomeProjectsZurich Airport railway station

Zurich Airport railway station

The four tracks of Zurich Airport's underground railway station have been renovated and lowered without interrupting traffic.

Description

Between October 2019 and March 2020, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) undertook the renovation of all four tracks at Zurich Airport station. One of the main objectives of the project was to lower the tracks to make the trains accessible to wheelchair users without having to modify the tunnel structure. The solution was to replace the concrete sleepers on the tracks, which were showing signs of damages after 40 years of operation.

Optimization

With its high tensile and compressive strength as well as high durability, Ductal® Overlay enables an economical use of materials. Only small quantities of material are required to produce very robust and durable construction elements. For example, it was possible to reduce the height of the new sleeper blocks by 4 to 5 cm and to achieve support points in these areas of only 10 to 15 cm in height.

Application

Operation of the station continued throughout the construction phase. Due to the short period of closure (four weeks per track), the ARGE FF Flughafen consortium (Walo Bertschinger AG, C. Vanoli AG and Carlo Vanoli AG) worked in three shifts under the leadership of Walo Bertschinger AG. Delivery of the materials could only be made by rail during the four hours of nighttime closure. As the construction site was not accessible to lorries, the production of concrete was a real challenge. Walo organized a local production of the UHPC at the end of the track and developed an autonomous wagon to deliver the product direct to every block to be build

Challenge

Logistics was one of the biggest challenges of this project. All movements of materials had to be planned precisely in advance. Due to the limited space available, it was not possible to store large reserves on the construction site. The cooperation between Walo and Holcim in this phase was very constructive.

Gallery

01.1
01.2
01.3
01.4

Discover our projects

IA 163 Floyd River Bridge

In partnership with Iowa State University and Iowa State DOT, with participation from Wapello and Buchana counties in Iowa, this project was the first to implement overlay application of UHPC using automated paver system brought by Walo from Europe.

Learn More
Overlay

Commodore Barry Bridge

The Commodore Barry Bridge spans over the Delaware River from Chester PA to Bridgeport NJ. Originally constructed in 1969 and named after the Revolutionary War Hero from Philadelphia John Barry. This bridge is a cantilever truss bridge which was commonly built during those times.

Learn More
Fire+
Overlay

Delaware Memorial Bridge

In 1951, the Delaware Memorial Bridge was opened to traffic allowing commuters to navigate over the Delaware River on a 3,650 ft (1,112 m) long state-of-the-art suspension bridge.

Learn More
Overlay

Chillon Viaducts

The Chillon Viaducts have been reinforced by an Overlay of Ductal® UHPC. Thanks to its mechanical characteristics and its durability properties, Ductal® was the only material able to provide an efficient retrofitting preserving the bearing capacity of the bridge, a lower maintenance cost and a quick retro commissioning of an important axis of the Swiss highway network. The two Chillon Viaducts are among the most spectacular infrastructure works of the Swiss highway network. Ductal® was prescribed for the reinforcement of the two decks (2.2 km long by 12 m wide each). The implementation of thin layer of Ductal® (4 cm thick) with rebars, allowed the strengthening of the bridge decks for shear loads, bending, and fatigue while ensuring the waterproofing of the surface.

Learn More
Overlay
Give shape to tomorrow.
Contact us
Loading
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100