15.07.08
Cintec Rail save Irish Rail costs and time
Irish Rail have been proposing to strengthen the parapets on three similar road over rail bridges for a number of years now but have always been fighting against budget restrictions. Once introduced to the Cintec Rail system they priced it up against the alternative method of dismantling some of the parapet, tensioning two steel wires along the length of the bridge, then encasing them in concrete.
Not only was this a more expensive option to the Cintec proposal but the look of the bridges would also have been spoilt. Irish Rail have decided to adopt the Cintec scheme proposed by Cintec Rail and Peter Cox and designed by Burroughs Structural Engineers of Dublin. This will enable them to strengthen the parapet whilst maintaining the existing look of the structure.
The scheme uses Cintec M16 stud anchors both vertically and horizontally placed every 800mm centres alone the length of each parapet. Work should be finished by mid-July 2008 Network Rail bank on Cintec Rail Pandon Bank was a disused building that has a railway line running over the top of it. Some time ago the building was filled in to a degree with large voids having been left.
Network Rail decided that the bank/building needed to be strengthened to take the weight of increased train usage. They took the approach of building a two metre deep concrete wall onto the existing building. 4.5 metre long Cintec rebar anchors were used to form a reinforced connection between the building and the new concrete wall.
The anchors went 2.5 metres into the original structure leaving a 2 metre projection to cast the concrete onto. Once the anchor was set they used it to connect the shuttering for the concrete and then poured the concrete around the anchors. Over 400 Cintec anchors were used in total, effectively forming a reinforced grid for the concrete.