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Major contract for fischer in the Gotthard Base Tunnel
40,000 fixings for overhead contact lines
The fischer group of companies of Waldachtal / Germany supplies through its Swiss importers, SFS unimarket AG, around 40,000 threaded rods with injection resin for fixing the entire length of overhead contact lines in the new Gotthard base tunnel.
The railway tunnel, with a length of 57 kilometres the longest in the world, is expected to be operational at the time of the timetable change in 2017/2018. This “pioneering achievement of the 21st century” – say the owners Alptransit Gotthard AG (ATG) – is expected to result in “outstanding improvements in the travel and transport options in the heart of Europe”.
The contract includes fixing the whole length of the overhead contact lines plus the necessary accessories in both tubes along a total length of 107 kilometres. The material supplies to SFS unimarket AG will be completed by the end of 2011. Installation work in the course of the construction progress will be carried out until the end of 2014 by the client 16,7 Hz consortium, a technical project group of Transtec Gotthard which has been contracted to complete the technical equipment of the Gotthard Base Tunnel.
A total of around 40,000 fixing points are required for the overhead contact lines. The overhead wire construction will be anchored in the inner lining of the tunnel using fischer FIS A threaded rods in C grade steel 1.4529 including nuts and washers, with some fixing elements reaching sizes of as much as M30 and maximum lengths of 300 mm. The threaded rods are bonded into the substrate with fischer FIS EM epoxy resin which is particularly suitable for big loads and large diameters.
This is not the first contract for the Gotthard Base Tunnel which SFS unimarket AG have realised with fischer products. During the last years, around 19,000 concrete screws have been set for temporarily fixing the cooling conduits. As part of the fire protection, stainless steel reinforcement mesh has been fixed to the inside walls with 75,000 novel spacers in the Bodio section of the line.
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The whole length of the overhead contact lines in the Gotthard Base Tunnel will be fixed with fischer threaded rods.
Graphics/photo: © AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd. and Swiss Confederate Railways