The Journal of Pandrol Rail Fastenings 2008 - Pandrol USA

PROJECTSand Burjuman, which are interchanges with theRed line.The 47km proposed purple line will linkDubai International Airport with the newAirport at Jebel Ali, serving communities alongthe Emirates Road, and is expected to becomeoperational in 2011.Rolling stock will consist of 99, fully airconditioned,five-car trainsets. Each train willbe approximately 75 metres long, seatingaround 400 passengers, with standing room formany more. The trains will be driverless,fully automated, and will run as often as every90 seconds.As mentioned, apart from the city centre,where both lines will travel underground, thetwo lines will run elevated, on speciallydesigned viaducts, and the proximity to existingbuildings meant that noise and vibrationattenuation was an important factor whendesigning the trackwork.Initial invitations to tender were issued byMitisubishi Heavy Industries (the contractorappointed by RTA) specifying a preference forthe well-proven Pandrol ’e’ clip system. Thespecification was soon opened to allow Vosslohto participate and, for many months, its designwas strongly favoured. However, Pandrol’sengineers developed an adaptation of abaseplate design previously used in Singapore,which provided a good track reference, andthis, coupled with a competitive price,led to the award.The Pandrol design for the main line trackis a Single Plate double resilience system, asingle ’e’ clip baseplate assembly incorporatingtwo pads, one above and one below thebaseplate, providing a level of noise andvibration attenuation which meets fully theMHI tender requirements both in technical andcost terms.For the contract Pandrol will supply306,500 baseplate sets for the main line and55,000 baseplate sets for the depot.Track construction in both the depot andmainline areas has been using a top-downmethodology, allowing a modern andefficient method of track-laying. The JebelAli depot trackwork is now complete andRashidiya is very close behind. The mainlineconstruction has been hindered by delaysin civil works, but all personnel are still workingto a 09/09/09 opening date. ■27