Indeco Hammers Used for Track Excavation on Bari-Taranto Railway
Published: 22/1, 2020
An HP 9000, two HP 7000s, with help in the home stretch from the big gun, an HP 18000, have helped deliver a huge excavation project
The excavation job on the project involved digging a series of cuttings, tunnels, and embankments for a 6-mile (10k) double-track railway between Bari Sant’Andrea and Bitetto, connecting the two Apulian cities with a high-speed line. The second track is being laid along a totally new route, which means getting rid of no less than six level crossings in the town of Modugno, which will help increase the amount of rail traffic and ensure faster train journeys. The excavations and reinforced concrete works were entrusted by RFI SpA, a company in the Ferrovie dello Stato group, Italy’s national rail corporation, to Matarrese SrL.
The overall length of the stretch involved is 7.5 miles (12km), including 1.2 miles (2km) along the pre-existing route, as well as 6 miles (10km) of new line along a cutting where nearly two million yd3 (1.5 million m3) of limestone had to be excavated. The main hammers used for the excavations were an Indeco HP 9000 and two HP 7000s. Daily production was approximate 980 yd3 (750m3) for the HP 9000 and 719 yd3 (550m3) for the HP 7000 over the course of around 800 working days. This was in line with expected performance targets.
At the intersection with the pre-existing track, night trains had to be cancelled, leaving just 55 hours to build the new underlying rail section and put back the overlying track. For this part of the job, an Indeco HP 18000 hammer was used, which reduced excavation times by more than half—from 20 hours to just 8 hours—with hourly production of about 654 yd3 (500m3).