System for Construction of a Railway Underpass

Abstract

The increasing shortage of available spaces in urban areas resulting from the construction and consolidation of certain facilities related to basic services (such as transport) mean that the provision of infrastructure is sometimes excessively complex in relation to its intended use. This article describes, in detail, the building of an underpass under railway tracks using a system of pushing a structure consisting of a ready-built reinforced concrete box using jacks. Implementing the system proved particularly delicate, given the constraint of maintaining normal rail traffic throughout the construction of the underpass. The primary responsibility was to design and effectively carry out a process that would adequately guarantee the safeguarding of the stability and maintenance of the track bed while the box was being pushed underneath, at what was an undeniably shallow depth (approximately 1 m). The developed system, although laborious, proved to be highly efficient, given that at no time during the course of the work did there arise any circumstances that might jeopardize either the safety of rail traffic or the physical integrity of the workers on site.