Open Trench Projects on the Rails with HOBAS GRP Pipes

For safety reasons, the Hungarian public railway company MÁV has special requirements for structures to be installed beneath railways. The only traditional pipe solution and material used to be double steel pipes with grouted annular space.

In 2002, HOBAS obtained the individual permit from MÁV for a jacking project in Aszófő with 18 meters De 820 (SN 32000, PN 1 pipes). HOBAS Pipes convinced the railway company in terms of the material’s structural properties, its resistance to stray current corrosion, long lifetime and easy installation. As a result of this successful first project and after thorough tests and calculations MÁV granted HOBAS a general permit for railyway projects in 2010. Numerous projects have been successfully implemented ever since.

One recent project has been realized in 2012 at the railway station in Karcag – a small town in the middle of the Hungarian Plain and along the railway line between Budapest and Debrecen. The renovation of the line is under way and involves the replacement of both the tracks and the pipelines running beneath them. Once the works are completed trains will be able to travel up to 160 km per hour. In Hungary, the use of protective pipes is obligatory under railways and traditional solutions with double steel pipes have increasingly been abandoned over the years. HOBAS provided an excellent alternative solution for the renovation of the pipelines in the area of the railway station in Karcag. 120 m protective pipes for sewer and potable water pipelines were successfully installed in open trench.