PORR Romania completed the upgrading works on the Bucharest North -Jilava – Giurgiu North – Giurgiu North Border railway, which enabled traffic resumption on June 1st, 2024, after a gap of almost 20 years.
by PORR Romania
This first railway section ever built in Romania is part of the TEN-T central network, accommodates international European traffic carried out on two central corridors crossing the Romanian territory and connecting the Rhin – Danube Corridor (former Corridor IV) to the South-Eastern Europe countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey), by crossing the Danube over the Friendship Bridge, on the Romanian – Bulgarian border section.
The flooding on August 13th, 2005, caused the railway bridge at 23+577 over the Argeș river, in Grădiștea, located on the 103 railway line Bucharest Progresu – Giurgiu North, to collapse. From then on, for the next two decades, passenger and freight transport could only be carried out on a detour route, i.e. Bucharest – Videle – Giurgiu, with detrimental impacts both economically and socially.
Works carried out by PORR Romania
As part of this landmark project for the Romanian railway infrastructure, PORR Romania undertook, among other tasks, the rehabilitation of approximately 70 km of existing railway track and construction of 14 km new railway track. The works also included execution of four bridges ranging from 45 m to 136 m in length, one 1,226 m long viaduct and ten C2 culverts.
On the civil engineering side, two new buildings were erected, 650 meters of railway passenger platforms were built and an existing building was rehabilitated.
In order to ensure effectiveness and safety of railway operations, the signaling system was upgraded to meet European standards and to enable smooth traffic management along the newly constructed railway line, with no disruptions whatsoever.
Given that the alignment crosses a natural reservation area (Natura 2000 sites), execution of the works also required close collaboration with authorities in charge and with Comana Natural Park biologists, for the safeguarding of the fauna and avifauna in the area. In order to protect native species, 8 large mammal under-crossings, 89 amphibian and reptile under-crossings, as well as 6,350 m of soundproofing walls were carried out.
The bridge over Argeș river, among the longest in Romania
Among the four bridges built, the most complex was the one over Argeș river, at km 23+602, totaling 136 meters in length. It is worth mentioning that this is one of the longest bridges in Romania, as well as the fact that, in constructing this bridge, a ballast-less railway track system, i.e. Slab Track, was used for the first time in Romania.
Another noteworthy feature of this bridge is the first fully welded bridge deck in Romania, made of low track lattice girders (GZCJ).
On the other bridges, i.e. Sabar I (km 18+272, 45 m span and 54.5 meters total length), Sabar II (km 18+411, 45 m span and 54.5 m total length), Neajlov (km 28+395, spans L = 2 x 35 m 70 m, and total length 79.5 metres), PORR Romania also used a state-of-the-art steel decking solution.
A first for railway projects in Romania, placing PORR as a pioneer in using the Slab Track system on the bridge and viaducts over Argeș river.
PORR Romania is the first company having used in Romania a ballast-less railway system. The ”PORR Slab Track” innovative system is a viable alternative to the conventional system with concrete sleepers and tracks and allows for customization according to the actual project needs. It uses precast reinforced concrete slabs as main elements, specifically designed to take over rail traffic loads and transfer them to the supporting layers. The advantages of using this solution include: adaptability, reliability, much longer service life, precision, swift installation, extended service intervals, at a minimum cost. By using this system, there is no need for bridge tamping and, in the event of a derailment, it’s easy to change the affected slab only, which should not take more than 3-4 hours.
Repair and maintenance works on the remaining railway sections
Given that a part of the railway track between Jilava and Giurgiu has not been used for almost 20 years, the railway infrastructure, superstructure, installations and signaling have all suffered significant degradation. Therefore, in order to resume traffic under optimal safety conditions, PORR Romania also carried out repair and maintenance works on the Bucharest North – Vidra and Comana – Giurgiu North sections.
These works consisted in:
• routine maintenance, required to enable safe operation upon traffic resumption on this railway line, on approximately 79 kilometers;
• ground clearing, sleeper replacement, replacement of rail – sleeper fastenings, sorting out all missing or defective components of existing railway points and crossings, adding crushed stone, replacement of damaged concrete slabs at level crossings, cleaning of ditches and gullies along the railway line;
• sanitation of passenger and technical buildings (CED buildings) in all stations and stops along the route;
• checking and testing the existing railway signaling installations and equipment on the overall Bucharest North-Jilava-Giurgiu North-Giurgiu Nord Border route;
• sorting out the missing or defective components on the existing rail signaling installations and equipment;
• checking the existing passenger information systems and installing new passenger information systems (audio and video) in all stations and stops along this route, except H.m. Grădiștea and H.m. Comana.
This national interest project becomes part of PORR Romania’s portfolio and contributes significantly to the development of the Romanian railway infrastructure.
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