Monthly Highlight: Austria and Germany South/Southwest

Bahnbau Wels has been dedicated to the construction and maintenance of infrastructure facilities in the railway sector for more than 70 years. This passion is shared with its five subsidiaries in the BBW Group, which are all active in different areas of track construction. As part of the Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group, it can access an almost comprehensive portfolio of services in the areas of railway construction, equipment and service. This allows the business to offer its customers tailor-made solutions for each particular project. 

Whether in mechanical track construction, commercial track construction, overhead line construction, electrotechnical equipment or control and safety technology - BBW Group has been convincing its customers for many years with competence and performance coupled with innovative ideas - even beyond Austria's borders. The group's mechanical track construction has been equally successful in Austria and throughout Germany for decades. The commercial track-laying units have also been welcome partners on construction sites in southern and south-western Germany for several years and are highly appreciated for their performance potential in this region too. 

In addition to the classic track construction sector, the BBW Group also provides services in the maintenance of special vehicles and freight wagons. In this segment, the range of services extends from maintenance in all maintenance stages, modernisation of track construction machines to complete overhauls. 

...that Bahnbau Wels was the first business in Austria to use mechanised track-laying machines and thus laid the foundation for mechanised track-laying in Austria? 

Around 550 dedicated employees are committed to customer projects in the BBW Group. The promotion and further training of employees is a top priority. Ongoing training and further education initiatives ensure a high level of qualification. 

BBW Group provides its customers with modern, high-performance machinery. It strives for constant technological development of machine technology in order to optimise the processing of tracks and turnouts and also to be able to record important parameters of the track condition. 

Furthermore, the group invests in sustainable machine technology, such as machines and locomotives with environmentally friendly hybrid drives. 

• Tamping, levelling and compacting work on new tracks and turnouts 
• Maintenance work on tracks and turnouts as well as correction of individual defects 
• Ballast bed cleaning 
• Lifting and transport services with track-laying cranes as well as recovery and breakdown services 
• Oscillating grinding of new rails, ripple grinding and deburring of rails 
• Construction site logistics services 
• Sleeper laying with gantry crane PK 1-20 ES 
• New construction or reconstruction of tracks and turnouts - ballast superstructure 
• Special solutions such as mat tracks, track support plates and track troughs 
• Installation of buffer stops and track scales 
• New construction of level crossings 
• Special solutions on request (measuring tracks, ballast bed bonding, etc.) 
• Substructure and drainage work 
• Cable civil engineering 
• Track maintenance  
• Crane tracks and special solutions 
• Railway power supply 
• Complete catenary systems for local and long-distance traffic for all speed ranges and all voltage levels 
• Installation of overhead conductor rails for railway tunnels, trough areas, maintenance and service halls 
• Electrotechnical equipment 
• Control and safety technology 
• Maintenance of specialised vehicles and freight wagons 
• Trade in track-laying machines 

The port railway station at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is undergoing extensive modernisation and is also fitted with new security technology. Bahnbau Wels was commissioned with the complex civil engineering and track construction work for this important logistics hub in the region Bayerisch RheinMain. 

Since May of this year, Bahnbau Wels has been implementing this project in close coordination with the client Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG. Based on the design planning, Bahnbau Wels also provided the recording and re-routing of the track systems for the new port railway station. 

The entire project can only be implemented in individual, pre-coordinated construction phases so that the construction work can be carried out while the port railway station remains in operation. In addition to the extensive earthworks and track construction work, the underground cabling work will also be carried out by Bahnbau Wels itself. 

The dedicated construction site team on site is the assurance of rapid construction progress and ongoing coordination with the client. Thanks to the trust shown and the solution-oriented collaboration on the part of bayernhafen, even major joint challenges, such as the current issues regarding material availability and the tense pricing situation for superstructure materials, can be mastered in the best possible way. 

• Project implementation: Bahnbau Wels GmbH 
• Client: Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG 
• Construction period: May – December 2022  
• Division into different construction phases 
• Main quantities:  
  • Track and switch dismantling 
  • Disposal of old ballast approx. 14.500 t 
  • Disposal of excavated soil approx. 22.800 t 
  • New track construction approx. 4.000 m  
  • New construction of 31 turnouts 
  • Delivery of formation protection layer approx. 10.000 t 
  • Delivery of track ballast approx. 17.000 to  
  • Cable civil engineering works approx. 3.100 m cable trough, approx. 10 pcs. cable crossings, approx. 57 cable shafts 
  • Cabling works approx. 28.500 m