Rhomberg Fahrleitungsbau supports ÖBB in repairing damage.
In East Tyrol and Carinthia, heavy and persistent snowfall caused considerable damage to the catenarty systems of Austrian Federal Railways. The ÖBB assembly teams requested the support of RSRG to repair the damage.
In November 2019, the snowfalls caused mudslides, rockfalls, landslides and avalanches. The prevailing Föhn wind made the situation even worse, as wet snow caused trees to break. Due to the damaged traction power supply, many routes had to be discontinued and replacement rail traffic had to be set up. The damage to the systems was so extensive that the ÖBB service teams responsible for the overhead lines needed support from Rhomberg Fahrleitungsbau GmbH, the specialist for overhead lines and electrotechnical systems in the Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group, for rapid and sustainable damage repair.
Starting in mid-January, thanks to the excellent, partnership-based cooperation with the individual service teams of ÖBB, extensive services could be provided in just fourteen days in the Mittewald-Abfaltersbach section. The damage was repaired with two work teams of ten specialist fitters and two motor tower cars working in shifts. Thirty cantilever arms for overhead lines, some heavily damaged, were dismantled and replaced. Around 1.5 kilometres of defective catenary system had to be changed. Almost five kilometres of peak and return conductor cables were replaced and tied into about 130 bases.
Due to the geographical location of the railway line, the fitters had to carry out the work under difficult conditions. In the very narrow and low-lying track system, there were temperatures of -15°C during the day. Despite these challenges, the Rhomberg Fahrleitungsbau GmbH installation team was able to contribute to the rapid repair of the damage and thus provide support to resume operations.
