Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group impresses with a holistic approach.
The Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) Connaught Rail Tunnel in Canada is part of the main line to Vancouver. Built in 1916 by hand as a double-track tunnel under Mount Macdonald in British Columbia, it was subsequently converted to a single track to allow double stack container freight to pass.
As the track was constructed with steel ties (sleepers), corrosion was extensive so in 2018 CPKC commenced a project to convert the tunnel to timber ties. To lower the ballast depth, the entire tunnel was also ballast cleaned. CP did the first section with their own resources, utilising traditional rail mounted excavators to dig out the existing ballast to the tunnel walls. This proved slow and required double handling of the spoiled ballast, which had to be rehandled for removal from the tunnel.
In 2019, Rhomberg Sersa and our track partner, Remcan Projects undertook an innovative new methodology to streamiline the tunnel remediation. Utilising the Rhomberg Sersa Plasser RM80 UHR ballast cleaner and locally sourced MFS or Nappa cars, Rhomberg Sersa and Remcan delivered an ‘end to end’ solution to CP, carrying out the entire work from ballast cleaning and spoil removal via MFS through to renewal of the track and all associated works. Undertaking three successful annual campaigns over the next 4 years, 2024 saw the final segment of the tunnel renewed but this time with a fleet of Rhomberg Sersa owned MFS wagons – part of the first privately owned Material Handling and Distribution Train (MHDT), that Rhomberg Sersa North America introduced to Canada in 2023.
