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Orange Army uses ‘Japanese piling method’ to stabilise part of Chiltern main line

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Network Rail has concluded a £2.9 million 12-week scheme to stabilise half a mile of subsiding embankment beneath the Chiltern main line in Buckinghamshire.

Using a Giken silent piling machine from Japan, engineers drove 865 six metre-long steel sheer piles into the earth to form rows either side of the railway.

These piles formed solid barriers behind which engineers packed 27,000 tonnes of stone topped off with soil seeded with grass.

Left unchecked subsidence of ground beneath tracks can lead to trains derailing.


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Until this permanent solution took place Network Rail engineers had to make ongoing temporary repairs to dips in the tracks causing bumpy rides for Chiltern Railways customers.

Mark Evans is works delivery programme manager on Network Rail’s London North Western route. He said, ‘By using this innovative Japanese piling method we got the job done quicker and cheaper than traditional kit would have allowed.

‘The Giken machine grips the neighbouring steel sheet pile and silently uses it to lever in the next one, and so on. It’s simple, safe and saves taxpayers’ cash – exactly how we like it.’

The three-month scheme took place from May to August.

Watch engineers complete the work in a timelapse video below: 


Read more:  Alliance of rail firms awarded Transpennine Route upgrade contract


 

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