ARTC non-ballasted weigh bridge installation Branxton NSW - Australian-first

WATCH: Our Hunter team alongside our contractor partner Rhomberg Rail Australia, delivered an Australian-first recently. As you will see in this video, the team successfully installed and commissioned 200m of a new kind of non-ballasted track system at Branxton (Hunter Valley, NSW) to support a new high-speed weighbridge. The non-ballasted track system is called IVES and VTRAS developed by Rhomberg Sersa. The IVES is the non-ballasted track system, and the VTRAS is the design solution to manage the transition between ballasted and non-ballasted track. The system does not require tamping and includes large precast concrete units installed on a specifically designed layer of asphalt to reduce performance variability through the track section. The video shows the final stage of the installation works. In the video, teams remove ballast to expose the asphalt layer and VTRAS support blocks, then complete the final layer of asphalt and placing the VTRAS units in place, before installing the large IVES precast concrete units and fixing rail. The final tasks include track alignment and survey before pouring grout into the units to secure the system and final survey to complete. The solution is used in tunnels throughout Europe and is the first of its kind to be installed in Australia.