Saudi Arabia rail project on track with fleet of rollers

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With a budget of US $2bn, the vast infrastructure project in Saudi Arabia is set to be completed on schedule.

Many new machines, including vibratrory compactors, have been wheeled in to help build a railbed for the 818km project.

Crossing the hot and remote An Nafud desert, this first phase of the project is known as Phase A and is being constructed by the RTCC- Barclay Mowlem (the Laing O'Rourke Rail Company.)-Mitsui joint venture under a US$765 million contract awarded by (Public Investment Fund) of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance.

The railbed is being laid on an embankment raised on average 3m from the desert floor and 3m wide, using either in situ materials or granite and limestone excavated from borrow pits at various locations in the desert and trucked to the required section of line.

Here, the Dynapac CA280s, supplied new for the project by the manufacturer's Saudi Arabian distributor and operated by RTCC.

This is the first of four phases of a massive $2 billion initiative to develop a 2,300 kilometer north-south railway system that will link the northern mineral mines of Al Jalamid and Az Zabirah to processing facilities in Ras Azur on the Arabian Gulf.

Rocks

Saudi Arabia is a large producer of ores, including phosphates and bauxite. The mines of Jalamid contain reserves of 313 million tonnes of phosphates, and the Az Zabirah mines contain reserves of 250 million tonnes of bauxite.

Saudi mining company Ma'aden already has a project in place for building an industrial complex to the east of these provinces, so that ore from the region can be transported and refined. The complex will also include an aluminum plant and a large energy generator.

Three locomotives and 150 railway cars will transport the ore, each train 3,000 m in length and weighing an average of 19,400 tonnes, from the mines to the refinery.

The railway will also be extended to serve general freight and passenger services, both northerly and to the south from Hail to Riyadh. The line will be a single track with passing loops. It is the most important land transportation project ever built in Saudi Arabia.

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