Brazil has fast tracked its mining competitiveness with the Transnordestina project that involves construction of 1728 kilometres of rail. It commenced construction in 2006 and will be completed later this year when it is forecast to haul 17 million tonnes of material.
The project has a major social impact in Brazil and represents the largest development investment for accessing the enormous resources in the country’s north eastern region. It is
anticipated that 500,000 additional jobs will be created once the 2.3 billion Euro rail line has been completed.
Fiori has joined the contractor in applying Fiori’s new Mobile Concrete concept and mobile concrete plant. A large fleet of ninety Fiori DB 460SL Concrete Batching Vehicles (CBV SYSTEM®) is being deployed on the project which is one of the world’s largest and remote region railway constructions.
“The contractor and Fiori undertook comprehensive research and study to produce a dedicated tailored solution for mobile quality concrete on this major infrastructure project,” said Semco’s Graham Murphy.
In the first phase of construction alone 50 million cubic metres of earth had to be moved as part of earthworks to provide 10 kilometres of bridges and small viaducts. The rail line will use 3.7 million concrete sleepers and 260,000 tonnes of rail tracks. On completion, it will be used by 110 locomotives.
Murphy said Fiori’s DB 460SL Concrete Batching Vehicles were the only equipment suited to the challenge of mixing and delivering electronically dosed structural grade concrete in remote, mountainous high rainfall terrain.
“With its all terrain ability, the unit is able to load, mix, electronically dose and reach any situation to pour quality structural concrete.”
“Mobility of the Fiori system is the key to its success in projects with remote or limited access to conventional concrete plants. With two DB460SL units deployed each 80 kilometres of the track construction, the contractors have had the flexibility to have daily reliable, quality concrete on demand as the construction progresses.”
“The DB 460 SL Concrete Batching Vehicle (CBV SYSTEM®) is an extremely innovative four wheel drive, electronic dosing controlled batching plant which is capable of producing quality structural concrete in any situation. The vehicles have 3 X mode four-wheel steering, including ‘crab’ and a bidirectional 180 degree pivoting seat post which assists the operator 1when the machine is loading, deployed in tunnels or is required to maneuver in narrow places. It also has a patented 240 degree drum lateral rotation system for 360 degree pouring concrete ability and is designed for conditional road registration” he said.
“The success of the Fiori CBV SYSTEM®on a project of this scale has demonstrated the value of Fiori’s self loading and mixing capabilities. The technology opens up huge possibilities in concrete construction in Australia’s remote areas where traditional batching plants are uneconomical or impractical,” Murphy said.
