Much of our rail network consists of cuttings or tunnels below the surrounding ground level, or in flat, low-lying areas where there is very limited natural drainage, making them prone to flooding.
There’s a whole host of obvious difficulties that this can lead to. If water enters signalling equipment and point machines it can cause them to fail. Speed restrictions may have to be enforced if flood waters rise too high. Live conductor rails have the potential to short-circuit and supporting ballast beneath railway sleepers can be swept away by surging flood water.
Land-slippage is also a common occurrence in many areas caused by the extra weight of heavily soaked soil. This leads to delays caused by the re-routing of services and, worst case scenario, a possible derailment.
Liniar’s innovative display at the 2014 InfraRail exhibition caused quite a stir, with the firm’s lead-free, UK-manufactured and eco-friendly track-side refuge also put on permanent display at the Rail Live site in Long Marston. Its plastic log effect piling system, a real alternative to concrete or timber, sparked a deluge of enquiries once its lightweight properties were proven. Its piling and retaining systems include a range of products suitable for use in a wide variety of applications. As well as being used for ballast retaining and to protect against bank erosion, they are also purpose designed for use in trench shoring and to provide long term flood protection.
Liniar piling and retaining systems are lead-free and fully recycled. They are a great alternative material type to those which have traditionally been used on the development of the railway infrastructure. They are lightweight and easy to use, robust in their construction and in application. The versatility of the plastic product also provides significant advantages compared to other materials when used around bridges and other non-standard applications; it can easily be curved and shaped to meet a specific need and includes a range of corner, angled, and joining post options.
Track-side worker refuges can be quickly and cost-effectively assembled and installed using our ‘log-pile’ system to provide an ideal and cost effective solution. Our log pile can also be used as an alternative to the usual concrete surrounds that protect signalling location cases and boxes from land slippages. There have also been some early moves to use our plastic piling to create tunnel drip shields. Its flexible qualities mean that it can be curved to follow the contour of a tunnel or bridge. Secured with bespoke bolts, these shields can be used to protect overhead power lines and electric cables from water seeping through the old brick work. Plastic piling and retaining systems do not rot or rust and they don’t leach into the ground. Effectively, what we are offering is a hard engineered solution with a soft engineered appearance.”
One of the biggest advantages of plastic piling is its lightweight and easy to handle properties, as we all know, the current large scale railway developments require products to be moved quickly and easily to the point of their use; there is nothing more suited to this than the use of plastic piling. Movement along the track and/or road side to their final destination is much easier than for heavier products such as concrete and steel; and manual handling can be used in place of mechanical handling, with the benefits to cost and, most importantly, the accessibility that this brings. And from a health and safety point of view, there’s no risk of sparking with plastic piling.
Liniar also manufactures a fence post and gravel board system that provides a safe and user-friendly alternative to concrete or timber fencing for the UK rail network infrastructure. These are a really viable alternative to the traditional ‘king post and panel’ system – usually built from steel posts with concrete panels – therefore avoiding all the usual problems concerning weight, access and breakages of concrete when used to construct enclosures.
