case study: evaluating alternative railway route alignments
DESCRIPTION
Francois Heyns, Technical Director, Railway Engineering, from Aurecon has presented at the Heavy Haul Rail Africa. If you would like more information about the conference, please visit the website: www.railconferences.com/heavyhaulrail/africaTRANSCRIPT
Africa Status Quo
Challenges
Approach
Cos5ng OPEX & CAPEX
Life cycle cos5ng
Conclusion
PRESENTATION CONTENT
Evalua5ng alterna5ve railway route alignments
Gauge:
1 067 mm
1 000 mm
1 435 mm
80 000 km - 7% of World total
THE CHALLENGE TO MINING COMPANIES……
• The logis4cal solu4on to export/import bulk commodi4es from mines
• First order studies on the logis4cal solu4on to validate the viability of the mine.
Bulk Material Handling Chain
Railway: Mainline Mine
Arrivals/Dep Yard
Stockpile
Load-out
Conveyor
Loop
Telecomms& Signaling
Workshops
Buildings/Depots
Crossing loops
Port
Arrivals/Dep Yard
Shiploader
Stockpile
Tippler
Conveyor
Conveyor
Loop
Stacker Reclaimers
• Design traffic
• Track gauge
• Track geometry -‐ ruling grades, radii
• Earthworks
• Track Superstructure
• etc.
ESTABLISHING THE DESIGN PRINCIPLES/CRITERIA
METHODOLOGY IN ESTABLISHING A ROUTE ALIGNMENT
• Global Mapper (SRTM data Spa4al informa4on);
• Google Earth;
• Map Source;
• Trimble – op4miza4on soSware, and
• Design soSware such as Inrail, Civil Designer, Civil 3D, etc.
36 Routes Considered
LONG SECTIONS
AERIAL SURVEY
LIDAR system
SRTM VS LIDAR SURVEY
MASS EARTHWORKS
Cuts & Fills
1
2
3
4
Bridges 1
2
3
4
ALIGNMENT COMPARISON SUMMARY
Route Characteristic 1 2 3 4 5 Total Route Length To Nkaya Junction Highest route elevat ion
Special Structures Total Length of Special Structures
Small Medium River
Crossings Large
Road Crossings
Number of bridges:
Total bridges Culverts
Cut volumes (Million) Earthworks quantities Fill volumes (Million)
% of earthworks compared to 2006 s tudy Max Grade in Loaded Direction Max Grade in Empty Direction
Route topography
CONSIST SIZING (MIN CONT SPEED 25.3 KPH)
CROSSING LOOP LOCATIONS
LIFE CYCLE COST COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE ALIGNMENTS
CAPEX Examples : • Locomo4ves;
• Wagons;
• Rail Yard; and • Track, etc.
OPEX examples: • Crewing; • Fuel; • Locomo4ve maintenance;
• Wagon maintenance;
• Yard maintenance; and
• Business overheads.
OVERALL MCA SCORES
1 2 3 4 5
PRESENT VALUE (PV) EVALUATION
1 2 3 4 5
CONCLUSION
Satellite data can be used very effec4vely in a first order geometric design study to establish a viable horizontal and ver4cal rail alignment along with the associated infrastructure cost such as earthworks, bridges, drainage, trackwork, etc.
The analysis showed allows the mining companies to make important decisions regarding the viability of the mine i.e. the dollar rate per tonne to import/export the bulk commodity.
This may prompt further studies or maybe, more importantly, stop the mine from spending unnecessary further capital on detailed studies that may include costly topographical or geotechnical surveys.
