China is aggressively growing its high speed railway network to reduce travel times across the country. In the densely populated east of the country this often means building close to existing rail lines and urban areas where environmental disturbances are a major concern for project managers.
 
The introduction of ICE‘s Resonance Free vibratory hammers in China now allows projects to be completed safely within a shorter time and with minimal impact to the environment. China Railway Construction Group No.11 was one of the first to invest in a hydraulic piling hammer.  Hydraulic resonance free hammers are very different from electric hammers commonly used in railway construction projects. The ICE RF machines produce no vibrations during start up and shut down and with a working speed of 2300 RPM produce high frequency vibrations that do not travel into the environment. They are safe to use right next to existing rail lines and can be operated from the telescopic boom of a truck crane. This technology is perfect for work on the upgrading of existing tracks for high speed rail; the doubling of existing track capacity without disturbance; and regular maintenance and repair works on and around existing tracks. 
 
With the densification of the railway network more projects are planned close to existing railway tracks often doubling the tracks especially around train stations and in urban areas where permits to evict tenants and farmers from required land is not feasible. Construction vibrations pose a significant risk to existing tracks as shifting of the rail tracks might derail a train. Precautions must be taken by using Resonance Free piling technology to drive and extract sheet pile cofferdams or rail bridge casing foundations. RF hammers work without vibration disturbance and allow high speed trains to continue driving along construction sites. This way you can work closely along existing rail lines where the land use rights have already been approved and no residents or land owners need to be evicted or compensated.
 
Some typical applications for RF hammers are driving casings for bridge foundations; sheet piles for cofferdams; H beams installing stone columns for soil improvement and other temporary earth retaining structures. In Europe sheet piles are also used as sound walls permanent overpass walls and also provide load bearing capacity for structures. With steel prices at historic low levels leaving sheet piles in the soil also saves extraction costs and shortens the time required for project completion.

In the Netherlands where the ICE hammers are manufactured soil conditions are very soft requiring railway track beds to be strengthened by stone columns. ICE’s vibratory hammers are ideally suited for this application too as the equipment is fitted with a cooling system that allows continuous driving of closed bottom casings that are filled with gravel before being extracted even under high ambient temperature conditions of up to 55 degrees Celsius. Please give us a call if you are interested to stabilize your track beds with stone columns so that we can share our experience with you!