| June
04' - as supplied and printed in Rail infrastructure magazine
As winner of the prestigious Network Rail Environment
Award – Supplier of The Year 2002, and holder of the Queen’s
Award for Innovation, HoldFast Level Crossings’ advice is
regularly sought for assessing the environmental impact of rail
and road intersections. It reflects their industry reputation
as more of a solutions provider than a supplier.
It well known that HoldFast recycle waste tyres to create their
full depth rubber crossings. However, environmental impact can
also be assessed in terms of road and rail user delays (pollution
and congestion); safety (accidents and fatalities occurring at
rail level crossings are second only to signals passed at danger
as the major source of risks on Britain's rail network), and crossing
lifespan. These environmental criteria are inherent in HoldFast’s
supply processes and system design.
HoldFast design and crossing solutions to improve road and rail
safety; reduce road and rail maintenance; extend level crossing
life span; and reduce road and rail costs and disruption. Environmental
criteria are critical to the development of such products, both
in terms of manufacture and effect.
In addition to the innovative recycling of waste rubber tyres
to create the crossing panel, five further environmental advantages
contributed to their winning the Network Rail Award:
1. Protection of Existing Road and Rail Assets Leading to a Maintenance
Free Environment
2. A Safer Environment for pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and
rail users
3. Life Costings: a long lifespan eliminates the need for costly
repeat installations.
4. Reduced Network Downtime (closures have a considerable local
environmental
impact)
5. Reduced Supply Chain
Energy Efficient Design and Manufacture
HoldFast’s bespoke built manufacturing plant uses a process
that is itself innovative and environmentally friendly.
HoldFast source vast quantities of ground scrap tyre rubber (GTR)
which the manufacturing plant turns in to highly durable solid
panels with exceptional anti skid levels. These are made at ambient
temperatures using a moisture-curing urethane binder. Each mould
is adapted and ‘set up’ for a particular country’s
rail network and then kept unchanged. Mixing the rubber granules
with the liquid binder and the curing process only takes minutes
and is in itself highly energy efficient in that no heat is required
in the entire process.
With less than half the energy required for manufacturing virgin
rubber, HoldFast turns a potentially hazardous waste in to a product
with a series of further valuable environmental benefits, as explained
below.
In 2001, an estimated 1.5 million tyres were recycled to form
crossings for Railtrack’s West Coast Modernisation project
alone. In 2003, HoldFast celebrated the recycling of their 10th
million waste tyre.
Protection of Existing Road and Rail Assets Leading to
a Maintenance Free Environment
Traditional level crossing surfaces were invariably made from
concrete, asphalt or wood with incumbent problems: panels were
solid and would rock and tip; freeze and thaw conditions would
create dangerous cracking and crumbling; and the metal frames
wrapping concrete panels would lead to track circuitry failure.
Not only is rubber is extremely robust and with a high skid resistance
but it is also flexible and absorbs some of the shock of passing
traffic. This helps protect the track bed. Furthermore, the rubber
panels do not crack or crumble (unlike the alternatives).
Hence, the track bed and crossing itself is maintenance free and
will survive weather and traffic forces for longer periods. This
reduces the need for replacement, giving further environmental
advantage.
Systems now incorporate The Holdfast Angle Edge Beam to protect
the highway approaches from asphalt deterioration at the road
approach to the level crossing. The beam works by supporting the
asphalt surface where it meets a rubber panel crossing and prevents
the banana effect caused by traffic pounding the crossing. No
treatment, drilling, nor cranage is required to install, avoiding
the use of environmentally unfriendly transportation and heavy
installation plant. The installation incorporates recycled rubber
cess panels being tapered against the beam; additionally environmentally
beneficial in terms of maintenance ease and minimising degradation.
A Safer Environment
Level crossings present an infrastructure safety weakness to vehicular,
train and pedestrian traffic.
One of the key safety threats is from vehicle skid. Asphalt, timber
and concrete crossings can all become dangerous skid platforms
for traffic braking over crossings and this weakness has caused
fatal casualties. The HoldFast surface has improved anti-skid
values.
Life Costings
HoldFast crossings, made of full depth rubber, are very durable.
As such, they can endure substantial and continuous traffic and
tremendous weight. The crossing lifespan is believed to exceed
20 years, even in port situations where there is continuous use
by maximum weight 38 wheeler and artics and excessive traffic
speed.
Such longevity cannot be matched by alternative surfaces, where
the danger of safety failure; increases in road and rail maintenance
costs; and increased discomfort for road users, may reduce the
crossing life span to under five years. This not only leads to
replacement costs, but costly repeat installations necessitating
further road and rail closures.
Reduction of Network Downtime
Traditionally, level crossing replacement has required road and
rail closure of one to two days in order to lay the bed, set concrete
or asphalt, install overhead cranes etc. Financial cost apart,
closures have a considerable local environmental impact. Problems
include congestion; traffic fumes; noise pollution; extended rail
and road journeys with increased fuel consumption and pollution
levels.
The HoldFast system, effectively comprising a series of rubber
‘domino’ panels, simply drops in to place. A 50 metre
crossing can be installed in three hours without any machinery
(overhead track cranes are normally required for traditional crossings)!
This is proving a major commercial attraction in selecting HoldFast,
while yielding further environmental advantage.
Reduced supply chain
HoldFast has developed a management system to enable complete
crossings to be delivered and offloaded direct from manufacturing
plant to the installation site on the day (or night) of installation.
This reduces fuel and road freight requirements. With every crossing
designed at the plant, there is no wastage at site.
Ongoing Stakeholder Consultation and Innovation
HoldFast not only consults widely within the rail industry but
also highways authorities and other transport groups in a bid
to continually upgrade crossing environments for all users.
The HoldFast End Restraint is such an example. Where crossing
panels drift, gaps may appear between the panels of modular crossings.
These can seriously endanger highway traffic. This long standing
problem of longitudinal movement can prove highly dangerous, particularly
in urban or metro situations where there is high cyclist and pedestrian
flow. The HoldFast End Restraint is a patented solution to permanently
close such gaps (not to be used on rubber and not required for
HoldFast crossings).
Conclusion
HoldFast has proved that by creating a clear understanding of
environmental issues, and addressing these, a supplier can attain
considerable commercial success, recognized this year with the
award of the HSBC Rail Supplier of the Year.
HoldFast have enjoyed year on year financial growth, proving that
making environmental issues a cornerstone of business and manufacturing
policy does not mean sacrificing financial stability. Peter Coates
Smith explains:
"From a business point of view we need
not concern ourselves with revenues derived from replacement parts
and consultancy, we rely entirely on an order book that grows
year on year from organizations seeking long term solutions.” |
