CEMEX builds its biggest ever concrete UK rail crossing

643 CEMEX has constructed the biggest rail crossing ever developed by the company in the UK. Part of London’s rail services, the multiple crossing consists of 10 sets of switches and 1,800 metres of rail track.

CEMEX tailor-made the multiple crossing on behalf of Progress Rail, rail parts supplier for 2898 Network Rail, the company managing most of the rail network in the United Kingdom. The rail crossing is being laid outside Waterloo station, which is comprised of 24 platforms with an estimated 99.1 million passenger journeys annually—equivalent to three people per second getting on and off at the terminus. Thus, the crossing is part of a complex rail track feeding this station, one of the busiest in the country.

Made of concrete, the rail crossing benefits from a stronger structure and a longer life span. Additionally, the 1,800-metre crossing was designed and constructed on a site located approximately 80 kilometres from London. Each concrete bearer was numbered and colour-coded before stacking and transporting to the assembly facility, then onto a rail yard for layout and addition of the track.

“There were many challenges in the production of this large, complex multiple crossing. The main issue was ensuring the data transfer of the 1:50 drawing into the data sets that we would use within our production process to the actual crossing and ensuring that each rail position was within 1 millimetre of its set position. Add to this the complexity of each individual bearer, together with the sheer volume of individual units and concrete, it was quite a challenge,” said Terence Clair, operations manager for 6156 CEMEX UK.