With aims of alleviating truck transport on Sydney’s M5 tunnel and other road networks, Downer Special Services, Rail Infrastructure Division is undertaking construction of two 1,850 metre staging roads to store four 650 metre trains at the Enfield Staging Facility Project in Sydney.
The works, which began in February 2012, include Installation of 13 turnouts, an access road and removal of 60,000 tonnes of material from a large embankment to facilitate two new tracks. Expected completion date is mid 2013.
Downer’s site engineer Matthew Whyte said, “We are involved in upgrading the existing freight rail network throughout Australia. One of the main issues we’ve encountered on this site is the residual asbestos, which has to be removed and disposed of in an appropriate manner.
“We are using a water cart from TWS Hire to keep the area dampened down, which is particularly critical for asbestos affected areas. The primary function of watering is for dust suppression, which is absolutely critical on days of 30°C and above when there’s a strong wind.
“On those hot windy days we are using between 30,000 and 40,000 litres of water , so with three 45 tonne excavators running, our water carts are kept busy by damping down the embankment and also the site access roads.
“Most of our operators are licensed for truck operation, but it’s an advantage to have a car licensed water truck on site that can be driven by anyone with a valid driver’s licence. TWS Hire’s compact Fuso water cart is highly manoeuvrable and it’s advantage to have a smaller truck on site rather than a huge vehicle that cannot cover some of the smaller areas.