High Speed Rail Network

In the face of both precipitous terrain and strict requirements for railway construction, ULMA relied on the flexibility and versatility of its formwork systems to meet the challenges presented. With a total of more than 2,515 km of railway lines, Spain has become the leader in Europe and second worldwide only to China in the size of its high-speed rail network. The challenge remains to complete the routes underway, as well as the planned connections to France in both Catalonia and Basque Country, the communities located respectively at the easternmost and westernmost ends of the national border.

The routes set for high-speed trains are extremely rigid, given the restrictions set by maximum slopes and curve radii. Many viaducts and tunnels were therefore necessary to traverse the mountainous terrain of the various territories through which the railway passes.

In order to build the slabs and decks of the various viaducts, ENKOFORM formwork is a flexible system composed of standard material easily adapted to varied geometries – was chosen. The decks were shored with high load-bearing capacity shoring towers, such as the T-500, as part of a gantry falsework system or a full shoring system when the terrain permitted. The piers were built with the beam formwork ENKOFORM V-100, climbed on brackets to reach the required heights. The cut-and-cover tunnels were built with MK carriages, lightweight and flexible systems that offer extremely high performance for such projects