CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
09 May 2005
Company News
Betuweroute Rail Track Project in Holland Noted as Extraordinary
VOF Grontmij - De Weger, a building consortium consisting of two leading Dutch engineering companies, has been nominated for a 2005 BE Award for its Betuweroute rail track in Holland.
The BE Awards of Excellence, which are being presented tonight at the BE Conference , honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world's infrastructure. These projects set benchmarks for their industries, and showcase the imagination and technical mastery of the organizations that created them.
The Dutch government decided to build the 160-kilometer Betuweroute rail track to decrease traffic on the motorways and triple yearly revenues of goods traffic by train from the Netherlands to other European countries. The Betuweroute, which is the first track line in the Netherlands dedicated to the transport of goods, will be ready in 2007 and cost 4.8 billion euros.
The project required the designers to overcome challenges with the alignment, including the connecting arcs with existing track, as well as adaptations to motorways that crossed the new railtrack. The required earthworks were modeled as well.
From the start, the Betuweroute has been designed in 3D using Bentley MX. This provided important insight into spatial occupation, as well as accurate calculations of ground quantities.
"With the use of MX input files in this rail design project," explains Cees Veerhoek, project manager for VOF Grontmij - De Weger, "our designers were able to change the complicated long section of a complete roadway junction, including the generation of all the necessary work drawings, in a few hours, instead of days."
The MX models have been used throughout the project to generate output data and quality control. Their use made it possible for ten design engineers to work simultaneously on a single project, a capability essential to getting this enormous design project ready in time.
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