Colas Rail obtains the contract to renew catenary systems at Bern West station
Kumler+Matter SA, a subsidiary of Colas Rail, has been awarded a 30 million € contract by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) to renew all the catenary systems on the western infrastructures of Bern's main station.
The work will involve taking charge of all the catenary work on the ‘Bern West’ project, which is part of a series of jobs designed to increase the traffic capacity of this railway junction. Scheduled to take place between 2025 and 2036, the work will be carried out while maintaining train traffic and will involve:
- Redevelopment of the rail infrastructure west of Bern station, in particular by creating a new rail tunnel under the existing tracks to minimise the number of crossing situations for trains operating between Bern station and Europaplatz;
- Renewing the facilities at the Aebimatt depot so that it can accommodate and store additional passenger trains, in order to free up space at Bern station;
- The creation of a new passenger transport station (Bahnhof Europaplatz Nord) for BLS AG (Bern Lötschberg-Simplon) to replace the existing Stöckacker station.
Kummer+Matter will carry out the renewal and commissioning work on SBB and BLS AG's catenary infrastructure for all the sub-projects, involving more than 80 work phases and traffic configurations, the assembly of more than 850 supports, the installation of 275 rigid gantries, and the rolling out of around 29 km of new catenary; the design, supply and installation of 1.7 km of rigid catenary in the new Holligen tunnel, as well as the construction and commissioning of five new phased distribution substations (around 100 switchgear units to be installed, either temporarily or permanently).
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