Mobile Suction Excavator in the railway tunnel

Mobile Suction Excavator in the Ejpovice railway tunnel

On November 15th, the Ejpovice railway tunnel was opened to traffic. Being a technologically unique and the longest within the Czech railway network, the tunnel will significantly reduce travel time on the Prague-Pilsen route. The actual travel time will be reduced by an average of 10 minutes. It is worth noting that the tunnel structure was designed to allow for high-velocity trains up to 200 km/h.

The Ejpovice tunnel consists of two tubes, the southern being 4150m and the northern 4176m long. The construction was started in February 2015 and September 2016, respectively. The actual excavation process was carried out by a special Herrenknecht tunneling drill. This giant machine was made in Germany and features powerful drilling head with as much as 10m in diameter. Overall length is over 110m and a weight reaches 1800t.

The Ejpovice tunnel is not exceptional with respect to its length only. Extended use of state-of-art features allows for safe operation and easy maintenance as well. So-called fixed runway stretches along the entire length of both tubes. This solution provides excellent rail positioning, maintenance and repair abilities. Also, in case of emergency, rescue agencies can enter the tunnel body with their standard fully-equipped vehicles. This feature significantly accelerates any possible technical and/or rescue operation.

This special runway was used by our partner Prumyslove stavby Skrivanek, s.r.o. Company that participated in the final stage of the tunnel construction. Being in charge of cleaning the entire building site in the southern tunnel tube, Skrivanek team completed the task in just 4 working days thanks to a unique machine – a mobile suction exactor manufactured by HUTIRA – BRNO Company.

The Mobile Suction Excavator (MSE) is a lorry chassis mounted device that utilizes a simple cyclone principle of suction to remove miscellaneous dry-or-wet materials. The MSE in Skrivanek Company has been successfully used in the building industry context. The machine proved to be excellent to extract debris from renovated buildings as well as remove gravel and earth from the various shafts. The MSE is able to quickly clean technological lines, collectors and technological reservoirs as well. Agricultural applications include the maintenance of biogas stations. There, the batch is usually composed from slurry, plant material, stones, and small metal objects. In fish farming reservoirs, MSEs have been successfully deployed in cleaning of drainage passages.

HUTIRA – BRNO has been supplier of suction technology since 2003. MSEs are indispensable helpers in many fields throughout Europe. Obviously, the provided list of tasks that can be performed by these devices is not complete. In road and water management, the MSE can clean shafts, passes or areas under the bridges. This includes concrete-reinforced waterways with tight profiles. During drinking water reservoir repairs, a MSE can successfully suck concrete rubble. In chemical plants, it removes the granulate substances from the catalysts. When roofs of family/apartment house are to be refitted, MSE can remove old roof tiles and flooring material. Any material sucked into the MSE container is then transported to the designated landfill in clean-and-dust-free way. Slightly modified MSEs can perform a complete road cleaning, while special variants are also able to work in underground waste storages. There, they work with both mixed and recyclable municipal waste. The operation of a MSE is efficient, clean and elegant without any human interference.

Click here for more information about the MSE.

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