Strukton Rail is going to renew part of the railways in Limburg, in the South of the Netherlands. ProRail has awarded this Design & Construct contract to Strukton Rail. The project will run from October till December 2009 and involves mainly the renewal of the ballast, tracks and switches.

Strukton Rail will renew 9 kilometres of ballast on the Maaslijn between Venlo and Nijmegen, renew two 1:9 switches in Born and renew the track at the yards in the towns of Heerlen, Sittard, Kerkrade, Venlo and Blerick. The project also involves work on the catenary equipment and signalling systems.

Strukton Rail will use several of its machines for the project, including:

• The chain ballast cleaner for screening old ballast and returning usable ballast to the track
• The ballast conveyors for unloading and transporting (old) ballast
• The (switch) packing machine for raising, straightening and tamping switches and track
• The ballast profiler for distributing the ballast and restoring the ballast bed profile

The work will mainly be done during the weekend and during the night, when the lines will be closed to traffic. Around 25 to 30 track workers will be working on the project during those nights and weekends to make sure that the impact on the train services will be kept to a minimum.