The restoration of the railway track on the Székesfehérvár-Szombathely line has reached a spectacular stage

Experts are repairing damage caused by underground water on the Székesfehérvár–Szombathely railway line, and construction of a deep drainage system has begun, according to MÁV-Csoport Facebook page.

According to the entry, the restoration of the railway track on the section between Szentgál and Városlőd-Kislőd on railway line 20 has reached its most visible phase: preparations have begun for the construction of a special drainage system, known as a deep drainage system. According to information from the Electronic Public Procurement System information from the Electronic Public Procurement System, the work will be carried out by Békés Drén Kft..

On the right-hand side of the track, a 265-metre-long deep drainage tunnel is being built, with shafts connected to it, at an average depth of 8 metres. This system will discharge the collected subsurface water through the existing closed section channel into a receiving ditch on the left side of the railway track.

They added that as part of the preparatory process, the demolition of the damaged railway embankment, including the overhead electric cables and their supporting columns, rails and concrete sleepers, has also started in recent days.

Then the embankment will be dismantled to a depth of about 7 metres over a length of 150 metres under the rail crown, and 8-metre-deep gravel columns will be used to construct a series of sluices, from which the collected groundwater will be pumped into drainage pipes connecting the bottom of the wells, and then into collection shafts, from where it will be pumped to the receiving railway trench.

Given the complexity of the work due to the difficult hydro-geological conditions, the track renewal is expected to last until the end of the year, until then replacement buses will be used to ensure the traffic between Veszprém and Ajka.

Explaining the importance of the intervention, they said that at the end of last year, geotechnical investigations revealed that the presence of soil and layer water had led to a faster than expected deterioration of the section of the track, making it necessary to stop passenger traffic immediately. The cause of the technical problem had been identified earlier and the necessary preparations for the reconstruction had been started, which now led to the first spectacular phase of the works.