The BKV panels are a good idea, wrongly used. They are extremely cheap
and quick to install. Excellent for temporary track relocations such as
round the Anzac Station under construction. Similarly, for very light
traffic where other methods would make trams uneconomic. However, when
their use was extended to busy lines, a life of ten years seemed to be the
maximum...but cheap. Then, of course, it was cheaper to just let them get
worse and worse by slowing the service down. Various operators in Czech
Republic are persevering with them in low usage lines, but with sturdier
bases.
I'm interested to see how these are standing up. One such section is
outside the Skippy Australian Pie Shop in Plzeň. So, on my next visit I
shall observe while munching a pie.
Mark Skinner
On Sat, 21 May 2022, 9:11 am Matthew Geier, matthew@...>
wrote:
> If we are talking asphalt roads , probably won't matter how well you
> pack that thin layer of fill, it will tend to 'flow' under load. The
> tram rails probably act to constrain where the road vehicle's wheels go
> - they have issues like this on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the Cahill
> lanes (ex railway/tramway) as they are quite narrow and have a high
> amount of bus traffic. With the buses constrained to run in the 'same'
> path due to the narrow lanes the asphalt ruts quite rapidly.
>
> I've also seen this elsewhere where the lanes are narrow and constrained
> - and particularly on those guided rubber tired tram things. They rather
> rapidly rut their guideway unless it's concrete, and the first Translohr
> has noticeable wear on its concrete sections!. I think the Paris
> Translohr lines are all concrete on the running surface.
>
> Those pre-fab track panels they used in Eastern Europe have proven to be
> problematic over time - unless the bed those panels are placed on is
> very well compacted (and often wasn't) the panels tend to rock with the
> road traffic and eventually break the rails.
>
>
> On 20/5/22 21:47, Dudley Horscroft wrote:
> > Perhaps it might be better in these high traffic areas to ensure that
> > the concrete to top of sleeper height is completely level, then insert
> > between the rails long concrete panels linked by some sort of mastic -
> > tar or rubber? Similar to the panels used in Budapest but without the
> > fixings for the rails, or the panels used in somewhere in the Czech
> > republic - Tony knows where and can probably find the advertising
> > material on these.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Dudley
> >
> > On 20/05/2022 9:36 pm, David Batho wrote:
> >> Thank you, all, for some recondite observations.
> >>
> >> David
> >>
> >>
> >>> On 11 May 2022, at 11:14 am, Mal Rowe mal.rowe@...> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On 08/05/2022 13:10, Mal Rowe wrote:
> >>>> The strength and finished surface are starting to show some problems.
> >>>>
> >>> As promised, I went out to get some pics of some problems with some
> >>> of Melbourne's tramways renewed using the current technique.
> >>>
> >>> The technique involves concrete to sleeper height, then crushed
> >>> rock/concrete fill to just below rail height and topping off with
> >>> bitumen.
> >>>
> >>> It mostly works well, but there are at least a couple of places
> >>> where problems with the road surface have emerged.
> >>>
> >>> The two attached pics show Bridge Rd Richmond where there is very
> >>> heavy road traffic. The use of "Vienna stops" in this location
> >>> concentrates the motor traffic on the tramway section of the road.
> >>> Most motorists avoid going up and over the kerbside lane. It looks
> >>> like the crushed rock has not been stable enough and the bitumen
> >>> surface is breaking up. The tramway is fine - just the road surface
> >>> is failing.
> >>>
> >>> The other location I have noticed problems is in Dawson St
> >>> Brunswick. The section of roadway outside the tram rails is quite
> >>> uneven - driving along it in a car one notices 'long period
> >>> corrugations' that give a bumpy ride.
> >>>
> >>> Getting the crushed fill to pack down is tricky - the small roller
> >>> that is used (see: https://tdu.to/i/80550 ) is probably not able to
> >>> do the job properly.
> >>>
> >>> Mal Rowe - grateful to Warren Doubleday for the 'heads up' on Bridge
> >>> Rd.
> >>>
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> >>>
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tramsdownunder/941d6aa4-3f90-637d-9aec-a5309d9d2b7a%40gmail.com
> .
> >>> <2096_BridgeRd_10May2022.JPG><Damage-BridgeRd_10May2022.JPG>
> >
>
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>