Teamwork in Hösbach – IDEFIX delights

The stop at Hösbach is on the Würzburg-to-Aschaffenburg line and is located in the Lower Franconian district of Aschaffenburg in Bavaria. It has been classed as a Category 6 station due to its rural location and low passenger volumes. HERING was already able to renew the platform along the station building in 2016 as part of the construction project to extend the Hanau-Nantenbach section. We responded to last year’s tender and won the order for the barrier-free reconstruction of the outer platform (Platform 1).

Planning was already commenced in October 2022, which was followed by the clearing work in December of the same year. However, things didn't really get going until it was possible to shut down services for periods of time in February 2023. Closing the track was difficult as it was only possible to pause services during the night for a limited period of six hours. That meant that the work to dismantle the platform edge and install the modular platform could only be carried during this small window of time.

The deployment of IDEFIX was a particular highlight.

IDEFIX – a KIROW KRC1200 crane – was able to demonstrate its capabilities for the first time during the installation of the modula® system platform and the dismantling of the underpass enclosure. The special thing about Idefix and its deployment in Hösbach was the rotating and swivelling work (the counterweight remains stationary in the direction of the track while the jib is able to rotate up to the adjacent track’s profile limit) and the use of the 60-tonne universal / off-standard spreader beam (also called a ‘Knochen’ (‘bone’) in German) that was built especially to this end.

This construction site also held a few little surprises in store for us. Among other things, for example, it became necessary to install an additional load-distribution slab (2.30 x 2.00 metres) made of reinforced concrete as the soil parameters and soil compaction were not sufficient for the prefabricated foundations. There’s also going to be an extension to the construction time here because a collision with the cable route has made it necessary to develop a new plan for the passenger elevator on Platform 2.
Thanks to the dedication of our crew working at the site and the good cooperation with our colleagues in the Systems and Heavy-Duty Machinery divisions, the outer platform was completed and successfully taken into operation on 14 April 2023.

TEAMWORK was key to this construction site!