8000 Getzner sleeper pads for the London Underground

11.10.11

In July and August 2011, the track of the London Underground District Line was completely renovated between Paddington and High Street Kensington stations in the city centre. Approximately 173 million passengers use this line every year. In addition to new ballast and new rails, the track section of this very busy Underground line was fitted with new sleepers incorporating Getzner pads. The operator, London Underground, installed around 8,000 sleeper pads for concrete and wooden sleepers. As well as protecting the track superstructure, the elastically mounted sleepers protect residential buildings from vibrations. This concerns the large number of residential buildings located directly adjacent to the tracks in central London.

While most of the maintenance work on the London Underground usually takes place at night or at weekends, this section of the line was closed for a whole month for this renewal work. Getzner's preassembly of sleeper soles was carried out partly by the Cemex concrete sleeper factory and partly by London Underground itself. The sleepers therefore arrived on site - already with their soling - and could be installed directly without any further work steps. As the District Line runs through narrow tunnels on the renewed section of the line, the operator attached great importance to highly efficient vibration insulation: to prevent sound transmission via the tunnel wall, elastic bearings were used for the first time on the sides of the sleepers.

8000 Getzner sleeper pads for the London Underground

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