Jesús Silva, President of Ineco, has visited the CEDEX lab to supervise the studies that the company is undertaking in relation to the effects of sand on the rail tracks for the Makkah-Madinah high speed project in Saudi Arabia. Mariano Navas, head of the Center, joined our company’s representatives during the visit.

CEDEX’s Cajón Ferroviario –`Rail Box’- is a 21 meter long installation which allows real-scale testing of complete rail sections. This lab allows Ineco to test the mechanical performance of the track for the short and long term, as well as the materials of which it is composed, in the presence of different degrees of sand contamination. At the same time, tests are carried out on the water-contaminated ballast, and under circumstances of water saturation. The main advantage of this lab stems from the fact that in a single week of work, the full effect of a year’s worth of train traffic on a real track section can be successfully determined.

These works are part of the collaboration agreement between Ineco and CEDEX, signed in 2013. Both institutions join synergies around railway research in order to strengthen their position as leaders in the market.