Working with ProRail, GeoChemTec helps in finding ballast stones for railway tracks that meet modern Dutch standards of safety and sustainability.
A railway track consists of rails and sleepers that rest on a bed of coarse track ballast stones with an underlying finer-grained subgrade. The track ballast is crushed stone, needed to support the sleepers, while providing drainage for rainwater.
Ballast stones must withstand wear and tear, by the daily high frequency pressure variations from passing trains and by occasional maintenance involving tamping and lining to restore bed geometry.
In the Netherlands, ProRail has to operate one of the busiest railway networks of Europe. It not only needs strong ballast with a long service life, but also safe ballast that produces as little as possible inhalable dust, without hazardous minerals.
GeoChemTec's job is to find the European quarries that can supply the strongest and safest railway ballast, at the lowest possible costs.