PRESIDENT Abdelmadjid Tebboune inaugurated Algeria’s 575km Western Railway Mining Line on February 1. The first freight train carried iron-ore from the new mine at Gara Djebilet to the port of Oran on the Mediterranean coast.
The heavy-haul line runs from Béchar on the existing network southwest via Béni Abbès and Tindouf to Gara Djebilet, which is one of the largest iron-ore mines in the world with reserves of 3.5 billion tonnes. The railway has a maximum axleload of 32.5 tonnes and is expected to transport up to 50 million tonnes of iron-ore annually.
Iron-ore trains running at up to 120km/h will be up to 2135m long, comprising four locomotives hauling 170 wagons and enabling a payload of 22,100 tonnes.
The line will also be used by 160km/h passenger trains and Algerian National Railways (SNTF) will initially operate one round trip per day between Béchar and Tindouf with a journey time of 11h 30min and 11h 55min for the return journey.
China Rail Construction Corporation (CRCC) was the lead contractor for the project together with Algerian state-owned engineering company, Cosider Travaux Publics.
According to CRCC, the line was built in less than 24 months and involved 8000 personnel working in temperatures of up to 50oC in the Sahara Desert. CRCC used a CPG500 long-rail laying machine to lay single rail up to 504m long, achieving a daily track laying and welding speed of 4km. A flash-butt welding rail production line was built, capable of welding up to 180 weld heads per rail per day.
Sleepers for the line were supplied by a factory built by China Railway 15th Bureau Group Assembly Technology Company in Tindouf, which produced more than 1.06 million heavy-duty sleepers, 32,000 bridge sleepers and 91 sets of sleepers for turnouts.
The line includes a 4.1km viaduct - claimed to be the longest in Africa - spanning the Oued Dawra riverbed.
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