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«Break down this rock! Let neither weariness, nor weather,
Nor thirst, nor hunger hold you back from this endeavour!
You are assigned the task to crush that granite wall».
I. Franko
Construction / Railway tunnel in Starosambirski area, Lviv province.
There are 27 tunnels on Lviv railway. They are located in mountainous terrain. Natural causes destroy these man-made constructions. For example in rainy seasons water trickles down through concrete vault. In winter walls of the tunnel are covered with ice.
To avoid any breach which could be a breakdown for trains, special crews that take care of the tunnel have to chop down and remove a huge amount of ice in 24 hours during short gaps in train schedule.
A difficult situation takes place in a 1445 meters long one-way tunnel on a haul between Javora and Turka. This tunnel is a back door to Uzhgorod. Until a new haul was built between Stryj-Lavochne, this tunnel has been the main entrance to Uzhgorod. Even now some freight and passenger trains pass through this tunnel, including a long distance train Lviv-Solotvyne. In case of a planned reconstruction of the main rails all the intensity would fall on the reserve haul (Sambir-Sianky). That’s why the safety requirements to Javir-Turka tunnel will rise.
This tunnel was built in 1896. It was rebuilt many times, during the war its walls and vault has been renewed. But destructive processes resulted in a breach of damp proofing. That’s why some parts of the tunnel are always wet. When the temperature falls below zero (in mountains such weather lasts for almost 6 months) ice starts forming on the walls. This problem needs to be solved. It was decided to use modern technologies.
Serhiy Barsuk, head of engineering structures department, deputy manager of roadway department, reported that Lviv railway signed an agreement about damp proofing of the tunnel with a contractor that uses modern German technology and materials. This contractor is “Kamenyar” Ltd, an enterprise which is known for its close cooperation with “Lvivska Politehnika” National University. This year in the second decade of September it has conducted a pilot damp proofing of the tunnel (60 m2). For this reason “time gaps” were created in the train schedule from 3 am to 9 am. These works will be conducted in the end of September and in the beginning of October. Sixty more meters of the tunnel will be waterproofed.
After the treatment with new materials water stopped leaking in.
During the process of damp proofing some representatives of the roadway department have been adopting this work experience. Later they will be able to perform these works by their own forces.
Walls and vaults of other Lviv railway tunnels will be treated the same way. And this experience can be adopted by other Ukrainian railways.
By Myroslav Burkovych
“Mahistral” newspaper