The Betuwelijn (Betuwe Railroad) is a new goods railroad,
of 160 km, between Rotterdam and the German
Ruhrgebied. The line will be build from 2001 till 2007. The line goes nearby our
village Vuren on the North.
2001
In 2001 the surroundings of Vuren were filled with pipes
for transporting the sand from the boats in the river to the different
locations of the new railroad.
The sand came from the pump station between Dalem and Vuren. From the boat
the sand is mixed with water (1:6). This mixture is transported via the
pipelines with huge pumps from the pump station.
From this station alone, they transported 1,5 million cubic meters of
sand.
Perskaden (Pressure walls)
The mixture of sand and water is pumped into a canal
that's called the 'perskaden'. In this canal, there is a nylon fabric. The
sand will stay in the canal, the water goes trough the fabric and is
pumped back into the river.
June 2003 - Construction of the sand foundation
December 2004 - Construction of the sound barriers
January 2005 - Construction of the gravel foundation
Gravel Foundation
The gravel is supplied by large trucks. This gravel
is used for the construction of the foundation for both railways. On
this foundation, the concrete railway sleepers, see the photo below,
will carry the rail.
Adapting flyover Molenweg
The Betuwe railroad crosses the Molenweg (MillRoad).
Therefore they had to adapt the flyover that was already over the
main road A15.
The existing flyover is raised with jackscrews. In
line with this flyover they created a new extra flyover for crossing
the new railroad.
These operations took place between 2002 and april 2003.
Adapting Zeiving
The Zeiving is the local road from Vuren to Leerdam.
This road is completely renovated. The old road passed the flyover
under the main road A15. After the renovation, the road has a new flyover
and passes now over the A15. To do this, the A15 is completely lowered to
the same level as the railroad.
For this operation the main road A15 was closed in parts, so that the
traffic jam was as low as possible. The whole project started at April
2003 and was completed February 2004
