Sanet organizes the initial installation of a company from Tittmoning, Bavaria
“It was hard work,“ reported the exhausted but proud Sanet partner and engineer Sven Korf regarding the successful conclusion of a challenging railroad project in Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. After two years of intensive negotiations, the Bavarian company KRAIBURG-STRAIL GmbH & Co. KG, based in the city of Tittmoning, was able to secure a deal for the installation of a railroad crossing, using STRAIL’s technology, in the island city of 250 million.
Sanet Trade & Services in Bangkok, which acted as STRAIL’s regional sales representative in the ASEAN member states, was also fortunate enough to win over Martin R. Moeljono as a great sales partner for Indonesia with extensive contacts in the railroad industry.
The project of this German MSE has been met with great interest. Representatives from the Ministry of Transport visited the construction site multiple times, and they were allowed to promptly present the news of the project’s successful completion to the Director of Railway Infrastructure within the Ministry of Transport. The Indonesian press covered the matter almost daily, and a photo exhibit about the infrastructure project was immediately made a part of the railroad fair organized in parallel with the project.
They only had 5 hours of uninterrupted nighttime work before traffic was ready to roll over the construction site.
It is no surprise that the project’s completion was met with such positivity. Four nights of hard work without ever being certain that they would actually finish the crossing now finally lay behind the Indonesian-German team. It was truly an amazing feat.
Already in the beginning it had become clear that, contrary to expectation, all the rails and ties had to be replaced since they were completely rotten. The team only had 5 hours before both the site would be re-opened to railway and automobile traffic. At that point, the installation of a crossing was not even in the picture. Strail’s team helped with the rebuilding of the rails and spent 9 hours working on curb stone and bordering.
Work was scheduled to continue in the second night; however, after they arrived, they realized that the newly implanted parts had sunk down too far. More than 500 semi-trucks per hour and the steady flow of transport goods over the surface had worked together with the heavy rain to destroy the progress from the night before. The only choice was to use that short window of time in the night to disassemble everything, lay a one meter deep foundation across the entire width of the crossing, and compact the ground.
A whole night’s work ruined: new foundations had to be laid overnight
On the third night, it was time for the “deep dig”. Fortunately, the work from the previous day had withstood its load. The prefabricated foundations were laid by 5 a.m. and since it was a holiday, the government allowed for one side of the crossing to be blocked off during the day. This allowed time for the installation of the rubber inner and outer crossing panels.
At around 11:00 p.m. on the final night of the project, Sven Kor fand Martin R. Moeljono were both able to congratulate one another with the words “Mission complete!” Now Jakarta is home tot he first “Strail level crossing system“, which enables a smoot and safe crossing for both vehicles and pedestrians when road and railway traffic meet. STRAIL’s level crossing systems connect railway traffic with the needs of road transport.
Sven Korf concluded his message by saying, „No one in Germany would believe us if we told them that such an inexperienced Indonesian team, with practically no heavy machinery at their disposal and no prior knowledge regarding the intense flow of heavy transport or the ground conditions, was able to complete such a technical project with such success.”
Even more reason for Willy Molter, the export leader behind STRAIL, to be proud of his products and his decision to go with the right partners in ASEAN and Indonesia. His pilot project has opened the door to Indonesia and its thousands of crossings.
Almost done… soon it’ll be “rattle-free“ travel over the railroad crossing thanks to Strail’s technology.
