The train disaster

The emergency services arrived on site very quickly and a plan was immediately made to evacuate the trains from the meadow. Van Schie played an important role in this.

When the experts from ProRail and the NS mapped out the situation, it quickly became clear that an incredible amount of work was needed to remove the trains from this swampy meadow. In order to reach the accident site with (very) heavy equipment, an emergency road would first have to be constructed. Because in order to lift the trains, two mobile cranes were needed: 400 tonners, both deployed by Mammoet.

But getting those cranes in the right place and setting up a stable parking area was an even bigger challenge. All disciplines from the civil engineering sector were needed here. And that is precisely why they quickly ended up with Van Schie. The company from Mijdrecht is available 24/7, has all disciplines in-house, is familiar with the soil types in the Groene Hart and is prepared for emergencies.

Accessibility

The place where the disaster occurred could not have been more unfortunate. Extremely difficult to reach and it also turned out that there was a water pipe under the meadows that had to be passed in three places. An enclosure had to be built for these three places first, consisting of an extra sand pack and a bulkhead plateau.

Temporary culvert pipes were also installed. The road plate track could then be laid over this: 280 meters along the track and 350 meters through the meadow. Since one train set ended up straight across the track ditch, that ditch also had to be dredged and filled with fresh sand for a stable surface. The dredged material was removed to our own soil bank in Mijdrecht.

The final depot for Mammoet’s cranes was the biggest job. The water pipe also ran underneath that. The plateau that was built here consisted of double layers of wooden bulkheads, extra heavy steel bulkheads from Mammoet itself and steel bulkheads from Van Schie, all filled with sand.

In short, a mega job. Someone calculated that there was a total of more than a million kilos of material and equipment on the pasture.

People & equipment

For a disaster of this magnitude, a lot of manpower and equipment had to be deployed in a short time before Mammoet’s heavy cranes could recover the two train sets:

• For three days, around the clock, Van Schie teams (in groups of 20 people) worked to make the crane installation site accessible and ready for lifting.
• Twelve trucks (sand tippers and low loaders) were needed for the continuous supply of sand, but also for the removal of dredged material from the railway ditch.
• A temporary road slab track had to be constructed over a total distance of 630 metres, on a sand pack.
• For the installation location of the cranes: 16 steel bulkheads with a length of 14 meters, in addition to the ultra-heavy bulkheads from Mammoet.
• Hundreds of wooden partitions, including for the three vaults.
• Excavator cranes and shovels for moving the earth.
• Temporary culvert pipes from HP Steel.
• Temporary steel bridge from Janson Bridging.
• Various generators for electricity, etc.
• Van Schie was also responsible for ‘vacuum’ packaging the train sets in protective foil before they were transported.