Bukit Berapit Concrete Trackslab with Barchip Synthetic Fiber Concrete Reinforcement

The Bukit Berapit Tunnel is a twin bore, 3.3km horse shoe shaped rail tunnel. On completion it will be the longest rail tunnel in South East Asia. Bukit Berapit is one part of the larger Electrified Double Tracking Project (EDTP), a 329 km double track railway line between Ipoh – Padang Besar.

The RM 12.48 billion EDTP will include 7 bridges, 15 stations and two rail tunnels. With a top speed of 180 km/hr it will increase the accessibility of major cities and commercial hubs for locals and foreigners, while greatly reducing the heavy dependence on road transport.

JV MMC – Gamuda chose to use a concrete track slab design in the Bukit Berapit Tunnel. Concrete Trackslab offers many benefits over regular ballast tracks, most notably longer service life and maintenance cost reductions. BarChip synthetic fiber concrete reinforcement was chosen as the primary reinforcement in the Trackslab.

Fiber reinforced concrete Track slab on the Bukit Berapit high speed rail tunnel.

It was determined that wherever conventional RC is used in electric traction railway slabs, the earthing and bonding issues relating to return and stray currents, including electrolytic corrosion and eddy current EMC impacts have been areas where problems have been foreseen and addressed in design but have not always been eradicated in practice.

The use of BarChip synthetic fiber Reinforcement in the track slab design removed stray current risk. Furthermore, BarChip synthetic fibers provided superior crack control compared to conventional mass concrete RC solutions and eliminated the risk of long term corrosion.

In consultation with BarChip, finite element analysis was undertaken to determine the optimum design solution, ensuring the best possible outcome for the asset owners.

FEA analysis shows in full detail the performance over the entire life of the slab.