Installing Track for the Broadway Subway Project
After tunnel boring is completed, work on station construction and track installation begins.
In total, 22 kilometres of rail will be installed. End to end, that is about the distance from Playland to the Richmond Oval, or the distance of a half marathon! When in service, trains will be able to switch tracks in three places – at the elevated guideway, Broadway-City Hall and Arbutus stations.
We’ve broken down track installation into four steps; follow below to see how track installation works:
STEP 1: Pour the concrete track base
The tunnel boring machines build a round tunnel.
Before SkyTrain tracks can be installed inside, crews first construct a flat concrete base.
Miniature concrete trucks drive through the tunnels to deliver concrete to the work site.
STEP 2: Install rail fasteners
Workers use a coring drill to core small holes into the concrete base. After that, metal rail fasteners are installed, which hold the SkyTrain rails in place.
STEP 3: Install the rail on the fasteners
A specialized machine, called a speed swing, pulls the rail into the tunnel along rollers, stacks them within the tunnel, and then places them onto the fasteners when ready to install.
Each piece of rail is about 400 metres long!
STEP 4: Install the systems that power and move the train
Finally, the remaining track components are installed.
This includes the Linear Induction Motor rail, which runs down the middle of the track and helps move and stop the train, and the power rail, which runs on the side of the track and supplies energy to operate the train.