Concrete sleepers: Handling, Prohibited Locations

Concrete sleepers: Handling

Concrete sleepers weigh about 215 to 270 kg and about 6 to 8 persons are required to handle one sleeper. The mechanical handling of concrete sleepers is, therefore, desirable for safety purposes.

Concrete sleepers: Prohibited Locations

Concrete sleepers, because of their heavy weight and rigidity of structure, are not suited to yielding formations, fish-plated joints, and places where uniform packing cannot be achieved. Concrete sleepers as such are normally laid at only those locations where LWRs are permissible. These sleepers should not be laid at the following locations:

(a)  New formation in banks unless specially compacted

(b) Any rock cuttings, except where a minimum depth of 300 mm of ballast cushion has been provided

(c)  Un-ballasted lines in yards

(d) Curves of radius less than 500 m

(e)  Troublesome formations

(f)  Near ashpits and other locations where drivers habitually drop ash

(g)  At locations where excessive corrosion is expected

(h) On un-ballasted bridges and on arch bridges, where the height between the arch and the bottom of the ballast section is less than 1 m, and on slab bridges, where the ballast cushion between the bottom of the sleepers and the top of the slab is less than 300 mm

(i)  With fish-plated tracks. Should be used only with long welded rails. Fish-plated joints on concrete sleeper tracks, where unavoidable, should have wooden sleepers at joints.