CFL multimodal terminal

In Bettembourg/Dudelange, at the Eurohub logistics park, Félix Giorgetti built a new intermodal terminal for CFL on a 33-hectare site. This facility is located next to the first combined terminal in Bettembourg, which has been in use since 1979, northwest of the Bettembourg marshalling yard, which had reached saturation point. The construction of this new infrastructure reflects the Luxembourg government's desire to create a European logistics hub to connect Luxembourg's industry to the main ports and economic centers. It also aims to offer an alternative to road transport of goods and thus contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Part of the site was commissioned at the end of 2016 and inaugurated in July 2016 in the presence of HRH the Grand Duke, Mars Di Bartolomeo, President of the Chamber of Deputies, Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and François Bausch, Minister of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure.

The terminal is directly linked to the marshalling area and the logistics park where Felix Giorgetti has also built a 30,000m3 warehousee, also CFL under another contract. 

This has been achieved by doubling the number of lanes dedicated to the transfer of goods between trains and/or trucks, but also by extending part of the infrastructure. The new terminal is equipped with four combined lanes, enabling different modes of transport to be mixed, and two rail freeway platforms, capable of directly loading cargo loaded onto semi-trailers. From 350m at the old site, these platforms are now 700m long, the length needed to accommodate a full train.

This increase in capacity also required the installation of two new gantry cranes that can move over the 700m of combined tracks, capable of transporting containers over a lateral span of 78m and supporting the loading of 300,000 containers per year.

The site also has a parking lot with 840 spaces for semi-trailers and a storage capacity of 3,500 containers.

The mission entrusted to our civil engineering teams consists of four lots.

The preparatory works

• Detour of the Diddelengerbach with the construction of two DN 2500 bores under the A13 freeway and two others under the railway line;
• detour of the wastewater, rainwater and drinking water networks, Creos, gas and P&T;
  widening of the access area to the CFL-Bettembourg marshalling area;
• construction of a temporary bridge of the Mabey type;
• retaining wall of 850 m ;
• shifting of tracks and construction of an underpass in the Bettembourg marshalling yard. These works were completed in one weekend, in 60 hours; 
• realization of an underpass of 16 m length under the railroad; 
• length of the ripened track: 750 m and a turnout;
• replacement of the drainage of the old catenary foundations; 
• realization of the catenary foundations.

Earthworks and drainage

For this part, 800,000 m3 of material were excavated, half of which was used as backfill and 500,000 tons of material were brought in to finalize the levelling of the ground. This work required 12,000 m of reinforced DN 1200 sewer pipes, 13,000 m of DN 150 drains and 300 inspection holes.

The works of the foundations of the cranes, Modalohr, luminaries and buildings

This lot required the construction of 1,200 DN 90 piles with an average length of 13 m and 880 micropiles with an average length of 13 m to stabilize the installations. 5,800m³ of concrete were poured on site with 1,100 tons of reinforcement for the construction of the Modalohr platforms (type of wagon) and 2,400m³ of concrete were used for the portal crane with 340 tons of reinforcement.

Roads, networks and other works

This last lot involved the use of 250,000 tons of filler materials, 16,000m² of paving stones, 18,800m of slot gutters, 130,000 m of DN 125 PE ducts, 18 hydrocarbon separators, 3,000m of compressed air distribution pipes, 1,200m of fire pipes, 55,000tons of bitumen gravel, 19,700m² of percolated asphalt and 21,900 tons of splittmastixasphalt.

The works include the realization of a track system for the access of trains in the new intermodal rail/road terminals, including 1,400ml of rail tracks built in the Modalohr platforms, 4 x 750m of running tracks (combined transport) and a track system for the connection including 6 turnouts.

The multimodal terminal of Bettembourg/Dudelange has become a key player in the management of freight transport in Europe