Arc Infrastructure has completed a wide range of critical maintenance and upgrade projects across the freight rail network during a planned 86-hour network shut.
A network shut means no trains are scheduled, giving our crews extended access to the track to safely and efficiently complete these essential works.
Arc’s Mobile Maintenance, Major Projects, five regional teams and Contract Services teams worked through the closure period from 18 - 21 April, with some works occurring pre and post the closure window, to complete the following:
- Installation of three turnouts, rerailing, resleepering and a culvert installation at Kewdale.
- Culvert installations and associated signals and communications work near Meckering on the Eastern Goldfields Railway (EGR) and a culvert install near Spencers Brook in the Avon Valley.
- Competition of re-signalling work from Midland to Avon Yard, replacing decades old infrastructure.
- Undercutting and ballast renewal of 1.2km of track and a level crossing upgrade in the Midwest.
- Undercutting works on the EGR.
- Rail grinding by Contracted Services in the Midwest region.
In addition to the above, Arc is proud to have worked collaboratively with Aurizon on our first joint worksite in several years. Arc’s Southwest team worked on a turnout installation in Aurizon’s Kwinana yard and the associated connections to the Arc managed network.
Arc Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Unwin said there were many things to be proud of during this recent network shut.
“First and foremost, I’d like to acknowledge the many teams across our business who ensured the work we set out to do was done to a high standard and completed safely,” Steph said.
“Our frontline crews have worked right across our vast network, completing work that’s been made possible through months of preparation, scheduling and on-day operations managed by our Network Control, Operations and Planning teams.
“While no trains are typically scheduled during a shut, careful planning and work onsite ensured essential daily fuel services could continue - keeping this vital commodity moving by rail during a time when fuel security is currently impacting us all in the community.
“We also acknowledge the disruption planned network outages like this can cause to our customers, we appreciate their cooperation as we work to further improve the quality of the network they utilise.”
Arc Infrastructure typically schedules two network shutdown periods a year, such as this recent one, to coincide with other customer and operation closures (e.g at Ports).
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