Monitoring the Trønder Railway

The Trønderbanen railway will be given increased capacity. This includes two trains per hour between Melhus and Stjørdal. New crossing tracks are needed. These are three of the 20 projects Bane NOR has started on the railway between Støren and Steinkjer.

The new crossing tracks are being built by Infrakraft at Alstad in Stjørdal municipality and Nesvatnet and Østborg in Levanger municipality. Trains of up to 600 metres can pass each other there.

Poor ground conditions

The ground conditions at Alstad, Nesvatnet and Østborg are poor. To ensure stable ground, the area will be improved with lime cement piles before the new tracks are built.

- "Bane NOR has set requirements for monitoring the groundwork we carry out before we build the new crossing tracks. "At the same time, we're dependent on knowledge of what's happening underground. This gives us increased security," says Aune, who is an estimator at Infrakraft AS.

Automatic notification

Cautus Geo has installed dozens of pore pressure gauges in the areas where the new crossing tracks will be built.

- This means that the ground is monitored continuously and automatically. Limit values have been established that trigger automatic alerts (alarms) if conditions in the ground change," says geologist Sigmund Brekke Langelid, who heads the field department at Cautus Geo.

- Knowing the conditions during the project provides peace of mind," says Aune.

The monitoring of the ground started before the foundation work and will continue until the work is completed.

Completed in 2029

The efficiency improvement work on the Trønder Line will be completed in 2029, when all the projects will be finished. The crossing tracks will be completed earlier.

- We will hand over our project on 1 November 2027," says Aune.

The work has started. Ground stabilisation is ongoing.

- We are now working on two test fields," says Aune.