Global markets wake up to local sleeper breakthrough

KEVIN MAYHEW JOHANNESBURG company, INFRASET- Infrastructure Products has achieved what was believed to be impossible in the international railway world by refining concrete sleepers to exacting specifications set down by Metro Rail. The new sleepers reduce the skills level of people laying the sleepers, which are individually prepared to match the configuration of the bolts to hold the track to the sleeper. It also makes them less attractive to steal in rural areas. As concrete is a pre-stressed product that shrinks on curing, it has traditionally been difficult to achieve consistent levels of accuracy to within fractions of millimetre for bolt holes. This made standard imported wooden sleepers more attractive. “We worked very closely with VAE Transwerk on this project,”said marketing executive of INFRASET-Infrastructure Products, Kobus Burger. Metro Rail already has the new concrete sleepers installed in Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg.