Railway Studies and Projects Institute - an ideal partner for CFR SA

The Railway Studies and Projects Institute was founded on November 1, 1947 by order of the Romanian Direction for General Railways with the purpose of studying and drawing projects for all works of technical importance related to railway transportation. Until its appearance, studies and projects necessary to the Railway were the task of CFR unites.
The objective that the institute should have followed was becoming a strong entity that will focus on shaping studies and projects for the CFR Administration in order to insure the unity of the technical conception over the necessary means for a good exploitation of the network. Initially, the institute had seven groups dedicated to various specialities - ranging from art projects to field studies. The plan included a number of 478 workers of which more than half were engineers and designer architects. They came from project development and execution departments belonging to the services of the Special Works Direction. In over 50 years of activity, ISPCF - the main designer of CFR SA attracted young employees with a solid education and managed to diversify the main body of specialists in all fields related to railway development.
The implication of this institute in the CFR SA program for rehabilitating and modernising the railway infrastructure proved opportune. They helped with general studies, opportunity and feasibility studies, technical projects that were drawn the same time as current works for making the railway more secure.
The National Railway Company CFR SA has a rich program of auctioned works. Those that interest ISPCF are mostly projects and they are competing for them at the auction. Once they won the auction and depending on the programmed data existent in the task-book that the beneficiary has drawn, they will draw the necessary project for the desired stage: a feasibility study, technical project or execution details. At the same time they will establish with the help of a contract the deadlines and the monitoring methods. Although gathering reports is a task belonging to the beneficiary, ISPCF is facilitating this by drawing the necessary papers for the said reports. These are the main responsibilities of ISPCF while executing a project:
· drawing technical and profitability studies and setting up detailed and general projects. Data will be provided for those asking to see the studies and the projects and they will be responsible for the said data. At the same time the Institute is obligated to check and require their modification whenever needed;
· evaluating costs for the works and establishing the quantities of materials, work hours and the needed equipment;
· drawing the price lists;
· establishing general and special conditions for the projects' execution;
· establishing the technological plan and helpful diagrams considering the deadlines for the most important parts of the execution:
· controlling the execution from the technical point of view for the planned executed by the institute and participating with delegates to tests and to the reception of the said works.

If until 1990 the institute's activity included mostly RK and investment works, they are presently handling chiefly studies necessary to justify external funding for the modernisation and rehabilitating railway lines. It is impossible not to remember that feasibility studies made by ISPCF are the base on which CFR-SA obtained important external financing. Feasibility studies foretell financial and economical analyses regarding the worth of an investment. Quality values, cost quotas are analysed and a diagnosis is laid for the current status. This is where field studies come in. Financing banks demands data from the feasibility study. The moment the approval is granted the project of a work enters a normal course: realising the technical project, drawing the task book and specifications for the auction. The auction, the signing of the contract and hiring the experts to monitor and control the execution will follow.

Rehabilitating the Bucharest-Videle-Giurgiu section

Presently, we would like to mention some of the most important running working projects:

· the Bucharest-Brasov section for which the technical project and the auction documentation for the sub-sections Campina-Predeal and Predeal-Bucharest are already completed:
· the Bucharest-Constanta section for which the technical project and the auction documentation were drawn with the collaboration of the French Systra Company:
· the Bucharest-Videle-Giurgiu section. This section is a branch of the 9 Corridor that makes the connection with the north part of the country and includes two intervals: the double, electrified line Bucharest-Videle and the single, non-electrified line Videle-Giurgiu. This network is about to be modernised under a modernising and rehabilitation program enabling the 160-km/h-speed traffic.
Up to now, our specialists of ISPCF reviewed all the general aspects of this project and completed a diagnose study.
Involving in such important technical projects that CFR-SA undergoes in order to modernise the entire railway traffic network has as aim bringing our national railway system to European transport standards, proving this way, the professional standard of the ISPCF specialists.

Reporting Ana Stanciu