Railway Modernization, at the Seaside

Constanta -Mangalia railway section, in a total length of 43 km, is situated in the continuation of Bucharest - Constanta main section and represents a prolongation of the railway sections on the Romanian territory of the Corridor IV - Helsinki, serving from the railway point of view the touring area from the southern of the Seaside. It concomitantly provides the freight railway transports towards Constanta Sud and Agigea and Mangalia Harbors.

Constanta Rail Region has on its entire surface 39 stations and 32 shunting halts. On its network of 1,737.777 km, there are 439.413 km of simple line, 277.008 of double line and 744.348 km of station lines.
Constanta - Mangalia railway section represents part of Main Section 800, being built and put into operation, as simple line, in two stages:
· Constanta - Eforie Sud railway section, inaugurated on June 1927, for the passengers and freight transport;
· Eforie Sud - Mangalia railway section, put into operation on July 17, 1938.
The electrification of Constanta - Mangalia line is an older desideratum of the Romanian railway men, which transposition into life will need a large volume of works:
· Railway stations will be systematized in order to be doubled and electrified and will provide a useful length of 750 m for the first diverted line, on each running way;
· According to the existing possibilities in every station, there is stipulated the location in front of the passengers building of a central platform, cover on 150m;
· All the stations will be systematized through the creation between the direct line and the first deviation of some normal platforms ( 6 m inter-axle) , having the length of 250m and the height up to the first stair of the classical passengers' coach; in the stations where the express and/or fast trains stop (Eforie Nord, Eforie Sud, Costinesti, Neptun and Mangalia) there will be created wide platforms (9 m inter-axle), having the length of 400 m and the height up to the first stair of the classic passengers' coach, covered on the entire length and stipulated with pedestrian subsided transit areas (pedestrian's tunnels);
· Eforie Nord, Eforie Sud and Costinesti railway stations will be endowed with electrodynamics centralized equipment (CED), and the one from Constanta will be modernized in order to be brought to the eurostation standards;
· There will be executed rehabilitation works to the tracks, consolidations, works of art, bank protections only in the areas where there is absolutely necessary, because the rehabilitation of the network on its entire length is scheduled to be performed within other actions and from other funds.
In the context of the general modernization of the Romanian Seaside, which has a final purpose the increase of its attractiveness there is imposed that the railway network will keep up with the entire evolution of the respective area through the execution of the modernization works aiming at bringing Constanta - Mangalia railway section to a new, superior standard, which will take into consideration the need of protecting the environment.

Constanta Agency of SC Proiect CF Bucharest
Even if it has a team of only 21 employees, Constanta Railway Design Agency, branch of SC Proiect CF Bucharest, is one of the most demanded agencies. The modernization and hygiene programs for the buildings located in the railway stations represent the main concern of its employees, who, by all means, have concomitantly in development stage other project to finalize.
The last year, the specialists from this agency have achieved a complex re-arranging project of the touring chalet from Eforie Nord - repairs and arranging, connections to the utilities and the arranging of a thermal station. Initially, the building had a central hall, which allowed access to every room. The alterations have represented the transformation of this hall in sanitary groups, one for each room, the exit from the rooms being performed now to the exterior, through sliding doors, made of glass. There have been also added a few dividing walls which offer intimacy to the space afferent to the respective room and there has been arranged an inside yard of the complex. It has been a very appreciated work and probably the one that has opened the way to many more others.
In order to find out what objectives are "signed" by the specialists from Constanta Railway Designing Agency, we talked with Mrs. Daniela Stanca, its manager.
"Our task is to draw up projects for all the departments of the rail region - Tracks, Technical, Real Estate. We have already drawn up the files for the works of: periodical screening overhauls, consolidations of the tracks in the railway stations, assembled by counter-tracks on bridges, the replacement of slippers. On the building side, we have finalized a series of projects for the rebuilding of the roofs of certain barracks, districts and passengers buildings. We have also worked at projects for the annulment of certain fixed means located on the rail region area, we have designed rehabilitation works at the lighting system from Medgidia and Fetesti railway stations, and the ones for building two thermal stations, one in Ciulnita station and another one from Constanta Harbor building", Mrs. Daniela Stanca has declared to us.
A special work for the team of this agency is represented by the modernization project of a very old building, built in 1880, which belong to Constanta Rail Region. As Mrs. Stanca was telling us, it is about a more difficult project, because the structure of the building is very complicated. "The building being still in exploitation, it was quite difficult to know exactly if our solutions are exact. Yet, in the moment in which there start the overhaul works - fact implying the uncovering of the floor, concrete floor and walls -, we will find out the way of approaching the building. There will be also performed its consolidation, because, being very old, it suffered all kind of settling of the track. There will not be performed major alterations, the resistance structure will be maintained. According to the compartments, there will be worked, as there was also normal, at the inside finishing works. We have conceived a few modern finishing, dividing walls and the rygips ceiling. There will be arranged apartments at the semi-basement and at the ground floor, the rest of the rooms remaining single rooms; there will be built dividing walls, and each room will take advantage of its own sanitary group. The façade will remain the same, because it is a building that will be part of the cultural real estate of and we are not allowed to interfere. What we could do is to replace the carpentry and the old shutters, which are made of wood, with some aluminum shutters".
During this period the personnel of the Railway Designing Agency from Constanta has also achieved the projects necessary for the performance of the overhaul works at all the buildings of the railway station that are located on the Seaside. In Mangalia railway station, the existing roof will be replaced with a lindap thin iron roof, and the inside and the façade of the building will suffer a few small changes. There will be emphasized the sanitary groups. The same "treatment" will be applied to Neptun and Costinesti.
At the buildings of Halta Neptun and Popasul Costinesti, the new projects stipulates roofs of s0framework type (presently there existing a terrace type roof) and the surroundings of the little parks and of the areas right next to the railway station. Taking into consideration the fact that the lighting system is old, and from time to time is not operable, there have been lengthen the pillar power supply routes, some of them being scheduled for replacement.
"With respect to the lighting side, there should be finalized the projects for two stations. At the buildings, we have started with the roofs, later on we have resumed and we performed the repairs to the facades, in point of the carpentry. Where there was necessary, we have also performed other endowments besides the provisions of the initial theme. At Mangalia, for example, besides the railway station building, we also took care of the sanitary groups. At Halta Neptun, besides the modifications brought to the façade of the building and the replacement of the roof, there will be arranged the exiting terrace afferent to the commercial space. At Eforie Nord, we had to take care of the lighting system and a few surroundings, at Eforie Sud - the lighting of the façade, the roof and the surroundings. Constanta Agency has mainly accomplished everything has planned to.
There have been also other works that we have finished even if they have occurred between scheduling. For example, at the tracks part there have occurred a few issues (for a while, the topo team could not work due to the unfavorable weather), but they were solved after all. A complex and a very important work have been the rehabilitation of the embankment joints with the bridge abutment from km 28+500, on Dorobantu - Cap Midia railway section. The bridge ends have been let down, and within the maintenance works they have been completed at the rock prism, yet, in time, they have still let down and they implied maintenance works. Based on a geo study, we have removed part of the embankment, we have made the filling and we made it compact. We have discovered the existence of certain ballast bags in the embankment body, which were swallowing the rock. Once the work has been performed, we are sure that there will occur no other issues", Mrs. Daniela Stanca has added.
Pursuant to the discussion with my interlocutor, I understood that Constanta Railway Designing Agency is very demanded, and up to the end of the current year, in parallel with the modernization works of the railway stations, there are also programmed others, as important as the one mentioned earlier: the annulment of the marshaling yard from Ciulnita, the restoring of the level crossings, the arranging of the building where the Telecommunications Agency operates, the systematization of the platforms and the tracks from Tulcea, Costinesti Tabara and Halta Neptun railway stations.
Being a very important subunit for the finalization of the great projects of the Railways, we can only wish to the team of the agency to keep up with the good work!

Oana Branzan