It took five years of tests for SNCF to sign the 7th train dismantling contract in France.
After Charente and Grand-Est, two treatment and recovery experts, the companies Baudelet Environnement, which arrived in Normandy in 2016, and Snadec, specializing in asbestos removal, inaugurated on Tuesday October 12 the largest railway dismantling center in France on the Grémonville ecosite, near Yvetot (Charente-Maritime).
On fifteen hectares, with direct rail access, 900 Rames Inox Omnium (RIO) cars and 128 TGV trains will be deconstructed in nearly 10 years.
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To meet the requirements of the national transport group, the consortium built four marshalling tracks of more than two kilometers of rails and an operational asbestos removal unit, with a decompression clean room with an area of 2,000 m2.
Thus, in a first phase outside, once towed from the storage area, a train of cars is stripped of its partitions, seats, false ceiling, windows, etc.
The lots are sorted and separated to reach the appropriate recycling channels.
Then, under cover, the convoy is deposited from its floor and glass wool in direct contact with the asbestos paints.
There, the cars are sandblasted by personnel wearing dry suits before sliding towards the release area.
97% “valued” trainsets
Once checked by an independent laboratory guaranteeing the absence of traces of asbestos, the cars find themselves in the open air.
From that point on, a shovel with a shear cuts them into pieces of metal which will be sorted to reach various foundries.
For, why not, to become trains again: “This is the concept of our company.
Create circular economy loops to give waste a second life.
We value a train at 97%, ie for this market nearly 70,000 tonnes of metals.
Our goal is to reach the remaining 3%, ”launched Caroline Poisson, co-CEO of Baudelet Environment as a challenge.