Sioen in Zeebrugge railway project
Through its Italian brand Manifattura Fontana, Sioen is to be found in a major project in the mini town of Zwankendamme. A small village on the Boudewijn canal (linking Bruges to the port of Zeebruges). Zwankendamme is situated between Lissewege and Zeebrugge near the north sea in the West of Flanders (Belgium).
Zeebrugge, the seaport of Bruges, is one of the world’s foremost roll-on/roll-off ports, where nearly 40 million tons of goods are handled annually. The coastal port is also a container port. The offering of both intra-European and intercontinental services is what makes Zeebrugge such an important access port to the European markets.
The port is in constant expansion and again grew with 6.3% in the first semester of 2018. In order to enable that growth, the existing railway infrastructure is modernised and new railways are being constructed in Zwankendamme. These infrastructure works are executed and coordinated by Infrabel, the infrastructure manager of the railways in Belgium.
This rather large introduction is necessary to come to the role of Sioen in this major infrastructure project. Our geotextiles produced by our brand Manifattura Fontana, are used to create the railway network of the future.
The geotextiles of Sioen’s Manifattura Fontana are used to build the sound barrier near the rails. This sound barrier is very important in order to limit the vibrations and sound of the passing trains to a minimum for the people living in the area.
The infrastructure works were very challenging as there was only a limited area available and a steep barrier wall was required. Here, the engineering skills and years of geotextiles experience of Manifattura Fontana and its Belgian distributor Texion made a huge difference, the stability having to be secured at all times.