Mestre-Venice tramway system

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Mestre-Venice tramway system

Mestre-Venice tramway system

  • Principal name: AVM SpA (formerly PMV SpA)
  • End customer / operator name: ACTV S.P.A.
  • Total amount: 166,375,863.00 euro
  • Works start date: 21/12/2004
  • Works End date: 12/08/2015
  • Place of performance of the work: Favaro - Marghera - Mestre - Venice

We have created Line 1 (Favaro – Mestre – Venice) and Line 2 (Mestre – Marghera) of the Mestre-Venice rubber-wheeled rail-guided tram system.

The work is part of the large rapid mass transit system infrastructures required by the municipality of Venice to improve and integrate local road transport. It makes it possible to move around the city of Mestre and as far as Venice by crossing the Ponte della Libertà which connects the two inhabited centers by train and car.

The tender involves the executive and building design of a track totaling approximately 21 km of overall development.

The transport system uses about 20 vehicles (32 meters long) which run on a central monorail fixed to a rolling platform in reinforced concrete which contains the tire groove. The use of the monorail considerably reduces noise by canceling the rattling on the rail, and minimizes civil works on the ground as they do not require traditional rail tracks, but only pipes under the rolling track.

The technologies used in the traction substations, together with the innovative LAC diagnostic system which monitors the state of the contact wire in real time, and the use of the latest generation materials, make this system a one-of-a-kind worthy of a city like Venice.

Principal’s objectives

  • To connect the mainland to the Venice Lagoon by rail, minimizing travel times
  • To offer users maximum comfort
  • No direct CO2 emissions and no fine particles

PSC intervention

The design team of the PSC Group developed the detailed building project and our workers and specialists created the following works.

Electric Traction Systems

We supplied and installed the poles, the shelves, the Parafil® mesh and the related suspensions, hooks and tie rods to support the contact wire. We tensioned the copper wire and all the PHANTOM and TENSOREX C + type components supplied for its automatic adjustment.

LAC Diagnostic Systems per regulated line

We supplied and laid all the necessary equipment for the constant monitoring of the overhead contact line. In case of breakage of the contact wire, the system, by means of alarm relays installed in the diagnostic box, intervenes by opening special extra-fast switches in the electrical substations which supply the line. The system is composed of: Load Cells, Wire Potentiometers, Electronic Diagnostic Box and strain stick insulators.

Electrical Conversion Substations

We supplied and installed the MV/LV/CC equipment and all the related connections to the contact wire line. Furthermore, all the tests and inspections for commissioning were carried out.

Line installations

We created the 20 kV MV ring between 5 Electrical Conversion Substations for a total length of 30,000 m (23,000 m ring and 7,000 m radial).

Road and Tramway Traffic Light Systems

We built new traffic lights and, in some intersections, adapted the existing ones. Supply and installation of lanterns, poles, plinths, connecting cables:

  • of the pole plinths with the traffic light control panel
  • of the control panel to the public lighting cable ducts
  • of the control panel with the platform manholes of the STG to interface the management of the traffic light system with the priorities dedicated to tram traffic.

For all new or existing traffic light systems there is the management of the traffic light preference system for the tramway system.

Railway Switch Control Systems

We supplied and installed tramway switches (MECNO) and built the street cabinet control system (Project Automation and Hanning & Kahl). The system provides for switches with flexible needles operated by a maneuvering device (manual or electric). A sensor system controls the operation of the apparatus, detecting the straight, deviated position, the correct operation of the mechanical locks (locked-unlocked), and the correct operation of the manual maneuver (on-off), while another detector system determines the switch safety state (straight-deviated) with a redundancy such as to classify the safety system (= SIL2).

Line and Stop installations

We built and laid the electrical systems for the tram system stops: stop switchboard, power service sockets, lighting system on top of the shelter, ground system, variable message panels and the traveler information system

Lighting, Power and Mechanical Installations

In the depot and in the new underground station in Mestre.