International railway construction power: Kassel-Fulda fully renovated in just 9 months

SWIETELSKY successfully completed the renovation of the high-speed line between Kassel and Fulda on December 9. In 9 months, over 85 kilometers of track has been completely renewed - a task that is normally only carried out by joint ventures. The deadline was set because train traffic is completely halted during the construction period. At this point, no company would dare to tackle the project alone. None, except one. SWIETELSKY executed the entire project as the main contractor.

"Being able to carry out a project like the renewal of the Kassel-Fulda railway as an independent company is a special sign of trust from our client Deutsche Bahn," says Peter Gal, COO of SWIETELSKY Bahnbau. SWIETELSKY worked on this milestone project with teams from three different countries. The expertise and experience from Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands came together to realize this gigantic project and create an important infrastructure for German rail transport.

"This section is extremely important for Deutsche Bahn. It is a key part of the north-south axis and significantly contributes to the efficiency of long-distance traffic and freight transport. SWIETELSKY won the tender with its plan and offers and was allowed to execute the project together with us," says DB project manager Sven Schaaf.

But how do you position yourself as an independent company to convince the client of timely and quality realization? First, through the aforementioned collaboration between the international teams with their different strengths: German railway construction professionals, Dutch switch experts, and world-class Austrian machine operators. Second, with a specialty of SWIETELSKY: these latter machine operators are of course accompanied by the crème de la crème of large-scale railway construction machines: the RUS 1000S, Europe's largest of its kind and unique on the continent.

Since the start of construction work in April 2023, the international teams have worked hard to completely renew the track. The immense challenge consisted of replacing 163 kilometers of track, 196,000 sleepers, and renewing 70 switches - all in just nine months. Now that the project has been completed on time, safe travel can resume.