Upgrading of Guangzhou Railway Station with TYFO^® Fibrwrap^® Systems

Completed in 1974 and covering approximately 28,600m2 of floor area, the Guangzhou railway station is located in the capital of South China, the economic powerhouse of Guangdong. The province’s railway network is ill-equipped to handle peak travel loads during major holidays and the bi-annual Canton trade fair. In 2005 alone, 5.5 million passenger trips were recorded in the official statistics during the Spring Festival. This deficit therefore had to be resolved to meet not only current travel demands but also the anticipated sharp increase during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This project was also part of the central government’s master plan for a countrywide infrastructure upgrade in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The strengthening works were done in the control building which housed the employees’ offices and control station. A demanding schedule of only 2 weeks was allocated for the structural strengthening which required approximately 2200 m2 of TYFO^® SEH51 Composite. The stipulation that the train station’s control station had to remain fully operational throughout the operation made the job even more challenging. None of the fittings for the building could be removed, nor could any of the M&E services in the building be temporarily shut down. However using the TYFO^® Fibrwrap^® system, the acute problem of tight, constrained working space was overcome. Most of the strengthening works were done to the slab soffit. Only 12 workers were deployed for this project, which attests to the high labor productivity associated with using the TYFO^® Fibrwrap^® System.

The new 13 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) railway station for Guangzhou is slated for a grand opening together with other stations on the Guangdong province railway network by the year 2008.