Somos FCC - Nº14

FCC Construcción y el proyecto Life Impacto Cero, un caso de éxito The Life Impact Zero project (De- velopment and demonstration of an anti-bird strike tubular screen for High Speed Rail lines) co-finan - ced by the European Commission’s “Life” programme. The main objective of the project is to identify measures to protect birds by means of anti-bird strike tubular screens on high-speed rai- lway lines. To this end, the project is divided into the following specific objectives 1. To develop the methodology pro- posed for determining the opti- mum measures for the protection of birds on new High Speed Lines. 2. Demonstrate the effectiveness of a new anti-collision screen design for birds. This design is based on the concept of the PTE (Pellet-Exempt Tube) screen. 3. Increase knowledge of the inte- raction between the railway infras- tructure and birds, with the aim of introducing design improvements that guarantee biodiversity. 4. Reduce the impact of existing and future High Speed Lines, both in the project area and on the bird populations established in protected areas red to sections with the same layout. ► The percentage of dangerous crossings decreased in the screen area by 31.7%, rea- ching 68% of safe crossings. ► These results had a greater effect in the case of species with a wingspan of 60 cm or more and those flying in flocks. Future If the effectiveness of the tube based screen system is proven, it would be used throughout the network and would replace the opaque screens that have been used up to now and whose limited height casts doubt on their effectiveness, while the height of the posts acts by shielding a larger surface area between the contact wire at 5.30 metres and the railhead level of the track. Accordingly, the plan is to dissemina- te the results of the Zero Impact Life project among the most important railway administrations at internatio- nal level that have high-speed pro- jects or lines currently in operation. Previous studies of bird population, frequency, crossing and mortality were carried out to select the sec- tions of the project. Special mention should be made of the participation of the Special Works, Civil Works and Geotechnical Departments of FCC Construcción’s Technical Ser- vices in the design of the screen, and the execution of the project by the company CONVENSA. The result obtained in the existing and planned AVL in the study areas, on the bird populations, was: El resultado obtenido en la LAV existente y prevista en las zonas de estudio, sobre las poblaciones de aves, ha sido: ► A 32.2% reduction in bird mor- tality in the section where the screen was installed compa- I N N O V A T I O N 52 I N N O V A T I O N