Own development

Dwarsligger Faunapassage

Name: Dwarsligger Faunapassage
Brand: KAMPA

A sleeper-integrated amphibian crossing that fits between the sleepers in the ballast bed where a standard fauna tunnel cannot, and stays compatible with regular track maintenance.

Rail infrastructure is a barrier for amphibians. They are ground-bound, slow-moving and site-faithful, and the line cuts off the route to their breeding waters and to new areas. De-fragmentation through dedicated fauna passages reconnects these severed habitats.

A standard amphibian tunnel must sit 1.80 m below top of rail for structural reasons and at least 0.10 m above the highest water level to function. At sites with a high groundwater level that leaves too little room to build one. The Dwarsligger Faunapassage instead places the crossing between the sleepers, in and under the ballast bed.

Request information

Grated amphibian passage running between and under the track in the ballast bed

The problem it solves

Where the water sits high, a standard amphibian tunnel does not fit.

Today's practice

Many of the sites where an amphibian tunnel is needed lie in amphibian habitat with a high expected water level. A tunnel has to sit 1.80 m below top of rail and stay above the water, and between those two limits there is often too little room to build one. The standard passage cannot be realised within those constraints.

Earlier MJPO alternatives do not close the gap either. Amphibian gutters between the sleepers and standard concrete cable ducts are too small for the animals and obstruct the machine maintenance of track and ballast; other ballastless structures are too expensive to build or hard to maintain. Each option carries ecological, technical or economic drawbacks.

Animation: the fauna passage between the sleepers, in and under the ballast bed.

Benefits

High groundwater

Fits where a standard tunnel cannot.

Positioned between the sleepers in and under the ballast bed, the passage works at high-groundwater sites where the room between top of rail and water level rules out a standard fauna tunnel.

Maintenance

Compatible with regular track maintenance.

The passage stays clear of the machine maintenance of track and ballast, so tamping and ballast work continue as normal, unlike gutters and cable ducts laid between the sleepers.

Ecology