A new isolated bearing system designed to preserve the alignment of critical bridge structures while saving millions in construction costs may make its debut on a high-speed-rail project in Turkey. It has been proposed for California’s planned high-speed-rail system as well.
CCCI Consortium—a design-build partnership of the China Railway Construction Corp., the China National Machinery Import & Export Corp., Istanbul-based Cengiz Insaat and Ankara-based IC Ictas Insaat—plans to include a segmental displaced control isolation system manufactured by Vallejo, Calif.-based Earthquake Protection Systems (EPS) in the second phase of a 533-km-long Ankara-to-Istanbul high-speed-rail line. In March 2009, the Spanish company Obrascon-Huarte-Lain and Alsim-Alarako completed the $747-million first phase: 197 km of double, electrified and signaled line capable of handling trains traveling at up to 250 km per hour from Ankara to Eskisehir.