Metro system engineering and preparation of project design criteria for Karaj metro line 2

Behro Consulting Engineers, as consultant for metro system engineering and completing basic studies, as well as a provider of project design requirements and criteria, has played an important role in leading and supervising Karaj metro line 2 project.

Project Description

Karaj metro line 2, 27 km, starts from Kamalshahr depot passing under Beheshti Boulevard, the intersection of Taleghani and Imam Hossein squares, leads to Andisheh intersection and Mallard parking lot at the beginning of Mallard city. At present, taking into account the 3.5 km access route to depot new location, total length of the route has reached 30.425 km.

The employer of the project is Karaj Urban and Suburban Railway Organization and the contractor for design and construction is Sabir Co. Behro Consulting Engineers has cooperated with the contractor in preparing design criteria for tunnels, stations and depots, completing basic studies of equipment and metro system engineering. Behro Consulting Engineers has also worked as a qualified consultant in designing and supervising the construction of a number of stations in this project.

Behro Consulting Engineers services in Karaj metro line 2

At the beginning, Behro Consulting Engineers started to cooperate to prepare design criteria for tunnel, station and depot as well as in completing the equipment basic studies. After completing basic studies when the equipment contractor started to work, Behro Consulting Engineers continued to cooperate as a system engineering consultant in order to check the integration of equipment engineering studies and also to review and match station design with equipment engineering studies in this project.

In parallel, basic and detail design and supervision (including local supervision) of E2, F2 and I2 stations in Karaj metro line 2 was assigned to Behro Consulting Engineers. Due to various services provided by Behro Consulting Engineers in the Karaj metro line 2 project, this company has played an important role in leading and supervising this project. The importance of this role became clearer when both F2 and I2 stations became part of the priority of the first phase of operation of Karaj metro line 2.

At present (December 2020) and with completion of the construction stages of F2 station and completion of I2 station structure as well as completion of equipment engineering studies and design of the first phase of operation, Behro Consulting Engineers services in Karaj metro line 2 project have been completed.

Project Specification

Item	Value
Total Length	26.87 km
Tunnel Length	23.65 km
No. of Stations	23
Average Distance Between Stations	900 m
Tunnel Excavation Method	NATM
Start	KamalShahr Depot
End	Malard Parking Lot
Volume of Earthworks	4,700,000 m³
Volume of Concrete	1,150,000 m³
Volume of Steel Works	200,000 ton
No. of Tracks	2
Gauge	1435 mm
Type of Superstructure	Slab track with twin block sleepers

Preparation of design criteria for tunnels, stations and depots and completion of equipment basic studies

In 2011, with starting design and construction of stations and also equipment studies, the need for station design criteria as well as equipment basic studies in the project was identified. At this time, and due to the experience of Behro Consulting Engineers in design and engineering of Tehran metro lines, the employer of Karaj metro line 2 project invited Behro to cooperate in this project.

The beginning of cooperation of Behro Consulting Engineers in this project has been providing services for designing tunnels, stations and depots and completing equipment basic studies. During this cooperation, two volumes of reports on design criteria for tunnels, stations and depots in the civil and equipment sectors were prepared, which were the basis for civil and equipment engineering studies on Karaj metro line 2. Also, basic study packages in all disciplines of metro equipment were prepared by Behro Consulting Engineers and provided to project main contractor.

Due to the cessation of project construction and after several years, Behro Consulting Engineers again updated above mentioned two reports during the years 2018 to 2019 based on current standards and taking into account the limitations caused by the previously built sections of stations.

This part of work required special sensitivity due to the need to maximum comply with the up to date standards and considering the mentioned limitations, and required considerable time and energy from the specialized sections of Behro Consulting Engineers, which fortunately led to a favorable result. So that these two reports can be used in other metro projects.

Metro system engineering services

Behro Consulting Engineers conducted equipment basic studies at the beginning of the project. In the following years, the project contractor and equipment consultants conducted additional studies on equipment packages based on these initial studies. Behro Consulting Engineers has been cooperating as a metro system engineering consultant since 2011 in order to investigate the integration of equipment engineering studies and also to review and match station design with equipment engineering studies in the Karaj metro line 2 project.

This part of Behro Consulting Engineers' services has been completed at the beginning of 2020 with the completion of equipment engineering studies and redesign of the first phase of operation stations on the Karaj metro line 2.