Vale delivers interconnection railroad in Minas Gerais

Vale concluded the reform project of a stretch of the Centro Atlântica Railroad (FCA – Ferrovia Centro Atlântica), in Belo Horizonte (MG), which has eliminated a centenary logistical bottleneck. With investments of R$ 300 million, the company rectified and doubled a stretch of 5.16mi in the FCA network, between Belo Horizonte and Sabará (MG), which serves as a interconnection between the Southeast, Northeast and Central West railroad systems. Trains of three concessionaires passing by the site: FCA, MRS Logistics and Estrada Ferro Vitoria a Minas (EFVM). “It’s a great project in a great capital,” said Alexandre Porto, superintendent of railroads of the National Land Transportation Agency (ANTT – Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres).

The agency has authorized the project, conducted in partnership with the federal government. The works lasted for four years and included the rectification, the doubling of the track layout and the urbanization works, such as viaducts and walkways buildings. According to Vale, Belo Horizonte became the first large Brazilian capital to have a railroad through your urban center, completely isolated of the community wherever it passes. A wall and fences have been built in Belo Horizonte and Sabará, avoiding a direct contact with residents and trains.

The conflict between trains and urban communities is one of the great challenges for rail concessionaires since privatization of the Federal Railroad Network (RFFSA – Rede Ferroviária Federal Sociedade Anônima) in 1996. As a result of the growth of urban centers, it has become common for areas near the tracks being surrounded by human occupations. This conflict involves risk of trampling, accidents between trains and motor vehicles and derailments.

The National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) has been working on the issue, based on the studies of the National Programme of Railroad Safety Urban (Prosefer). Some works were completed, as the lowering of the railroad track in Maringa (PR), Araraquara (SP) and Três Lagoas (MS) rail borders and the transposition of the railroad in the cities of Campos Altos (MG), Valentim Gentil and Matão (SP), Londrina and Paranaguá (PR), Paverama and Santa Maria (RS). There are other works in progress.

The stretch rectified in the current network FCA, belongs to Valor da Logística Integrada (VLI), of which Vale is a partner, had a winding route with curves and slopes incompatible with current rail trains that pass through the site carrying cargo freight as grain, iron mineral, copper, lime, coke and fertilizers. According to Vale it was registered six accidents at the site before 2012, a number that was reduced to zero in two years.

The new track began operating with restrictions in December 2013 and the works were completed in May of this year. The investment made by Vale in the project may be a subject of a meeting relating to the accounts to concession FCA in the company’s tariff review in 2017. The investments made and not amortized until the end of the concession of the FCA may also be indemnified by the government.

Maurício Cretella, logistics project manager for Southeast Vale region, said that the work has increased the transport capacity in the stretch by 120%, from nine pairs of trains circulating daily, in both directions of the track, to 20 pairs of trains daily. There are compositions formed by up to 90 cars circulating in the site. The modernization helped to increase the exportation corridor volume Goiás-Minas Gerais-Espírito Santo, calculated in “tonelada útil” (TU), the total of the freight that travelled through the network in the paid transport. When comparing the first quarter of 2012 with the same period of 2015, the total freight exported by that corridor having as destination the Port of Tubarão, Vale, in Vitória (ES), grew almost 60 percent. It rose from 868,000/TU in 2012 to 1.380,000/TU in 2015.