NAME OF PROJECT : Supervision of Rehabilitation of the Durres - Tirana

Railway Line and Construction of a New Railway

Line to Tirana International Airport.
DTM48466TCRS6871
DOCUMENT : DESIGN REVIEW REPORT
OBA-QAC-CDH-DES-HYD_R00
DESIGN : HYDRAULIC DESIGN

OBA-QAC-CDH-DES-HYD_R00 DESIGN REVIEW REPORT Page 1 of 6

CONSULTANCY CONTRACT
Supervision of Rehabilitation of the Durres - Tirana
Railway Line and Construction of a New Railway
Line to Tirana International Airport

◼ DOCUMENT CONTROL SHEET

DOCUMENT TITLE: ◼ DESIGN REVIEW.

ID CODE: ◼ OBA-QAC-CDH-DES-HYD_R00

VERSION: ◼R00

DATE: ◼June 25, 2021

NAME
AUTHOR:
DATE 24/06/2021

NAME DRITAN PESHTANI

VERIFIED:
DATE 24/06/2021

NAME ALKIVIADIS KRASSAS

APPROVED:
DATE 25/06/2021

◼ CONTROL OF VERSIONS
VERSION: CONTROL OF CHANGES:

00 FIRST EDITION (PRESENT DOCUMENT)

01

02 FIRST EDITION (PRESENT DOCUMENT)

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CONSULTANCY CONTRACT
Supervision of Rehabilitation of the Durres - Tirana
Railway Line and Construction of a New Railway
Line to Tirana International Airport

◼ TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 4

1.1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT ....................................................................... 4

1.2. CONTRACTOR’S SCOPE OF WORKS RELATED TO HYDRAULIC DESIGN ......... 4

2 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 4

2.1. COMMENCEMENT DATE – ACCESS TO THE SITE ............................................... 4

2.2. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS PROVISIONS ........................................................ 5

3 COMMENTS ................................................................................................................. 5
3.1. COMMENTS ON PRINCIPLES ................................................................................. 5
3.2. COMMENTS ON HYDRAULIC REPORTS................................................................ 6
4 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 6

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CONSULTANCY CONTRACT
Supervision of Rehabilitation of the Durres - Tirana
Railway Line and Construction of a New Railway
Line to Tirana International Airport

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT

The Project forms part of the Connectivity Agenda of the European Union (“EU”) which promotes
transport connectivity in the Western Balkans as an important factor for the economic development,
regional cooperation and EU integration.
i. Construction Project
Project Name : Works Contract No 48446 “The Rehabilitation of Durres - Tirana Public
Transport Terminal (PTT) railway line and new railway connection to
Tirana International Airport (TIA)”
Client : Albanian Railways (HSH)
Contractor : INC S.p.A.
Commencement Date : 11 March 2021

ii. Consultancy Project

Consultant : OBERMEYER Hellas Ltd. / OBERMEYER Albania Branch Ltd. –
Consulting Engineers
Commencement Date : 16 February 2021

1.2. CONTRACTOR’S SCOPE OF WORKS RELATED TO HYDRAULIC DESIGN

The works under the present Contract are divided in five sections:
Section 1: DURRES - TIRANA PTT RAILWAY LINE, KP 0-639 - KP 2+000
Section 2: DURRES - TIRANA PTT RAILWAY LINE, KP 2+000 - KP 20+700
Section 3: DURRES - TIRANA PTT RAILWAY LINE, KP 20+700 - KP 33+540
Section 4: TIRANA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RAILWAY LINE AND CONNECTION
BRANCH TO DURRES.
Section 5: SIGNALLING - TELECOMAND AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR SECTIONS
(1), (2), (3) and (4)
The railway line from Durres Terminal Station to Tirana PTT has an overall length of 34.5km. The
starting point is at KP 0-639, i.e. the head on platform of Durres Terminal Station and the ending
point at KP 33+540 at the end of the Tirana PTT forestation.
The new railway link to Rinas airport has an open line length of approximately 5 km in addition to
the triangular railway intersection.
For the Elaboration of the Design for the Entire Project, Hydraulic Design it is crucial for the future
stability and safety of the Permanent Works.

2 REFERENCES

2.1. COMMENCEMENT DATE – ACCESS TO THE SITE

Commencement of Works: Engineer’s Letter 40/04.03.2021 (11 March 2021)

Right of Access to the Sites: HSH Letter 08/24.02.2021 (25 February 2021)
HSH Letter 177/3/21.05.2021
Working Group Internal Order: HSH Letter 580/21.05.2021

OBA-QAC-CDH-DES-HYD_R00 DESIGN REVIEW REPORT Page 4 of 6

CONSULTANCY CONTRACT
Supervision of Rehabilitation of the Durres - Tirana
Railway Line and Construction of a New Railway
Line to Tirana International Airport

2.2. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS PROVISIONS

2.2.1. TS 2.2.3 Design for Civil Works – Structures

This chapter refers to the following categories of works:
3. Deliverables
Hydraulic study
Existing “Hydrology Report” results and IDF (Intensity-Duration-Frequency) curves, as well as CN
(Curve_Numbers of the unit hydrograph method) of the detailed design will be applied for the design
rainfall depths and durations calculation and subsequently flows determination. Flows resulting from
same catchment areas have to coincide with the aforementioned “Hydrology Report” values:

• Technical Report, including at least:

− Rules and Standards taken into consideration.
− Hydrological Calculations and design.
− Culvert Hydraulic calculations and design.
− Bridge Hydraulic calculations and design.
− Drainage calculations and design.
• General layout (scale 1:10000)
• Horizontal layouts (scales 1:1000 or 1:500)
• Longitudinal layouts (scale 1:1000/1:100 or 1:500/1:50)
• Cross-sections of open channels, pipes etc coordinated with the cross sections of the
permanent way and /or roads system as applicable.
• Detail drawings of the elements (catch Basins, manholes, drainage grates, pipes etc.).

2.2.2. TS 2.2.4 Design for Civil Works – Employer’s Requirements

Hydraulic Studies
The basic design parameters of the civil works are:
(i) Return period peak discharge for culverts: 50 years.
(ii) Return period peak discharge for bridges: 100 years.S

3 COMMENTS

3.1. COMMENTS ON PRINCIPLES

In the document “0042-attachment Hydraulic Study Explanations and Considerations” (issue date May
2016) are explained briefly the adopted principles for the hydraulic design of the culverts at the certain
study. As it is clearly stated in the document the hydraulic design of the culverts is adapted on the
dimensions and the capacity of the existing drainage channels constructed (as stated in the document)
several decades ago, instead of calculating the design flow employing one of the commonly used
methods (rational method, unit hydrograph, etc.).

Such an approach has disadvantages which are analysed in the following paragraphs.

The design calculations of the existing old drainage system are not available and cannot be evaluated.
If the system were designed now using recent hydrology data and modern methods, it would be, as it
usually happens in such cases, larger with greater capacity. Adapting the capacity of the new culverts
to the capacity of the old existing channels will cause underestimation on design of them.

Additional to the above the new culverts of a refurbished railway are quite expensive and difficult to
modify in the future. The railway operation must be cancelled during the relevant works.

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CONSULTANCY CONTRACT
Supervision of Rehabilitation of the Durres - Tirana
Railway Line and Construction of a New Railway
Line to Tirana International Airport

The lifetime of civil works like culverts is expected to be ~50 years (T.S 2.2.4.i). Operational or structural
failure of them after a few years is a waste of the capital investment.

In order to improve the hydraulic design of the culverts and be sure about their efficiency the following
procedure is suggested:

a. Estimate the capacity of the existing drainage channels at their intersection with the railway.
b. Calculate the peak flow employing the most proper method for each case (rational method, unit
hydrograph, etc.) for return period at least T= 50 years (T.S 2.2.4.i).
c. Choose as design flow for the culvert the greater value of the above.

3.2. COMMENTS ON HYDRAULIC REPORTS

The submitted reports “0042-ref Hydraulic Study Component A - 796 01 13 FD HS RWD 01 0” and
“0042-ref Hydraulic Study Component C - 796 01 13 FD HS RWD 02 0” (issue date June 2021) concern
the hydraulic study and especially hydrology, culvert design and bridge hydraulics. The two reports are
supplementary as the first concerns the Durres-Tirana railway and the second the Tirana-Airport
railway.

Both reports contain a lot of theory and methodology description about hydrology and culvert
hydraulics. The application of the presented theory and methodology on the certain study is missing.
As important omissions can be reported the following:

a. Map in proper scale (commonly used 1:50000 or 1:25000) depicting catchment areas.
b. The used IDF curve (or equation) derived from recent precipitation data.
c. Tables of the design flow calculations for each culvert according to the presented methodology.
There is only one table in the second report (p.30/50).
d. Results of hydraulic calculations for each culvert (flow depth, flow velocity, Froude nr. Etc).
Bridge hydraulic calculation concluded to the estimation of water level below the river deck. There are
not calculations and design of the required pier and abutment protection against erosion (if any).

4 CONCLUSION

All the above important omissions have to be included in a revised submission.

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