Railway Civil Engineering
There are various kinds of buildings as well as tunnels, bridges, viaducts and other engineering structures which enable railways to perform their job successfully. The railway buildings we are familiar with include station buildings, goods yards and depots. There is no need to say that all of the must be sufficiently strong and outwardly attractive.
Railway buildings being subjected to intensive vibration and noise, these factors should be taken into account at the initial stage of construction. So nowadays collaboration must exist between engineers and architects in the designing arid construction of different types of buildings in order to meet various needs of railway services and to make buildings aesthetically satisfying.
It is quite obvious that the outward appearance of railway stations is not of minor importance. Steam traction wits its attendant smoke and dirt having been replaced with diesel and electric traction, the problem of maintaining railway buildings was greatly facilitated. The new materials we extensively use today for finishes also contribute to the attractiveness of railway stations. On the other hand, a wide use of such materials as plastics and particularly glass sometimes increases substantially the maintenance cost of buildings. So particular attention should be given the selection of proper materials for finishes.
Other problems the architects and the builders face have much in common with the problems encountered by all civil engineers. Nowadays, the process of construction is being increasingly mechanized. The replacement of hard manual labour by machines enables the builders to carry out the work speedily and makes their work much easier. Besides, a high level of mechanization makes it possible to perform the work with less manpower.
The need to speed up the work of construction often calls for the application of prefabricated parts of buildings. Wide use of prefabricated units is also made of in the erection of railway substations as well as structures to carry contact wires for electric railways. It is application of prefabricated parts that enables the civil engineers considerable reduce the initial cost of railway electrification.
As the result of considerable improvements on railways, a large volume of reconstruction work has to be carried out with station buildings. The matter is too many of them were built long ago. Having decorated the stations in rich Gothic or classical style the architects did not make them with convenient for passengers. So now many of them cannot cope with the increased flow of passengers and need modernizing.
The truth of this statement is proved by our terminal's history. The first Kyiv railway terminal was constructed in 1868-1870. This was a two-stored brick structure in Old English Gothic style. Unfortunately it burnt down in 1877, and a project was proposed at the beginning of the 20th с. But due to lack of funds and the first world war only a temporary wooden structure appeared. The attempt to develop Kyiv terminal and junction was made in 1925. The construction itself started in 1927 and based on the design made by professor O.Verbytsky and architect P.Alioshyn. Damaged in the years of fascist occupation, the terminal was renovated after the war. The biggest changes took place in 2001 as the existing building didn't meet engineering requirements. When reconstruction works finished, Kyiv was granted a powerful well-developed railway terminal with the twice increased capacity. The new Southern terminal was constructed just for 175 days. It is connected with a concourse with the main terminal and by a tunnel with Terminal Square. Today Kyiv Railway Terminal is one of the most sophisticated civil engineering structures for railways in Europe.