In the first world, a railway station in Japan is designed using 3D-crushed components in less than six hours. Construction firm Serndix constructed Hatsushima railway station to replace an old wooden structure between the departure of the last train of the night and the arrival of one in the morning, according to a report new York Times,
The station, which completes approximately 530 passengers, uses the same line with trains running one to three times, is located in a cool seaside city, which is part of the 25,000-people city Arida in Vaikayama province.
The new building is just more than 100 sq ft and is much smaller than the previous wooden station. According to the West Japan Railway Company (Junior West), the construction of the station took two months in a traditional way and would have been spent twice.
To speed up the project, Junior West included Serndix as parts of the station were printed in a factory in Kumamoto province, which was about 500 miles in the south -west of Hathsushima. It took seven days for printing and concrete reinforcement. The components were again taken by the road and reached the station site on the morning of 24 March.
“Generally, construction occurs in several months, while trains are not running every night,” said Kunihiro Handa, co-founder of Serndix.
After leaving the station at 11:57 pm, the last train started collecting 3-D printed pieces. A crane was used to lift each 3D block and place it in position near the old station. The new structure was ready before the first train arrived at 5:45 am.
“We believe that the importance of this project lies in the fact that the total number of essential people will be greatly reduced,” said Rio Kavamoto, president of JR West Innovation.
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While the building is placed, it still requires equipment such as ticket machines and transport card readers along with internal work. According to JR West, the new railway station building is expected to be opened to the public in July.
In particular, Hathsushima station was selected for the project due to its sea shore position, which allowed the company to evaluate the flexibility of the building against the contact with salty air. New technology is also being ascertained as a possible solution to Japan’s labor shortage in railway construction.
