Liebherr A 922 Rail Litronic selected by Mota-Engil for 284km Nigeria to Niger Rail Project

The Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil has been awarded the contract for the design and construction of the Kano-Maradi railway line between Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, connecting the Nigerian city of Kano with Maradi in the south of Niger,

The 284km rail project is the largest contract in Mota-Engil’s history, with a contract value of around USD 1.8 billion.

Mota-Engil has again selected Liebherr railroad excavators for the project and has ordered ten A 922 Rail Litronic machines to build the line. These tasks will include grading work and laying rails, sleepers and ballast as well as points. After completion of the railway line network, the machines will be used for track maintenance work.

For earlier projects in Spain and Portugal Mota-Engil had already acquired seven Liebherr railroad excavators of the same type and their performance there was a key factor in their selection for the West African project.

The A 922 Rail Litronic is based on a sophisticated design concept – as a railroad excavator it can be used both on roads and on railway tracks. A rail guide system, which is attached to both sides of the undercarriage, brings the tyres to rail level during the changeover to rail. The inner wheels of the twin tyres are then used for the rail-based travel drive.

Thanks to a 120 kW / 163 hp construction machine engine and an optimally tuned hydraulic system, the excavator achieves high working speeds with the usual fluid attachment movements. Its innovative hydraulic concept includes a Liebherr variable-displacement double pump with an independent regulating circuit. Powerful, hydraulic attachments can thus be operated independently of the machine’s working and driving movements.

The Mota-Engil machine package also includes numerous Liebherr attachments such as swivelling ditch-cleaning-buckets, clamshell buckets and backhoe buckets.

To ensure quick and safe replacements of both mechanical and hydraulic attachments, the customer’s machines are also equipped with the fully automatic quick-coupling system Solidlink

Source