COMPOSITE BALLAST BOARDS
COMPOSITE BALLAST BOARDS
Overview
As sustainable products become more prevalent in the rail industry and beyond, we identified the need to develop a more sustainable ballast board that will offer a reduced weight, remain undamaged during transportation, and wouldn’t crack when installed or when under load.
After more than a year of development, testing and obtaining engineers’ calculations, the model is ready for the market. Our glass-fibre reinforced polyester (GRP) ballast board comes as part of a multi-use system using a ‘H’ or Tee section steel post that has bracketry which mounts onto the in-ground steel that will convert into a handrail, or it can be fixed to our ARCOSYSTEM® bracketry.
This system saves separate installation and money, as it offers the opportunity to add or make changes in future without huge cost. Most of the concrete and lightweight ballast board systems currently used require two-man lifting as they weigh between 20-60kg depending on the model. Our product weighs 12.5kg, thereby significantly reducing both installation costs and on-site injuries to installers.
The GRP pultruded profile provides anti-corrosive and anti-UV properties for a long life, with no maintenance required.
These composite ballast boards are suitable for a multitude of uses, such as protecting railway tracks and trackside facilities on embankments from rockfall and snowslide.
COMPOSITE BALLAST BOARDS
At a glance
- CCS composite ballast boards have a minimum lifespan of 50 years
- Maintenance free
- Lightweight boards ensure easier handling, reducing on-site injuries and installation times.
1 CCS ballast board = 12.5kg vs 1 concrete ballast board = 60kg - Eco-friendly — number of boards supplied in a 18-tonnes delivery:
CCS ballast boards = 1440 vs concrete ballast boards = 300
(almost 5x more fuel used to deliver concrete)
Amount of carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere to produce 1 ballast board:
CCS ballast board = 3.9kg CO2 vs concrete ballast board = 19kg CO2 - Structurally sound — the boards enjoy composite action, meaning stacked boards act as a single wall, not individual sections of a wall
- Composites are inherently robust and excellent at resisting & absorbing impact
- The outer surface is protected by a polyester veil for UV protection
- Suited to a temperature range of -40˚C to +80˚C
Technical
Documentation
View the technical information for this product here
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CCS ballast boards promotional flyer June 2023
Materials and
performance
CCS composite ballast boards are manufactured by pultrusion from specially selected unsaturated polyester resins, reinforced with dedicated glass-fibre reinforcement packs. The polyesters are UV inhibited to protect from sunlight, and have inherent water and corrosion resistance, proven over decades of use in marine and corrosive environments.
The glass-fibre isophthalic reinforcement provides the structural strength of the profiles, which is pre-determined by the geometry of the reinforcement pack used within the profiles during manufacture.
The open cell, tongue-and-groove construction allows interlocking panels to be stacked one on top of another — our 300mm-deep panels can be stacked up to three high to create a robust 900mm-high retaining wall capable of withstanding heavy forces.
Our 1830mm-length panels are less than a fifth of the weight of the concrete panels they replace, ensuring easy handling and rapid installation.
The boards can be easily cut to length on-site, whereas reducing the length of concrete boards exposes metal reinforcement that will rust, and ultimately result in failure.
Design and dynamic testing data to confirm performance is available on request by contacting our technical experts.
These ballast boards are designed and developed by Complete Composite Systems Ltd, and are available from our exclusive UK stockist Scott Parnell.