ALTX-listed engineering and technology company Ansys has been awarded a multimillion-rand contract by GE South African Technologies (Gesat) to assist with improvements to the automation system at Transnet’s Bayhead marshalling yard in Durban.

Ansys CEO Alan Holloway said yesterday that the Gesat contract was eagerly anticipated and would help the company start this year on a positive note. He added that several other major technology and engineering contracts were in the pipeline.

Ansys, which is involved in the installation of rail track measurement and rail signalling systems throughout SA, would be responsible for the installation of 109 GE Hydra Switch machines, as well as all the project- specific engineering work — including fibre-optic network design; software design; and the design and manufacture of the light-emitting diode cluster points indicators. Ansys would install, test and commission the entire system.

The Bayhead marshalling yard comprises several sub-yards with more than 160 lines and a static capacity in excess of 5000 wagons.

The remote control of points machines increases yard productivity and operator safety and assists in reducing derailments.

Ansys said other benefits of automating points are: the status of the points is shown to the train driver via indicators; there is battery backup power for power outages; faster switching times of two seconds; and points gap detection and occupancy detection.

Ansys’s portion of the project was expected to be completed by June.

Gesat was initially awarded the main contract for the supply, installation and commissioning of a completely new yard automation system for the Bayhead facility and had subcontracted certain requirements to Ansys.