Installation of rail slabs on the test section of the future Moscow — St. Petersburg high-speed railway has been completed in Leningrad Oblast. The work was carried out by specialists from "Natsproektstroy" in cooperation with Russian Railways.

On the Sablino — Tosno stretch, nearly 1.2 km long, 207 rail slabs and 56 slabs for turnouts were installed. Each structure weighs about 7 tons. A 55-ton crawler crane and a 70-ton truck crane were used for installation.

The main engineering challenge was the precise installation of concrete elements. Each slab had to be positioned with a deviation of no more than 1 mm. For this, builders used robotic total stations and software that compared the actual position of the structure with design parameters in real time.

After the slab installation is complete, heat-treated rails will be laid at the test site, railway automation systems will be configured, and over 1500 control sensors will be installed. They will monitor the condition of track elements, including underground and above-ground structures, during testing.

The "Sapsan" train is planned to be used to check the infrastructure's operation. Additional measuring devices will also be placed on its elements to assess the load on the track and equipment before the first HSR train tests begin.