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History

Al-Burhan Group's Concrete Sleeper Production Facility was opened on the 18th July 1983 by Stamford-based English company Dow-Mac Concrete Ltd., following signing of a contract on 15th January 1982. Dow-Mac Concrete Ltd., an exceptionally reputable and world-renowned provider of railway resources at the time, worked with an array of companies from the Norcros Group to build the Abu Ghraib factory from scratch.

In the early eighties the Government of The Republic of Iraq placed colossal emphasis on rehabilitating and rejuvenating transport infrastructure within the nation as a means of bolstering an emerging economy. To this extent, the Government's New Railways Implementation Authority (established on 25th September 1980) planned for the laying of 3500 kilometres of new track able to carry both passengers and freights at speeds of up to 250 kph.

The layout of the Abu Ghraib facility, once opened, boasted an area of 9000 square metres, with an onus on flexibility and mechanisation as a means of ensuring minimal wastage of both staff and material. In the facility's early days it was capable of an annual production capacity in excess of 750,000 pre-stressed sleepers, largely in part to Dow-Mac's rigorous training schedule, including the availability of training for Senior Management at one of Dow-Mac's three UK-based factories.

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