RT&S June 2017

June 2017 | www.rtands.com

Making the grade

with smooth crossings

PLUS SEPTA’s Crum Creek Viaduct replacement Port rail project roundup and also AREMA News p.34

Contents June 2017

News

4

Features

14

Industry Today 5 Supplier News 8 People

18

18

Grade-crossing surfaces Concrete, rubber, wood and composite crossing manufacturers aim to create surfaces that will stand up to the harsh environment of the road-rail interface.

30

oldcastle precast

Crum Creek Viaduct replacement Utilizing a design-build method with Accelerated Bridge Construction techniques helps SEPTA replace a 121-year old viaduct.

3

On Track It’s time to build

9

NRC Chairman’s Column Where’d the time go?

An Omega crossing being installed in Louisiana. Photo

by Rick Hickman.

Story on page 18.

port of long beach

Port rail project roundup For port authorities around North America, adding or enhancing rail connections are offering a competitive advantage.

Columns

RAILWAY TRACK AND STRUCTURES

14 Departments 10 TTCI R&D 34 Arema News 39 Products 40 Calendar 41 Advertisers Index 41 Sales Representatives 42 Classified Advertising 42 Professional Directory

Special Section

25

Grade-Crossing Surface Data Sheets

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30

SEPTA

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Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 1

On Track

RAILWAY TRACK AND STRUCTURES

Vol. 113, No. 6 Print ISSN # 0033-9016, Digital ISSN # 2160-2514 EDITORIAL OFFICES 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, Ill. 60603 Telephone (312) 683-0130 Fax (312) 683-0131 Website www.rtands.com Mischa Wanek-Libman/Editor, mischa@sbpub.com Maggie Lancaster/Assistant Editor, mlancaster@sbpub.com CORPORATE OFFICES 55 Broad St 26th Fl. New York, N.Y. 10004 Telephone (212) 620-7200 Fax (212) 633-1165 Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr./ President and Chairman Jonathan Chalon/Publisher Mary Conyers/Production Director Wendy Williams/Creative Director Maureen Cooney/Circulation Director Michelle Zolkos/Conference Director

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It’s time to build

I

am writing this column at the tail end of Infrastructure Week 2017, which means the issues discussed and enthusiasm rallied during the week are still fresh in my mind. The entire point of Infrastructure Week was to educate and advocate.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR), which excels at advocacy, reiterated the private nature of freight rail investments. The freight market has been building nearly non-stop since the deregulation brought by the Staggers Act in 1980. Not only do freight rail providers offer a good example of private investment, but also one where reduced regulation allowed business to flourish. AAR issued a release during Infrastructure Week containing “key numbers to know about freight rail.”

Some of them you may know, some perhaps not, but they make for an easyto-understand bottom line (and make for ready-made tweets, for those of you who participate): • $60 million - How many dollars per day freight railroads invest in their infrastructure.

• 8 - The number of times rail in the U.S. network could circle the earth.

• $274 billion - Freight rail’s economic impact in 2014.

• 54 - The number of tons of freight moved for every American each year.

• $1 - Invested by the railroads generates $10 in economic activity.

• 69,000 - Tons of new rail laid in 2015.

• 43 - Percent decrease in accidents and derailments since 2000.

• $100 million - Amount invested each month to develop, test, and install Positive Train Control • 14.6 million - Number of crossties installed in 2013 • $121,000 - Average rail employee compensation, including benefits.

• 6 - Freight railroads invest six times the average manufacturer.

Infrastructure Week’s tag line, “it’s time to build,” doesn’t apply strictly

to the tangible assets, but refers to alliances, as well. One area where freight railroads could find an opportunity for growth is in the transport of consumer goods. U.S. and Canadian ports have been increasing their efforts to add, expand or enhance near-dock or ondock rail facilities on all three coasts, story on p. 14. This activity is providing to be a mutually beneficial growth opportunity among port authorities and rail service providers. In order for rail carriers to take advantage of their port partners’ investment, they must be able to provide reliable, quick service, which circles back to the first paragraph about private investment.

Rail infrastructure extends beyond the realm of freight to encompass passenger and transit construction and maintenance. These providers face infrastructure challenges in the form of funding and the ability to maintain a state of good repair. What we do know of the administration’s impending infrastructure plan is that it will aim to encourage greater participation (fiscally speaking) from the municipalities where these projects will operate.

A few years ago, Pennsylvania took steps to pass Act 89, which provides a stable dedicated source of funds to transportation projects in the commonwealth. With these funds, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is able to tackle a large backlog of state of good repair projects, such as the massive replacement of the Crum Creek Viaduct, story on p. 30.

I’ve been in this industry for 16 years, and while I’ve seen business cycles ebb and flow, generally speaking, the rail industry has been consistent with its approach infrastructure investment: It’s always been time to build.

Mischa Wanek-Libman, Editor

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June 2017 3

INDUSTRY TODAY Rosen confirmed for USDOT post The U.S. Senate confirmed Jeffrey Rosen as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on May 16. Rosen is the 18th deputy secretary in USDOT’s 50-year history.

Rosen is a Harvard law graduate and served as general counsel and senior policy advisor for the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2006 to 2009 and as general council at USDOT from 2003 to 2006.

“Having served in senior government positions in the past, I’ve learned that forging good working relationships and utilizing effective communication will be keys to our success,” said Rosen.

His confirmation comes shortly before the Trump administration plans to release its much-anticipated infrastructure proposal.

Deadlines for Part 243 Minimum Training Standards extended one year The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has extended the implementation dates of Part 243 Minimum Training Standards by one year according to a notice in the May 3 edition of the Federal Register.

Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 243, Training, Qualifications, and Oversight for Safety-Related Railroad Employees requires each railroad or contractor that employs one or more safety-related railroad employees to develop and submit a training program to FRA for approval and to designate the minimum training qualifications for each occupational category of employee. The rule also requires most employers to conduct periodic oversight of their employees and develop annual written reviews of their training programs to close performance gaps.

The rule was published on Nov. 7, 2014, and is significant as it places railroad contractors under direct regulation of the FRA for the first time.

Employers with more than 400,000 employee work hours now have until Jan. 1, 2019, to submit training programs to the FRA and employers with less than 400,000 employee work hours have until May 1, 2020 to submit programs. Additionally, training organizations and learning institutions (TO/LI) that have provided training to safety-related employees prior to Jan. 1, 2018, may continue without FRA approval until Jan. 1, 2019.

Instead of a May 1, 2017, implementation date, model program developers will have until May 1, 2018, for their programs to be considered approved by FRA and can be implemented 180 days after the date of submission.

FRA said the extension is being granted “because model training program developers alerted FRA they will not be able to timely produce model programs that an estimated 1,459 railroads and contractors are expected to use to comply with the rule’s program submission requirements.”

FRA cited concerns presented by the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) and National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) surrounding the time frame for implementation as part of the reason for the extension. FRA says the additional time will help model training program developers, such as ASLRRA and NRC, comply with the final rule.

Connecticut DOT completes Berlin-Waterbury rail study The Central Connecticut Rail Study (CCRS) has been completed and found investment in the rail corridor between Berlin and Waterbury, Conn. for freight use would be viable, while passenger rail investment would be cost prohibitive. The Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) conducted the study.

Pam Am Railways uses the single-track, 24-mile corridor, which is currently classified as Class 2 track with a maximum track speed of 25 mph. However, many locations are speed limited to 10 mph due to track conditions and track curvature. The CCRS found an estimated investment of $140 million would bring the line to a state of good repair and would be the most viable use of the corridor in the near term. The study found that if repairs were made, annual carloads could grow to 2,800-3,100 as compared to the current range of 1,5001,800 annual carloads.

The study concluded that passenger rail at this time

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June 2017

would not be viable based on estimated low ridership levels and the estimated $410 million to $530 million needed to upgrade the line for passenger use.

The CCRS said to reach a state of good repair the line would need to see surfacing work, crosstie replacement, grade-crossing surface improvements, improved drainage and joint bar testing. A large part of the estimated improvement cost, more than $25 million, is tagged for the Terryville Tunnel. The tunnel is the longest rail tunnel in Connecticut at more than 3,600 feet and was built in 1911. It has not received significant upgrades since its construction and the study found the tunnel requires repairs to the lining and improved drainage to enhance freight operations. Should the tunnel be repaired to accommodate future passenger service, additional lighting, ventilation and safe emergency egress improvements would be required that bring the estimated cost up to more than $38 million.

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INDUSTRY TODAY Caltrain gets $647M commitment from FTA for electrification project The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) intends to sign a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) with Caltrain that would commit $647 million to the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project (PCEP).

The grant is the final funding piece needed to move the $1.98-billion project forward.

The electrification project aims to improve system performance by electrifying the Caltrain Corridor from San Francisco’s 4th and King Caltrain Station to approximately the Tamien Caltrain Station, convert dieselhauled trains to Electric Multiple Unit trains and increase service of up to six Caltrain trains per peak hour per direction.

“Caltrain has worked for over two decades to plan this critical improvement. Over the last few years, more than $1.3 billion was secured from local, regional and state commitments and contracts were awarded to design and, eventually, construct the project. This agreement commits the final funding needed to start construction of a project that will transform and improve the way

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Supplier News

people travel along one of the region’s most congested corridors,” said Caltrain General Manager and CEO Jim Hartnett.

An FFGA was recommended in January following a full assessment of the project’s merits. However, the decision was delayed by the Trump Administration while the 2018 budget recommendations were being developed. Because of the delay in securing the FFGA, Caltrain struck an agreement with its contractors to extend the deadline from March 1 to June 30 for the contractors to begin construction of the PCEP. At the time of the negotiated extension, Caltrain said the additional time would likely require the utilization of up to $20 million in project contingency that otherwise would have been available for constructionrelated expenses in the future.

“This milestone is only possible because of widespread and vocal support from the communities we serve. We are very grateful and we look forward to rewarding those efforts by getting to work right away building the transit system this region deserves,” said Hartnett.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) approved a contract with

Barletta Heavy Division, Inc., for

the construction of improvements to the Wellington Maintenance Facility.

HDR was selected to conduct a study to assess multi- modal transportation needs for the new KC Streetcar Authority Southern Extension.

Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., (G&W) announced

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 5

INDUSTRY TODAY Danella celebrates 45th anniversary: Reflects on the past while planning for a robust future Danella Companies, Inc. celebrated its 45th business anniversary on May 5, 2017. What began as a utility construction company in 1972 has grown to include several divisions, which operate in various markets.

“By valuing people, safety, and integrity in all of Danella’s work, our once small company has become an industry-leader in the utility, transit, and railroad industries, as well as storm restoration and equipment rentals,” says Jim Danella, chairman and CEO. Danella’s network of divisions has grown nationwide, resulting in more than 30 offices, equipment yards and employs in excess of 1,500 individuals.

The division most familiar to those in the rail industry is Danella Rental Systems, which began in 1984 and was incorporated into the Danella fold in 1986. The division has grown from three employees in 1987 to more than 65 today, who

manage an operating fleet across the nation.

Danella Rental Systems says its extensive inventory includes pickup trucks, passenger vans, utility trucks and work/construction/specialty equipment, as well as one of the industry’s largest hi-rail fleets. The company can provide a single piece of equipment or an entire fleet based on customer needs.

Jim Danella, counts the development of the rental business as one of the major milestones in the history of the overall company and credits, Senior Vice President Paul Barents with the division’s success.

Danella explains, “Paul has inspired so many in the company and he is a leader in a group of good hard-working people who helped build this company.”

With an emphasis on safety, flexibility and service, Danella Rental Systems has worked to build a long lasting relationship with customers. The company’s guiding principle is service above all and, over time, has built a reputation based on timely service, high quality and safe equipment, reasonable rates and a willingness to really work with customers.

“Whether customers wish to rent short-term or long-term or enter into a rental-purchase arrangement or an extended lease, Danella Rental Systems is committed to accommodating their needs. This includes such services as helping the customer write specifications for equipment to ensure a perfect fit with their needs and to providing on-site training once the equipment is delivered,” says Danella.

To learn more about Danella Rental Systems’s history and plans for the future visit their website at danella.com.

Ontario explores HSR plan Ontario will move forward with plans to build Canada’s first high-speed line following a report by David Collenette, which concluded the project has a positive business case. Province Premier Kathleen Wynne confirmed that the province will now begin preliminary design work on the line from Toronto to Windsor, which will serve intermediate stations at Pearson, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Chatham.

Ontario has also allocated US$11 million to carry out a comprehensive environmental assessment.

Collenette’s report outlines two possible options for the project. Scenario A is a 186 miles-per-hour electrified line operating primarily on dedicated rights of way and carries a base cost of US$14.1 billion. Scenario B in an electrified line using a combination of existing infrastructure and dedicated new alignments to achieve speeds of up to 155 miles-perhour and carries a base cost of US$5.5 billion.

The report says design and construction “should ideally start by 2022,” with commercial operations beginning in 2025. Implementation of the project will be overseen by a new governing entity, High Speed Rail Corporation (HSRCO). Ridership is forecast to reach 10 million passengers per year by 2041.

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INDUSTRY TODAY FRA, FHWA sign FONSI for Minnesota Willmar Wye project The Federal Rail Administration (FRA) and Federal Highway Administration have signed the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) document for the Willmar Rail Connector and Industrial Park Access Project (Willmar Wye).

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) says the signing of the FONSI means the environmental portion of the project is now complete.

The Willmar Wye project will add a rail connection between two existing BNSF lines and modify surrounding roadways to better move freight through the city of Willmar, Minn. The project will provide a direct connection between BNSF’s Marshall and Morris Subdivisions, which will decrease the number of trains that need to pull into downtown Willmar’s rail yard. The project

will also build a rail spur to the city of Willmar’s industrial park.

The $48-million project was awarded a $10-million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant in 2015. MnDOT is contributing $17.5 million to the project and BNSF has committed $16 million with the remainder being contributed by local road improvement programs, the city of Willmar, Kandiyohi County and the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission.

MnDOT says the next steps for the project include right-of-way acquisition, completion of agreements and permits, final design and construction of the roadways. MnDOT estimates the roadway project bid will be released in December 2017.

KCS performs UP details four work in five states state capex plans Kansas City Southern (KCS) will invest approximately $24.6 million in 2017 on construction and improvement projects on its Pittsburg, Heavener and Shreveport Subdivisions.

Rail, crosstie and crossing improvements are planned between Neosho, Mo. and Blanchard, La. The work is expected to begin May 30 and continue through late August. Communities that KCS will work through include Neosho, Anderson, Elk Springs and Noel, Mo.; Watts and Westville, Okla.; Sulphur Springs, Decatur, De Queen, Horatio, Winthrop, Wilton and Ashdown, Ark.; Texarkana and Bloomburg, Texas; and Rodessa, Vivian, Oil City, Mooringsport and Blanchard, La. In total, the project will include the replacement of approximately 7.7 miles of rail and approximately 90,000 crossties, as well as improvements to more than 130 road crossings.

“KCS, through its U.S. and Mexican subsidiaries, continues to invest in capital projects to expand network capacity, keep maintenance in a regular and healthy cycle and enhance the safety of our operation,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick J. Ottensmeyer. “These investments also help us be an economic growth partner to our customers and the communities through which we operate.” www.rtands.com

Union Pacific will tackle $187.1 million in infrastructure improvements across four states.

The state plans are part of the Class 1’s $3.1 billion 2017 capital program.

Kansas will see $57 million in improvements this year with $43 million allotted for track maintenance and $12 million for bridges. The railroad will replace more than 136,500 crossties and install more than 53, 400 tons of ballast.

UP plans to spend $48.1 million in Utah divided between $40.3 million to maintain track and $4.2 million to maintain bridges.

The railroad will install more than 201,800 crossties and replace more than four miles of curve rail.

Oklahoma and Wyoming will each see a $41 million investment from the railroad.

Track maintenance will account for $40 million of Oklahoma’s state plan and $38 million of Wyoming’s. UP also plans $626,000 in Oklahoma bridge maintenance and $2.8 million in Wyoming bridge maintenance. The Class 1 will replace more than 115,700 crossties in Oklahoma and just under 127,000 crossties in Wyoming. Oklahoma will also see 52,800 tons of ballast installed while Wyoming will see 61,300 tons of ballast.

The railroad has invested $1.125 billion in the four states between 2012 and 2016 which includes $425 million in Kansas, $221 million in Utah, $236 million in Oklahoma and $243 million in Wyoming.

Supplier News that its subsidiary, GWI UK Acquisition Company Limited, completed the acquisition of all of the issued share capital of Pentalver

Transport Limited

from a subsidiary of APM Terminals.

Snap-on, Inc., has acquired Norbar Torque Tools Holdings Limited.

The Pine BluffJefferson County Port Authority signed a contract with Trac-Work, Inc., of Little Rock for rehabilitation work.

Maryland Transit Administration awarded a contract to Trapeze Group a business unit of Constellation Software’s Volaris Group, for provision of a comprehensive and intelligent transportation system.

Wabtec Corp. announced it has signed a contract worth about $40 million to design, install, test and commission Positive Train Control (PTC) for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chose WSP USA to conduct preliminary engineering and planning work for a new AirTrain connection to LaGuardia Airport.

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PEOPLE Infrastructure firm AECOM announced that Navin Sagar has been appointed vice president and national director transit systems of the firm’s transit systems practice in North America. The company also promoted Jon Schmidt to be the transit systems deputy practice leader.

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) honored Keith LaPorte and Ron Sparks for their career commitment to safety compliance and culture at the 2017 CONNECTIONS Convention.

Investigator Joseph O’Keefe was named 2016 Amtrak Police Department Officer of the Year.

Carlos Rojas has been named chief of police for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

Jean-Jacques Ruest, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer of Canadian National, was inducted into the International Maritime Hall of Fame.

Sergio “Satch” Pecori, Hanson Professional Services, Inc.’s chairman and CEO, has become chairman of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).

Eric Neprud recently rejoined Hansen to support the firm’s railway structures group by assisting with bridge design and detailing efforts.

Diana Mendes, HNTB Corporation transit/rail practice leader and senior vice president, was named 2017 Training Professional of the Year Award by the National Transit Institute (NTI). HNTB also announced that Charles Stone will join as the company’s principal tunnel engineer, based out of the firm’s New York City office.

Plasser American Corporation has named Ronald Olds vice president Sales & Marketing.

Construction and development firm Skanska named Executive Vice President Anders Danielsson president and chief executive officer of Skanska USA. Current USA President and CEO Richard Cavallaro will move into his former role as president and CEO of the Skanska USA Civil Business Unit replacing Michael Cobelli, who will remain with the company as a strategic advisor. The firm also promoted Greg Zwiep to vice president of Operations.

The Transport Workers Union appointed John Samuelsen International president.

Obituary Benjamin R. Whiteley, a former chairman of The Greenbrier Companies, Inc.’s Board of Directors passed away May 4, 2017 at the age of 87. Whiteley was elected to Greenbrier’s board at the time of its initial public offering in 1994. He remained in that position for two decades, serving as chairman from 2004 to 2014.

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NRC CHAIRMAN’S COLUMN

Where’d the time go?

June has come quickly and summer’s construction season is in full swing. There have been an increased amount of opportunities throughout the industry and the size of the projects seems to continue to grow. Our estimators are busy putting bids together and our project teams are working hard scheduling work and crews. It is shaping up to be another good year to be in our industry.

In the northeast, we are seeing an increase in contracting opportunities for federally- and state-funded infrastructure improvements, including building new rail lines, yards and spurs, complete reconstruction of existing deteriorated infrastructure, reactivation of out of service lines and track, clearance projects for moving more intermodal trains and increased maintenance to improve reliability and increase capacity.

Many NRC members are capitalizing on this increase in large rail infrastructure projects and are building their backlogs on these generally long-term projects. This sector of the industry is going strong and the NRC staff is working hard every day to continue to increase funds available for rail infrastructure projects throughout the country.

The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association, Inc. 410 1st Street, S.E. Suite 200 Washington D. C. 20003 Tel: 202-715-2920 Fax: 202-318-0867 www.nrcma.org info@nrcma.org

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The recently completed $1 trillion FY2017 federal omnibus appropriations bill includes a number of rail-friendly provisions, including $2.5 billion for “New Starts,” $150 million for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), $500 million for Transport Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), $850 million for Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE), $1.5 billion for Amtrak, $199 million for commuter rail Positive Train Control (PTC), $68 million for the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) new Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) program and $25 million for the FRA for the new federal-state State of Good Repair (SOGR) partnership program.

The next items on our federal legislative radar screen are the FY2018 budget/ appropriations bills and the oft-discussed potential infrastructure bill. The NRC will be actively engaged in this work. There are many opportunities that would be created for rail contractors in a major infrastructure package, but unfortunately there is also great uncertainty about whether Congress and the administration will be able to work together to pull this off, particularly against the backdrop of health care legislation and tax reform, not to mention the other “drama” coming out of Washington, D.C. There couldn’t be a better time to get involved. If your company works within the rail industry, we urge you to join industry associations and support the efforts to strengthen our industry. The NRC Membership Committee, chaired by Jody Sims of Stacy & Witbeck, has done a terrific job promoting our association and recruiting new members. We currently have more than 420 member companies. A big thank you to all the committee members for their hard work: David Armstrong and Kevin Brons of Commercial Insurance Associates, Steve Bolte of Danella, Danny Brown of V&H Trucks, Mike Choat of Wabtec, Stephanie Freeman of Coleman Industrial Construction, Zach Hansen of Vossloh, Bob Hirte of Hamilton Construction, Phil McDonald of Koppers, Scott Norman of Herzog Contracting Corp., and David Stein of Holland. If you have interest in joining our association, reach out to any of our committee members or Matt Bell of the NRC at mbell@nrcma.org.

We’re all looking forward to the big show this fall - Railway Interchange in Indianapolis, Ind. September 17-20. If you’re a reader of this magazine, this show is really a must-attend.

Finally, I wish everyone a safe and successful month.

by Chris Daloisio, NRC Chairman

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TTCI R&D Benefits of superelevation for mainline turnouts

by Duane Otter, Ph.D., PE - principal investigator II, David D. Davis, PE - senior scientist, Rafael Jimenez - senior engineer, Xinggao Shu, Ph.D. - principal investigator II Transportation Technology Center, Inc.

R

esearchers at Transportation Technology Center, Inc., (TTCI) evaluating the effects of adding superelevation to the diverging route of a mainline turnout have found that the changes in forces with superelevation are relatively small, with the superelevated region of the turnout being too short to reach steady state conditions and provide significant benefits.

The primary benefit of adding superelevation to a turnout is to allow for a smaller entry angle at the switch point, without reducing the allowable speed or increasing the overall length of a turnout. Several previous studies have shown that a smaller entry angle is the key to reducing the peak lateral forces for vehicles traversing the diverging route of a turnout.1-6 The tests were performed on a mainline turnout on the High Tonnage Loop at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing (FAST) in Pueblo, Colo. A series of performance measurements including wheel/rail forces, track geometry and rail wear have been made during the first 480 million gross tons (mgt) of 315,000-pound car traffic over a No. 20 turnout retrofit with superelevation. Field test results of the reduced-entry angle, superelevated turnout have been largely as expected. Wear of the superelevated closure rails has been small, with no unusual gauge-face wear. The practical benefit of the superelevation is in allowing the use of a dynamically better turnout alignment without a penalty in allowable speed. Thus, the addition of superelevation to a low entry angle turnout will allow a railway to obtain the force reduction benefits of the low entry angle design without incurring a penalty in allowable train speed. Currently, there is a penalty in maximum allowable speed when using a low entry angle turnout as compared to a non-tangential alignment (AREMA-style) turnout.

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TTCI evaluates the effects of adding superelevation to increase the allowable speed in mainline turnouts.

There are two factors that limit allowable speed on the diverging route of turnouts. One is the superelevation unbalance in the diverging curve. This originated as a ride quality requirement for all curves on the railroad. The second is the potentially high lateral forces that can result from the large entry angle alignment typical in a freight railroad turnout. This is a safety limit that affects high entry angle alignment turnouts.

The addition of superelevation to compensate for smaller radius curvature that results from lower entry angle, and longer switch points can increase maximum allowable speed to near that of the AREMA-style turnout alignment. The proposed reduced entry angle turnout design with superelevation in the closure curve is expected to perform better than AREMA alignments.

Further, it will allow the railways to operate closer to maximum allowable speeds. The main speed limiting factor in loaded traffic for AREMA-style turnouts is lateral-to-vertical or L/V ratio (due to higher lateral loads) at switch point entry. A reduced entry angle turnout design will perform better at all speeds. It has the limitation of having a lower maximum allowable speed due to smaller radius curves on the diverging route. A demonstration of this concept was conducted by modifying a No. 20 turnout at FAST. Superelevation was added through the use of transition rails and wheel-rail forces were measured before and after the addtion of the superelevation.

Turnout geometry design constraints

Due to locations of signal equipment and other features, new turnouts are usually required to fit in the footprint of the previous used turnouts, limiting what can be done to improve performance. In the same regard, the lengths of individual components such as switch points may also be limited by

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TTCI R&D through the diverging route of the turnouts at, or very close to, the design speed of the tangent track and L/V ratios were are significantly reduced. Both modifications stay within the dimensions of the current standard AREMA turnout.

Field test at FAST under heavy-axle-loads

Figure 1 No. 20 Turnout with 0.5-inch superelevation on the diverging route. Inset: Close-up of level board.

shipping or handling requirements of the railway.

The allowable speed through a turnout is often limited by the smallest radius curve in the turnout on the basis of cant deficiency or unbalanced superelevation (as is done with other curves on the railway). This limit caused designers of turnouts to optimize designs for allowable speed by using nontangential alignments, which has resulted in turnout designs that generate high lateral forces and the resultant degradation that follows. This research reviewed potential alignments within the AREMA style turnout footprint to develop an improved performance turnout that would also have a higher allowable speed under the current cant deficiency rule.

As with the rest of the track, the allowable speed in a turnout curve is governed by the maximum cant deficiency limit in the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) track safety standards.

For example, for an AREMA 20 curved point turnout with 156-foot lead length, the maximum allowable speed is 49 mph (assuming three inches cant deficiency).7 AREMA designs are biased toward high allowable speeds by having a large closure curve radius at the expense of a large switch entry angle. However, higher peak lateral forces due to the alignment kink (entry) angle can cause increased alignment degradation, increased lateral accelerations, reduced ride quality and higher maintenance. As a result, the speeds are normally restricted to about 40 mph through the turnouts; thus, a turnout may have speed limits of 40 mph in the middle of 60 to 70 mph track.

A No. 20 turnout with a tangential, spiral alignment was selected for retrofitting with 0.5 inch of superelevation. This was done in 2014, using transition rails in the diverging route closure curve.

These rails with longitudinally sloped profiles are similar to the transition rails now used to match new and worn rail in track.The 136RE rail turnout received a 141RE “high rail” and a 132RE with an additional 0.19 inch milled off the “low rail.” The raising of one rail and lowering of the other is likely to be dynamically better than only raising one rail (due to a smaller change in the vehicle center of gravity).8 Figure 1 shows the test turnout. The rails have ramped ends so that each end can be matched and welded to 136RE. In a new installation, the superelevation can be provided by varying tie plate thickness or using dapped crossties, so that the same rail section can be used throughout.

Field test results

The turnout has performed well after about three years and 480 mgt in service. Wheel-rail forces have been measured as have rail wear in the superelevated closure curve. There is little gauge-face wear. Figure 2 shows predicted lead axle outside wheel-rail lateral forces for a 40-mph facing point, diverging move under a 315,000-pound gondola car before installation of superelevation. This plot shows the typical behavior of a vehicle going through a turnout. As the vehicle encounters the diverging switch point, there is a lateral load spike where the switch is doing work to turn the wheelset to the diverging route. The limits of the superelevated area are indicated by blue vertical lines on the figures. Lateral forces from both the tangential spiral and an AREMA, larger entry angle turnout are shown.

Key points to recognize are that: • The AREMA turnout has a much larger maximum force in the switch.

Superelevated turnout design

For this evaluation at FAST, the alignment of the standard AREMA turnout was modified to reduce lateral loads at switch points by reducing the entry angle. Technology Digest TD-13-022 describes the results of simulations of alignment changes and the addition of superelevation.3 The results of the simulations suggest that the combination of a low entry angle switch alignment and superelevation in the diverging route curve can provide better dynamic performance with no penalty in allowable speed, as compared to the currently used designs.

The results also show that various types of trains can run

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Figure 2: Typical outside rail lateral wheel-rail forces versus distance for a No. 20 turnout with fixed point frog, 40 mph facing point diverging move.

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 11

TTCI R&D • The low entry angle switch has lower lateral forces, but lateral forces in the closure curve are somewhat higher.

It is the shorter radius in the closure curve that limits allowable speed in the turnout.

Conclusions

The field test results of the reduced entry angle, superelevated turnout have been largely as expected. The addition of superelevation in low entry angle turnouts to compensate for smaller radius curvature can increase maximum allowable speed to near that of the AREMA-style turnout alignment.

The reduced entry angle, superelevated turnout design is expected to perform better than AREMA alignments; enabling railways to operate at closer to maximum allowable speeds. The main speed limiting technical factor in loaded traffic for AREMA-style turnouts is L/V ratio (due to higher lateral loads) at switch point entry. The reduced entry angle turnout design will perform better at all speeds.

Superelevation enable a higher maximum allowable speed on the diverging route.

References 1. Otter, D., Davis, D., and Gurule, S. December 1996. “Geometry for an Improved Performance No. 20 Turnout.” Technology Digest TD-96-030.

Association of American Railroads, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. Pueblo, Colo.

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June 2017

2. Davis, D., Witte, M., Shu, X. and Otter, D. October 2012. “Turnout Alignments for Heavy Axle Load Mainline Traffic.” Technology Digest TD12-021. Association of American Railroads, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. Pueblo, Colo.

3. Akhtar, M., Davis, D. and Hein, R. September 2013. “Dynamic Simulation of Improved AREMA No. 24 Turnout Alignment.” Technology Digest TD-13-022. Association of American Railroads, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. Pueblo, Colo.

4. Federal Railroad Administration. “A Higher Speed Turnout.” Research Results FRA Washington, D.C. August 2006.

5. Bonaventura, C. S., Holfeld, D., Zarembski, A. and Palese, J. “Test Results of a Modified Turnout Designed to Increase Diverging Route Speeds Without Increasing Lead Length.” AREMA Annual Conference.

Chicago. 2005.

6. Davis, D., Jimenez, R., Shu, X. and Rael, B. April 2016. “Evaluation of the Potential Benefits of Superelevation for Mainline Turnouts in Heavy Axle Load Service.” Technology Digest TD-16-012. Association of American Railroads, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. Pueblo, Colo.

7. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 49 CFR Part 213 “Track Safety Standards.”

Subparts A to F Classes of Track 1-5. Washington, D.C. 2007.

8. Klauder Jr., L., Chrismer S. and Elkins, J. “Improved Spiral Geometry for High Speed Rail and Predicted Vehicle Response.” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1785 (200): 41–49.

www.rtands.com

Port projects offer mutual opportunity

for growth

georgia ports authority

Rail connectivity is offering ports around North America a competitive edge.

by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor

P

ort authorities on all three North American coasts are experiencing an uptick in construction activity, especially surrounding those projects that will add or enhance rail connectivity. Growth is the end goal with on-dock or near-dock rail access seen as a competitive advantage for the ports, while rail carriers serving these hubs gain an opportunity to earn traffic that would otherwise go to trucks.

While the following list is far from comprehensive, it highlights the breadth of projects occurring across North America.

Port of Savannah

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) detailed an ambitious rail initiative in September 2016 for the Port of Savannah.

GPA explains that it dubbed the initiative the Mid-American Arc as the port is poised to rapidly increase service to an arc of inland markets, from Atlanta to Memphis, to St. Louis, Chicago and the Ohio Valley.

GPA described the initiative as a way to focus on the growth of intermodal rail, extending the Port of Savannah’s reach to capture new markets across the Southeast and Midwestern U.S. “This enhancement of our rail capacity is a game-changer in the market to serve cities ranging in an arc from 14 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

Atlanta to Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and the Ohio Valley,” said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. “Additional track will allow us to build unit trains, 10,000 feet long, completely on terminal, while reducing rail crossings and impact on the local community.”

Included in the plan is a $128 million project that will link Garden City Terminal’s two rail yards, improve efficiency and grow the terminal’s rail lift capacity to approximately 1 million containers each year. Construction of the rail expansion, forming the Port of Savannah International Multi-Modal Connector, will take four years and is being funded in part by a $44 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE) program.

The Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal is the Southeast’s busiest intermodal gateway handling 3.73 million twenty-foot equivalent container units in 2015. Currently, 18 percent of the containers handled at Garden City Terminal move on Class 1 railroads Norfolk Southern and CSX. GPA officials said the connector project is poised to help the Port of Savannah to capture greater market share.

Port of Long Beach

The Port of Long Beach’s (POLB) Middle Harbor Terminal Redevelopment Project is combining two aging shipping terminals into what POLB describes as the greenest, most technologically advanced container terminal in the world. The first phase of the $1.3-billion project opened in March 2016 and POLB is scheduled to complete the entire project in 2019.

When completed, Middle Harbor will have the capacity to handle 3.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) each year and the ability to more up to 35 percent of its cargo via the 48,000 feet of on-dock rail.

A second major rail-related project underway at POLB is the Pier B OnDock Rail Support Facility. POLB plans to reconfigure, expand and enhance the existing Pier B rail facility located along Anaheim Street and the 710 Freeway to support more efficient use of on-dock rail at the port’s shipping terminals. The proposed project will allow trains up to 10,000 feet long to be loaded and unloaded at on-dock rail facilities at marine terminals to streamline rail operations, remove bottlenecks and reduce the need for local truck trips.

POLB says the proposed Pier B OnDock Rail Support Facility would allow for longer trains within the Harbor www.rtands.com

Port rail projects OPPOSITE PAGE: GPA is undertaking a “game changing” rail focused in itiative to take advantage of intermodal growth.

This page: POLB opened the first phase of the Middle Harbor Terminal Redevelopment Project in 2016 with the entire project scheduled for completion in 2019.

Port of Everett

The Port of Everett began construction in mid-April on a rail siding that is part of the port’s South Terminal Intermodal Modernization Project in Washington state. Granite Construction, which was awarded the $3.4-million contract to complete the second phase of the modernization project, will build the new 3,300-lineal-foot double rail siding.

The project will increase the port’s current on-terminal rail footprint from 9,200 lineal feet to 12,500 lineal feet and it is slated for completion in November. The project also provides a connection that allows BNSF easier ingress and egress to the port’s shipping facilities, reducing congestion on the

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port of long beach

district to be assembled and shift more cargo to on-dock rail, moving cargo faster, while making operations more sustainable. The port says the project is critical to reach its Green Port goals, which includes a long-term objective to move 50 percent of all inbound cargo leaving the port by rail. A draft environmental study was released on the project in December 2016. mainline from Seattle to Canada and east along the northern corridor.

The modernization project will strengthen more than 500 feet of dock, create a modern berth capable of handling roll-on/roll-off and intermodal cargo, upgrade high-voltage power systems and construct rail sidings for increased on-site rail storage.

The port says it utilizes rail to support U.S. exports and imports, including the aerospace, construction, manufacturing, energy, agricultural and forest products industries. The project allows the port to safely and efficiently transport goods from ship to shore, with cargo arriving and departing the terminals utilizing rail, as well as trucks. The port explains that the use

of rail service for the cargo shipments has the potential to eliminate at least 429 million commercial truck miles off of the local roads and highways.

This $55.5-million project was awarded a $10-million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant during the 2016 round.

Port of Oakland

The Port of Oakland has undertaken a multiphase approach to redevelop a former Army base into what the port expects to be a nationally significant trade and logistics hub.

The $100-million first phase of the project opened in July 2016. It saw the construction of a new arrival track and

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 15

Port rail projects

Port of Oakland

The Port of Oakland has a multi-phase plan to convert a former army base into a rail yard and logistics hub.

high-speed turnout from Union Pacific’s mainline, two track leads into the port’s new Joint Intermodal Terminal and a new manifest yard to replace the former Oakland Army Base Yard. The manifest yard can handle 100-150 rail cars per day and the first phase incorporated 39,000 linear feet of track.

The project was awarded a $15-million TIGER grant and was the first of several phases the port had designed to improve efficiency, capacity and economic growth by eliminating costly delays.

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June 2017

The second phase of the redevelopment warehouses, distribution centers and logistics facilities. Future phases also included adding an intermodal yard, 15 acres of truck parking and ancillary service area, a new grade separation and additional warehouse and logistics space.

Port of Virginia

The Port of Virginia (VPA) began a three-year, $320-million expansion effort at the Virginia International Gate-

way (VIG) on Feb. 13, 2017. The project is one of two large-scale expansion projects that when complete, will increase overall annual container capacity by 40 percent by 2020.

Survey crews began the preparatory work to expand the rail/container stacking yard at VIG. VPA says that from a wider perspective, the work signals the start of the effort to double the existing container capacity at VIG. The overall project includes expanding the container stacking yard, doubling the on-dock rail operation and the expanding the truck gate.

“We are adding capacity now so we can handle the cargo that will be coming to us in the very near future. The big ships are here — more are on the way – and they are carrying significant amounts of containers and Virginia will be ready to accommodate that volume,” said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of VPA. The port anticipates being work in July on its other large capacity project: the expansion of the south stack/container yard at Norfolk International Terminals (NIT). This $350-million project will allow the port to create greater density for cargo at NIT and expand annual capacity there by 400,000 containers. For this project, the container stack yard will be completely reconfigured and it will be served by 60 new rail-mounted gantry cranes. The project will be complete by 2020.

In addition to the rail yard expansion and stack/container yard expansion, the port is undertaking a gate and warf expansion as part of the two projects.

When complete, the capacity expansion at VIG will create the ability to process 1.2 million containers annually at the terminal; present capacity there is 650,000 containers. Further, the expansion’s potential economic impact could result in 166,000 jobs across the commonwealth of Virginia, $22 billion in additional spending and more than $636 million in state and local taxes.

Last November, the port and Virginia International Gateway, LLC, agreed to a new long-term lease for the 576-acre facility. The lease, which went into effect Nov. 17, 2016, and extends through www.rtands.com

Port rail projects 2065, cleared the path for the port to begin work on the expansion.

“We believe that the continued investment in people, technology and those capacity projects being undertaken at the Port of Virginia during the next three-to-four years are positioning this port to become the U.S. East Coast’s premiere port: a true gateway to world trade and a catalyst for commerce in Virginia,” Reinhart said.

PANYNJ

A port project that isn’t as advanced as others listed, but still worthy of note due to it’s exciting nature is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) Cross Harbor Freight Program. The rail portion of the program was awarded a FASTLANE grant, which will be applied toward the $17.8-million project to reduce highway truck traffic by improving PANYNJ’s railcar float system. The project calls for improvements to the 65th Street Yard that will increase capacity and the construction of a double track portion

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of the Port Jersey Division of the New York New Jersey Rail.

PANYNJ and the Federal Highway Administration completed a draft Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement in late 2014 and issued a Request for Proposals for the Tier II analysis in early May. The study will explore a cross-harbor freight tunnel that would offer New York City a direct link to the national freight rail network and will also evaluate an enhancement of the existing railcar float-barge operation.

The tunnel would run between an existing rail yard in the Greenville area of Jersey City to connect with existing rail infrastructure in Brooklyn. It’s estimated the tunnel would remove an estimated 1,800 trucks per day from New York Harbor crossings. PANYNJ has committed up to $35 million for the study and has up to $35 million in additional funds available for further design and engineering.

Currently, trucks transport close to 90 percent of the freight in the region, while rail handles two-three percent and

most rail freight arrives at points west of New York City with trucks transporting goods to their final destination.

Port of Portland (Maine)

The Maine Department of Transportation MaineDOT was awarded a FASTLANE grant in July 2016 for the Maine Intermodal Port Productivity Project.

The $15.4 million project will provide infrastructure improvements, equipment and technology investments for the Port of Portland.

MaineDOT said the project would provide for physical improvements, as well as equipment and technology investments for the port at the International Marine Terminal. Work would also include track and crossing upgrades to the railroad serving the port enabling it to more safely and efficiently connect with the national rail network. MaineDOT anticipates these improvements would allow for significant growth at the port, which will add to railroad and seaborne cargo and minimize highway traffic in the northeast U.S.

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 17

Oldcastle Precast, Inc., StarTrack Modular Crossings come in four standard sizes.

make a smooth transition

by Maggie Lancaster, assistant editor

22 Railway Track & Structures

March 2017

www.rtands.com

Grade Crossings

2017 ANNUAL GRADE-CROSSING REPORT: MANUFACTURERS AND SUPPLIERS OFFER UP THEIR BEST IN CONCRETE, RUBBER AND WOOD CROSSINGS.

A

cross the board this year, something echoed true in nearly every one of the suppliers and manufactures that contibuted to the 2017 Annual Crossing Report: longevity is key. Railroads are most interested in a long-lasting, durable product that will withstand wear and tear from rail and road vehicle traffic for years. Low maintenace, easy maintenance and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are some of the things most railroads look for. Customization is key when it comes to keeping crossings smooth.

American/Enterprise Concrete Products

Concrete is king, at least for grade crossings, says Buz Hutchinson, railroad sales and ser vice at American/

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Enterprise Concrete Products (ACP/ECP).

“Concrete continues to be the material of choice for crossings,” Hutchinson said. “Our higher-strength concrete has a 12-year warranty that is unsurpassed.”

ACP concrete grade-crossing surfaces have a light broom finish. The concrete has a high compressive strength and is sealed from contaminates. Hutchinson says that the long life cycle is the largest selling point to contractors, who expect a longer product warranty, sometimes requiring up to a 25-year life span.

“Intermodal truck traffic requires the crossing panels to be of the highest quality,” Hutchinson said. He also says that grade-crossing orders from transits are increasing and that more locations are installing ADA-compliant crossings.

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 19

Century Group, Inc.

Century Group, Inc., manufactures a full line of precast concrete railroad grade-crossing panels for a variety of track locations including curves, pedestrian crossings, crossings in turnouts and crossings designed for direct fixation in tunnels and railcar maintenance facilities.

Century also manufactures custom crossing panels to fit specific project requirements.

Recently, Century has produced custom precast railroad crossing panels that feature different colored/textured concrete surfaces for pedestrian crossings at light-rail crosswalks and platform loading stations.

Century has been producing precast concrete grade crossings for more than three decades servicing railroads, transit authorities and the petro-chemical industry across the U.S. “Century Group is looking forward and has confidence that we will see a steady growth in our economy this year, which should increase railcar traffic and help the railroad industry,” said Rusty Vincent, sales manager Century Railroad Division. “With an increase in our economy, there should be an increase in new construction and maintenance of railroad grade crossings by railroads, state departments of transportation (DOT) and the industrial industry.”

Concrete Pipe & Precast, LLC

Concrete Pipe & Precast, LLC (CP&P), is a supplier of precast concrete pipe and structures in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. CP&P offers concrete-crossing surfaces with diamond plate finishes.

CP&P offers custom surfaces for light rail, including signal loops in crossing modules, dual cable boxes and customized modules. While the company says that it is seeing less transit orders, the ones CP&P does see are including more and more customization.

“Railroad budgets are decreasing each year for crossing maintenance,” said Wayne Weszka, vice president of Rail Products at Premier Modular Railroad Crossings, Inc., a seller of CP&P products. “They only replace surfaces when they are required to by outside forces.”

Which is why railroads want crossings that last a long time.

CP&P says its concrete crossings last longer than other nonconcrete surfaces, allowing railroads to extend the amount of time between maintenance.

“Long-lasting surfaces are important since closing a railroad crossing down to redo the surface is getting more and more difficult to do, especially with the volume of traffic that uses these crossings,” said Weszka. “So you want to install and invest in a crossing that will last for years.”

HiRAIL Corporation

HiRAIL Corporation’s Vice President Walter Barry believes that demand in the crossing surfaces business is driven mostly by track and road maintenance. Barry says that transit start ups and extensions of current systems also add to demand.

HiRAIL’s manufactures a complete line of rubber gradecrossing surfaces including HiRAIL, pede-Strail and HiRAIL RS Rail Seal. HiRAIL systems are manufactured from 100-percent molded rubber and incorporate recycled vehicle tires and can be recycled at the end of their useful life.

20 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

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Grade Crossings A HiRAIL rubber grade-crossing surface is installed by crews.

HiRAIL rubber surfaces are manufactured using recycled vehicle tires and may be recycled at the end of their useful life.

timber or concrete ties using all types of rail fastening.

HiRAIL says its HiRAIL Full Depth Rubber crossings “provide a smooth, safe and attractive crossing surface for motor vehicles.” They are manufactured to accommodate most common rail sizes, rail fastenings and wood, concrete or steel ties.

HiRAIL Full Depth Rubber systems are available in lagged and lagless designs. The lagless design reduces crosstie degradation as well as allows for installation on concrete and steel ties.

Koppers, Inc.

Koppers, Inc., produces full-depth timber crossings to cover 8-foot six-inch, 9-foot and10-foot crossties. The company also produce timber flangeway panels for use with asphalt or concrete centers between the gauge panels inside the rails.

Koppers’ crossings meet Class 1 specifications.

While safety at crossings is always a priority for customers, as well as manufacturers, Koppers says that its customers are also concerned with attention to detail over customization.

“Customers are concerned with the field panels being flush at the ends of the crossties,” said Kevin J. Reinhart, sales representative.

LT Resources, Inc.

Pede-Strail is a pedestrian crossing surface that has all the features of HiRAIL Full Depth Rubber. It comes with a diamond-raised surface for pedestrian stability and meets ADA requirements.

HiRAIL RS Rail Seal is a product that works in conjunction with asphalt or poured-in-place concrete crossings. The rubber seal is manufactured to fit most common rail sizes on

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June 2017

LT Resources, Inc., says it will introduce two new products in 2017 based on the company’s patented ENDURANCE®XL PLUS design.

“Both of these products will utilize proven material and manufacturing technologies new to the railroad industry and we look forward to offering these innovative products to the market,” said Linda Thomas, president.

Thomas also said that in addition to the products it will release this year, a modified ENDURANCE-XL design for use with steel ties is in the final design stages.

ENDURANCE-XL Highway-Rail Composite Grade Crossings utilize recycled polymer materials that LT Resources

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Grade Crossings says can be installed in a wide variety of applications. Eightfoot, 1.5-inch long panels are manufactured in 6 inch, 7.5-inch and 8.25-inch heights for use with most rail sizes and fastening systems. The panels are lagged down to 8-foot, 6 inches or 10-foot timber or composite crossties on 19.5-inch centers.

Panels are supplied pre-drilled and can also be drilled on site when needed. Optional rubber flangeway filler, lag screws and composite ties are available to complete the package. Both panels and ties can be recycled at the end of their useful life.

“LT Resources supplies a complete composite system, including composite ties for use under ENDURANCE composite panels to extend the life of the crossing,” said Thomas.

She says that composite crossties can also extend the life of concrete and rubber crossings and that more and more crossings use the composite ties each year.

surface and placed on a prepared subgrade with no ties,” said Patrick Juelich, business manager – Rail.

Oldcastle offers StarTrack modules in four standard sizes.

Juelich says the 17-foot, 6-inch long StarTrack modules are ideal for quick construction through long straight crossings or street running track applications.

Juelich says that due to volume increases and heavier motor vehicle traffic, Oldcastle is seeing road authorities and the railroad design engineers look to alternatives to standard tie-ballast and panel systems.

Oldcastle Precast, Inc.

Oldcastle Precast, Inc., continues to produce StarTrack Modular Crossings for tangent and radius track with restraining rail and a precast concrete slab track for crossings through turnouts. StarTrack is all domestically manufactured at regional Oldcastle Precast facilities.

“All of our StarTrack surfaces are one-piece casting, 6000 psi precast concrete modules, providing a safe, durable Transpo crossing surfaces are available with the same aggregate surface the company uses on its high-friction surface treatments, which offers high wear and skid resistance.

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June 2017 23

Grade Crossings Omega offers concrete grade crossings with an attached rubber flangeway to ensure a proper fit.

concrete and come complete with attached rubber flangeway, bearing pads, deflectors and lag screws.

The company’s facility in Sciotoville, Ohio (PCI and AAR M-1003 certified), batches all concrete and manufactures all of its own metal frames with certified welders. In addition to the straight track grade crossings, Rocla also offers curved gradecrossing panels, with the ability to bend and shape the steel frame to match the curved track areas. With the integration into the Vossloh Group, Rocla is working to leverage Vossloh’s extensive rail infrastructure capabilities, which include embedded turnout and crossing technology, to offer railroads more comprehensive grade-crossing solutions.

Stella Jones Corporation

“We’ve seen greater coordination between the railroads’ public projects people and DOTs on crossing safety and reviewing surface options to achieve all parties’ needs including bike-pedestrian,” he said.

Omega Industries, Inc.

Omega Industries, Inc., manufactures concrete gradecrossing systems with an attached rubber flangeway design.

Serving mainline railroads, shortline railroads, transit, industry and port authorities. Omega recently opened its fifth manufacturing plant in North Carolina, which helped reduce lead times and shipping costs for the company, as well as increase its capacity to more than 200,000 track feet of panels per year.

“From day one, our goal has been coast-to-coast coverage, while at the same time, maintaining a high-quality product, quick lead times and excellent customer service,” said National Sales Manager Mark Mattola. “With the fifth plant location, we are now able to see our steady, hard work pay off.”

Omega crossing panels can be designed and built to sit directly on concrete plinths in direct fixation track. Panels are fastened to plinths using stainless steel concrete anchor bolts with threaded inserts. Omega’s pre-attached gauge flangeway filler is designed to meet ADA requirements, providing a safe crossing for pedestrian, bicycle and wheelchair traffic. The company also creates custom crossing panels to match the exact radius of track.

“Simply supply track radius or the degree of curve,” said Mottola. “Omega will ensure a proper fit.”

Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc.

Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc., now part of the Vossloh North America group of companies, offers a portfolio of concrete grade-crossing systems that can accommodate rail sizes from 112 lbs. up to 141 lbs. With solutions designed for concrete and timber crossties, Rocla offers grade crossings that are manufactured with a heavy steel angle frame, 7,000 psi 24 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

Stella-Jones Corporation produces premium-treated wood grade crossings timbers from three locations in the United States. Stella-Jones offers tangent crossings to meet any length.

“Our expert staff will work with our clients to custom fit a wood crossing for the most difficult applications,” said George Caric, vice president of marketing.

Caric says Stella-Jones’ selected hardwood is preserved with a creosote treatment to provide “the durability required in crossing applications.” Stella-Jones also has the ability to add borate to the wood’s treating process for extra service life in severe climates.

“Our wood crossing business has held steady over the year, even though we have seen some softening in the demand for wood crossties,” said Caric. “We feel this is due to the influence of state and federal funded projects for infrastructure improvements.”

Transpo Industries, Inc.

Transpo Industries, Inc., has incorporated a new aggregate surface on its BODAN panels. Utilizing the same aggregate the company uses on its high-friction surface treatments for roadways and polymer bridge deck overlays, the surface exhibits high wear and skid resistance.

The BODAN panels are steel reinforced polymer concrete with a high-friction surface supported by rails, not crossties like most conventional grade-crossing surface systems.

“This eliminates the stress on the crossing surface and allows easy access to perform routine maintenance,” said Karen Dinitz, vice president, director of Marketing, Communications and Media. The BODAN system accommodates curved, as well as multiple track crossings, switches and sidewalks. Panels can be removed for routine track maintenance and the modular precast polymer concrete used is impervious to salt, fuel and moisture.

As for industry trends, Rudy Gradishar, Midwest regional manager for Transpo, says that more grade crossings are using dynamic envelopes, which are areas of color pavement to help prevent cars from stopping on or close to the rail crossing. Gradishar also echoed the desire for long-lasting crossings.

“Railroads have decreased budgets for maintenance,” said Gradishar. “Passage of federal transportation funding might help with some greater long-term maintenance planning.” www.rtands.com

Flangeway-filler material data Century Virgin material

Type of material Lengths

8’/9’/10’ Std. up to 40’

HiRAIL RS Virgin material to 20’

Polycorp

OMNI Rail-Guard VRA

Performance Polymers Inc. RAILSEAL

Molded, virgin rubber

Extruded, virgin rubber

Extruded, virgin rubber

Extruded, virgin rubber

90” & 96”

to 16’

Optimal=8’ Range=5-16’

Epflex Railseal

Rail-Way Inc.

RFR

RFR

Flange-Insert System

Rail-Seal System

RFR X-Trac System

TRANSPO® INDUSTRIES

Extruded, virgin material

Extruded, virgin material

Extruded, virgin material

Molded, virgin material

to 15’

to 40’

to 40’

Cut to length

Cut to length

Poured-inplace concrete or asphalt, concrete panels timber, panels

Concrete panels or timber planks

Poured-in-place asphalt or concrete

Precast concrete panels

Precast polymer concrete panels

BODAN Level Crossing System

Concrete panels

Poured-inplace concrete or asphalt

Poured-in-place con­crete, or asphalt

Asphalt, poured concrete, concrete panels, timber panels

Poured-inplace concrete or asphalt, concrete panels, timber panels

Sections connected

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes (Clipped)

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Tie spacing

All

All

18” or 24”

All

All

All

All

All

All

24”

Special tools required

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Retrofit to existing crossings

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Fasteners required

No

No (optional)

No

No (optional)

No (are available)

No (optional)

No

No

No

No

Usable with rail anchors

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Adaptability to various rail fasteners

Al­­­l

All

All

All

All

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Types of crossing surfaces to be used with

Reusable

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Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 25

Grade-crossing surface data The information on pages 25-29 provides dimensional and structural data on highway grade-crossing surface materials, along with flangeway-filler material, available nationally.

The data given are intended to help railway and highway engineers in their selection of appropriate materials for specific projects.

American Concrete Shuntless Lag/ Lagless

American Concrete Shuntless PFW - Lag/ Lagless

Century Group Inc. Concrete Lag Type

Century Group Inc. Concrete Lagless

HiRAIL Full-Depth Rubber

Koppers Standard Timber

Rocla Full-Depth Reinforced Concrete

LT Resources Endurance® XL Composite Crossing

LT Resources Endurance® XL PLUS Composite Crossing

Omega Lag-Down

Omega Non-Lag

OMNI Improved Concrete (ConcreteRubber)

8’6” w 9’0” w/c 10’0” w/c

8’6” w 9’0” w/c 10’0” w/c

8’-6”/W 9’-0”/W 10’-0”/W

9’-0”/W 10’-0”/W 10’-0”/C

8’-6”/W/C 9’-0”/W/C 10’-0”/W/C

8’0”/W 8’6”/W 9’0”/W

8’-6”/W/C 10’-0”/W 10’-0”/C

8’-6”/W/CP 9’-0”/W/CP 10’-0”W/CP

8’-6”/W/CP 9’-0”/W/CP 10’-0”W/CP

9’-0”/W 10’-0”/W

9’-0”/W/C 10’-0”/W/C 8’-3”/C

9’-0”/W/C or 10’-0”/W/C

19-1/2” or custom

19-1/2” or custom

18” or 19-1/2” 20”

18” or 20” 24”

18”

19-1/2”

19-1/2” or 24”

19-1/2” or custom

19-1/2” or custom

Maximum length of tie plates

Any

As required

As required

18”

As required

18”

16”

18”

Any

5/8” x12” H5

5/8” x12” H5

3/4”x12”

N/A

3/4”x101/2”

As specified

A/S

Size of fasteners

As specified

Type of fasteners

T/optional

T/optional

TW

N/A

T

D, L,T

T

Fasteners furnished

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

Yes

Optional

Additional washers necessary

N/R

N/R

No

N/A

N/R

Additional washers furnished

N/R

N/R

N/A

N/A

# fasteners per tie - maximum

6

6

4

# fasteners per tie - average

4

4

Crossing pads predrilled

No

Spike holes countersunk Spike hole plugs furnished

Length of ties/type W=wood, C=concrete CP=composite

Tie spacing

18” or 19-1/2” 18” or 19-1/2” or 20” 19-3/16” or 24” C/W or 20” W 24” C

18” or 24”

As required

As required

16”

As specified

3/4”x12”

N/A

3/4”x12”

L

L

T

N/A

T

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

Yes

N/A

No

No

No

No

N/A

No

N/R

N/A

No

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

N/A

4

8

4

16

16

10

N/A

4

2

N/A

2

8

2

6

6

6

N/A

2

No

Yes

N/A

Yes

As specified

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

Yes

As specified

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

Yes

No

No

No

N/A

Yes

N/R

No

As required

As required

No

N/A

No

8’ 1 1/2” w 10’ w/c custom

8’ 1 1/2” w 10’ w/c custom

8’ 1 1/2” 9’ 10’

9’ 10’

36”

8’-0”

8’ 1 1/2”

8’ 1 1/2”

4’-12’

6’/8’/8’11/2”/9’/10’/ 12’

8’ or 9’

Length of field panels

8’ 1 1/2” w 10’ w/c custom

8’ 1 1/2” w 10’ w/c custom

8’ 1 1/2” 9’ 10’

9’ 10’

36”

8’-0”

8’-0”, 8’-1 1/2”, 10’-0”, 6’-3”

8’ 1 1/2”

8’ 1 1/2”

4’-12’

6’/8’/8’11/2”/9’/10’/ 12’

Gauge pads # of pieces

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

2

2

1

1

Length of gauge panels

26 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

8’-0” 8’-1 1/2” 12’-0” 10’-0”

8’ or 9’

Conc. 1 Rubber 2

www.rtands.com

N/R N/A

= Not Required = Not Applicable

D = Washer head drive spikes L = Lag screws

+ LW 1

= At additional cost T = Timber screws = Lag screws with attached washer TW = Timber screws with attached washers = The degree of curve allowable is proportionable to the length of the crossing.

If a supplier of a nationally-available crossing surface wishes to update or correct any of the data for future revisions or include a product that has been omitted, send the relevant information to: RT&S Grade Crossing Data Sheet, 20 S. Clark Street, Ste. 1910, Chicago, IL 60603. (The material included is modeled on the format originally developed

by Cliff Shoemaker, formerly Union Pacific’s director of industry and public projects, for UP’s Grade Crossing Surface Data Sheet.)

OMNI Steel Reinforced

OMNI Heavy-Duty Virgin Rubber

OMNI Embedded ConcreteRubber

OMNI Tracast

Polycorp Ltd. Full-Depth Rubber

Polycorp Ltd. Concrete

Premier LRT Modular System

Premier Freight Modular System

Rail-Way Inc. Full-Depth Rubber

Rail-Way Inc. Concrete

9’-0”/W/C 10’-0”/W/C

N/R

8’-6”/W/C 9’-0”/W/C

9’0”/W/C 10’ 0”/W/C

N/R

N/R

8’-6”/W/C 9’-0”/W/C

9’0”/W/C 10’ 0”/W/C

N/A

18”

18” or 19 1/2”

N/A

N/A

18”

Stella-Jones StarTrack Oldcastle Corp.

Precast Full-Panel Concrete-HD Timber

StarTrack Oldcastle Precast Concrete

Steel Crossing Inc.

TRANSPO® INDUSTRIES BODAN Level Crossing System

8’-6” 9’-0” 10’0”

8’-6”/W 9’-0”/W 10’/W

N/R N/R

N/R N/R

8’-6”/W 9’-0”/W

18” or 19 1/2”

19-1/2”

N/A

N/A

19-1/2”

16”

As specified

As specified

N/A

N/A

16”

3/4”

3/4”x12”

3/4”x12”

As specified

N/A

N/A

3/4”x12”

Bolts

Bolts

T

T

D,L,T

Pandrol

Pandrol

T

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Optional

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/R

No

No

No

N/R

No

As specified

N/R

N/R

No

N/A

N/R

No

Y-Lock

Y-Lock

N/R

No

As specified

N/R

N/R

No

6

N/A

8

6

N/A

N/A

8

6

8

N/A

N/A

8

6

3

N/A

6

3

N/A

N/A

6

3

8

N/A

N/A

8

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

N/A

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/A

Yes

Yes

N/A

N/A

Yes

Yes

As specified

N/A

N/A

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

N/A

Yes

No

N/A

N/A

Yes

No

No

N/A

N/A

N/R

36”

36”

8’ or 8’11/2” or 9’ or 10’

6’ Conc.

6’ Rubber

36”

8’-1 1/2” or 9’0”

4’ or 8’

4’ or 8’

36”

8’-1 1/2” or 9’0”

8’-1-1/2”

60”

60”/90”/210”

72-1/2”

36”

36”

8’ or 8’11/2” or 9’ or 10’

N/A

36”

8’-1 1/2” or 9’0”

4’ or 8’

4’ or 8’

36”

8’-1 1/2” or 9’0”

8’-1-1/2”

60”

60”/90”/210”

72-1/2”

1

1

1

Conc. 1 Rubber 2

1

1

2

2

1

1

2

1

1

4

8’-6”/W 9’-0”/W

8’-6”/W or 9’-0”/W or 10’-0”/w

18”

18”

16”

16”

16”

N/A

16”

As specified

N/A

N/A

5/8”x 10-1/2”

3/4”x 7-1/2”

3/4”x 12”

3/4”

3/4”x12”

3/4”x12”

3/4”

TW

T

T

Bolts

T

T

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

N/A

No

No

No

18

14

9

18” or 19-3/16” or 19-1/2” or 20” or 24”C

www.rtands.com

Railway Track & Structures

24”

Any

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

No

N/A

N/A

24”

24” or 48”

1

June 2017 27

Grade-crossing surface data LT Resources LT Resources Endurance® Endurance® XL XL PLUS Composite Composite Crossing Crossing

American Concrete Shuntless Lag/ Lagless

American Concrete Shuntless PFW Lag/ Lagless

Century Group Inc. Concrete Lag Type

Century Group Inc. Concrete Lagless

HiRAIL Full-Depth Rubber

Koppers Standard Timber

Rocla Full-Depth Reinforced Concrete

Depth of material

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Steel reinforced

Yes

Yes

Yes Grade 72

Yes Grade 72

No

No

Yes

Tongue & groove design

No

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

Omega Lag-Down

Omega Non-Lag

OMNI Improved Concrete (ConcreteRubber)

Full

Full

Full

Full

N/A

N/A

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

3300# 5000#

525635#

755802#

34005100#

34005100#

Rubber 185# 12’ Conc.

4500# 4’Conc.3400#

462#

1750# 2500# 3500#

350425#

495798#

18002700#

18002700#

Rubber 185# 12’Conc. 2400# 9’Conc. 1800#

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/R

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

As specified

As specified

As specified

No

N/A

Yes

No

No

As Specified

As Specified Wood Tie, Yes Concrete Tie

Yes

Optional

Optional

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

As Specified

If specified

Yes +

No

No

No

No

No

N/A

No

No

No

No

No

No

Type of header material

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Header material furnished

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

N/R

No

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Maximum curve allowable

Any

Any

20 +

20 +

20

6

15

16

16

630

630

16

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

No

Yes

N/A

No

End plates available

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/R

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

End plates furnished

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

N/A

Optional End Plates/Beveled Eds

Optional End Plates/Beveled Eds

Optional End Plates/Beveled Eds

Optional

Optional

Yes +

Gauge flangeway type/ Flangeway opening

Rubber

Rubber

Attached Rubber

Attached Rubber

Rubber/ 2-1/2” or 3”

Timber/ 2-1/2”

Attached Rubber/ 3”

As Specified/ 3”

Composite/ 3”

2 1/2”ADA 3” main line

2 1/2”ADA 3” main line

Rubber/ 2-3/4”

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Weight of gauge panels

8’ 1 1/2” 3300#

8’ 1 1/2” 3300#

3300#

3300#

575#

570#

8’ 1 1/2” 1730#

8’ 1 1/2” 1730#

1300#

1750#

230#

Shims furnished

N/A

N/A

N/R

N/R

Shim material

N/R

N/R

N/R

Shim fasteners furnished

N/R

N/R

Bearing pads recommended

As specified

Bearing pads furnished Header board required

Weight of field panels

Can materials be ordered, cut or modified for use in switches?

Insulation/Rail Isolation

28 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

www.rtands.com

StarTrack Oldcstle Precast Concrete

Steel Crossings Inc.

TRANSPO® INDUSTRIES BODAN Level Crossing System

Full (16”)

Full (14”)

Full

4”

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

No

570#

3500#

700#

10,400#

5’-6370# 7’-6”-9555# 17’-6”-22000#

475#

500#

4’-3500# 8’-7000#

225#

1400#

500#

With gauge (one piece)

With gauge (one piece)

400#

500#

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/A

N/R

N/A

N/A

N/R

N/R

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/R

N/R

N/A

N/A

N/R

N/R

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

N/A

N/R

No

As specified

Yes

Yes

No

As specified

No

Yes

Yes

No

N/A

Yes +

N/A

No

Optional

Yes

Yes

No

Optional

No

Yes

Yes

No

N/A

No

No

No

No

No

N/R

N/R

No

No

N/A

No

No

No

No

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

No

No

N/A

N/A

25

16

25

16

221

Any

Any

Any

221

Any

Any

30

30

Any

Any

No

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

N/R

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes+

Yes+

Yes+

Yes

Yes+

Yes+

Yes+

Yes+

Yes+

Yes+

N/A

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Rubber/ 2-3/4”

Rubber/ 2-3/4”

Rubber/ 3”

Rubber/ 2-3/4”

Rubber/ 2-1/2”

Rubber/ 2-3/4”

Rubber/ 2-1/2”

Rubber/ 2-3/4”

As specified

Concrete

Concrete

As specified

Rubber

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

As specified

As specified

No

Yes

OMNI Steel Reinforced

OMNI Heavy-Duty Virgin Rubber

OMNI Embedded Concrete Rubber

OMNI Tracast

Polycorp Ltd. Full-Depth Rubber

Polycorp Ltd. Concrete

Premier LRT Modular System

Premier Freight Modular System

Rail-Way Inc. Full-Depth Rubber

Rail-Way Inc. Concrete

3”

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Full

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

320#

555#

9’ - 3550# 12’ - 4730# Modular

6’Conc. 7000# 6’Rubber 150#

570#

3500#

4’-1500# 8’-3000#

4’-1500# 8’-3000#

8’6” 130# 9’ 160#

244#

9’ - 1870# 12’ - 2490#

N/A

225#

1400#

4’-3500# 8’-7000#

Yes

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

N/R

Wood

N/A

N/R

N/R

N/R

Yes

N/A

N/A

N/A

No

No

Yes

N/A

N/A

No

www.rtands.com

Conc/ Rubber/ Conc/ Rubber/ 2-1/2” 2-1/2”

Yes

Yes

Stella-Jones StarTrack Oldcastle Corp.

Precast Full-Depth Concrete-HD Timber

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 29

SEPTA’s crum creek viaduct

replacement

SEPTA utilized a design-build approach to replace a 121-year old viaduct that functions as a critical service artery.

by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor • Photos courtesy of SEPTA

S

outheastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) dedicated a new Crum Creek Viaduct in October 2016. Seeing the new viaduct constructed and brought into service was a culmination of efforts that included rehabilitation work, emergency repairs and a fight for dedicated transportation funding.

SEPTA acquired the viaduct from Conrail in 1983 and immediately closed the bridge for a year to perform rehabilitation work on the structure to extend its life by 25 years. A series of additional repairs in 2002, 2013 and 2014 furthered the viaduct’s life, but the structure originally built in 1895 required replacement, which brought about another challenge: how to pay for it.

In mid-2013, SEPTA faced a funding shortfall that required the authority to put together a 10-year plan in order to preserve safe service on a reduced network. The Crum Creek Viaduct became a symbol for why more dependable transportation funding was needed 30 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

in order to keep the system in a state of good repair.

SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel explains that the viaduct was safe for day-to-day operations, but it was not designed for modern use.

The worry existed that an event, such as an earthquake, strong storm or even a tree falling and hitting a bent, could push the design to its limit and carried the possibility that SEPTA would have to shut down the bridge, effectively, cutting off one end of the Media-Elwyn Line.

The needed funding came from Act 89, which was signed into law in November 2013 and restructured the gas tax and other funding sources to provide dedicated comprehensive transportation funding. Act 89 provided the capital funding assurance SEPTA needed to proceed with a wide range of infrastructure fortification efforts, including the replacement of the Crum Creek Viaduct.

SEPTA utilized a design-build (DB) delivery method for the project, which

saved a year off the schedule, as well as an estimated $10 million.

“By using the design-build method we were able to combine the contractor’s expertise with an experienced design bridge engineer resulting in a cost-effective solution,” said Assistant General Manager of Engineering, Maintenance and Construction Robert Lund.

Lund explained that the DB process allowed SEPTA to be specific about what it wanted in a structure, but gave the contractor the ability to customize the design and incorporate innovations.

While a new structure was important, SEPTA approached the project from the total life-cycle perspective opting for a design that met the project’s goals rather than the most affordable option. SEPTA designers progressed the project to the 30 percent level before the project was bid. The transit authority also used stipends for the first time, which Knueppel believes motivated the bidding companies to explore different options and push the design envelope resulting in an www.rtands.com

Crum Creek Viaduct Replacement OPPOSITE PAGE: The new superstructure was slid into place during a 30-hour window.

This page, L-R: SEPTA General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel, Chairman of the Board Pasquale T. Deon, Vice Chairman Thomas E. Babcock, Assistant General Manager Robert Lund and Board Member Kevin Johnson tour the project site.

efficiently designed structure with a lower cost and a 100-year lifespan.

Construction process

SEPTA’s contractor on the project, Walsh Construction, used Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) techniques to meet an ambitious schedule and build the new structure in a difficult to access location all while SEPTA trains operated above the work site.

Lund says Walsh built the foundations and straddle bent piers under the existing bridge. The straddle bents were sized to fit below the existing viaduct superstructure and still be of adequate height to support the final configuration of the new superstructure. The final design was for a four girder five-span continuous, composite, weathering steel bridge, 735 feet long (190 feet shorter than the existing bridge) with 157-foot maximum span length. The new superstructure, the steel girders and precast deck, were erected off to the side of the new substructure, while being supported by temporary brackets, all prior to an 11-week shutdown.

Three of the straddle bents were located in areas with no conflicts from the existing viaduct substructure, which allowed for a beam cap transverse length of 52 feet. Pier 2 was located adjacent to Crum Creek to maximize span efficiency. This placed the new pier in direct alignment with an existing viaduct tower, as well as an original stone pier from the 1854 structure.

“Every engineer who worked on this structure for the past 150 years determined this was the spot they had to have the foundation,” said Lund.

To accommodate this, the Pier 2 straddle beam had to be longer in order for the foundations to avoid the existing tower foundations. It had to be designed and constructed to thread through the inside of the four tower legs. This resulted in a straddle beam length of 92 feet and some slight modification to the existing tower bracing to accommodate the new beam. www.rtands.com

Walsh built the new structure’s abutment inside the existing one rather than around it. Knueppel explains this simplified the design and also allowed for the shortened viaduct length.

To accommodate the needed ABC techniques, a lateral slide system was utilized. All four steel girders of each span were erected one at a time and supported strategically by the brackets of adjacent piers. All five spans were erected and once assembled, the precast deck panels were installed on top of the girders. The panels were connected together with eight longitudinal posttensioning bars. A secondary concrete closure pour was then placed, making the deck panels integral with the girders after all the panels were in place.

Lund says the lateral slide system was innovative in its simplicity as it enabled the entire 735-foot superstructure to be moved as a single unit and then lifted and set onto new bearings. In order to execute the slide, modifications were required to the new bridge substructure to handle the weights transferred to the permanent structure via a temporary shoring system. Walsh hired a specialty designer to develop both the temporary bracing for the superstructure erection and the lateral slide system. SEPTA says this design alone required more than 30 engineering drawings.

After the existing bridge was sufficiently removed, the entire new superstructure was slid transversely into place on stainless steel plates using hydraulic jacks simultaneously at each pier. The design required that no more than oneinch out of alignment was allowed from pier to pier. Surveying instruments continuously monitored the progress and

Lund says great care was taken to ensure consistent movement from pier to pier.

The lateral slide began on the morning of July 8, 2016, during a 30-hour period. Lund explains the majority of the work to move the superstructure occurred in 20 hours before crews took a cautionary six-hour pause in work during overnight hours in order to perform final placement and alignment of the structure during daylight hours.

The final step in the lateral slide process was to lower the new superstructure down onto the bearings. The superstructure was slid into position with pot bearings already in their final position on the piers and abutments. It was then necessary to jack the superstructure vertically to remove the slide bearings and lateral slide tracks. The jacks were all interconnected to a single controlling manifold. The bridge was then set down on the bearings. Since the superstructure is continuous from abutment to abutment, it was necessary to ensure that the girders did not differentially deflect during the lowering operation.

Knueppel and Lund agree that once all prep work for the outage was complete and the superstructure was successfully moved, there were no worries that the line would reopen in time.

Risk mitigation

Lund points to site access as the biggest challenge associated with the project.

The site required a half-mile long access road to be constructed while dealing with steep slopes, concerned neighbors, a stream crossing and shallow sewer and petroleum pipelines all on the grounds of a college campus and within the limits of an arboretum.

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 31

Crum Creek Viaduct replacement OPPOSITE PAGE: A portion of the Media-Elwyn line was shutdown for 11-weeks to accomodate construction of the Crum Creek Viaduct. SEPTA planned several other activities to occur in order to take full advantage of the shutdown and utilized work plan diagrams to ensure efficiency of work, but the safety of the workers, as well.

The site is located on Swarthmore College campus, which SEPTA coordinated with extensively during the project’s design phase. Lund says SEPTA had to work around the college’s academic calendar, the students and the college’s own major construction project, which occurred between the viaduct project site and SEPTA’s Swarthmore Station.

The construction site was restricted by how many pieces of equipment could be brought in, which required Walsh to bus in crews and get creative with staging and delivery of materials.

There were also challenges associated with working beneath and adjacent to an operating railroad. One example Lund offers is when construction progressed to the point that the crane booms were visible to SEPTA train engineers, there was concern about potential impact to operations. To address this, SEPTA had Walsh install orange Aerial Marker Balls on cables strung along each side of the existing bridge. This gave the crane operators and the train engineers alike a visual reference as to where the crane boom was in relationship to the active tracks.

SEPTA required that bridge structure monitoring and slope movement monitoring systems be installed ahead of the construction. The data was used to determine in real time if there were any movements being observed at the monitoring locations that would be above the levels for normal train opera32 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

tions. Additionally, remotely accessible cameras in addition to the public web cams were installed. Lund says these monitoring systems allowed the SEPTA and the DB team to detect and address any significant movement in the structure and respond accordingly.

“The project team took work place and operational safety as its highest priority,” said Lund. “The project team ensured that all the elements of the safety program were in place and then took it a step farther. They ensured that each employee was an important member of the safety team and that their involvement was vital for its success. Not a day would start without first discussing safety with the crews.”

Lund explains that there were two subcontractor incidents that occurred on the project. During each instance, the contractor and SEPTA investigated the occurrence and worked with the subcontractors on creating measures that would prevent a reoccurrence. SEPTA was also running an Owner Controlled Insurance Program (OCIP), which Lund explains afforded another level of safety personnel on site to support the project’s safety goals.

To take advantage of the 11-week shutdown planned for the summer of 2016 for this project, SEPTA also scheduled a lot of additional infrastructure work along the line.

SEPTA C&S and Electric Traction crews were active in the same area as the

viaduct project; another viaduct, Ridley Creek, saw significant work; a substation was modernized; brush cutting was performed; rock cuts were stabilized and other work performed to take full advantage of the service outage.

SEPTA has a dedicated group, independent from the infrastructure and transportation departments, that coordinates and project manages all the work occurring in a region.

Knueppel says the group makes sure outages are fully utilized and helps strike a balance between infrastructure renewal and getting the line back in service for riders all while maintaining safety.

Mark of success

While Knueppel and Lund credit the design-build method with quickly delivering a new viaduct with a 100-year life span at a good price, they both place importance on the coordination and communication between the DB team and SEPTA, as well as other project stakeholders such as Swarthmore College, SEPTA riders, Nether Providence Township and Swarthmore Borough resulting in a successful project.

Knueppel also mentions the relief of being rid of the old structure.

“It was not the kind of robust structure that we wanted to provide going forward. Being a structural engineer and being involved in a project this massive is great, but being able to keep this end of the line open and not disappoint our customers is also a big deal,” said Knueppel.

Lund notes it was a successful project because both SEPTA and its contractor came away from the project feeling good about it.

“It was tremendous teamwork with everyone involved. We have an aesthetically pleasing bridge, we have something that will last 100 years and the engineers that come after Jeff and myself are not going to have to worry about it for a very long time. That kind of success is what makes you feel good,” he said. www.rtands.com

AREMA NEWS Professional Development Upcoming Public Private Partnerships (P3) in Rail Transportation, Funding for the Future Webinar June 21, 2017 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering SEMINAR June 26-28, 2017 Edmonton, AB, Canada Retaining Wall Design for Railroad Applications WEBINAR June 27, 2017 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST

Message from the President

Not your father's intermodal trains

David A. Becker, PE AREMA President 2016–2017

Introduction to internal rail flaw detection WEBINAR July 25, 2017 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST

AREMA 2017 Annual Conference Seminars Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering (IPRE) September 15-17 FRA 213: Track Safety Standards September 20-22 Track Alignment Design September 20-22 Intermodal Terminal Engineering September 20-21 Railroad Bridge Load Rating Steel Structures September 21 For more information and a complete list of upcoming seminars and webinars, please visit www.arema.org.

34 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

As I’ve mentioned in prior columns, I am a fan and student of industrial history. I find it very enjoyable to sit back and read a historical narrative and watch the planning and execution of major construction projects unfold. These accounts are often full of intrigue, suspense and unanticipated outcomes, just like many good works of fiction are. The cast of characters, particularly during the 19th century, are usually equally fascinating and provide great opportunities for one to reflect on how they would conduct themselves or handle similar situations.

As an engineer, I have also always valued the learning aspects that these works provide. I am currently reading the non-fiction book The Great Bridge by David McCullough which chronicles the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1870s. This is a fascinating read and, as an engineer, I have been in awe of technical skills that were deployed to overcome the numerous natural challenges encountered during the construction of the bridge’s towers. While I had an understanding of the theory of hydraulic caisson construction, now I can say I feel as though I have been down there. Though I have traveled the Brooklyn Bridge numerous times, only now can I truly appreciate the breadth of ingenuity displayed by those responsible for its creation.

I also found myself frequently amazed that, for as much as the workplace has changed for the better with improved technology, certain fundamental aspects of human nature that were present in times past are still with us today and still impact safety. A quote in The Great Bridge recently caught my attention. Washington Roebling, chief engineer of the bridge, and son of the legendary bridge builder John Roebling, wrote the following after a serious incident with fatalities involving a hydraulic caisson. “To say that this occurrence was an accident would certainly be wrong, because not one accident in a hundred deserves the name. In this case, it was simply the legitimate result of carelessness, brought about by an overconfidence in supposing it would take care of themselves.”

This was sound advice nearly 150 years ago, and it remains so today. I immediately drew a parallel to root cause analysis and the safety topics our industry continually stresses such as complete and detailed job briefings, process check lists and formalized procedures for handling Roadway Worker Protection (RWP) or lock-out-tag-out.

All are aimed at preventing a loss of focus or enabling a false reliance on the actions of others.

There are several other works of non-fiction I’d recommend that are sure to be of interest to many in our industry. One is the account of the original construction of the Panama Canal; The Path Between the Seas, also by McCullough, and Nothing Like it in the World by Stephen E. Ambrose, which documents the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Another fascinating book that looks at both United States

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Upcoming Committee Meetings July 26-27

Committee 7 - Timber Structures

Omaha, NE

Committee 14 - Yards & Terminals*

Sept. 16

Committee 5 - Track*

Committee 16 - Economics of Railway Engineering & Operations*

Committee 24 - Education & Training*

Committee 17 - High Speed Rail Systems*

Committee 27 - Maintenance of Way Work Equipment*

Committee 24 - Education & Training*

Sept. 17

Committee 5 - Track*

Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization*

Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction*

Committee 42 - Bridge Maintenance*

Committee 11 - Commuter & Intercity Rail Systems*

Committee 43 - Signals Maintenance*

Committee 12 - Rail Transit* If you’d like to learn more about the AREMA Technical Committees and would like to get involved, please contact Alayne Bell at abell@arema.org. For a complete list of all committee meetings, visit https://www.arema.org/events.aspx. *Indicates committee meetings being held in conjunction with the AREMA 2017 Annual Conference in Indianapolis, Ind.

Negotiated airline discount information for AREMA Committee meetings can be found online at: http://www.arema.org/meetings/airlines.aspx.

history and the history of our industry is The First Tycoon by T. J. Stiles. This work is the biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt the creator of the New York Central System. In many ways he was the preeminent force behind the wellengineered and fully interconnected rail network the nation enjoys today.

Mentioning the Panama Canal brings to mind another topic of current interest that is connected with our profession and has the potential to impact the future of our industry. In early May, the largest cargo container ship in the world, the COSCO Development, made port visits along the eastern seaboard for the first time. This “neopanamax” vessel is more than 1,200 feet in length and 158 feet in beam. It represents the long-term ambitions of those driving the recently completed Panama Canal expansion. This type of vessel is able to carry more than 13,000 20-foot international equivalent containers. In North American rail terms, that is approximately 25 8,000-foot-long double stack container trains. WOW! The enlarged Panama Canal has upped the competitive game that is waged between east coast seaports stretching from Miami to New York. Most have, or are in process of making, major expansions to berthing points, channel depths and in the case of the Port of New York/New Jersey, radically modifying a major overhead bridge to accommodate these larger vessels. From a rail industry perspective, the challenges of efficiently serving these ports for potential increases in traffic are no less challenging. Some ports have excellent long standing rail infrastructure to accommodate the growth such as the Hampton Roads and ports of New York / New Jersey. Others are being forced to play the catch-up game to accommodate dockside static storage, container train loading areas and support facilities for the staging and dispatch of increased concentrations of rail freight volume these mega ships may bring. Interesting information, with links to the status of many improvement projects, can be found at the public websites of nearly all the east coast port authorities.

From the AREMA perspective, many members work for engineering firms that have traditionally supported port driven intermodal transportation. Other members are with the engineering staffs of the eastern freight carriers and will be very involved with both the portside expansions and projects to support network capacity on lines radiating from the ports. In my home territory in the southeast United States, this means the upgrade of lines that have, for the most part, supported low tonnage merchandise traffic as opposed to long, heavy double-stack trains. These aren’t your father’s intermodal piggyback trains and the impacts to the infrastructure will demand top-notch maintenance and engineering practices to serve the increased volumes. As with many cycles of rail industry growth, predicting the exact location and amount needed infrastructure to handle the traffic will be a challenge.

Until next month, I encourage you to pick up a good book and help those you serve to work safely.

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FYI…

Registration is open for the AREMA 2017 Annual Conference in conjunction with Railway Interchange, September 17-20 in Indianapolis, Ind. Visit www. arema.org to register. For more information on Railway Interchange, visit www.railwayinterchange.org.

Call for Mentors! AREMA developed a mentor program to benefit the AREMA student members. Help AREMA influence the next generation as part of this program. Each mentor will be paired with an AREMA studentmember mentee. Pairs are based on areas of interest and experience.

Visit the AREMA website listed under Education & Training to become a mentor today.

Get Noticed! Do you want to generate leads, promote a product and reach a target audience? Sign up for sponsorship of the AREMA 2017 Annual Conference in conjunction with Railway Interchange.

Contact Lindsay Hamilton at lhamilton@ arema.org for more information.

Leverage the power of your trusted association’s Railway Careers Network to tap into a talent pool of candidates with the training and education needed for long-term success. Visit www. arema.org/careers to post your job today. Use code EMPLOYERS to receive a discount.

Not an AREMA Member?

Join today at www.arema.org

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 35

AREMA NEWS

Making America go faster University of Wisconsin-Madison

by Michael Schlicting, president Badger Rail Society, lead author Justin Schrimmer, Badgerloop Feasibility Team Lead - Network, supporting author The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a very long history with the railroads. After all, in the basement of the Wisconsin Historical Society you will come upon rows and rows of books on railroad history, meanwhile railroad tracks cut across campus where trains like the Milwaukee Road Hiawatha or the Chicago and North Western 400s once raced. Today though, these lines carry only coal hopper cars while strip malls have replaced the once proud stations.

These are all testaments to the long relationship between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the railroads, but which time has forgotten.

While Wisconsin history is full of failed attempts to bring high-speed rail to the state, a change in attitude is occurring.

Part of that attitude change began when a small group of engineering students no longer desired to reinvent the past, but rather focus on simply going faster. Fast forward a few

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years and today, more than 100 students from business, physics, economics, communications and even family studies are getting together with engineering students to invent the future. We are calling this movement simply, “Go Faster!�

It all started back in February 2016 when two rival student organizations met each other at the organization fair. In a fluke, the Badger Rail Society, promoting highspeed rail, ended at the table next to Badgerloop, a new organization promoting the Hyperloop. While Badger Rail Society has been around for three years, Badgerloop started six months earlier. The Badgerloop members were sharply dressed in black and red polo shirts and were using virtual reality glasses to show off the upcoming Hyperloop pod they desired to build. In contrast, the small group of friendly Badger Rail Society guys stood at the next table wearing everyday t-shirts and had Thomas the Toy Train running

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 37

AREMA NEWS

the creation of an electronic “Faster Badger” newsletter, which is distributed to more than 150 engineering and business students, alumni and faculty. Even the department of public affairs, the law school, and the school of human ecology are lending resources towards the “Go Faster” effort. It turns out, what started out as a half dozen students wanting to go faster is turning into a high-speed movement!

Looking into the future, Badger Rail and Badgerloop will continue to work together on not only a new Hyperloop pod for the next Space X Competition, but on projects that support the development of high-speed rail and magnetic levitation. This on a “high-speed” Kinex roller coaster. While there was a stark difference in cultures, both organizations realized they had a similar goal – to “Go Faster.” Who would have thought that a Hyperloop team and a high-speed rail team could work together? Turns out it makes sense to combine innovative Hyperloop technology with the latest in highspeed rail research and industry know how.

Over the past year, the groups started to grow together, essentially merging to become the 100-plus member organization that attracts the top student talent across campus. We are now working on amazing new projects such as developing a concept called “Ultra High-Speed Rail,” whereby trains are partially levitated, reducing friction on the wheels and allowing for potential speeds of up to 350 mph. Meanwhile Badger Rail members can be seen wearing Badgerloop polo’s at the Space X Hyperloop competition. In fact, with the help of Badgerloop, Badger Rail won the People’s Choice Award at the AREMA Annual Conference student poster competition. Badger Rail then helped Badgerloop win the Innovation Award at the Space X Hyperloop Competition and this is just the beginning of a partnership which keeps gaining speed.

Badger Rail continues to form relationships with organizations across campus. For example, the UW Real Estate Club has become a partner in new station development and asking the question of what would happen to real estate prices if Madison were only 30 minutes away from downtown Chicago or 75 minutes from Minneapolis due to building new highspeed transportation. Meanwhile, Mu Kappa Tau is assisting in

includes not only the transfer of Hyperloop technology to the railroad industry, but also replacing short regional flights with passenger rail and developing business plans that combine real estate and high-speed rail development. However, even more exciting is the joint planning of the Wisconsin High Speed Transportation Center, whereby faster transportation technologies will not only be developed, but the center will work across study disciplines to include transportation finance, operations, real estate, economics, as well as community development and public policy.

With our work well underway at UW-Madison, the ultimate goal is to not only become a leading world class transportation research university, but simply to make the world “Go Faster.”

Order the 2017 Manual for Railway Engineering today!

AREMA is pleased to announce the 2017 Manual for Railway Engineering! There are over 55 new, revised, and reaffirmed Parts. Downloadable Chapters can be purchased and downloaded from the AREMA online store.

Our committees have worked diligently over the past year to update all four volumes of the Manual. Although "Revision" sets will be available, there have been so many changes that you should consider purchasing the full 2017 Edition.

Order online now!

Contact Morgan Bruins today for more details. mbruins@arema.org

38 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

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PRODUCTS Rail repair material

S t ro n g h o l d C o a t i n g s i s o ff e r i n g a polymeric metal material used for gap compensation called MM 1018.

D e v e loped by DIA MANT, MM 1018 p r ov i d e s 10 0 - p e r c e n t f o r c e - f i t ga p compensation for the on-site repair of railways, steel bridges, power plants and utility construction projects, offshore drilling rigs, wind turbines and other demanding high-load bearing, critical environments. MM 1018 offers 10 0 - p e r c e n t v o l u m e r e s t o r a t i o n inside the gap between bearing and construction without machining of back and face plates. It combines high-compressive strength, vibration d a m p i n g a n d l o n g - t e r m c o rr o s i o n protection in extreme service conditions (vibration, temperature extremes, etc.), and it is resistant to weathering and aging, as well as gasoline, oils, coolants, acids and lye. MM 1018 can be easily applied onsite, even at height, using casting or injection, which may allow significant repair cost savings v e r s u s c o nv e n t i o n a l d i s a s s e m b l y / rebuild methods. Originally developed in Germany for the repair of steel

Network server-IoT gateway

Kontron’s new TRACe LoRa-MQTT is an EN50155 fanless solution ready platform offering LoRa™ local network and transforming messages to message queue telemetry transport (MQTT) streams. Designed for vehicles, (train, metro, tram and bus), and railway certified, the TRACe LoRa-MQTT embeds a low power wide area network (LPWAN) LoRa™ radio concentrator that can sustain eight communication channels simultaneously and Ethernet connectivity from one of the 2x GbE front M12 X-Coded connector. The Cloud connection based on standard IP Ethernet automatically transforms LoRa™ messages to MQTT streams and the security is guaranteed by a TLS connection using private keys both on the TRACe gateway side and on the Cloud server side. Based on a yearly fee model, a Cloud server accessible on a public URL can host the connectivity and data collection from the TRACe Gateways. Kontron TRACe LoRa-MQTT includes some sensors and a micro-controller for system health monitoring. The integrated microcontroller monitors boards and in-box ambient temperature, voltages, current and even manages Vital Product Data of main components.

Wesbite: www.kontron.com

and steel composite bridges, the MM 1018 repair material is well-suited for situations where materials are subject to the highest loads and stresses. The material is also usable in corrosive saltwater environments like on oil rigs, offshore wind farms and canal water gates. MM 1018 is electrically nonconductive and has a shelf life of 12 months or longer and is available in 1 kg (2.2 lbs.) or 5 kg (11.02 lbs.) packages.

Larger packages may be available upon request. Phone: 561-685-5189 Website: www.masterbond.com/tds/ep29lphe

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Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 39

CALENDAR JUNE 6-7. Rail Insights. Union League Club of Chicago. Chicago, Ill. E-mail: conferences@sbpub.com. Website: www.railwayage. com/index.php/conferences/rail_insights.html.

26-28. 24th Annual Railroad Liability Conference. Worthington Renaissance Hotel. Fort Worth, Texas. Phone: 817-763-8297.

E-mail: pah@fwwr.net. Website: www.eventbrite.com/e/24thrailroad-liability-conference-registration-28015725790?aff=es2.

11-14. American Public Transportation Association (APTA) 2017 Rail Conference. Hilton Baltimore. Baltimore, Md. Website: www.apta.com.

31-Aug. 3. 2017 Railway Tie Association (RTA) Tie Grading Seminar. Guthrie, Ky. Phone: 770-460-5553. E-mail: ties@rta. org. Website: www.rta.org/grading-seminar.

18-21. 2017 American Railway Development Association Annual Meeting. The Peabody Hotel. Memphis, Tenn. Phone: 202-715-1259. E-mail: staff@amraildev.com. Website: www. amraildev.com.

SEPTEMBER 17-20. Railway Interchange 2017. Indiana Convention Center.

Indianapolis, Ind. E-mail: info@railwayinterchange.org. Website: www.railwayinterchange.org/.

18-21. 2017 RICA Annual Conference. Renaissance Esmerelda Indian Wells Report & Spa. Palm Springs, Calif. Website: www. rica.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=839799&group=.

17-20. Intermodal EXPO 2017. Long Beach Convvention Center. Long Beach, Calif. Phone: 301-982-3400, ext. 354.

E-mail: shanelle.casey@intermodal.org. Website: www.

IntermodalEXPO.com.

20-21. 2017 Rail Infrastructure and Vehicle Inspection Technology Conference. University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. Urbana, Ill. E-mail: rivit-con@illinois.edu. Website: http://railtec.illinois.edu/RIVIT/rivit.php.

JULY 10-11. Midwest Association of Rail Shippers (MARS) Summer Meeting. Grand Geneva Resort. Lake Geneva, Wis. Phone: 630513-6700. E-mail: mars@mwrailshippers.com. Website: www. mwrailshippers.com/upcoming_meetings.asp.

40 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

11-12. Basic Railroad Track Maintenance Workshop. Center for Transportation Research. Knoxville, Tenn. Phone: 865-9741812. E-mail: dclarke@utk.edu. Website: www.ctr.utk.edu/ CTRrailcourses/railclass.php?id=434&loc=1.

13-15. Railroad Track Design Maintenance Workshop. Center for Transportation Research. Knoxville, Tenn. Phone: 865-9741812. E-mail: dclarke@utk.edu. Website: www.ctr.utk.edu/ CTRrailcourses/railclass.php?id=435&loc=1.

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Ad Index Company

Phone

Fax#

E-mail address

Page #

American Concrete Products Co., Inc.

402-339-3670

bhutchinson@enterprise-properties.com

39

AREMA Marketing Department

301-459-3200

301-459-8077

marketing@arema.org

Cover 3

Custom Truck & Equipment

816-241-4888

816-241-3710

bboehm@cte-equipment.com

15

Danella Rental Systems, Inc.

610-828-6200

610-828-2260

pbarents@danella.com

8

Delta Railroad Construction Inc.

440-994-2997

440-992-1311

info@deltarr.com 17

Harsco Rail

803-822-7551

803-822-7521

mteeter@harsco.com

12

HiRail Corporation

800-274-7245

319-455-2914

info@hirail.com

20

Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc.

763-478-6014

763-478-2221

sales@loram.com

Cover 2

LT Resources, Inc.

281-444-3494

281-444-3495

linda@ltresources.com

22

Moley Magnetics, Inc.

844-M-MAGNET (844-662-4638)

716-434-5893

sales@moleymagneticsinc.com

16

Neel Company, The

703-913-7858

703-913-7859

jlewis@neelco.com

5

Oldcastle Precast, Inc.

888-965-3227

jim.baker@oldcastle.com

21

Omega Industries, Inc.

360-694-3221

omegaxings@aol.com

25

OMNI Products, Inc.

815-344-3100

bcigrang@omnirail.com

19

Orgo-Thermit, Inc.

732-657-5781

732-657-5899

georgeanne.tutunjian@orgothermit.com

2

RailCet

866-724-5238

217-522-6588 grif1020@yahoo.com

23

Railway Education Bureau, The

402-346-4300

402-346-1783

40

303-794-4297

360-694-3882

815-344-5086

bbrundige@sb-reb.com

Taimi Hydraulics

6

voestalpine Nortrak, Inc.

307-778-8700

307-778-8777

gord.weatherly@voestalpine.com

Cover 4

Western-Cullen-Hayes, Inc.

773-254-9600

773-254-1110

cp@wch.com

8

Reader Referral Service This section has been created solely for the convenience of our readers to facilitate immediate contact with the RAILWAY TRACK & STRUCTURES advertisers in this issue.

The Advertisers Index is an editorial feature maintained for the convenience of readers. It is not part of the advertiser contract and RTS assumes no responsibility for the correctness.

Advertising Sales general sales OFFICE AL, KY Jonathan Chalon Publisher (212) 620-7224 55 Broad St., 26th Fl. Fax: (212) 633-1165 New York, NY 10014 jchalon@sbpub.com

OR, SD, TN, TX, UT, WA, WI, WY, Canada -­AB, BC, MB, SK Heather Disabato (312) 683-5026 20 South Clark St. Fax: (312) 683-0131 Ste. 1910 Chicago, IL 60603 hdisabato@sbpub.com

CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Canada - Quebec and East, Ontario Jerome Marullo (212) 620-7260 55 Broad St., 26th Fl. Fax: (212) 633-1863 New York, NY 10014 jmarullo@sbpub.com

Responsible for advertisement sales in all parts of the world, except Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland, Japan and North America.

Suite N2, The Priory, Syresham Gardens, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3LB, UK Louise Cooper International Sales Manager Suite K5 &K6

AR, AK, AZ, CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, NV, OK,

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The Priory +44-1444-416917 Syresham Gardens Fax: +44-1444-458185 Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom lc@railjournal.co.uk Michael Boyle International Area Sales Manager Dorfstrasse 70, 6393 St. Ulrich, Austria +011436767089872 mboyle@railjournal.com Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland Dr. Fabio Potesta Media Point & Communications SRL Corte Lambruschini Corso Buenos Aires 8 +39-10-570-4948 V Piano, Int 9 Fax: +39-10-553-0088

16129 Genoa, Italy info@mediapointsrl.it Japan Katsuhiro Ishii Ace Media Service, Inc. 12-6 4-Chome, +81-3-5691-3335 Nishiiko, Adachi-Ku Fax: +81-3-5691-3336 Tokyo 121-0824, Japan amskatsu@dream.com Classified, Professional & Employment Jeanine Acquart (212) 620-7211 55 Broad St., 26th Fl. Fax: (212) 633-1325 New York, NY 10014 jacquart@sbpub.com

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June 2017 41

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BUY

Tunnel Trucks

Grapple Trucks Mag & Creep Drive

Hi-Rail Rail & Tie Carts

Custom Build New or Used Chassies Also: Hirail Boom Dump Trucks NOW a Hirail Mechanics Trucks SERCO Crew Cabs DEALER Hytracker for moving equipment Hudson Ballast Cars DMF & Harsco parts, service and installation

Section Trucks RAILROAD SERVICES

Est. 1910

Ph: 315-455-0100 • Fax: 315-455-6008 • Syracuse, NY • www.franktartaglia.com

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Rotary Dump Trucks

John Gallo • Business Development Manager 402-990-9385 • Johng@omahatrack.com

Railway Track & Structures

June 2017 43

NEW & USED EQUIPMENT 100 S Paniplus Drive Olathe, ks 66061 main: 913.764.1315 Mobile: 913.972.1013

PARTS • SALES • SERVICE • RENTALS

MOW Equipment Lease & Sale Brushcutting Specialized Hauling Track Surfacing Low Boys with Rail

www.RailwayEquipmentServices.net “A full service company with over 25 yrs exp!”

GLOBAL RAIL TENDERS

OLATHE, KS • HOUSTON, TX • BRIGHTON, CO • BRANCHBURG, NJ • SAN MARCOS, CA • CALGARY

www.colliscw.com

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44 Railway Track & Structures

June 2017

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