RTS May 2020

RT&S TOP PROJECTS

SUCCESS

DISTANCING THESE JOBS WENT ABOVE AND BEYOND TO DELIVER

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ALSO: COVID-19 UPDATE NEXT-GENERATION TRACK GEOMETRY rtands.com

AREMA NEWS February 2018 // Railway Track & Structures 1

SIT AND LISTEN William C. Vantuono Railway Age

Bill Wilson

Railway Track & Structures

Railway Age, Railway Track & Structures and International Railway Journal have teamed to offer our Rail Group On Air podcast series. The podcasts, available on Apple Music, Google Play and SoundCloud, tackle the latest issues and important projects in the rail industry. Listen to the railway leaders who make the news.

Kevin Smith

International Railway Journal

Podcasts are available on Apple Music, Google Play and SoundCloud

CONTENTS

May 2020

12

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

8

4 TTCI Determining residual stresses in rails

It’s a nasty virus COVID-19 pandemic turns rail industry upside down

26 AREMA News Message from the President, Getting to know, and more

12

30 Classifieds

Perfect conducting RT&S Top Project winners excel in every aspect of design

22

Measuring from the head end Norfolk Southern is testing autonomous track geometry equipment mounted on locomotives

rtands.com

8

32 Advertiser Index 32 Sales Representatives

COLUMNS 3 On Track Putting projects on vacation

Sound Transit’s East Link Extension project, an RT&S 2020 Top Project.

For more on the story, see p 12.

Photo courtesy of Sound Transit.

Follow Us On Social Media Railway Track & Structures

@RTSMag

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 1

RAILROAD STRONG RESILIENT, RESOURCEFUL, FOCUSED, ESSENTIAL

In the midst of the greatest public health crisis in modern times, the railway industry, an essential service, continues to do what it does best, moving products and people to where they’re needed most. A committed, motivated work force is helping to keep the economy afloat.

AILWAY GE PHOTO BY: BRUCE KELLY

ON TRACK

Putting projects on vacation VOL. 115, NO. 6 NO. 5 PrintVOL. ISSN116, # 0033-9016, Print ISSN ## 0033-9016, Digital ISSN 2160-2514 Digital ISSN # 2160-2514 EDITORIAL OFFICES EDITORIAL OFFICE 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 3680 Heathmoor Drive Chicago, Ill. 60603 Elgin, (312) IL 60124 Telephone 683-0130 Telephone 336-1148 Fax (312)(630) 683-0131 Website www.rtands.com BILL WILSON Editor-in-Chief wwilson@sbpub.com DAVID LESTER KYRAC. SENESE Managing Editor dlester@sbpub.com ksenese@sbpub.com CORPORATE OFFICES BOB TUZIK 88 Pine Street, 23rd Floor, Consulting Editor New York, NY 10005 btuzik@sbpub.com Telephone (212) 620-7200 CORPORATE OFFICES Fax (212) 633-1165 55 Broad St 26th Fl. ARTHUR J. MCGINNIS, New York, N.Y. 10004JR. President and Telephone (212)Chairman 620-7200 Fax (212) 633-1165 JONATHAN CHALON ARTHUR Publisher J. MCGINNIS, JR. President and Chairman MARY CONYERS Production CHALON Director JONATHAN Publisher NICOLE D’ANTONA Art Director MARY CONYERS Production Director HILLARY COLEMAN GraphicD’ANTONA Designer NICOLE Art Director MAUREEN COONEY Circulation Director ALEZA LEINWAND Graphic Designer MICHELLE ZOLKOS Conference Director MAUREEN COONEY Circulation Director CUSTOMER SERVICE: 800-895-4389 Reprints: PARS International MICHELLE ZOLKOS Corp.

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T

he trees are bare. The grass is greening. The pool is still empty.

The sun is barely shining. Ah, summertime. Wait, lets try that again ... Ugh! Summertime!!

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been closed since midMarch, which means the kids have been home since mid-March 2019. OK, I guess it just feels like they have been walking my hallways for a year now. This is a whole new experience for families with school-age children.

Remote learning has taken some of the chaos out of the equation, but only for about two to three hours a day.

Other than that it’s like summer has come early, which means I might as well record myself yelling, “No, stop!” in an effort to save what is left of my vocal chords. One is playing video games too long. “No, stop!” One is wrecking his room playing indoor basketball. “No, stop!” One is making a mess doing crafts on the kitchen table. “No, stop!” You can see the picture I am painting here.

We did not get very far into the COVID-19 pandemic to see our first “No, stop!” when it comes to transit construction. First, the city of Boston shut down all construction activity, which was followed by Sound Transit putting a stop to most of its construction projects.

In a press release dated April 3, Sound Transit said the following: “Due to COVID-19 risks, Sound Transit is directing contractors to suspend almost all construction on its transit expansion projects across the region.

“The very limited work that does continue will focus on tasks considered critical and/or necessary to ensure that all sites remain safe and secure and/or to avoid mobility, environmental or other impacts.

This work will move forward only under appropriate safety measures including additional worker training and increased monitoring of updated safety plans.

“Sound Transit arrived at this decision after carefully evaluating what heightened measures would be necessary to ensure the safety of the construction workforce and whether contractors are prepared to take those measures.”

Looks like contractors were caught making a mess on Sound Transit’s table. Or maybe Sound Transit, which says the shutdown is due to public safety, just wants to make sure everyone is wearing their smock before it is too late. As of April 22, the pause was still in place.

I’ve been trying to picture the scene at jobsites for the past couple of months. For some tasks, social distancing is impossible to accomplish. I would like to think that all contractors are supplying workers with the proper personal protection equipment, but since the transit agencies are the owners of these projects, I believe it is their responsibility to make sure all the COVID-19 safety measures are in place every single day. So what about enforcement? Do transit agencies come out once a day to check to see if everyone is properly separated, that masks are being worn and that everyone is drinking from their own water supply? Or do they have staff assigned to monitor each project all day long? What public agencies need to do is be there from sun up to sun down, and perhaps that is what is taking place.

However, COVID-19 can put a stain on the best-laid plans.

So far Sound Transit is alone with its “No, stop!” initiative. I’m with Sound Transit, and I will say this all summer long if need be.

BILL WILSON Editor-in-Chief

Railway Track & Structures (Print ISSN 0033-9016, Digital ISSN 2160-2514), (USPS 860-560), (Canada Post Cust. #7204564; Agreement #40612608; IMEX P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada) is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, 88 Pine Street, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10005. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices.

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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Railway Track & Structures, PO Box 1407, Cedar Rapids, IA. 52406-1407.

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 3

TTCI R&D

Determining Residual Stresses in Rails using Contour Method Research on residual stress estimation Ananyo Banerjee, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Transportation Technology Center, Inc.

technique involves cutting a specimen into two pieces and measuring the resulting deformation. The measured displacement data results are used to compute residual stresses through an analysis that involves FEA models of the specimen as deformed and as reconstrained.5

(a)

The output is a two-dimensional map of residual stress normal to the measurement plane.

Four rail samples were tested in two phases for this residual stress analysis.

The first set of specimens sent for analysis comprised a new rail that was received from a manufacturer and had never been laid on

(b)

T

ransportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) recently generated estimates of residual stresses in railroad rail using the relatively new Contour Method. Modern cutting tools such as wire electric discharge machining (EDM), as well as advanced finite element analysis (FEA) and precision mapping of displacements at the micrometer scale, have led to the development of the Contour Method.

Results provided maps of residual stress distributions of a new rail and three rails of differently worn head profiles. Analyses of the compressive and tensile residual stresses of the cross-section of the rails are being used to predict likely areas of highest tensile stresses in the rails.

Background Residual stress estimation has been a challenging area of research over the last few decades. X-ray and neutron diffraction measurements of atomic lattice spacings, interpreted as residual strains,1 have been used on rails as seen in Figure 1a, and other methods have used direct measurement of residual strains by instrumenting the rail cross-section with strain gages as seen in Figure 1b.2 TTCI has done previous research on residual stress estimation on a variety of metal components such as wheels, joint bars, and welds.

The results gave some good indications of compressive and tensile stress distributions on the external surfaces, but no stresses within the cross-sections were determined from this approach.3,4 In all cases, the strain gage method was used as indicated with small rectangles in Figures 1c and 1d.

Contour Method The Contour Method is a fairly new method of estimating residual stresses. The 4 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

(c)

(d)

Figure 1. (a) X-ray measurement of residual stresses in transverse direction of a worn rail; strain-gage rosettes installed on (b) cross-section of a rail head; (c) outer circumference of wheels; and (d) outer surface of a weld.

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TTCI R&D

track and a worn rail with significant gage face wear that had been used in tests on the High Tonnage Loop at the Transportation Technology Center. The second set of specimens comprised rails received from revenue service that had experienced substantial head wear.

Cutting the rail samples Rail samples were cut longer than 24 in. to ensure that the location of the Contour Method measurement was mechanically remote from any other cut surfaces. The wire EDM process is the preferred cutting method, as the wire is electrically charged

and spark erosion causes the cut without the cut surface coming in contact with the physical wire.

The rail sample is submerged in temperature-controlled deionized water during cutting to minimize thermal stress effects.

This process can achieve positional precision within a fraction of a micrometer for a straight cut.5 Measuring the cut surfaces As Figure 2a shows, the contour plane was chosen at the center of the sample and the wire EDM process cut each rail sample into two pieces.

(a)

(b)

(a)

(c)

(b)

(d)

Figure 2. (a) Contour plane selected on a rail sample; and (b) precision metrology equipment measuring surface heights of the surfaces after wire EDM process.

(Photo courtesy: Hill Engineering)

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Figure 3. Residual stress distributions in (a) new rail with no tonnage; (b) rail with significant gage face wear; (c) rail with primarily vertical wear; and (d) rail with both vertical and gage face wear.

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 5

KNOW A REMARKABLE ENGINEER in the rail industry?

Railway Track & Structures will bestow one industry leader with the newly instituted Engineer of the Year award. Candidates for Engineer of the Year will be judged based on individual accomplishment, contribution to the rail industry, dedication to their company and the rail industry and overall excellence. The Engineer of the Year will be featured in the September issue of RT&S. The Engineer of the Year will be recognized at the AREMA 2020 annual meeting, Sept. 13-16, in Dallas, Texas.

NOMINATE BY JUNE 26, 2020: http://bit.ly/engineer2020

The two pieces now had deformed surfaces at the cut. The displacements at these new surfaces were measured at the micrometer scale using a laser-based scanning profilometer, as Figure 2b shows.

FEA model An FEA model representing half of the rail sample was created using the measurements received from the metrology equipment and a finite element mesh was generated using that geometry. Displacement boundary conditions were then applied to the model to recover the original flat surfaces at the cut. The resulting stress values obtained for all the points in the FEA model were used to create a map of the estimated original residual stress distribution of the entire crosssection of the rail sample.

Results and future work Figures 3a through 3d show residual stress distribution maps of the four rail samples.

Figure 3a shows the residual stress distribution in a new rail that has not been laid in track. As illustrated in Figure 3a, the manufacturing processes create compressive stress zones around the outer edges of the rail, with the web having almost all compressive stresses.

Tensile stresses are generated around the center of the base and the head with a gradual distribution of positive to negative stresses. In all images shown in Figure 3, the scale varies from -40 ksi (dark blue) to +40 ksi (dark red) with the color spectrum changing from blue to red in between.

Figure 3b shows stress distribution in a rail with significant gage face wear. Figure 3c shows a slightly different stress distribution in the head than Figures 3a and 3b.

The results in Figure 3d are from a rail exhibiting substantial vertical and gage face wear. Comparisons of Figures 3b, 3c, and 3d to Figure 3a indicate how the initial residual stress distribution after hot rolling in a new rail changes with different conditions of wheel-rail wear.

Acknowledgements Special thanks to Adrian DeWald and Brett Watanabe of Hill Engineering for their contributions using Contour Method.

References 1. Kelleher, J. et al. 2003. “The measurement of residual stress in railway rails by diffraction and other methods.” Journal of Neutron Research, 11 (4), pp.187-193.

2. Orringer, O., J.M. Morris, and R.K. Steele. March 1984. “Applied research on rail fatigue and fracture in the United States.”

Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 1, pp.23-49.

3. Hernandez, F.C., S. Anankitpaiboon, and S. Cummings.

February 2009. “Analysis of Residual Stresses on High Performance Wheels.” Technology Digest TD-09-004, AAR/ TTCI Pueblo, Colo.

4. Gutscher, D. March 2010. “Railhead Repair Weld Residual Stress Investigation.” Technology Digest TD-10-007, AAR/TTCI Pueblo, Colo.

5. Prime, M.B. and A.T. DeWald. 2013. “The Contour Method.”

Chapter 5 in Practical Residual Stress Measurement Methods, pp.109-138. rtands.com

CONTACT Mary Jo Balve Global Trade Show Services, Inc. 33 Prince Place, Little Silver NJ 07739 T +1 732 933 1118 mjbalve@globaltradeshow.com

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 7

COVID-19 RESPONSE

IT’S A NASTY

VIRUS COVID-19 pandemic turns rail industry upside down

By Bill Wilson, Editor-in-Chief

8 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

rtands.com

COVID-19 RESPONSE

W

Photo Credit: MARTA

hat if nobody finds this cure? What if, instead of 6 ft, some people maintain a 6-mile distance from the nearest rail station?

As health officials around the globe scramble to find the right antidote for the coronavirus, transit officials may have a much longer fight on their hands. With shelter-at-home in place in most states, ridership numbers have plunged, with declines ranging from 55 percent to as much as 94 percent. Telecommuting has been an essential service for the past couple of months, but how many employers will allow remote working when it is business as usual? If ridership head counts never fully recover, transit leaders will have to self-quarantine with other experts until they can find a way out of this new normal.

Fortunately, track maintenance and track construction do not appear to be infected (except in the state of Washington), but that could change. The $2 trillion stimulus package, which includes $24.9 billion for transit, signed by President Trump in early April certainly will help, but when the virus panic finally settles and the new normal leaves transit systems in a state of abnormal more solutions will be needed.

So what is the cure for the transit agencies? Nobody knows for sure.

“That is a very interesting conversation and I think that you will have CEOs at high levels discussing that, and I think that is the next thing on people’s minds,” Polly Hanson at the American Public Transportation Association told RT&S. “Certainly the funding of the stimulus package is huge so folks were looking at the monetary recovery that [the stimulus money] will provide for things that they spent money on that they are hoping to recover.”

At press time BART, Sound Transit, Houston Metro and others were still trying to keep up with on-the-fly adjustments needed to deal with the coronavirus. The following are strategies that have been put in place since late March.

Next train will come in ...

The state of Washington was the first to truly feel the impact of the coronavirus, and Sound Transit was the first to shut down most rail construction activity. No other agency has followed suit. On April 3, Sound Transit told contractors to suspend “almost all” construction on transit expansion projects across the region. The limited work that was allowed to continue focused on rtands.com

tasks considered critical and/or necessary to ensure all sites remain safe and secure and/or to avoid mobility, environmental or other impacts. Sound Transit arrived at this decision after carefully evaluating what heightened measures would be necessary to ensure the safety of the construction workforce and whether contractors are prepared to take those measures. The suspension period was supposed to last until May 4, but might be extended if Sound Transit finds it necessary.

In late March, Sound Transit ridership was already down 70 percent, and 58 percent of revenue is generated from a sales tax.

“It is really too early to even get a handle on what the financial impact will be,” John Gallagher, a public information officer for Sound Transit, told RT&S back on March 24. “Until the dust settles it really is going to be impossible to predict [how long it will take to recover] because every day brings a new issue and a new challenge. We just have to get through the worst of this epidemic, come out on the other side and then we will be able to assess what the damage has been and how we will be able to correct it.”

Service on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) fell just short of being totaled. On April 7, BART announced it was cutting service to just two trains an hour. BART ridership was already down 94 percent.

Direct early evening service to and from San Francisco on the Richmond and Warm Springs/Freemont lines was cancelled, and San Francisco’s Muni system was running on just 17 routes. The service cuts are estimated to save BART between $3 million and $7 million a month.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, BART was successfully climbing itself out of a financial hole, and was making its last reach toward getting its situation finally above ground. The gap was reduced to just $12 million and BART was looking at $50 million in reserves.

“We were only going to have to dip into our reserves for just a little bit, and then the bottom fell out,” Alicia Trost, chief communications officer for BART, told RT&S. BART, however, is not going to just lie down. Construction projects were still buzzing along in April as BART moved employees involved in operating work over to the jobsite. The transplanted workers are helping to build rail, replace cables and even shore up tunnels in downtown San Francisco.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) was facing as much as a 65 percent drop in

commuters in early April, but the transit agency, which uses a portion of fares and a one-cent sales tax to help pay for maintenance and projects, has enough money set aside for track maintenance.

DART spokesperson Gordon Shattles would not provide a specific dollar amount when asked by RT&S, but said, “our finance group has done a fantastic job of preparing for worst-case scenarios.”

Thanks to the Texas Medical Center, the city of Houston has a large population of healthcare workers. That might be the reason why Houston Metro ridership was down just 55 percent as of April 8. Ten percent of Houston Metro’s revenue comes from fares, and the agency also relies on a sales tax. However, in November voters approved a $3.5 billion bond measure for Metro Next Moving Forward. The total plan will cost $7.5 billion and will include a new 16-mile rail line that will connect both the Green and Purple lines to Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport. Some contract lettings have been delayed due to COVID-19.

“We will retool that as we get through this phase of the crisis we are dealing with and then we will tee up with the board on when we will go out and advertise future contracts,” Houston Metro President and CEO Tom Lambert told RT&S. Atlanta’s MARTA system was experiencing a 75 percent reduction in ridership on April 15, but the number was holding steady over the past 10 days or so. In order to enforce social distancing, MARTA cut its service in half while still offering six-car trains.

MARTA relies on fares and a local sales tax to supply the revenue it needs.

“As far as revenue goes, there is not much revenue,” Dave Springstead, chief of Rail Operations at MARTA, told RT&S. “I am not sure what the drop is going to be but it is going to be a significant drop.”

Still, MARTA is not ignoring train and track maintenance. Springstead said work is taking place in the rail yards, on the track and at the stations, work that is now easier to do because of the drop in ridership. In early April, MARTA was in the process of buying 254 new rail cars and was executing its Track Renovation 4 (TR4) project, which involved fixing rail, train control, ballast, crossovers, etc.

TriMet’s planned MAX line project might fall victim to the coronavirus. In early April, Portland City Council Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty was not agreeing with the Portland Bureau of Transportation while May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 9

COVID-19 RESPONSE

So far it is business as usual for Nordco Rail Services’ train inspection crews.

Well cleaned Every transit agency has upped its sanitation game during the pandemic, but a few are going the extra yard.

MARTA actually reached out to the airline industry to see how they sanitize their planes, and starting the week of April 20 fogging equipment and misters were being used to sanitize the inside of the train cars. BART also has been fogging areas, and touch-point areas were being wiped down as 10 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

many as eight times a day. However, Trost said in late March they have enough fogging sanitizer to last 25 weeks. Houston Metro has been bringing in extra cleaning companies to clean vehicles throughout the day, and DART also has been taking advantage of contractors to increase its sanitation efforts.

“Before COVID-19 we would do a light clean every night. Now since we only need half as many cars we have added people to the cleaning crews and they are wiping down and disinfecting all of the common hand-touch points on the rail cars,” MARTA’s Springstead said.

Social distancing more people On April 16, President Trump introduced guidelines as to how states should lift shelter-in-place in phases. Some states said they were ready to lift the order immediately, but for most it looks like late May is the target day. That will mean more will be using public transportation and social distancing will be essential.

MARTA’s Rail Prep strategy gives the transit agency flexibility. Several CCTV cameras are lined across the entire system, and all of them are connected to MARTA’s

control room. Supervisors also do ride checks, and revenue is being checked constantly to locate any hot spots. Several locations also have a standby train with an operator ready for action if he or she gets the call. Springstead said they also will be adding social distancing decals on all the train cars and will be making automated announcements.

Houston Metro has been posting “Do Not Sit Here” signs on the actual seats of train cars, and posters are located all over platforms to serve as a reminder to keep a safe distance.

“We pushed a whole lot of information on our system, on our real estate, onboard our vehicles to let people know about the social distancing message,” said Lambert.

Nobody wavering on track inspection Even though the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a 60-day emergency waiver in late March for certain requirements of FRA’s rail safety regulations, it is business as usual for at least one track inspection provider.

According to Ken Kaszubinski, vice president of Inspection Technologies for Nordco rtands.com

Photo Credit: Nordco

it was seeking the OK on a contract that would require TriMet to reimburse the city $1.8 million (or $75,000 a month for two years) on work on the 12-mile line that will be completed. The money will be applied toward a final Environmental Impact Statement and planning for the new line. The projected cost is $2.8 billion, and the city of Portland might go to voters in November to approve a transportation bond measure for the project. Hardesty eventually voted in favor of the contract with TriMet, but warned the city council that the economy could be shaky in the next few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which could impact the mentality of the voters.

COVID-19 RESPONSE

Rail Services, orders are in hand and the company is moving as scheduled.

“It may slow down the longer [the COVID-19 pandemic] goes on, but right now we have not really seen anything we are going to lose,” Kaszubinski told RT&S. Some routes have been altered where, instead of doing offshoots, the railroad company is focusing on main line rail and areas it thinks it is going to get an abundance of traffic. Track inspection might lighten up moving forward, but only because traffic volumes as a whole have been down and continue to be lower than they have been historically. Part of that is due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but lower traffic has been a pattern for months now.

“It could get to a point to where they don’t cancel testing, they just push it out a little bit because the tonnage is not running over the rail,” Kaszubinski said. “We are not seeing that yet, but if this thing goes on for six months I would probably foresee we are going to see something of that nature because the tonnage is lower.”

It might be business as usual, but the

execution has changed just a bit due to COVID-19. Those doing the track inspection are now alone in the truck, with one sitting in the front of the cab and the other in the back of the vehicle. Before the pandemic a railroad representative would ride with the chief and assistant operator.

Now the railroad has to provide its own vehicle, which is more expensive. Briefings and debriefings are done with 6 ft of social distancing. Those running the inspections also wear gloves and masks.

“It makes it a little bit more expensive [with the extra vehicle], but in reality it meets the safety requirements expected and it does not in any way diminish safety or the environment for the testing of the rail,” remarked Kaszubinski.

The quality of life for these operators, however, has diminished. Kaszubinski said they all receive a gracious allowance for meals, and due to the COVID-19 many cannot sit down in a restaurant.

The alternative is fast food, if they can even get it. Trucks cannot move through a drive-through.

“One of the social things that people probably do not talk about … but to me the psyche of the chief and assistant are extremely important to conduct a legitimate test. Their [meal] selections are so few they are taking what they can get.

“Over a period of time if this continues it could have a health consequence,” said Kaszubinski.

And who knows if more time will be added to the FRA waiver? If it is extended another 60 days or so, Kaszubinski does not think it will increase the danger on the main lines, but it could have an impact on those lines that are not taking on the bulk of the traffic.

“When you get in some of the offshoot rail you can find three defects in 50 ft, so that kind of rail if they stopped testing it and they started to run over the top of it again there could be some problems.

“But I think from the mainline perspective as long as they keep doing the testing at the pace that the FRA says is required based on tonnage I believe they could keep it safe.”

Driving velocity in the rail industry.

TRACK MAINTENANCE

RAIL CAR MOVING

RAIL INSPECTION

NORD0788 AD RT&S Sept 2019.indd 1 rtands.com

1:31 PM11 May 2020 // Railway Track8/21/19 & Structures

2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

PERFECT CONDUCTING

The San Bernard River Bridge Replacment project in Sweeney, Texas.

12 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

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2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

S

RT&S Top Project winners excel in every aspect of design, construction

ealed envelopes are overrated, and now even more dangerous. Forget the possibility of a paper cut, what about the transmission of COVID-19? I guess it all depends when and how they apply the sealer.

Here, there is no five-second ripping suspense ... the winners are all visible just by flipping pages.

Railway Track & Structures magazine held its first Top Projects contest for 2020. The submissions were impressive, and the editorial team considered the impact of the project, as well as challenges and solutions at the jobsite. The result was 16 winners spanning six categories. The following is a summary of each winner.

By Bill Wilson, Editor-in-Chief

New Construction (Passenger Rail) Brightline Trains—West Palm Beach to Orlando International Airport • Prime contractors: Herzog, Stacey & Witbeck, RailWorks, Granite Construction, Wharton Smith Hubbard Construction, Middlesex Construction • Prime designer: HNTB • Owner: Virgin Trains USA

Photo Credit: Modjeski and Masters

This is the first privately funded higher-speed intercity rail system in the U.S., with train speeds reaching 125 mph.

Virgin Trains is developing 170 miles of new track into the completed Intermodal Terminal Facility located in the new South Terminal at the Orlando International Airport as part of the company’s Phase 2 expansion. The massive infrastructure project began in the summer of 2019 and encompasses four zones from south of Orlando International Airport, through airport grounds, east 37 miles along the Beachline Expressway/S.R. 528 to Cocoa, and then 120 miles south to West Palm Beach.

This endeavor will use 225 million lb of steel, and will include the laying of 491,000 rail ties and transporting 2.35 million tons of granite and limestone by 20,000 rail cars. Approximately 2 million spikes and bolts will be hammered and put in place to build the new track.

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New Construction (Passenger Rail) East Side Access—Harold Modernization; Strategic Extended Track Outage Program and Signal Cover Optimization Long Island City, N.Y. • Prime designers: WSP, PTG, STV • Owner: MTA Capital Construction and Long Island Rail Road

The Harold Program scope and staging was extremely complex and involved the installation of 97 new mainline switches; the retirement and removal of 29 mainline switches; 15 different track cut and throws; and 26 discrete signal cutovers in Harold and six more on the Amtrak’s loop tracks.

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 13

2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

Construction on the West Palm Beach-to-Orlando International Airport Phase 2 project.

New Construction (Passenger Rail) TEXRail Commuter Rail CM/GC Tarrant County, Texas • Prime contractor: Archer Western Herzog • Prime designers: Parsons/TranSystems • Owner: Trinity Metro

TEXRail is a new 27-mile commuter rail line with nine stations, beginning in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, traveling through six cities, and ending at DFW International Airport’s Terminal B. It crossed the Trinity River and nine other bodies of water.

14 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

The scope of the project included 24 total bridges and 41 intersections.

Due to the length, scope, and schedule of the project, Archer Western Herzog divided the alignment into four independent and collaborative segments that worked simultaneously and seamlessly to finish the project on time. The team installed or relocated more than 53,000 linear ft of utilities, constructed more than 300,000 square ft of walls and 130,000 cu yd of embankment, and installed about 6,000 tons of reinforcing steel.

The project’s highest profile scope, referred to as the Hole in the Wall (HITW), presented the contractor with a significant challenge. The HITW is a point of confluence in downtown Fort Worth of Union Pacific Railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Amtrak’s passenger rail line, and the Trinity Railway Express regional commuter rail line. In addition, S.R. 280 runs closely over the work area, challenging the team to seek innovative solutions for the replacement of the existing BNSF/UPRR Choctaw Bridge under two separate weekend outages. The selected methods of construction involved several accelerated bridge construction techniques, including a longitudinal runway launch, an SPMT roll-in, a controlled lifting and lowering procedure with hydraulic gantries, and

the removal and replacement of an existing highway pier cap under brief shutdowns.

New Construction (Passenger Rail) Divide White Pass Summit Loop Alaska/British Columbia border • Prime contractors: White Pass MOW crew, Cobalt Construction • Prime designer: White Pass and Yukon Route • Owner: Klondike Holdings, LLC

The White Pass site’s remote location provided many challenges for the project.

Emergency maintenance issues occasionally required a mechanic to be brought in by helicopter. In addition, because the site sat on a solid rock mountaintop beside a lake, the team could not install a septic system.

A storage tank was used on-site, which was pumped out weekly. There also was no room to install a standard camp, so accommodations for staff were tight.

Weather and the changing seasons intensified the challenges. In mid-November, despite several attempts, the Casey car, which brought explosives to the site, could not make it due to large snowdrifts. A work train was instead called up from Skagway, 30 kilometers away, to clear the snow.

An additional challenge was that the site sits right on the U.S./Canadian border, so rtands.com

Photo Credit: Virgin Trains USA

The Harold critical path to ESA operational readiness required the retirement of existing Harold CIL to permit completion of Tunnel B/C and allow commencement of full operation to GCT. Retiring the Harold CIL required an additional 17 switch installs, 16 switch retirements, three track cut and throws, and eight additional signal cutovers.

To increase productivity and reduce schedule risk, a strategic extended track outage and cutover plan was devised for 2018 and the early part of 2019, starting two years in advance, and a partnership was forged with third-party contractor CH057D covering over a nine-month period in direct conjunction with the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak force account resources.

2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

cross-border cooperation was essential.

A crew also was stuck on-site for four days in December 2018 because of whiteout conditions.

New Construction (Passenger Rail) Harold Trackwork, Part 3 Long Island City, N.Y. • Prime contractor: Railroad Construction Company, Inc. • Owner: MTA Capital Construction

Harold Interlocking is the busiest interlocking site in the nation, serving Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit trains. Over 4,000 ft of existing track was removed prior to excavating the site. A new trackbed was installed and 7,000 ft of new continuous welded rail was constructed on concrete ties. Thirteen turnouts were added, including the largest to ever be installed by a contractor in North America.

The coordination of train movement with daily construction tasks was imperative to protect the RCC crew, MTA C&D and Amtrak personnel and surrounding public including individuals traveling on board one of the 700 daily trains to pass through Harold Interlocking. Freight traffic also runs through Harold.

Site access posed a challenge due to limited space and the movement of constant train traffic. The switch points came preassembled as a panel measuring over 110 ft long and weighing over 80,000 lb.

New Construction (Passenger Rail) East Link Extension Seattle, Wash.

• Prime contractor: Kiewit • Prime designer: HDR • Owner: Sound Transit

Photo Credit: Sound Transit

The main aspect of this job was putting light rail on the E130 floating bridge. It involved four sets of rail expansion joints at each anchor point. This is the first one of its kind in the world. It also has a direct fixation and a tunnel, along with a concrete tie ballasted track.

Maintenance (Passenger Rail) Metro Priority Repairs Baltimore, Md. • Prime contractor: RailWorks Track Services, Inc. • Prime designer: Ayan Ghosh • Owners: Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration

track maintenance and rail replacement along the Metro Subway Link line. Within 30-day outages, crews worked around the clock replacing deteriorated timber ties and switch ties, resurfacing ballasted mainline tracks and restoring portions of the existing continuous running rail. The total scope of work entailed the replacement of 365 deteriorated timber ties and switch ties, resurfacing 69,300 ft of mainline tracks, replacement of 9,000 ft of portions of continuous welded running rail, 11 new bonded insulated joints, and the installation of 470 direct-fixation fasteners and 1,500 monoblock concrete crossties.

Specialty equipment was adjusted to accommodate unconventional track layouts. Without removing the third rail and cover board, a Jackson 6700 tamper was modified to surface the track.

New Construction (Class 1 Rail) Completion of ExpressRail—Port Jersey—World Class Port Facility in New York Metropolitan Area Port of New York and New Jersey • Prime contractor: Union Paving Construction Company, Inc. • Prime designer: HDR Inc. • Owners: Conrail, Port of NY/NJ, Global Container Terminals

The construction of an on-dock rail facility capable of handling the world’s largest ships is a rare opportunity. Planning for the construction of the yard took over 10 years and presented numerous challenges.

Construction challenges included building the yard while maintaining train operation and customer service for the New York-New Jersey float operations.

The new intermodal yard includes 10,000 ft of pad tracks and more than 24,500 ft of

usable track in the newly constructed support tracks in the adjacent Greenville Yard.

New Construction (Class 1 Rail) CSXIT Fairburn Intermodal Capacity Expansion Fairburn, Ga. • Prime contractor: Ames Construction • Prime designer: EMH&T • Owner: CSXIT

CSXIT Intermodal Terminals expanded its Fairburn, Ga., intermodal facility to accommodate its current and growing list of customers. Initial work focused on a plan to meet the aggressive completion deadline without interruptions to operations. Ames broke down this job into an achievable construction plan and provided several tools including phasing drawings for easy conveyance of the plan to CSXIT management. Risk elements were assigned where best managed.

The extremely wet winter of 2017-2018 had severe impacts on earthwork activities. The team focused efforts on the north expansion area and carefully coordinated phasing to mitigate impacts. Completion of the north expansion area lessened impacts to the work on the south expansion area.

New Construction (Bridges) San Bernard River Bridge Replacement Sweeney, Texas • Prime contractor: American Bridge Co. • Prime designer: Modjeski and Masters, Inc. • Owner: Union Pacific Railroad

Because the San Bernard River is an active, navigable channel, used by both commercial and recreational boaters, and because the track supports mixed freight train traffic on one of Union Pacific’s main lines, the main goal was to limit traffic outages.

The floating bridge (center) on the East Link Extension project.

RailWorks Track Services performed rtands.com

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 15

2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

the final alignment. Although the original plan was for the span change-out to be accomplished by the float-in method, the phase two superstructure contractor chose to slide the bridge into place.

During demolition of the existing span, the contractor prepared the new bridge for a lateral slide operation. The jacking system used for the slide was placed and hydraulic jack hoses were attached. Six 25-ton jacks were placed at roller locations. A synchronous power unit operated the six jacks and prevented any one jack from stroking ahead of the other.

The TEXRail Commuter Rail CM/GC project.

Maintenance (Bridges) CSX C&C Bridge Over the Ohio River Rehabilitation Cincinnati, Ohio The final plan consisted of a two-phase construction approach. The first phase included building and installing the new piers adjacent to the existing piers under live traffic on the same alignment. The second phase consisted of building major portions

of the superstructure off-site and changing out the existing span while moving the new superstructure units to their final alignment during the traffic outage.

The new piers were constructed under traffic and adjacent to existing piers along

• Prime contractor: CSX • Prime designer: HDR • Owner: CSX

CSX’s C&C Bridge is about 1.3 miles long and elevates two mainline tracks through downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, and

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Photo Credit: Archer Western

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2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

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Covington, Ky. CSX considers this to be one of its signature bridges. Many of the repairs that were developed for this project have led to the update or creation of repair standards to be used across CSX’s system.

One of the major challenges of the project was the fabrication of the steel within the scheduled timeline. The typical work flow through the project involved the designers and drafters working hand-in-hand with CSX engineers to develop custom repair details. These detail plans were immediately sent to the bridge shop for fabrication. After fabrication they were shipped to the site and installed. The entire process took as little as one month for each repair. The aggressive schedule required extremely efficient fabrication of over 100,000 lb of intricate custom steel work.

The design and development of repair details also had its challenges. The structure is elevated through urban areas, so access for proper inspection was challenging. This was overcome by the use of robust temporary scaffolding systems that allows the inspectors and construction workers alike

The ExpressRail project at the Port of New York/New Jersey.

access to the structure.

To deal with hundreds of repairs and details sheets and the fact that the structure has gone through several large-scale reconfigurations through the early 20th century, a design-build-like submittal

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system was put into place. Each repair identified during inspection was assigned a number. When designed and detailed, the individual repair was given its own independent plan set including all the required fabrication information.

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2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

Project was developed to address more than half of the remaining 35 rail-top bridges left on the Metrolink territory. The project consisted of 20 bridges that were either being replaced, rehabilitated, or abandoned.

Prime contractor Reyes performed in-depth investigations at all locations to create an accurate plan for delivering this project within the 365-day time frame. As construction advanced, it became critical to progressively track and update the project schedule hourly to ensure tasks were completed on time.

During the second Absolute Work Window, three rail-top bridges were replaced simultaneously with slab spans.

The Valley subdivision presented challenges such as wildfires, heavy rains, high water tables and limited sight distance.

The Rail-Top Bridge Replacement Projects in southern California.

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Maintenance (Bridges) Rail-Top Bridge Replacement Projects Southern California

2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

The BNSF mainline across the Platte River suffered severe damage following flooding in March 2019. Crews were tasked with three primary project elements: 1) Building a temporary access road to get to the bridge; 2) recovering bridge components from the floodwaters; and 3) replacing three existing bridge spans with four new spans. A threequarter-mile-long access road connecting the state highway to the river was constructed, and the causeway was pushed out 800 ft into the river against the bridge. Ames worked around the clock to finish ahead of schedule and under budget.

Best Use of Technology 3-D Underwater Sonar Imaging Enables CN’s Longest Timber Bridge to Remain In Service During Historic Flooding Events Norco, La. • Prime designer: Collins Engineers, Inc. • Owner: Canadian National

in one calendar year for the first time ever, and the aging timber bridge structure that crosses it was subjected to the longest duration of flooding in history.

Canadian National responded to the historic flooding with a proactive approach

using high-resolution topographic sonar technology used by Offshore Petrochemical Industry, modified for use from the deck of a railway bridge, to monitor and mitigate scour concerns.

Water current velocities exceeded 13

Photo Credit: MTA C&D

History was made in 2019 when the Bonnet Carre spillway was opened twice

The Harold Trackwork, Part 3 project.

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May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 19

2020 RT&S TOP PROJECTS

Best Use of Technology Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Positive Train Control Austin, Texas

BNSF emergency work in La Platte, Neb.

• Prime contractor: Modern Railway Systems • Prime designer: Alstom Signaling Operation • Owner: Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority

ft/s, making traditional diver- and boatmounted sonar inspection methods obsolete. Scour monitoring during the 2019 spillway events were completed by utilizing a BlueView 3-D multi-beam sonar system in conjunction with a heavy-duty pan-andtilt motor specially built for this project by

Collins Engineers, Inc. Sonar data was processed and analyzed daily to keep the track safely open to rail traffic throughout the course of the spillway openings, thereby saving the railroad millions of dollars in potential lost revenue while improving bridge safety.

Modern Railway Systems (MRS) enabled CMTA to comply with an unfunded federal mandate within the Revenue Service Demonstration deadline of Dec. 31, 2018, at a significantly lower cost point.

During development of the E-ATC solution, it was identified that thousands of test scenarios would be required to verify the signaling system met the requirements. A tremendous amount of railroad operations shutdown time would have been required to perform these tests. MRS sought an alternate method to minimize the impacts to the ongoing operations. MRS was able to simulate the field conditions in the lab software

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and verify the application. This allowed the test and verification, typically required through multiple software revisions, to occur without impacting operations. When system functionality was deployed to the field, extensive coordination with the railroad was conducted to gain enough operational downtime to upload and test new software at all locations on the railroad.

Best Use of Technology on a Project SMART Initial Operation Segment Sonoma and Marin counties, Calif.

• Prime contractors: Stacey & Witbeck Inc. and Herzog Contractor Corp. joint venture • Prime designers: LTK Engineering Services and MCS • Owner: Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit

This project required the deployment of Positive Train Control from end to end. The designbuild project required the implementation of a back-office system to safely monitor the operation of the assets on the system, dispatch train routes, and track the vehicle performance.

The Construction Metropolitan Transportation Authority Positive Train Control project.

The Track Driver Xtra System, installed with redundant dual hot standby servers, was complemented by a fully redundant high-speed vital and non-vital network.

During the project there were three major natural disasters that tested the integrity, availability, and reliability of

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the full office control system. Two major fires in 2017 and 2019 along the alignment required excavations and other emergency responses. The October 2019 Kincade fire required an emergency temporary relocation of the Rail Operation Control center to another SMART facility.

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May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 21 3/4/19 1:15 PM

TRACK GEOMETRY

MEASURING FROM THE

HEAD END Norfolk Southern is testing autonomous track geometry equipment mounted on locomotives By David C. Lester, Managing Editor

22 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

mainlines three to four times per year.

The interest in developing additional methods for measuring track geometry stems from the desire of roads to inspect track more frequently in order to ensure it is always in top shape. One of the first major advances in autonomous track inspection over the last few years involves building (non-revenue) uncrewed boxcars loaded with track inspection technology that gathers data and transmits it wirelessly to the back office. These cars are being used now, and will likely become a greater part of the inspection regimen as they can be placed in any freight train, providing more frequent inspection of track as it moves through the network.

While these boxcars are very useful, they have a couple of drawbacks. First, the geometry

boxcar has to be switched and placed in the train, which burns worker time, fuel, and creates processing delay. Second, the boxcar requires space in the train that could be devoted to a revenue-producing car. While these boxcars are certainly less expensive to run than a regular geometry train, they are not necessarily the ideal solution for Class 1s.

Right on the locomotive Earlier this year, Norfolk Southern announced that it has taken autonomous track geometry testing to the next level. The Class 1 said it “is the first North American freight railroad to develop and deploy an autonomous track geometry measurement system that is mounted on a locomotive.” Ed Boyle, vice president, rtands.com

Photo Credit: Norfolk Southern

F

or at least the past six years, railroads have been working on methods for measuring track geometry through equipment to supplement the traditional geometry car and hi-rail vehicles that have been used for many years. The traditional geometry “car,” of course, is usually a short train. A locomotive pulls the geometry car itself, which obtains all of the track measurement data, which is then transmitted to a second car in the train where it is viewed and analyzed by track inspection personnel. The second car, usually a modified business car with large windows at the rear, also provides the opportunity for visual inspection. Most Class 1 railroads have one or two geometry trains that perform inspections of heavily used

TRACK GEOMETRY

engineering, for Norfolk Southern said, “with our locomotive-based system, we use an existing asset to increase the frequency of our track inspections without adding another piece of equipment that has to be run across the railroad. This innovative approach enhances our safety practices by permitting us to have precise and quality track inspections done under load at track speed.”

Norfolk Southern’s Mike Allran, manager of track inspection and development, said, “with this innovative system, any time [an equipped] locomotive is moving and pulling freight, it is testing track at the same time. This gives us more robust data for use in predictive modeling to determine track maintenance intervals, which enables us to maximize efficiencies that rtands.com

will generate significant cost savings.”

The design of the system is relatively simple.

“The data-gathering equipment is mounted in a ruggedized box under a six-axle road locomotive between the snowplow and the first set of wheels,” NS said. A computer that powers the system is housed inside the electrical locker in the locomotive cab. As data is collected in real time, the computer wirelessly transmits it to the back office for analysis, and repair crews are dispatched as needed.

Asked about any hardware or software differences between the locomotive system, geometry car and boxcar systems, Boyle said, “the processing functions on the locomotive-mounted system computer are similar to those on a traditional geometry car and special boxcar, with the

data being collected and analyzed on the testing vehicle. The key difference is the operator on our two traditional geometry cars reviews the data and exceptions immediately, and the data is transferred back to the office at the end of the week. On the locomotive-mounted system, the data and exceptions are wirelessly transferred from the locomotive in near real time to the back office. The exceptions are then reviewed for accuracy and relayed to the proper Division Maintenance of Way & Safety (MW&S) personnel for inspection and handling. We use similar programming languages and the same data analysis is done by each system, whether it is our traditional geometry car testing or the locomotive-mounted system.”

As the locomotive-mounted track testing May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 23

TRACK GEOMETRY

Aboard the research car equipped with computers that receive data from the geometry car. Norfolk Southern said locomotive-mounted track geometry technology was designed to supplement traditional geometry cars, not replace them.

required to perform, either by hi-rail vehicle or walking, and does not replace our [crewed] geometry cars. The traditional [crewed] geometry cars not only provide our field personnel with a maintenance work list after each test run, but also serve as an important training tool to educate our younger supervisors. We have no

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equipment matures, RT&S asked if this technology would replace the traditional geometry car.

Boyle pointed out, “the locomotive-mounted track geometry inspection system supplements our two traditional track geometry cars and this new inspection tool is utilized in addition to the extensive manual inspections we are

intention of replacing our [crewed] geometry cars with autonomous systems; we plan to supplement and improve upon our current process. The locomotive-mounted geometry system produces the same quality of data as the traditional cars with a much higher inspection frequency. Lines tested three times [per] year with the traditional cars can now be tested as frequently as three times [per] week with the locomotive. The goal is to find deviations and correct them before they become track geometry defects.”

Additional technology placed on a locomotive comes with the chance the technology may fail (e.g., Positive Train Control), requiring the engine to be pulled from service when there is nothing wrong with the locomotive itself. These occasions should be rare, but further experience will let the railroads know to what extent this is an issue.

This also raises the question of how many locomotives will be equipped with the new track measurement system. Norfolk Southern’s response is: “We are currently in a pilot program and as we continue to test and evaluate the locomotive-mounted track geometry

TRACK GEOMETRY

system, we will actively assess the number of locomotives equipped and add units when and where it helps us achieve our goal. During the system development phase, we engineered robust components to have an extended lifespan so minimal repairs are needed. System maintenance is performed when the locomotive is shopped for routine maintenance. If the track geometry system malfunctions, the locomotive can continue to pull freight until routed to a shop for repair and we will have enough locomotives equipped to ensure our committed testing frequencies are met. The locomotivebased system–from design to implementation– helps support Norfolk Southern’s PSR efforts.”

The railroad also pointed out if the locomotive has a road failure and is shut down and in tow, the geometry system is still powered and testing the track. The system was designed to test at all times in all locations. “The more track data we can gather, the more real-time information we can provide to our field forces and the better we can protect our railroad,” NS added.

Testing, interest, and bugs During the testing of the locomotive-mounted

system, Norfolk Southern has conducted “parallel” testing (which, in basic terms, means that the new system is set up to test the same territory at the same time as the traditional system). Boyle told RT&S, “The track geometry locomotive was assigned to pull one of the traditional cars for several months before being released to test track in freight service earlier this year. During this period, it gave us an opportunity to compare thousands of miles of data gathered by both systems from the same track at the same time. While [there are slight differences in the way] every track geometry vehicle [performs measurements], based on vehicle characteristics, dynamics and the measuring system location, we found that the areas cited for review and remediation were the same.” (See photograph on p 22).

Asked if any other Class 1s have expressed interest in the new NS system, Boyle said, “We have had inquiries about the locomotivemounted geometry system from others in the industry, and are glad to assist anyone interested, but our focus with this new technology is to continue improving the system we built to achieve the Norfolk Southern Engineering

Department’s mission.”

Boyle also pointed out that the technology used on the locomotive-mounted track geometry system is composed of ruggedized commercial components that are readily available. “While several of the sub-components used were from outside suppliers, the system’s hardware and software design, integration and assembly were all done in-house by our Norfolk Southern Geometry Testing team headquartered in Roanoke, Va. RT&S asked about any “bugs” the NS team has seen during testing, as well as future plans for the technology. The railroad said, “We developed this system to be a low-maintenance, high-mileage, inexpensive supplement to the two [crewed] track geometry cars and hi-rail geometry trucks. As with the development of any system, we ran into challenges and continue to work out small ‘bugs’ as we deploy more systems and learn more about the abilities every day. As this locomotive-mounted track geometry system continues to prove itself, we will evaluate adding more inspection capabilities to make this an even more useful tool.”

WE SIFT THROUGH THE NEWS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO RAIL GROUP NEWS brings you a daily round-up of news stories from Railway Age, RT&S, and IRJ. This email newsletter offers North American and global news and analysis of the freight and passenger markets. From developments in rail technology, operations, and strategic planning to legislative issues and engineering news, we’ve got you covered.

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May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 25

Message From The President

EDWARD D. SPARKS, II, P.E. AREMA President

N

2019-2020

ormal. Ah, the good ole’ days!

Anyone remember just a routine normal day? What was once a regular or mundane state of existence now seems like a faraway ideal. What a difference a month makes! In my column long ago (last month), I mentioned that many people used to associate the year 2020 with clearly seeing futuristic goals. The COVID-19 pandemic and it’s still unfolding unimaginable effects could not have been foreseen by the vast majority of us, and we’re still far too close to it now to clearly see the outcome.

The sudden disruption of life and fear of the invisible have the potential to weigh heavily on each of us. All things considered, society has weathered the storm quite well thus far and the railway industry has played a key, although often unheralded, role in maintaining some small sense of normal.

Although passenger and transit rail systems are suffering from greatly diminished ridership, most are still operating, albeit at reduced frequencies.

The freight side of the railway industry continues to function at high efficiency as an essential service in the distribution network of North America. Railroad forces continue their inspection, construction, maintenance and production activities. It has been said that railroading is an outdoor sport, and that aspect of our work is quite beneficial in these times of social distancing.

The supplier side of the industry continues to provide railroads and contractors with critically needed material, tools, equipment and services. Working in areas of “Stay-at-Home” guidelines and quarantine, these suppliers have often had to assert their legitimate 26 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

essential service status for our essential industry in order to remain open and functioning. These contributions and those of their employees cannot be overlooked or underappreciated.

As you might expect, the significant reduction in commercial travel and sensible protective actions such as social distancing have altered the operations of AREMA as well.

Several committee meetings have been postponed or cancelled. Some committees are moving forward with virtual, online, and/ or teleconferencing tools to still get together and handle committee business. Our upcoming Committee Chairs and Board of Directors meetings in Houston, Texas, also are going virtual. I encourage you to visit AREMA.org frequently to keep current on the ever-changing landscape of upcoming events.

Anything that has been around for over 190 years like the North American railroad industry will experience countless disruptions: wars, natural disasters, market crashes, widespread health crises, recessions, bankruptcies, mergers and the like. All are greatly disruptive in the short term. But throughout, one characteristic fits well with our industry, and that is resiliency. Defined as either the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness, or the ability to spring back into shape—the railroad industry and its people are resilient.

Several times each year in the pages of this fine publication as well as at our Annual Conference & Expo there are articles and presentations of railroads facing tall challenges and overcoming them. A prime example is the 2019 W.W. Hay Award for Excellence winner KiwiRail and its recovery

from devastating earthquakes and landslides.

Railroad industry disaster recovery is often done with surprising speed, especially in comparison to our competitors from other transport modes. One motivating factor for this sense of urgency in recovery is that there is no other choice. Rare is the case when an acceptable, non-disruptive, efficient alternative route exists. If one wants to be in business in that market, one better figure out how to overcome as quickly and safely as possible so as to restore service.

In conversation with those outside the industry there is often a comparison of a railroad mainline and an interstate highway. That comparison falls short when one considers a blockage on both.

The North American highway system has built up much redundancy, ironically often following former rail lines. Little to no such redundancy exists in our modern railway industry.

Thankfully, the contractors, engineers, suppliers, and railroaders approach this problem resolution with creativity and innovation. They get the job done, and often quicker than one could have reasonably expected operations to return to normal.

So, when will normal return for us? That is still to be determined. However, I encourage each of you to continue to do your part to hasten that return. Stay healthy. Keep your distance. Keep those trains rolling. It is still too early to tell how our AREMA 2020 Annual Conference & Expo in September in Dallas, Texas, might be affected, however as of now, everything is still full speed ahead.

See you on the railroad.

KiwiRail works to recover the Main North Line after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake. rtands.com

FYI

S ave th e date for th e AR E MA 2020 Annual Conference & Expo, Sept. 13-16 in Dallas. For the latest information about conference keynote speakers, technical p re s e n ta ti o n s , E x p o, s e m i n a r s a n d travel information, visit www.conference. arema.org.

O rd e r th e 2 02 0 C o m m u n i cati o n s & Signals Manual now. With more than 40 new, revised, reaf firmed or extended Parts, it’s the perfect time to get the 2020 MRE. In addition to the print version, the full Manual and individual chapters are available in downloadable, PDF format and can be purchased and downloaded from the AREMA online store. Order online n ow at w w w.are m a.org or contac t mbruins@arema.org”

Re-released after six years, order the NEW, Third Edition of the Practical Guide to Railway Engineering. This expanded edition offers in-depth coverage of railway fundamentals and serves as an excellent reference combining and consolidating the most useful information from a multitude of sources including: AREMA manuals; Railway Engineering by W.W. Hay; Railway Curves and Earthwork by C. Frank Allen; regulatory; and other agency sources. Order online now at www.arema.org or contact mbruins@ arema.org for more details.

Call for entries for the 2020 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence. The selection process for the 22nd W.W. Hay Award has begun. Entries must be submitted by May 22, 2020.

Please visit www.arema.org for more information.

AREMA members, if your membership recently lapsed, you may still renew your dues online. Login now to www.arema. org to reactivate your membership. Not an AREMA member? Join now to get exclusive rates on products and educational courses, committee opportunities, access to the directories, subscriptions to your favorite magazine, and much more.

FOLLOW AREMA ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

NOT AN AREMA MEMBER? JOIN TODAY AT WWW.AREMA.ORG

UPCOMING COMMITTEE MEETINGS MAY 19-20 Committee 15 - Steel Structures Teleconference

SEPT. 12-13 Committee 5 - Track * Committee 24 - Education & Training *

SEPT. 16-17 Committee 38 - Information, Defect Detection & Energy Systems

JUNE 28 Committee 9 - Seismic Design for Railway Stuctures Chicago

SEPT. 13 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction*

Committee 39 - Positive Train Control

JUNE 18 Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization Philadelphia JUNE 23-24 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Manhattan, N.Y. AUG. 11-12 Committee 1 - Roadway & Ballast Atlanta *Committee Meetings happening at the AREMA 2020 Annual Conference & Expo in Dallas SEPT. 12 Committee 27 - Maintenance of Way Work Equipment*

Committee 6 - Building & Support Facilities* Committee 11 - Commuter & Intercity Rail Systems* Committee 14 - Yards & Terminals* Committee 16 - Economics of Railway Engineering & Operations* Committee 17 - High Speed Rail Systems* Committee 18 - Light Density & Short Line Railways* Committees 11 and 17 Joint Meeting* Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization*

SEPT. 19-20 Committee 15 - Steel Structures Chicago OCT. 1-2 Committee 8 - Concrete Structures and Foundations Montreal OCT. 19-20 Committee 30 - Ties Bonita Springs, Fla. DEC. 10 Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization Philadelphia JAN. 1, 2021 Committee 8 - Concrete Structures and Foundations San Diego

Committee 41 – Track Maintenance*

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.

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

rtands.com

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 27

Getting to know Committee 14’s Levi Turner on terminal design projects, Committee 14 was the most logical place for me to learn and contribute.

AREMA: Outside of your job and the hard work you put into AREMA, what are your hobbies?

TURNER: I go snow skiing and camping with my son whenever I can. My wife and I also enjoy travel, so when we get the chance, we sneak in a three-day weekend getaway or a weekend road trip.

LEVI J. TURNER, P.E. Project Manager David Evans and Associates Committee 14: Yards and Terminals AREMA: Why did you decide to choose a career in railway engineering?

TURNER: I had the opportunity early in my career to work on several railroad projects, and I never looked back. The work is exciting, and every project has a different set of challenges to overcome. Over the years, the thing I’ve come to appreciate most is the quality of the people involved in our industry. I’ve worked with so many driven and knowledgeable people whom I have great respect for, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

AREMA: How did you get started?

TURNER: Between high school and college, I worked in the construction and trucking industries for several years. After obtaining my civil engineering degree, I accepted a job at a company with a large railway engineering practice. In my first year there, I had the opportunity to work on several railway projects, including a large intermodal terminal design. Since then, I’ve worked almost exclusively on rail-related transportation and land development projects.

AREMA: How did you get involved in AREMA and your committee?

TURNER: When I started my career, I wanted to grow my knowledge about railway engineering as quickly as I could.

I attended two AREMA design seminars, and a few years later, I joined Committee 14 - Yards and Terminals. Since I had spent most of my career up to that point 28 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

AREMA: Tell us about your family.

TURNER: I have a tremendously supportive wife, Debra, and a 7-year-old son, Brogan. Debra and I celebrated our 20th anniversary this year.

She spent many years in the hospitality industry in sales and marketing, but now stays home to spend more time with our son. Brogan loves animals and enjoys playing hockey and baseball.

AREMA: If you could share one interesting fact about yourself with the readers of RT&S, what would it be?

TURNER: I climbed two 14’ers in Colorado with my son in a pack on my back.

The first one, Mt. Bierstadt, took me three tries. On the third try I brought my brother along. He encouraged me to pace myself, and it was much easier after that.

Good life lesson.

AREMA: What is your biggest achievement?

TURNER: Probably switching career paths in my 30s, obtaining my civil engineering degree, and pursuing a career in the railway industry. Did I mention I have a tremendously supportive wife?

AREMA: What advice would you give to someone who is trying to pursue a career in the railway industry?

TURNER: Listen, learn, and be adaptable to change. Build strong relationships with experienced people, and learn from them. Get involved and participate in AREMA and attend webinars and seminars if you can.

It’s also important to keep a flexible attitude and learn to embrace change. When market forces drive a change in our industry, be ready to shift your focus if necessary.

OVER 50 PERCENT

SOLD OUT

DALLAS SEPT. 13-16 The AREMA 2020 Annual Conference & Expo is an arena in which rail professionals can present the most recent advances in the various disciplines involved in the railway e n g i n e e r i n g f i e l d . T h i s eve nt provides an excellent opportunity for members of the railway industry to increase their railroad knowledge and technical expertise. Obtain your professional development hours for participating in the conference; the hours are subject to the individual state board’s final authority.

Additionally, the exposition brings together a large and diverse group of railway engineering professionals who have the authority to buy products or advise their companies which products and services to buy.

Expect to find new products and solutions from all segments of the industry: track, structures, passenger a n d tra n sit, m a i nte n a n ce-ofway, engineering ser vices and communications and signals.

The AREMA 2020 Annual Conference & Expo is the premiere eve nt for railway e n gin e e rin g professionals. Join AREMA in Dallas Sept. 13-16 at the Hilton Anatole.

Please visit www.arema.org for more information.

rtands.com

Fresno State students visit rail construction sites

By John G. Green, Ph.D., P.E., Vice Chair—Education of Committee 24, Member of Committee 17, and Assistant Professor of Civil & Railroad Engineering at Fresno State

R

ecently, railway-engineering students from California State University Fresno, also known as Fresno State, toured the California High Speed Rail (CAHSR) construction sites.

Fresno State established its rail program in the Fall 2019 semester by offering its first class, CE191T/291T “Railroad Engineering: An Introduction.” The demand for the class led it to be offered again in the Spring 2020 semester with a mix of upper-level undergraduate students and master’s degree engineering students. In the fall of 2020, Fresno State will offer a class titled “Railway Geometric Design” where students will learn how to design track horizontal alignments, vertical profiles, cross-sections, and then create all of these design elements using the industry CAD software that is used today, based on the recommended practices contained in AREMA’s Manual for Railway Engineering.

Fresno State’s railway engineering students will have the benefit of learning more about CAHSR’s infrastructure in the classroom and during field trips. Students from Fresno State’s first railroad engineering class toured several of the CAHSR infrastructure sites during the Fall 2019 semester. Another interesting point is that most of the students that attended the field trip are part of Fresno State’s new Student Chapter of AREMA. This Student Chapter has the distinction of being AREMA’s newest, and its 25th overall.

The first phase of the project, construction of 119 miles of track, which will run through Fresno, has provided between 9,200 and 9,400 construction jobs for the residents of the San Joaquin Valley. Once the system is operational, there will be new jobs for operating the trains, maintaining the trains and infrastructure, and other related services needed to keep the CAHSR trains running. Many San Joaquin Valley residents are looking forward to riding CAHSR in the future, including a railroad engineering class at Fresno State.

The first site the students visited was the project’s landmark San Joaquin River viaduct.

This structure is approximately 4,700 ft in length, spanning the San Joaquin River in north Fresno and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks parallel to S.R. 99. Its bold design features arches representing the northern rtands.com

Workers remove concrete forms from the CAHSR San Joaquin River Bridge.

gateway into Fresno, and a pergola structure that separates CAHSR trains crossing over the top of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks below. Touring this site, Fresno State student Jose Reyes said, “I think this field trip was the best that I had during my years at Fresno State.

You can learn about railroad infrastructure in the classroom, but until you see such a massive bridge (over the San Joaquin River) up close, you don’t really understand the size and scope of it all.”

The second site that the students toured was the Fresno Trench. The Fresno Trench is an approximately 1-mile-long trench north of downtown Fresno that will carry CAHSR trains under S.R. 180, a rail spur, and an irrigation canal. The trench parallels Union Pacific Railroad tracks, and includes an intrusion barrier wall to keep high-speed and Union Pacific Railroad trains separate. At its deepest point, the trench will be about 40 ft below grade. When viewing this massive structure, Fresno State student Lilly Moua said, “I found it very interesting to see in person how what we learned in class about railway grade separation structures applied to the California High Speed Rail project in the field.”

The third CAHSR construction site that the students toured was the Cedar Avenue

Viaduct. Located south of Fresno, this 3,700ft-long structure will carry high-speed trains over S.R. 99, North Avenue, Cedar Avenue, and Golden State Boulevard.

As the CAHSR field trip finished up at the Cedar Avenue Viaduct, Fresno State student Gerardo Lopez summed up his thoughts of the experience saying, “This field trip gave me insight of the hard work and time that the engineers, managers, and workers put forth every day on the job. The California High-Speed Rail project will be the first step to a major transportation infrastructure that hopefully will span the nation, give everybody another mode of transportation, and allow everyone to do their part against climate change.”

Fresno State would like to thank the employees of the CAHSR Authority, especially CAHSR Central Regional Director Diana Gomez, for setting up the wonderful opportunity to learn more about CAHSR infrastructure construction in the field. The students enjoyed the tour and received an unmatched learning experience in high-speed rail passenger systems.

Works cited California High-Speed Rail website. https:// www.hsr.ca.gov/high_speed_rail/maps/ construction.aspx. Accessed on 02/25/2020.

May 2020 // Railway Track & Structures 29

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AD INDEX

COMPANY

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E-MAIL ADDRESS

PAGE #

AREMA Marketing Department

301-459-3200

301-459-8077

marketing@arema.org

C3

Danella Rental Systems, Inc.

561-743-7373

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17

Herzog Railroad Services Inc.

816-385-8233

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19

Hougen Manufactruing Company

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info@trak-star.com

20

Messe Berlin GMBH

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North American Rail Products Inc

604-946-7272

888-692-1150

cerhart@narailproducts.com

21

Nordco Inc

414-766-2180

414-766-2379

cnielsen@nordco.com

11

Progress Rail, A Caterpillar Company

256-505-6402

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info@progressrail.com

C4

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18,24

Western-Cullen-Hayes, Inc.

773-254-9600

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16

7

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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.

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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.

32 Railway Track & Structures // May 2020

rtands.com

Congratulations to the AREMA 2020 Educational Foundation Scholarship Winners!

Juliette Marquis University of MassachusettsLowell AREMA Women’s Engineering Scholarship (Sponsored by Larry and Teresa Etherton) Jordan Isaiah Niemeyer Minnesota State University Mankato Canadian National Railway Company Scholarship Samantha Lau Brigham Young University Committee 1 - Roadway & Ballast Scholarship Matthew M. Parkes University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Committee 1 - Roadway & Ballast Scholarship Camila Pereira Silva University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Committee 14 - Yards & Terminals Scholarship Isaias Colombani Univerity of Illinois Urbana Champaign Committee 15 - Steel Structures Professor Wallace Sanders Scholarship Ethan Eric Boardman West Texas A&M University Committee 15 - Steel Structures Professor Wallace Sanders Scholarship Alex Christmas Michigan Technological University Committee 15 - Steel Structures Professor Wallace Sanders Scholarship Lee Evans University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign Committee 15 - Steel Structures Professor Wallace Sanders Scholarship Adrian Diaz De Rivera University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign Committee 24 - Education & Training Scholarship Jason Neufeld University of Manitoba Committee 27 - Maintenanceof-Way Work Equipment Scholarship

Max Barnes Brigham Young University Committee 27 - Maintenanceof-Way Work Equipment Scholarship

Chung-Lin Chan University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign New York Central Railroad Memorial Scholarship

Kyle Dick Michigan Technological University Committee 27 - Maintenanceof-Way Work Equipment Scholarships - Josef W. Neuhofer Memorial Scholarship

Tyler Bernstein University of Delaware Norfolk Southern Foundation Scholarship

Amethyst O’Connell University of Minnesota Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization Scholarship Matheus Trizotto University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign Committee 4 - Rail Art Worth Memorial Scholarship Sina Anesteh University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Committee 4 - Rail Art Worth Memorial Scholarship Daniel Rappoport Illinois Institute of Technology Committee 5 - Track Scholarship Daniel Holmes University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Communications & Signals Functional Group Scholarship Zezhou Wang Rutgers University CSX Scholarship Trevor Curran University of South Carolina John J. Cunningham Memorial Scholarship (Sponsored jointly

by Committees 11 and 17) Michael Joseph Copley Brigham Young University Michael and Gina Garcia Rail Engineering Scholarship Geordie Roscoe University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Michael W. & Jean D. Franke Family Foundation Scholarship Zoe Wahr Michigan Technological University Michigan Tech Alumni Scholarship

Soumya Sharma North Carolina State University North Carolina Railroad Company Scholarship Zhipeng Zhang Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey REMSA Scholarship Christopher Bauer University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign Union Pacific William E. Wimmer Scholarship Braden Vance Brigham Young University Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Scholarship Joshua Musselman Miami University Committee 12 - Rail Transit Kurt Ordillas Illinois Institute of Technology Committee 18 - Light Density & Short Line Railways Josue Cesar Bastos University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Committee 30 - Ties Sam J. Hanson University of Utah Structures Functional Group Member Emeritus Scholarship in Memory of William G. Byers Sheida Khademi University of Texas at Arlington William E. and Barbara I. Van Trump Scholarship

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