RT&S May 2019

SEMA CONSTRUCTION expands one of the busiest facilities in the nation

NRC Directory Inside

NRC Small Project of the Year MAY 2019 | www.rtands.com

Fay recognized for LIRC Flat Rock River Bridge Design-Build Replacement

State of the NRC

Newly-appointed association president Matt Bell talks where he will focus efforts for the rest of the year

AND ALSO

rtands.com

AREMA News P.30

February 2018 // Railway Track & Structures 1

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contents

May 2019

FEATURES

14

State of the NRC Editor-in-Chief Paul Conley interviews newlyappointed association president Matt Bell on where he will put his efforts for the remainder of the year.

22

22 NEWS

4

DEPARTMENTS

Industry Today Amtrak advances Baltimore Penn Station project; Pennsylvania approves $1M grant to improve rail access; Amtrak state of good repair backlog tops $33.3 billion

5

Supplier News Acquisitions, contracts and other news

7

People New hires, promotions and appointments

The NRC awarded its 2018 Large Project of the Year to SEMA Construction. Story on page 22.

SEMA Construction

Credit: SEMA Construction

8

TTCI Fatigue crack growth in rail; Simulation and fullscale lab tests

30

AREMA News Message from the President, Professional Development, rail engineering outreach for all ages

35

Calendar

36

Products

37

Ad Index

37

Sales Representatives

38

Classifieds Advertising

40

Professional Directory

NRC Large Project of the Year SEMA Construction faced a difficult task: Expand one of the busiest facilities in the nation at the busiest time of year.

26

NRC Large Project of the Year The J.B. Fay Company was recognized for its efforts in the LIRC Flat Rock River Bridge Design-Build Replacement, which was completed ahead of schedule despite fierce weather.

Columns

3

On Track Where We’d Been

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On Track

Where We’d Been Vol. 115, No. 51 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 Paul Conley Editor-in-Chief pconley@sbpub.com Kyra Senese Managing Editor ksenese@sbpub.com Bob Tuzik Consulting Editor btuzik@sbpub.com btuzik@sbpub.comCORPORATE OFFICES CORPORATE OFFICES 55 Broad St 26th Fl. 55 Broad St 26th Fl. New York, N.Y. 10004 Telephone New York,(212) N.Y.620-7200 10004 Telephone Fax (212) (212) 633-1165 620-7200 Fax (212) 633-1165 Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr. J. and McGinnis, Jr. Arthur President Chairman President and Chairman Jonathan Chalon Chalon Publisher Jonathan Publisher Mary Conyers Production Mary Conyers Director Production Director Nicole D’Antona Art Director D’Antona Nicole Art Director Aleza Leinwand Graphic Leinwand Aleza Designer Graphic Designer Maureen Cooney Maureen CirculationCooney Director Circulation Director Michelle Zolkos Conference Michelle Zolkos Director Conference Director Customer Service: 800-895-4389 Reprints: PARS Service: International 800-895-4389 Corp.

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I

took a ride on a train the other day.

But not on just any train.

This was Amtrak’s Northeast Regional 182, but with something extra: attached to the rear of the passenger coaches were Amtrak’s Track Inspection Vehicle and Catenary Inspection Vehicle.

Before my ride was over I’d learned quite a bit about track geometry and such. But I’d also learned something far more important about the inherent joy of railroading.

Let me explain.

The good people of AREMA Committee 2, which deals with track measurement and assessment systems, had invited me to their meeting in Baltimore.

Normally I might pass on such an offer.

But Committee 2 made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Amtrak’s senior director of clearances and inspections, Mike Trosino, had arranged for attendees to take an excursion on the track and catenary inspection vehicles.

Taking that trip seemed like a wise thing to do given my vocation as a transportation journalist. But the real reason I went was because riding on inspection vehicles seemed like a fun thing to do given my avocation as a transportation geek.

In the way that other people have always wanted to see the Louvre or sail the Atlantic, I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a geometry car.

Interestingly, I wasn’t the only person on board to get all nerdy about diagnostics software and assorted pieces of inspection hardware. The members of Committee 2 who rode the inspection vehicles with me were positively giddy.

For every one conversation I heard about crosslevel, curvature and alignment, I heard at least three about how “cool” and “fun” it was to ride the inspection vehicles.

At one point I made my way to the very end of the track-inspection car and sat at a window facing out the back of the train.

It was an interesting view … looking at where we’d been but unable to see where we headed.

As we passed a station I saw a few people standing on a platform awaiting a train that would head in the opposite direction. Each and every one of them turned and watched us. The kids bounced up and down in excitement.

And two Dads, holding the hands of toddlers, waved at us.

There was something magical in that moment. And I was grateful to see it.

For there are few businesses, few professions, that make engineers giddy, cause kids to jump, and make men wave.

Paul Conley 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, 55 Broad St. 26th Floor, New York, NY 10004. 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 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 3

Industry today

Amtrak advances Baltimore Penn Station project

A

mtrak has executed a Master Development Agreement with Penn Station Partners to redevelop and expand historic Baltimore Penn Station on the Northeast Corridor.

Amtrak plans to contribute up to $90 million toward expansion and modernization.

The first phase of work at Baltimore Penn Station includes the renovation of an existing platform to bring it back into service and the construction of an addi-

tional platform.

Planning and development due diligence have been under way since January 2018, following Amtrak’s announcement of Penn Station Partners as the selected Baltimore Penn Station Master Developer. The Baltimore-based developer partnership is led

by Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners, along with a local and international team of planning, design, and construction firms.

Planning has been underway since January 2018.

Pennsylvania approves $1M grant to improve rail access A Pennsylvania state agency approved a $1 million grant to improve rail access at a former Metso Minerals property in Danville, Pa. The state Department of Community and Economic Development announced that the grant would be given to Montour County through Driving Real Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) — the economic development council serving Pennsylvania’s Montour and Columbia counties.

4 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

The project aims to rehabilitate a site that has been previously developed and but is not in use, resulting in improved rail and truck access. Officials said the project involves repaving an entire roadway from Wall Street, moving and expanding a railroad crossing to two lanes, building a new access road, raising a rail bridge, carrying out drainage improvements and building a new rail turnout.

The planned work is expected to minimize damage from flash floods and establish

an industrial facility that is capable of supporting several new manufacturers.

The SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority and North Shore Railroad, which was Railway Age’s Shortline of the Year in 2017, are each expected to contribute $25,000 to the project. Improvements to an access road on the Metso property are also scheduled.

Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. manufactures and offers equipment and services for quarrying. rtands.com

Industry today

Amtrak state of good repair backlog tops $33.3 billion There’s a lot of work to be done on Amtrak. The railroad said recently that its state of good repair backlog (SOGR) has passed $33.3 billion, with $28.1 billion of that on the Northeast Corridor.

Those billion-dollar figures, included in a five-year infrastructure plan released by the railroad, mark an historic low point for the passenger service. Amtrak describes the state of good repair backlog (SOGR) as “the assets that have been assessed as at or nearing the end of their useful lives.”

Amtrak Engineering has set set a target of 10 years to eliminate the SOGR backlog, the railroad said, while noting that only some portions of that goal is likely to be reached.

“While achieving a 10-year schedule for all asset types would likely require more support resources (manpower, equipment and track outages) than are realistically available, Amtrak is confident that some assets such as Track, can be accomplished in this period if adequate funding is available,” the railroad said in its report.

Amtrak says it will need “$3.33 billion per year to address SOGR across all the asset categories” during the next decade.

The railroad also notes that when “assessing our forecast FY2019 to FY2024 capital funding there is a $17.6 billion shortfall in funding to begin to address SOGR,” Amtrak said. Complicating matters additionally is that the money needed to address the SOGR “is in addition to the necessary $1.2 billion annual steady state investment required to prevent further infrastructure deterioration.”

The railroad cites years of underinvestment for the SOGR problem, and issued a

“constrained” infrastructure plan for FY2019 to FY2024 capital program that doesn’t include SOGR funding. for Engineering totals $6.45 billion – of which $5.25 billion is infrastructure projects.

The full report runs 356 pages, and is full of detailed descriptions of work planned for the system. Some key highlights include • $$436,384,111 over six years in spending related to concrete tie replacement along the Northeast Corridor. That project uses Track Laying System (TLS) , a mechanized rail and concrete tie replacement unit utilizing the Track Laying Machine (TLM). The projects’ team, dubbed TLS Blue, has 129 workers made up of five gangs (Head-End, TLM, Clipping, Surfacing and Material Handling).

• $93,791,94 over six years to replace wayside and interlocking turnouts throughout the Northeast Corridor. Also performed under this program is the removal of old ballast and track to restore proper drainage and the installation of new track panels.

• $500,000 in FY2019 for a total redesign of the concrete tie used in high speed track.

This will include benchmarking current design, developing and evaluating alternate designs, producing prototypes, laboratory testing and installation in track most of the work will be carried out by engineering consultants familiar with concrete tie design.

• $646,841 throughout the course of six years for rail grinding work to be conducted for newly installed, continuously welded rail or switches along the NEC. (Grinding of older rail and switches will remain in the core budget.”

Supplier News 3i GROUP PLC will take control of REGIONAL RAIL LLC, an owner of multiple short-line railroads and D IA M O N D B A C K SIG N AL LL C .

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

IRONHORSE RESOURCES acquired two Tennessee Class III carriers: the Sequatchie Valley Railroad a n d t h e Wa l k i n g H o r s e a n d Eastern Railroad, renaming them S e q u a t c h i e Va l l e y S w i t c h i n g Company and the Walking Horse Railroad, respectively.

RAILWORKS TRACK SYSTE MS, a subsidiary of RAILWORKS CORP. will build more than 134,000 track feet at a 76-acre site in Gregory, Texas, where SAVAGE GULF RAIL LLS i s b u i l d i n g a ra i l s to ra g e and handling yard at a plastics manufacturing facility.

THE PORT OF MUSKOGEE, a regional p o r t a l o n g th e M c Cl e ll a n-Ke rr Arkansas River Navigation System in Oklahoma, received a $3 million development grant for a railroad modernization project from the City of Muskogee Foundation.

MARTA awarded STADLER RAIL a contract to supply 127 two-car rapid transit trainsets with options for up to 50 additional sets.

TRACKMOBILE, ZEPHIR S.p.A. and LEAF locomotive merged under the Berkshire Hathaway, Marmon Holdings, Inc. umbrella to form GLOBAL RAILCAR MOVER GROUP.

Buffalo’s Metro Rail gets $100 million for improvements The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority won a promise from New York State for $100 million in funding over five years for infrastructure improvements to Buffalo’s Metro Rail system.

The move is welcome news for the 6.4 mile system, which has deteriorated over the years. In February, state legislators began discussing a plan to set aside a separate $100 million funding source for the city’s lightrail line. rtands.com

In addition to the infrastructure funds, the state also approved $6 million for an engineering study to expand the 6.4-mile rail line to the University at Buffalo’s North Campus.

Metro Rail has 13 full-time stations: five above-ground and eight underground. An additional “special”station serves the KeyBank Center during major sporting events and concerts.

Buffalo’s transit system has been the focus

of much attention of late. News of the funding plan comes less than two months after the NFTA received a $778,000 federal grant to study a proposal to extend light-rail service from Buffalo to the nearby community of Amherst, NY. And just a week before that Hohl Industrial Services Inc. and Scrufari Construction Co. won a $27.7 million design-and-build contract for an intermodal passenger transportation hub planned for downtown.

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 5

Industry today

FTA approves next step for Sound Transit light-rail extension The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) moved Sound Transit’s Federal Way Link Extension forward in its funding process, granting the project approval to advance to the engineering phase — a necessary step toward securing a critical grant.

The project has earned a “Medium-High” rating by the FTA in its annual review of transit projects seeking the highly competitive grants, according to a press release from Sound Transit.

In the coming months Sound Transit

will continue intensive work to advance its federal grant application, working closely with the FTA and the region’s congressional delegation.

“Years in the making, this critical federal investment is a testament to the collaboration and determination of Sound Transit and local leaders to reduce congestion along the busy I-5 corridor and strengthen public transit options for families and workers in Puget Sound,” Sen. Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations

Committee, said. “I will keep fighting to strengthen federal investments in smart transportation priorities like the Federal Way Link project that will help increase mobility and improve access for communities throughout King County.”

The FTA’s Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program is the federal government’s primary financial resource for supporting transit capital projects that are locally planned, implemented and operated. With FTA’s approval of the project into Engineering, FTA locked in the CIG funding amount at $790 million.

Trains on the 7.8-mile light rail extension from Angle Lake in SeaTac to Federal Way will serve three stations along the route in Kent/Des Moines, at South 272nd Street and the Federal Way Transit Center. Demolition and utility relocation work is scheduled to begin this fall, with major construction activities beginning in 2020.

By 2021, Sound Transit will expand light rail to the U District, Roosevelt and Northgate. In 2023 trains will reach Mercer Island, Bellevue and the Overlake area. In addition to completing the Federal Way Link Extension, 2024 will bring the opening of further extensions to Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and Downtown Redmond.

Commuter rail execs form new trade association “Commuter rail,” says Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski, “needs a distinct voice.” Derwinski and a group of current and former passenger rail industry executives led by former New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Director of Regulatory Affairs, Corporate Standards and Benchmarking KellyAnne

Gallagher, have launched the Commuter Rail Coalition (CRC), described as “an association representing the interests, needs and benefits of the nation’s commuter railroads.”

“The Commuter Rail Coalition is comprised of commuter rail agencies, operators and other interested parties acting

THE

together to engage and educate stakeholders and communities on the value of commuter railroads,” says Gallagher, CRC’s Founding Executive Director (who also spent many years at APTA advocating for commuter rail). “The coalition will give a stronger voice in Washington D.C. to the safest mode of surface transportation..”

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6 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

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Industry today

People Four-decade transit industry veteran Joe Calabrese joined FOCUS E D TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, a division of The Marmon/Berkshire Hathaway Company, as Senior Advisor. His new appointment went into effect April 1.

Daniel Loftus, PE, is a new leader i n H N T B ’s C h i c a g o o f f i c e, w h e re he now ser ves as senior transit project manager.

M A C R O, a d i v i s i o n o f R o s s & Baruzzini, an advanced mobility and communications systems engineering c o n s u l ta n c y f i r m , h a s a p p o i n te d Sean Kennedy as its new director of business development.

T h e N AT I O N A L R A I L R OA D CONSTRUCTION & MAINTE NANCE ASSOCIATION added Kevin Hicks, PE, vice president at TranSystems Corp., to the association’s Board of Directors.

OmniTRAX, Inc., elected Cameron

rtands.com

Scott and David Garin to its Board of Directors.

Th e c it y of PH O E N IX, A riz., h a s selected Markus Coleman as its new light rail administrator. Coleman brings experience in public transit, planning and development departments and the City Manager’s office.

Clarelle DeGraffe is the new director of rail transit and general manager of PO RT AUTH O R IT Y TR AN S - H U DSO N CORP. effective March 25, following a promotion from officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The REGIONAL TR ANSPORTATION AU T H O R I T Y a p p o i n te d A l exa n d ra Holt as its newest board member, representing the city of Chicago.

The SOUTHWEST CHIEF AND FRONT RANGE PASSENGER RAIL COMMISSION has chosen Randy Grauberger to serve as its first project director.

STRATEGIC RAIL FINANCE named rail industry veteran Carl Belke as Executive Consultant in the firm’s Freight Rail Business Advisory practice.

John Brestin, P.E., S.E., an engineer and practice leader who has spearheaded the design of significant bridge initiatives throughout the United States, has joined STV as vice president and head of the firm’s bridge practice.

John Ponzio was also promoted to serve as senior vice president of STV’s National Systems Group.

Douglas Campbell is TNW C O R P O R AT I O N ’s n e w d i re c to r o f Infrastructure and Strategic Initiatives.

He reports to Jeff Davis, TNW’s chief operating officer.

TR A N S P O R TATI O N TE CH N O LO GY CENTER, INC. named Karalyn Moreira as its Executive Director of Business Development.

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 7

TTCI r&D

Fatigue Crack Growth in Rail; Simulation and Full-Scale Lab Tests A two-year testing program of calculating FCGR properties of rail steels was conducted

by TTCI .

by Ananyo Banerjee, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Transportation Technology Center, Inc.

T

ransportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) conducted a two-year testing program to determine the importance of fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) properties of five modern rail steels and one 1980s-era rail steel. Results were compared with available published FCGR properties of rail steels from literature. These properties were used in a fracture mechanics model developed by TTCI named RailGrow to analyze the influence of FCGR properties on growth of fatigue defects that form in the head of a rail. The results show the importance of underlying assumptions in the fracture mechanics models. Of particular note is the definition of the initial

(a)

fatigue crack—its location, size, shape and orientation. .1 For understanding differences in results obtained from RailGrow simulations and crack growth in rails under revenue service conditions, TTCI tasked Texas A&M University (TAMU) to build a rail fatigue test rig and to test service-worn rails with pre-existing head defects. The intention was to test rail samples collected from railroads to fracture and compare actual crack growth with simulated outputs from RailGrow. This led to an improved understanding of crack growth behavior. Using those results, TTCI is working on refining RailGrow for better predictive capabilities. FCGR testing of rail steels and fatigue loading of rails with internal defects, along with simulations, have shown that the influence of residual stresses on crack growth is an important parameter to consider but difficult to quantify. Residual stresses in rails are generated from a combination of rollerstraightening stresses from the rail manufacturing process and rolling contact in service. TTCI intends to measure residual stresses after fracture as well as analyze other rail properties to more accurately model crack growth as a next step in this research. This work is funded under the Association of American Railroads’ (AAR) Strategic Research Initiative (SRI) program.2

Fatigue Crack Growth Rate Testing of Samples Machined from New Rails RailGrow utilizes a variety of parameters, including material properties of the rail, to estimate the stresses that typically cause the propagation of a crack. The FCGR properties of a rail steel are important inputs for RailGrow. The crack in a metal follows three stages during its growth — from initiation to fracture as shown in Figure 1a. The first stage of the sigmoidal curve of the fatigue crack growth is bound by a threshold (TH) value or ΔKTH below which there is no observable fatigue crack growth. Delta (Δ) K is the range of the stress intensity factor (Kmax - Kmin).

At stresses below ΔKTH, cracks behave as nonpropagating cracks. Region II is the longest and stable region of crack growth and represents a linear relationship where ‘C’ is the intercept of the logarithmic plot and ‘m’ is the slope of the linear Region II. Testing was done at two commercial laboratories using samples machined from heads of the rails. FCGR properties of three different high strength (HS) rails, one standard strength (SS) and one intermediate strength (IS) rail, all manufactured after 2015 with zero tonnage, showed similar FCGR curves, lower ΔKTH and similar slopes in Region II as shown in Figure 1b.

Comparison with FCGR curves of rails manufactured in the 1980s show that most FCGR curves of older rails have higher ΔKTH values and steeper slopes in Region II. The ΔKTH values and the material constants

(b)

Figure 1 (a) Typical FCGR curve in metals showing constants (C, m) and three stages of crack growth; and (b) comparison of FCGR curves of tested rails with literature data

8 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

rtands.com

TTCI r&d

(C,m) calculated from the slopes of Region II were used in RailGrow along with other parameters held constant for a simulated crack representing a transverse defect of size 5 percent of the head area of a 136 pound per yard (lb./yd.) rail and located towards the gage side of the head as shown inset of the plot in Figure 2. The median of the predicted rail tonnage (MGT) during crack growth until fracture was almost seven times higher for the 1980s rails having higher ΔKTH values than modern rails with lower ΔKTH values. It needs to be noted that the results of the 1980s rails includes the tested rail’s FCGR properties as well as similar properties obtained from literature and the data is scattered from 66 MGT to 347 MGT with outliers at 47 MGT and 462 MGT. Also, the box plot of HS rails includes 15 samples of three HS rail types while the SS and IS data has five samples each. Although Figure 2 shows 1980s rails having longer lives than modern rails with crack growth starting from the same defect size, crack growth is dependent on various factors other than FCGR properties.

Modern rails have reduced chances of defect formation than 1980s rails because of reduced amounts of voids and inclusions compared to 1980s rails due to cleaner steel manufacturing processes. Voids, inclusions and metallurgical contaminants act as stress risers for defect formations and principles of fracture mechanics only apply to rails with defects already formed and cannot be used to determine which factors can form defects.

Fatigue Loading of Rails with Defects under Simulated Rail Loads Rails with internal fatigue defects in the heads and removed from revenue service were donated by a Class I railroad for testing at TAMU. The schematic test rig is shown in Figure 3a. Cyclic loading conditions are generated in the railhead under the action of two axles of the trailing truck of one car and two axles of the leading truck of the next car.

There are bending moments created by direct loading of the wheels and five reverse bending moments underneath the coupler, in between wheels and in front and behind the trucks as shown in Figure 3b. The highest tensile bending stress in the head of the rail occurs underneath the coupler. The test rig was designed to apply these direct and indirect bending moments along with the application of a constant longitudinal stress to simulate thermal stress conditions.

The first rail tested using this rig had an internal transverse defect of initial size 0.02 square inch and the defect grew over a time span of approximately four months to a size of rtands.com

Figure 2: Comparison of MGT to failure for modern HS, IS, SS and 1980s rails

(a)

(b) Figure 3 (a) Schematic test rig for fatigue testing of rails at Texas A&M University and (b) bending moments on the rail due to wheel loads

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 9

TTCI r&D

0.70 square inch. The rail was subjected to 1.2 million loading cycles throughout this time span and the defect size was measured periodically during the test using a phased array ultrasonic device. The test was paused at every 25,000 cycles and the phased array was used to make both a longitudinal and a transverse pass over the railhead. The output from the phased array was then utilized to calculate the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the crack (approximated by assuming that the crack is elliptical in shape). The rail was broken-open and the final crack size was measured visually as shown in Figure 4a. RailGrow was used to predict rail life based on the initial defect size and using FCGR properties obtained from testing of five samples of a similar SS rail and three different residual stress conditions of 5, 10 and 20 ksi. Figure 4b shows the variation in RailGrow’s results of rail life in tonnage before failure (MGT to failure) obtained using varying residual stresses and FCGR properties of the SS rail. The result of the actual test is shown as a yellow column in Figure 4b. The variation in Figure 4b shows the relative influences of residual stresses and FCGR properties in predicting growth of a defect in a rail keeping all other parameters (rail size, wheel loads, thermal stresses) same using principles of fracture mechanics. (a)

(b)

Figure 4 (a) Final defect size of first rail tested at Texas A&M test rig and (b) RailGrow results showing variation in rail life in tonnage under varying FCGR properties and residual stress conditions.

10 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

Conclusions A two-year testing program of calculating FCGR properties of rail steels was conducted

by TTCI along with the initiation of a research program of testing rails with internal fatigue head defects under simulated wheel loads and longitudinal stresses at TAMU. Results from both testing programs have been used in simulations using a fracture mechanics model named RailGrow. Simulation results from RailGrow have further led to the understanding of the influence on growth of fatigue defects because of the complex interplay of metallurgical properties, fatigue properties and residual stresses. Further research is aimed to understanding this complex interplay by analysing residual stresses and other properties of rail steels.

References 1. Banerjee, A. and K. Morrison, “Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Growth Rate Properties of Rail Steels and Their Influence on Rail Life”, Technology Digest (in review) 2. Tournay H, A Banerjee, D. Allen, C. Droddy and P. Keating, “Development of Fatigue Loading Test Rig of Rails”, Technology Digest TD-18-029, November 2018, AAR/ TTCI, Pueblo, CO rtands.com

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14 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

our NRC Membership Committee Chairwoman Jody Sims for helping us lead this record-breaking membership achievement year after year.

With our Membership growth on track, I’m focusing the responsibilities of my new position on finding ways the NRC can provide benefits to each one of our Member Companies – from the large contractors, to the small family owned ones, and everyone in between. One of our goals is to continue the successful work of our NRC committees, including safety, education, scholarship, and transit – which provide value to our Member Companies through regularly held forums and working groups. Another one of our goals is to find ways to assist these businesses with industry training for

their railroad construction-maintenance employees. Additionally, we are always working to increase our presence online through social media and organic press coverage, and we’d like to thank the many local news teams who have come out to several of our events across the nation thus far this year.

Looking ahead, I’m grateful to be following in the footsteps of two past NRC Presidents, Chuck Baker and Ray Chambers, who both built an unmatched reputation and profile in the D.C. transportation arena, as well as across the greater railroad industry.

I plan on continuing to bring the NRC into the 21st century by furthering our streamlined Membership and Conference services platform, increasing our social media rtands.com

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/ Tomas Kulaja

T&S: Matt, you’re just a few weeks into your new role at the top of the NRC. What’s it been like so far?

And what can we expect to see different now that you’re at the helm?

Matt Bell: The NRC has great Member Companies, a tremendous Board of Directors, and a great staff team. I am honored to lead the NRC and support a community as respectable and important as the railroad industry. The NRC is in the best financial shape in the history of our organization.

The NRC’s membership is the largest it has ever been. And we are providing more education grant funding to railroad engineering and construction management programs at colleges and universities than we have ever done. A special thank you to

By RT&S Staff

state of the nrc

strategy built around highlighting our Members and Association-industry efforts, and overseeing a comprehensive evaluation of our collective impacts. As an association, we will continue to place communication and transparency with our Member Companies as a top priority, through use of monthly bulletin updates, nearly daily social media posts, and a variety of other new, exciting methods to stay in touch with our base.

The NRC will continue to be a force on Capitol Hill, as well. We are proud to support our friends at the ASLRRA in advocating for the 45G tax credit. We are also glad to work with AAR in supporting the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and free trade policies.

RT&S: We hear that the NRC is looking to revamp its marketing efforts. What can you tell us about that? Is there a new website coming? New branding? A new name or logo?

Chana Elgin: One of the NRC’s top priorities is maintaining our brand in the industry and the good image our name carries – when you see NRC, we want you to think, ‘Safety.’ We want you to think, ‘Connections,’ ‘Education,’ ‘Community’ – all of what we stand for every day in our efforts and at our jobs across the industry.

And we’re excited to make sure this happens within the next year.

Mike Choat: The NRC prides itself on communicating directly and often with our diverse Membership – working in everything from fundamental rail construction, to rail operation itself – to learn about their day-to-day and bigger picture priorities, including how regulations and federal policies may be impacting business and bottom lines.

This is why, this year, we created a Marketing Committee, currently led by Russ Gehl, with Holland, and have been working closely with a well-known and respected rail advisory consultant, Kathy Simpson, to really take significant time and evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts across the Association and beyond. With their guidance and the commitments we’ve received from our staff, Board, and entire organization, we are on track to, not only roll out a new website early next year, but ensure our organization’s long-term presence and take us to the next level for many Chairmanships to come.

RT&S: Let’s talk about metrics. What is rtands.com

the state of the NRC today? How many members are there? How many companies are represented by the organization? Do you have a sense of the NRC’s penetration in the market for contractors and others?

Mike McGonagle: The state of the NRC is as strong as ever since we first formed in early 70s. At the moment, 425+ rail construction, supply, and professional service companies are members of the NRC, which has more than doubled over the last 10 years. We have had over 400 companies as NRC members each year for the last four years. And we absolutely see that continuing in 2019!

We are proud of our strategic approach to recruitment, but we attribute most of the membership growth to word of mouth, the NRC Membership Committee led by Jody Sims, and the NRC Board Members. We at the NRC believe that our Member Companies represent a majority of the significant contractors and supply companies in the railroad constructionmaintenance market. Of course, if your company is not a member and would like to be involved in opportunities to serve the contracting-maintenance rail community, please reach out to me at mmcgonagle@ nrcma.org or visit nrcma.org/join.

RT&S: Give that, where do you see room for growth? Why should a non-member become a member? What do you offer them that they can’t find elsewhere?

Matt: The growth goals for the NRC are not just in NRC membership or 2020 NRC Conference attendance numbers; rather, we see lots of opportunity for growth in the value the NRC can provide to our Members and greater construction-maintenance industry as a whole.

Whether it be adding more NRC scholarship opportunities – increased from three to six awardees in 2019 – more technical trainings, or continuing to build our Association’s relationship with the leading railroad engineering and construction programs at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada, we are fully involved in making a difference on this front.

The NRC works hard to expand rail construction and maintenance business opportunities, protect rail contractors from intrusive government regulation, and improve railroad construction safety and operations.

A few benefits of being an NRC Member include: • In regard to safety –

- The NRC is committed to bringing its Members the most up-to-date safety information available, recognizing companies and individuals who advance safety in the railroad construction industry. There are a variety of programs and resources available to NRC Members created to promote railroad construction safety.

- NRC Member Companies have access to FRA Part 219 testing programs and Part 243 rulemaking templates, 100+ safety tool box talks, and our ongoing series of NRC Safety Training videos, of which we have produced 25 and counting.

NRC Member Companies also participate in the NRC Safety Committee and are eligible for the annual Railroad Contractor of the Year Safety Awards.

- Our Association is also a voting member on the FRA Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC), and several individuals of the NRC Member Companies sit on RSAC working groups recognized by the federal government and industry at large.

- We have a very active NRC Safety Committee, which includes highly experienced safety professionals from over 50 Member Companies. Thanks to our current Chair Darwin Isdahl, from Loram Maintenance of Way, Vice Chair Greg Coleman, from RailWorks, and Dave Berstrom, from the NRC Board.

Another special thank you to former NRC Safety Committee chair, Ernesto Scarpitti, of Delta Railroad Construction, for being a part of a RSAC working group and for your leadership.

• On Industry Networking Events: - The NRC’s industry networking events are the best in the railroad business, but don’t just take our word for it – check the stats!: Our annual Conference is one of

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 15

state of the nRC

the top networking events year in and year out, where NRC Members receive discounted registration and booth fees, in addition to special listings and access to attendee lists. Furthermore, the NRC co-sponsors Railroad Day on Capitol Hill, known across Washington as one of the most influential days every congressional session.

- Lastly, we hope you didn’t miss our most successful NRC Railroad Equipment Auction last month at Blackmon Auctions in Arkansas, where, this year, we broke another record. Every year the NRC hosts this Auction to help our NRC Safety and Education fund designated to support the upcoming generation of our community industry.

• Regulatory & Legislative Affairs: - The NRC works to promote and support legislation helping the railroad and the related construction industry, ultimately protecting the railroad construction-maintenance industry from burdensome overregulation.

NRC Member Companies regularly

receive updates on federal and state transportation infrastructure spending and regulatory changes, and we’re happy to address any policy or federal government-related questions from our Members at any time.

- The NRC is working with the American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) in submitting a repeal of parts of the Part 243 regulation to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Part 243 affects most of our contractor companies, and the NRC sees most of the regulation to be a federal government overreach.

RT&S: Let’s talk a bit about the lobbying efforts. The rail industry is again facing a number of political issues that we haven’t seen in decades, i.e., steel tariffs, threats to close the southern border, drops in traincarried exports, a growing split over the role and cost of high-speed passenger trains, a federal government that has declined to fund the Gateway Tunnel project and seems less-than-enamored of Amtrak’s

long-distance service. What do you see as the big political issues for the next year?

What are your lobbying goals? What areas are you diving in to? Which do you not see as NRC issues?

Matt: Government affairs in Washington, D.C., is critical to our Member Companies and to the railroads our Member Companies work for across the U.S. There are five top federal legislative issues the NRC will focus on in 2019: First and foremost, the NRC and our railroad partners support free trade. The NRC is working closely with the USMCA Coalition (usmcacoalition.org), which includes Union Pacific, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Kansas City Southern, and many railroad agriculture and industry customers, to secure congressional approval of the United-States-MexicoCanada Agreement (USMCA). The agreement preserves and strengthens America’s strong trade ties to Canada and Mexico.

The USMCA is important for the railroad industry because over 40 percent of all rail traffic is connected to international

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state of the nRC

trade, much of which occurs across North America. In the USMCA, the NRC and railroad industry would like to see Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs stopped from being impressed upon Mexico and Canada.

All three Presidents of these countries signed the agreement last December, and the next step is for Congress to ratify the agreement. Look for that to happen sometime in 2019.

One of the NRC’s most important legislative issues over the last decade has been supporting our short line railroad partners in advocating for the passage of the short line railroad tax credit (45G), otherwise known as the Building Rail Access for Customers and the Economy (BRACE) Act. If passed by Congress, the BRACE Act (H.R. 510 and S. 203), will allow the nation’s small, local freight railroads to increase their reinvestment for upgrades and expand the “first and last mile” of transportation infrastructure. This Act was created in 2004 and directly helps our Member Companies. In years when this bill became passed law, the short line railroads

invested more money into railroad ties, ballast, steel rail, and other construction and maintenance projects. This bill did not pass in 2018; however, the railroad industry is optimistic in getting the tax credit extended by Congress in 2019.

The next legislative issue the NRC is supportive of is a federal comprehensive infrastructure package dedicated to increasing federal funds for surface transportation.

The NRC hopes to see a standalone bill or a legislative package combined with the reauthorization of the FAST Act, potentially sometime this year.

Another legislative priority for the NRC is opposing increases to federal limits for truck sizes and weights.

Lastly, the NRC would like to see more contracting out of construction-maintenance work opportunities for our nation’s legacy transit systems, consisting of BART, CTA, MARTA, MBATA, NYMTA, SEPTA, and WMATA. The NRC is working with Members of Congress to add increased contracting-out measures to FTA federal formula programs.

Relatedly, but an issue not directly involving a majority of our Member Companies (for now) is the procurement of transit rail cars by China. The Chinese stateowned China Railway Rolling Stock Corp is building rail cars for some of America’s biggest cities, prompting cybersecurity concerns and bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress. This matter became such a concern that, last year, the U.S. Senate agreed to a 1-year ban on any new procurements of mass transit rail cars or buses from companies owned or subsidized by the government of the People’s Republic of China. Check out the Rail Security Alliance’s website at railsecurity.org for more information, and keep your eyes peeled for congressional legislation on this issue this year.

RT&S: One overarching theme that’s resurfaced in politics is regulation of the rail industry. Matt Rose has warned that PSR could lead the Surface Transportation Board to intervene more seriously to protect shippers’ access to rail. Transit activists are pushing harder to give Amtrak

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state of the nrc

and commuter rail priority on tracks owned by railroad companies. How should the NRC and the construction/maintenance community respond?

Mike Choat: I want to again thank former BNSF Executive Chairman Matt Rose for attending the 2019 NRC Conference. Mr. Rose provided great insight to not only BNSF, but the complete railroad industry, to our Conference attendees. Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) is changing the railroad and our construction-maintenance landscape overall.

The good thing about PSR is the railroads increasing operating safely, improving customer service, and contracting out more work to contractors. The bad is that some railroads’ goals are to move the same amount of traffic with fewer engines and crews.

Hopefully we don’t lose too many career railroaders, but, as my friend Carl Walker, of CSX, said at our Conference in beautiful Marco Island, Fla., this January, “…The concept that we’ve gotten from PSR is that you want to take waste out of the system.”

rtands.com

RT&S: Earlier this year, 60 Minutes ran a segment that portrayed railroads as not adequately concerned with safety.

Given how much effort the NRC puts in to promoting safety, that must have been tough to watch. What’s the answer? How can the industry get out the message that railroads and NRÇ members care deeply about safety? Are there new safety initiatives planned for 2019?

Mike Choat: The media’s bottom line is to sell information as news you need and want to know, even if it’s not. Not everything can be taken at face value.

My response to how a news magazine television program portrays the safety of the railroads is to compare transporting goods and people by rail versus the highway options: numbers-wise, at the very least, long distance freight is cheaper and safer to move more at the same rate and capacity, as compared to traditional road transports.

The rail industry is not only statistically safer than the highway option, which is crowding our busiest and most congested

corridors more and more, but it is the safest it has ever been. This decade alone, the railroad industry is averaging less time lost time because of an injury of an employee than any decade in the history of America’s railroad system.

Matt Bell: Safety is the number one goal for the NRC and all our Member Companies. We are committed to safe practices and operations on every rail construction and maintenance project.

In 2018, for example, of the 60+ NRC member contractors that participated in the annual NRC Safety Awards contest, 90 percent had a U.S. Department of Labor OSHA Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses Days Away/Restricted or Transfer (DART) rate under 1.00, and more than two-thirds had a National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) Experience Modification Rating of under 0.79. Our Member Companies lead the industry in working with the Class 1 railroads, short line railroads, commuter railroads, transit authorities and Amtrak and in doing every job as efficiently, perfectly, and safely as possible.

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 19

state of the nRC

In the fall of 2019, the NRC will roll out a new NRC Safety Innovation award. The purpose of this award is to honor innovation in achieving safety excellence by an NRC Member Company in 2019.

In our industry today, we see how drones, radar, signals, and communications, among other technologies, play a growing role in our railroad and railroad constructionmaintenance industry.

This new award will consider innovations that have made a dramatic, positively disruptive improvement in the safety results and already greatly reduced the risk of injuries in the workplace in 2019.

New ideas and approaches to safety will be considered, as well as the implementation of proven concepts, but in a creative, innovative way that tangibly produces identified results.

Look for more detail on how to participate in this new award program later this fall.

RT&S: It’s widely understood, even by the industry itself, that railroading has a problem with diversity. The industry

simply doesn’t attract many young people, women or people of color. Other industries that faced this issue years ago have found ways to change. Agriculture, home construction, law enforcement, the military, etc. are far more diverse today than 20 years ago. Railroading outside of the U.S. has changed its culture too. Why can’t U.S. railroading solve this issue? What role can the NRC play in recruiting? In changing the industry’s culture?

Mike Choat: It’s no secret that tradition is a big part of the railroad, but the NRC is extremely excited to be part of welcoming a new era of inclusiveness and diversity unlike anything some folks in our industry have seen in their lifetimes.

Chana Elgin: We are always looking to increase and understand outside perspectives, which is why we are working closely with leading organizations, like the League of Railway Women and the Young Professionals, to facilitate the essential conversations required to bring about this fundamental culture change all around. We’re also extending our reach

to the next generation of the community by increasing our scholarship efforts and targeting the up-and-coming leaders, as well as their specific university industry programs, to incentivize and support their educational efforts.

We’ll continue to invite diverse, young achievers to the table and our Board to stay informed and at the helm of these important initiatives for change, and we’re all aboard for progress, especially as it relates to these issues.

RT&S: Is there anything you’d like to add?

What else do we need to know about the NRC in 2019?

Matt Bell: In closing, we want to thank everyone who attended the 2019 NRC Conference. We had a record attendance, great speakers from all seven Class 1 railroads, short lines and commuters, and two great panels – one on PTC and one on PSR. Save the date and, mark your calendars now for the 2020 NRC Conference – January 5-8th in sunny San Diego.

Mike: Seconded! See you all soon.

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LARGE PROJECT OF THE YEAR

NRC Project of the Year:

BNSF

I

ALLIANCE Intermodal Facility Expansion, Phase II

t wasn’t easy.

Sure, railroad construction projects are never easy. But this one was in a class all by itself. BNSF needed extensive work done at the Alliance Intermodal Facility, located in Haslet, Texas, 25 miles north of Fort Worth. The original BNSF Alliance yard opened in 1994. Since then, freight traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has 22 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

skyrocketed. And BNSF has seen constant growth at Alliance.

The railroad embarked on a series of add-ons, and then began planning Phase 1 of a major expansion back in 2013. Seemingly as soon as that phase ended, the railroad brought SEMA in for Phase II. But by the time work began, it was clear that Phase II was going to be exceedingly

complicated. The facility was experiencing an unexpected surge in traffic. And the holiday shipping season was about to begin.

“We had to maintain facility operations with all these cars coming in and out,” said Scott Gerrard, vice president, railroad, for SEMA Construction. “That was a constant hurdle. It involved an enormous amount of phasing.” rtands.com

LARGE PROJECT OF THE YEAR

SEMA Construction faced a difficult task: Expand one of the busiest facilities in the nation at the busiest time of year.

Indeed.

The original plan broke construction into three phases, with complete shutdowns of some tracks for roughly a month. But high demand put an end to that idea.

A new seven-phase plan was created in which no single track could be shut down for more than 10 days. Nor could any two tracks be out of service at the same time. rtands.com

And the work crews would have only intermittent 8-hour windows in which to install drainage under live tracks.

People Who Need People But SEMA had an advantage. The company had done lots of smaller projects at Alliance.

Project managers knew the BNSF operations folks well. The sometimes complicated

matter of getting railroad operations teams to speak clearly and often with construction crews wasn’t going to be a problem.

“Given our past experience with the yard and previous relations with the operations department, we had a history of communicating well,” said Gerrard. “That helped us get off to a running start and keep everything smooth.”

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 23

LARGE PROJECT OF THE YEAR

Change In Plans The design and engineering team on the project was from HDR. And they too realized that communication would be key as growing traffic pushed the project from three phases to seven.

Lucas Bathurst, PE, was the principal in charge of the project for HDR. “We had to work collaboratively with BNSF terminal operations to make sure we understood the priority of their tracks,” he said. “Then we had to figure out the best sequence of work and convey that to the contractors.”

But nothing is ever that easy.

Planning for Phase II needed to be an iterative process.

“We give opportunities to each of the groups in BNSF to review and comment on each step,” he said. “Operations, signals, environmental, etc. They all have a say. And these are pretty extensive reviews.”

Lots of reviews mean lots of changes. Plus no plan survives untouched once workers start moving dirt. So changing plans became a constant at Alliance.

24 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

And here again the ability of SEMA to communicate with other teams was crucial.

“Like most projects, changes had to made after the fact,” Bathurst said. “SEMA was always proactive in communicating with us about things that needed to shift. Always.

And that was refreshing.”

“

Like most projects, changes had to BE made after the fact

Gerrard agrees that the project required a level of flexibility that isn’t common.

“Typically we do an update of the overall project schedule once a month or so,” he said. But for Alliance Phase II “we did a new, three-week look-ahead schedule every week. We were constantly

updating our schedules as the railroad would let us know where, and where not, we could work.”

Furthermore, BNSF added scope after construction began, tasking SEMA with eliminating open cut ditches, and adding two temporary lots, additional pavement, and electrical.

This constant change accelerated as the holiday season approached and train traffic soared.

And things that seemed straightforward proved not to be.

Make It Work For example, drainage changes were needed to accommodate the future build out.

But it became clear that removing and replacing previously installed utilities in the area would slow the entire project. So instead, SEMA, HDR, and BNSF worked together on an alternate method in which alignment changes and field modifications to existing drainage structures were done instead.

Another complication arose when the gas company ran late in installing its lines. rtands.com

LARGE PROJECT OF THE YEAR

experienced disruption to any two lines at the same time.

So SEMA et al built pipe on both sides of the utility easement and did the prep work needed so that tie-ins could be completed as soon as the gas lines were relocated.

But perhaps the most complex task of all involved a sort of two-step system of building new track within a few feet of old track and then making the final tie-in during the abbreviated windows available.

In fact, most of that tie-in work was done in a 72-hour window.

And in keeping with the standard set out by BNSF, the Alliance facility never

More To Be Done SEMA completed the Phase II project on time, on budget, and without a single losttime incident.

It was an impressive piece of work from start to finish. That, of course, is why it won the Project of the Year award from The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association.

The project also picked up Engineering News-Record’s 2018 Best Transportation Project Award of Merit and its 2018 Best in Safety Award of Merit.

But despite all that, SEMA has had no time to rest on their laurels.

Shortly after Phase II ended, BNSF contracted with SEMA to build a new parking lot at the fast-growing facility.

And more work is on the way.

BNSF has already announced plans to build new double track from the Alliance Intermodal Facility to the town of Cleburne, some 50 miles south.

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small project

Fay/i+icon takes

NRC SMALL PROJECT OF TH

By Kyra Senese, managing editor

E

very year, the National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association (NRC) honors exceptional work in the rail construction and maintenance industry by awarding the annual Railroad Construction Projects of 26 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

the Year. This year, Fay/i+icon was among the 2018 construction projects that received recognition by the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association when it was selected as the NRC Small Project of the Year.

The Railroad Construction Project of the Year Award features two categories: the Large Project Category, which is relevant to projects with budgets totaling more than $10 million, and the Small Project Category, which is open to projects with budgets of rtands.com

Photo Credit: Fay/i+icon / NRC

Fay/i+icon gains industry recognition for a high-speed demolition and replacement of the Flat Rock River Bridge along the Louisville and Indiana Railroad right-of-way.

small project

zero accidents

lost-time

THE YEAR $10 million or less.

“The purpose of this award is to honor innovation, expertise and quality project management applied toward the successful execution of a rail construction project

by NRC member companies in the immediate calendar year,” the NRC states on its website.

The award is open to all types of rail construction projects, such as those relating to freight rail, industrial track, rail transit, commuter rail, intercity passenger rail, rail rtands.com

on port facilities and rail on military facilities, the NRC explains.

The association explained that Fay, an i+iconUSA Company, managed the designbuild replacement process for the Flat Rock River Bridge at Milepost 40.19 of the Louisville and Indiana Railroad. Serving as construction manager for the design phase also required submittals at the 60 percent, 90 percent and final milestones, as well as obtaining all of the required permits.

The former bridge structure included two 144-foot through-truss spans and seven 30-foot steel deck girder approach spans with a 498-foot total length. Fay worked during the construction phase to replace the former bridge with a new 118-foot throughplate girder span bridge and 13 approach spans ranging from 30 to 34 feet in length.

The NRC explained that the former structure was located in a designated flood plain, which led Fay to ensure the new bridge has its bottom flanges above the 100-year flood elevation. According to a statement from John Goldman, LIRC president, the Fay team began the project in early 2018, with a completion date set for Nov. 1, 2018, though crews were able to beat that deadline.

“The quality of work was outstanding, as [were] the relationships with various local and state agencies,” Goldman said.

Goldman also noted that Fay carried out its work in a “very professional manner,” participating in weekly conference calls to keep LIRC abreast of its progress.

“Fay completed this project to the client’s satisfaction, demolishing the old bridge and installing the replacement bridge using a jack and slide method in only 50 hours, well in advance of a 96-hour outage deadline,” officials said in a statement.

Like all projects recognized by the NRC’s Project of the Year Award, Fay faced challenges throughout the design-build replacement process for the Flat Rock River Bridge.

According to Fay, the primary challenge during the project was completing the replacement in the allotted 96-hour

shutdown time frame. Those working on the job undertook eight months of preplanning work to establish the best strategies to reach maximum time savings.

“Our internal engineered work plans and 3D animation, which compiled all information into one platform, allowed for fine tuning of the outage work,” Fay said.

Drilled shafts and precast caps were also designed to enable all drilled shafts to be completed prior to the rail outage, outboard of the existing steel approach spans and trusses. During the installation process for the drilled shafts, Fay explained that the design-build team encountered unexpected ground conditions and collaborated to modify the shafts’ depths and installation methods to remain on-schedule and uphold proper design integrity.

“Innovative planning and design facilitated rapid bridge replacement construction techniques during a single 96-hour outage,” Fay said. “An innovative connection detail between the drilled shafts and precast bents allowed for quick installation of the caps and spans during the outage.” The company explained that steel connector beams were set through an opening in the precast cap into field cast “pockets” on top of the drilled shaft. Crew members then grouted the beams in place with a high/early strength

“

Innovative planning and design facilitated rapid bridge replacement construction techniques during a single 96-hour outage” – Fay

May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 27

small project

24 incident-free

hour-a-day

OUTAGE

grout in order to achieve full strength results for rail traffic in eight hours.

Facing a short timeline, three construction operations took place at once, requiring

crews from multiple job sites to carry out work in different states. While one crew set precast sections, Fay says another team took care of the demolition work needed on the

TRACK STARS OF RAIL SUPPLY

28 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

north side. At the same time, a third group slid the structure’s river span.

Ballast placement was also being carried out in coordination with the railroad and its subcontractors.

“We began erection from the outside, working in towards the f lanking spans, so the railroad could bring in the ballast needed by rail car,” Fay said. “We not only coordinated our crews, but also made it easier for LIRC to expeditiously complete their necessary work during the same outage.”

The company notes that while few truss bridges remain in the U.S., performing demolition work on them is a skill Fay has performed in-house many times, and the demolition operations for this project were complete within 18 hours.

New components for the structure were also successfully protected, going undamaged during the shutdown. The company notes this was a feat in itself, as the entire new substructure was built just outside the original structure’s drip edge.

Planning and staging of the 39 sections of precast concrete was key to completing the shutdown ahead of schedule, as well. Fay states that the project involved working in tight conditions because all of the staging work had to be performed on the right-ofway, leaving inches of room to fit all precast concrete sections and equipment in the work zone.

Staging work was completed throughout the course of eight weeks because there was only one way enter or exit the causeway. rtands.com

At the same time, critical path operations were being carried out along the same access-way while concrete precast sections weighing between 51,000 and 94,000 pounds were being offloaded by two large excavators.

In total, Fay states that the design-build replacement required 22,487 man hours. Throughout those hours, the company reported no lost-time accidents and the 24 hour-a-day outage went on incident free.

In order to save the railroad money, periodic estimates during each phase of design were performed. This allowed for the design team to maintain structural integrity of the bridge components while also staying within budget for the designbuild construction.

Regarding the design phase, Fay said the biggest challenge was to design the new bridge span to ensure the structure was one foot above the 100-year flood elevation. Crews placed the revised top of track five feet higher than the existing track elevation, which, when combined with the need to stay within the existing right-ofway, resulted in a significant amount of retaining wall along the right-of-way.

Fay crews worked with the LIRC to minimize roadbed width and allow for steeper side slopes. The team also significantly decreased retaining walls and the related project costs, the company said.

The company said additional savings occurred in the design phase, as well. The previous bridge featured two longer truss spans, and the Fay team concluded that rather than replacing this with a similar two-span steel girder system, it could build one longer through girder span, with four shorter concrete spans off of the longer steel span. Doing this eliminated one long span on the project, saving money for the client, Fay said.

Another design challenge faced during the project involved detailing the interface between a long steel through plate girder (TPG) span above the river and the shorter concrete box beam approach spans across the outer banks. Fay said the ballast retainers on the TPG span were brought in from normal detailing to match the ballast retainers located on the concrete box beams.

An embed plate was cast in the top of the concrete beams to allow the deck plate from the TPG spans to be supported by the beams and not cause the beam to spall from the thermal movements.

The out-to-out width of the steel girders varied from the out-toout width of the concrete beam, which meant that special detailing was required to provide a continuous walkway from one end of the bridge to the other.

Fay said the design of the TPG slide was also unique in that 10 temporary piles were driven on each side of the Flat Rock River’s shoreline into shale bedrock.

“Everything needed for the slide was built on top of those pipe piles as temporary bents,” Fay explained. “The caps for this span were cast in place. There was not enough access for a large crane to set as precast sections during the shutdown.”

Officials said the section that was slid into place weighed approximately one million pounds and the allowed tolerance of final location needed to be within 1/16 of an inch. Due to jack suppliers not having a double acting 100-ton hydraulic jack capable of 48-inches or greater stroke available for rent, Fay said the company designed a new system comprised of the boom cylinders taken off the company’s excavator to push the bridge into place.

“This allowed for sufficient stroke to move the bridge section efficiently and also allowed for the re-use of cylinders to be mounted onto equipment for the next project,” the company said. rtands.com

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Message from the President James K. Kessler, PE AREMA President 2018-2019

I Professional Development AREMA is focused on your education and helping yo u a dva n ce i n th e ra ilwa y i n d u s tr y. AR EMA’s i n p e rso n seminars provide Professional Development Hours (PDH) to serve your educational needs.

Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering Seminar Date: May 20-22 Location: Lanham, Md (Near Washington, D.C.) Pdh: 20 Three Seminars will be held in conjunction with the AREMA 2019 Annual Conference.

Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering Seminar Date: Sept. 20-22 PDH: 15.5 Track Alignment Design Seminar Date: Sept. 25-27 PDH: 14.5 FRA: 213 – Track Safety Standards Seminar Date: Sept. 25-27 PDH: 15.75 For more information on our seminars and to register, please visit www.arema.org.

30 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

n last month’s column I began a discussion of the Functional Groups and their 30 committees. We’ll continue with Committees 14, 16 and 18 of the Engineering Services Functional Group headed by Functional Group Vice President Trent Hudak.

Committee 14 - Yards & Terminals, chaired by Michael Atzert, provides guidance on the engineering and economic problems of location, design, construction and operation of yards and terminals used in railway service. Michael says that “the goal of the Committee is to provide current recommendations for the location and arrangement of yards and terminals that permits the most convenient and economical access and that serves the public and customer conveniently while considering future trends and changes in traffic criteria that impact yard capacities and components”. Committee 14’s Manual for Railway Engineering (MRE) updates are currently focusing on intermodal terminal design, autonomous terminals, rolling resistance and yard security. The Committee is open for any non-members to provide suggestions and/ or questions on any yard and terminal trends they feel should be considered for inclusion into the MRE. Committee 16 - Economics of Railway Engineering & Operations has as its primary purpose and goal of bridging the gap between the railway engineering and railway operations world. The committee focuses on providing the economic justification for railway engineering department’s operating and capital works projects that fulfill the railway operations departments’ mandate to move people and goods in an efficient and cost-effective manner. While their analysis is typically founded on basic economics, the methodology used in the justification process can take many forms. Committee Chair Michael Will comments on the value of the committee member’s contributions to AREMA, saying that “We rely on the varied experiences of our 52 Committee Members who all have very diverse railway engineering, operations and railway supplier industry backgrounds and experience to

support our Committee’s purpose, goal and tasks we work on for the betterment of our industry. Our Committee’s goal is to aggregate this information and make it available for AREMA Members’ use in the MRE by new and seasoned railroaders”.

Committee 16’s current focus topic in 2019 is developing all-new material for Chapter 16, Part 4, Section 4.7 Yard Capacity.

A highlight of each year’s Annual Conference is the announcement of the winner of the annual Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence which was established by the AREMA Board of Directors to both recognize outstanding achievement in Railway Engineering and to honor the memory and accomplishments of one of our members and leaders: William Walter Hay. Committee 16 has, as one of its responsibilities, the management of this prestigious award of which they take great pride. Congratulations to Committee 16 for their outstanding selection each year. Thanks also to Michael W. Franke, PE, a former student of Dr. Hay and the Chair of the Hay Award Committee, and those involved in the selection process. If you’d like to be part of this prestigious list of winners, entries should be received by May 24, 2019. See AREMA’s website for details.

Committee 18 - Light Density & Short Line Railways is responsible for the development and publication of information and recommended practices regarding the unique engineering, economic and maintenance needs found on the “first/last mile” of the nation’s rail network. The committee’s primary focus is placed upon smaller railroads who do not necessarily have resources at hand to economically navigate the complex issues involved in efficiently running a growing railroad. Committee Chair William Stahlman, III notes that “the committee strives to be a resource to this community of railroads by providing guidance and recommended practices developed through lessons learned”. Committee 18 is looking for members who can bring a unique outside-the-box view to our committee as we look to address the engineering, maintenance and regulatory challenges commonly found within the short line railroad community.

The Passenger and Transit Functional Group is led by Functional Group Vice President Raymond Verrelle, Jr. The technical committees in this Functional Group are: rtands.com

• Committee 11 - Commuter & Intercity Rail Systems • Committee 12 - Rail Transit • Committee 17 - High Speed Rail Systems • Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Spring 2019 joint committee meeting of Committees 11 and 17 held in Raleigh, NC. Committee breakout sessions were held on Sunday with the sub-committees discussing manual materials being written and updated. On Monday, individual committee meetings were followed by a joint meeting. Attendees were able to tour North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) rail maintenance facility

supporting the state supported Amtrak passenger service and Raleigh’s new Union Station completed in 2018. Following the activities in Raleigh, attendees travelled to Charlotte to tour the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) light rail and trolley facilities and the new Gateway passenger station under construction. Between Raleigh and Charlotte attendees were treated to the hospitality of Amtrak’s American View theater inspection car and NCDOT’s Piedmont service. To learn more about the Passenger & Transit Functional Group and the Committees noted, please visit the AREMA website.

Committee meetings such as this provide

a venue for the development of MRE Chapter materials and the exchange of ideas. Much hard work goes into making arrangements for a successful and productive meeting. In this case it was through the efforts of the committee officers, Amtrak, NCDOT Rail Division, North Carolina Railroad and CATS. It is also the work of every attendee at committee meetings such as this one, and their contribution of time and expertise, that makes AREMA successful. Thanks to all committee members that actively contribute to the technical committees. I encourage all members of AREMA to consider participating in the valuable and rewarding committee work.

Upcoming Committee Meetings May 2019 May 14 - 15 Committee 15 – Steel Structures Kansas City, MO May 15 - 16 Committee 5 – Track Little Rock, AR June 4 Committee 9 - Seismic Design for Railway Stuctures New York, NY June 18 - 19 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Petaluma, CA September 10 - 11 Committee 15 - Steel Structures Columbus, OH *Committee Meetings happening at the AREMA 2019 Annual Conference in conjunction with Railway Interchange in Minneapolis, MN

September 21 Committee 27 - Maintenance of Way Work Equipment September 21 - 22 Committee 24 - Education & Training September 22 Committee 5 - Track Committee 6 - Building & Support Facilities Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Committee 11 - Commuter & Intercity Rail Systems Committee 12 - Rail Transit Committee 14 - Yards & Terminals Committee 16 - Economics of Railway Engineering & Operations Committee 17 - High Speed Rail Systems Committees 11 & 17 Joint Meeting Committee 18 - Light Density & Short Line Railways Committee 33 - Electric Energy Utilization Committee 40 - Engineering Safety Committee 41 - Track Maintenance

SEPTEMBER 23 Committee 13 - Environmental SEPTEMBER 25 - 26 Committee 8 - Concrete Structures and Foundations Committee 38 - Information, Defect Detection & Energy Systems Committee 39 - Positive Train Control 2020 January 1 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Albuquerque, NM June 1 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction New York, NY September 13 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Dallas, TX

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.

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May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 31

Rail engineering outreach for all ages University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

By Adrian Diaz de Rivera, AREMA Student Chapter President, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

M

arch 2019 marked the 99th year the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign hosted Engineering Open House (EOH), a massive two-day STEM outreach event featuring hundreds of student-run exhibits and demonstrations. During the event, thousands of grade school and high school students, families, and members of the general public from all parts of Illinois visited the campus. Since 2005, there has been a railroad engineering presence at EOH organized by members of the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign AREMA Student Chapter with support from the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC). According to Professor Chris Barkan, executive director of RailTEC, “My objective, and I think the Student Chapter’s as well, is to educate people about railroad technology and help them appreciate the importance of rail transportation in North America.”

This year, the AREMA Student Chapter put on 10 exhibits in various areas of rail engineering. As part of a group of exhibits on signaling and train control, a team of engineers from Canadian National’s (CN) Signals and Communications department showcased the railway’s train control system, a digital signals testing environment

and a dispatching display with a real-time feed of trains operating on CN’s Champaign subdivision. Nick Robinson, Positive Train Control System Validation Engineer at CN, commented, “It’s nice to see kids engaged in all the engineering aspects. It’s been a lot of fun interacting with people. You get to see different personalities [and] teach people about signaling and how the dispatcher moves trains.” The AREMA Student Chapter was also fortunate to host a Special Agent from the CN Police Service who displayed a full-size grade crossing signal to promote grade crossing safety as part of Operation Lifesaver (OLI). The OLI presence tied in well with an exhibit by signals hobbyist Dan Kuchta who had a working model grade crossing signal that used real railroad relays and components to activate crossing arms, flashing lights and bells as a miniature train approached. Meanwhile, a student-run exhibit used LED signals, breadboards, miniature relays, custommachined train wheelsets and far too many batteries to demonstrate how track circuits and automatic block signals work.

The newest addition to the EOH rail section was a high-speed transportation exhibit put on by several employees of the Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) to educate people about magnetic

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign AREMA Student Chapter put on multiple rail engineering exhibits for the public at Engineering Open House 2019.

32 Railway Track & Structures // May 2019

levitation technology and the company’s Superconducting Maglev (SCMAGLEV) system. JR Central is currently constructing and promoting the SCMAGLEV system on the Chuo Shinkansen project planned to link Tokyo and Nagoya by 2027. The exhibit included a toy maglev train, educational videos, model train sets, an electromagnetic train made of coiled copper wire and batteries and a demonstration of a conductor cooled by liquid nitrogen that allows it to float above a track of magnets.

In the real-life SCMAGLEV system, liquid helium is used to cool superconducting magnets to produce a magnetic field strong enough to lift a train. “This is a very good opportunity for us to promote our technology to people in the United States. STEM education is very important for children to think about future transportation systems,” said Rikuhei “Ricky” Daimon, Deputy General Manager of JR Central’s Washington D.C. Office. “Our SCMAGLEV system is brand-new technology but the principle is very basic so it is easy to understand the science and technology [behind it].” Unsurprisingly, the exhibit was a big hit with visitors. Taking advantage of this excitement, the newly-formed student chapter of the Midwest HighSpeed Rail Association (MHSRA) used

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign AREMA Student Chapter member and RailTEC graduate student Stan Chang uses a model to demonstrate the concepts behind automatic block signals. rtands.com

their booth to educate the public about passenger trains and high-speed rail in the United States. Over the past academic year, the AREMA Student Chapter has closely coordinated activities with the MHSRA to further expand rail transportation opportunities and voices on campus.

Other exhibits organized by the AREMA Student Chapter included a full-size track panel accompanied by track tools and fastening systems meant to show how track is built and maintained. A popular feature of the track panel exhibit was a display of personal protective equipment such as Illinois-orange hard hats and high visibility vests that kids could try on. In another corner, a puzzle taught visitors about the freight that trains can carry while a separate exhibit had kids race against each other to transport intermodal containers by ship, train, and truck to a terminal. Lastly, a near-life-size projection of Dovetail Games’ Train Simulator allowed people to take turns operating a Metra train from Chicago using a mini control stand.

Over the years, connections made through AREMA events and conferences have resulted in fantastic industry support for the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign AREMA Student Chapter. In previous years at EOH, Norfolk Southern brought in their mobile locomotive engineer training simulator while BNSF displayed a hi-rail vehicle. Besides exhibits, Hanson Professional Services annually sponsors a group of high-achieving Springfield high school students from under-represented minorities to attend EOH. RailTEC faculty and AREMA Student Chapter members act as tour guides welcoming the group to campus.

Beyond EOH during this past academic

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CN Special Agent Jeffrey Price educates a group of kids about grade crossing safety as part of Operation Lifesaver.

year, the AREMA Student Chapter held general meetings with organizations such as Kiewit, Quandel Consultants, Union Pacific, Holland LP, Railroad Development Corporation, and WSP. Last semester, the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis hosted student chapter members on tours of Mississippi River rail bridges while BNSF took students on a tour of Corwith Yard in Chicago. This semester, Kiewit hosted members on a visit to CTA’s Addison Red line station where rehabilitation work was being performed for the Red-Purple Modernization Project.

Thanks to the hard work of the entire University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign AREMA Student Chapter board and members, and with the generous support of the rail industry, RailTEC, and advisor Tyler

Dick, this was another successful Engineering Open House and year for the chapter.

The above article from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign AREMA Student Chapter was chosen as one of two winners of this year’s AREMA Student Chapter Article Competition for RT&S. This is the third year the Student Chapters have been given the opportunity to showcase their activities and research to the greater AREMA membership through writing for this publication. The work of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an example of how the AREMA Student Chapters are investing in furthering their education and the railroad industry. If you have questions about AREMA Student Chapter activities, please contact scc@arema.org.

at www.arema.org or contact mbruins@ arema.org for more details.

Call for Entries for the 2019 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence. The Selection process for the 21st W. W. Hay Award has begun. Entries must be submitted by May 24, 2019. Please visit www.arema.org for more information.

Do you want to generate leads, promote a product and reach a target audience?

Sign up for sponsorship at the AREMA 2019 Annual Conference in conjunction with Railway InterchangeTM . Please visit www.arema.org or contact lmcnicholas@ a re m a .o rg fo r m o re i nfo rm ati o n o n sponsorship investment opportunities!

Be sure you’re seen by all AREMA 2019 Conference attendees by advertising in the 2019 AREMA Conference Proceedings.

Visit www.arema.org for more information on advertising rates.

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

Not an AREMA Member?

Join today at www.arema.org May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 33

GET THE INSIDE SCOOP ON & OFF THE TRACK

RAIL BRIEF The Weekly RT&S Email Newsletter

• Engineering and M/W News • Information on Advancing Projects • Coverage of Developing Technologies • Safety and Regulatory Updates

Subscribe at: http://bit.ly/railbrief

Calendar

MAY 8. Railroad Day on Capitol Hill.

Washington, D.C. Website: www.aslrra.org or www.aar.org.

13-1 5 . R a i l r o a d B r i d g e I n s p e c t i o n .

N a t i o n a l Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n R e s e a r c h Center. Knoxville, Tenn. Website: http:// ttap.utk.edu/.

14-15 . Transpor t Securit y Congress.

G e org etown U n ive rsit y Hote l an d Conference Center. Washington, D.C. Website: www.transportsecurityworld. com/events/tssx.

15-16. Rail-Government Interface and Rail Research Seminar 2019. Delta Hotel, Ottawa, CA. Website: www.railcan.ca/.

JUNE 1 8-21 . Wh ee l Rail I nte rac tion (WR I) Conference 2019. Hilton New Orleans Riverside. New Orleans, La. Contact: Brandon Koenig. Phone: 847-808-1818.

Email: brandon@wheel-rail-seminars.

c o m . We b s i t e : h t t p s ://w h e e l - r a i l seminars.com/us/index.php.

21-23. Minnesota Regional Railroads Association Summer Conference.

Madden’s Resort. Brainerd, Minn. Website: www.mnrailroads.com/news/conference/.

22-24. American Association of Railroad Superintendents 123rd Annual Meeting.

Hilton. Norfolk, Va. Website: https://www. supt.org/event-3097339.

23-25. 4th Annual ICRI Workshop on RCF and Wear 2019. Joseph and Rosalie Segal Centre, Harbour Center. Vancouver, CA. Website: www.icri-rcf.org/icri-workshop.

JULY 8-11. A AR 127th Damage Prevention and Freight Claim Conference. Hilton Downtown. Omaha, Neb. Phone: 402998-3400.

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SEPTEMBER 11-13 . AS L R R A 2 01 9 C e n t r a l Pa c i f i c Region Meeting. San Antonio Grand Hyatt. San Antonio, Texas. Phone: 2025 8 5-4 5 0 0. E m a i l: a s l r ra @ a s l r ra .o rg .

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Peter Bartek, president and CEO of Focused Technology Solutions, said the company received orders from a soon-to-be-named Class 1; Ameritrack Rail, leaders in track construction services, RailTek, a top distributor of rail products out of Philadelphia, Pa., and Railroad Tools and Solutions, a major distributor out of Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Ad Index

COMPANY

PHONE #

A&B Rail Services LTD

800-661-5645

FAX #

isabellirvine@universalrail.com

E-MAIL ADDRESS

PAGE # NRC11

Amtrac Railroad Contractors

301-797-3730

cchaney@smtracmd.com

NRC12

AREMA Marketing Department

301-459-3200

301-459-8077

marketing@arema.org

Cover 3

Aspen Equipment

952-656-7132

952-656-7157

bmarini@aspeneq.com

NRC10

Birmingham Rail & Locomotive

205-424-7245

205-424-7436

bhamrail@aol.com

20

Commercial Insurance Associates

615-515-6048

darmstrong@com-ins.com

NRC9

Danella Rental Systems, Inc.

561-743-7373

561-743-1973

SBolte@danella.com

18

Diversified Metal Fabricators, Inc.

404-875-1512

404-875-4835

sales@dmfatlanta.com

6

Dixie Precast

770-944-1930

770-944-9136

fbrown142@aol.com

19

Herzog Railroad Services, Inc

816-385-8233

jhansen@herzog.com

17

Hougen Manufacturing

866-245-3745

800-309-3299

info@trak-star.com

25

L B Foster Company

412-928-3506

412-928-3512

glippard@lbfosterco.com

19

Lanier Steel Products Inc

706-335-7200

rlgillespie@windstream.net

NRC10

Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc.

763-478-6014

763-478-2221

sales@loram.com

Cover 2

North American Rail Products Inc.

604-946-7272

cerhart@narailproducts.com

28

NRM

816-708-9088

763-478-2221

tfrancis@nevadarail.com

NRC9

Progress Rail, A Caterpillar Company

256-505-6402

815-344-5086

info@progressrail.com

NRC11

R J Corman Railroad Group

800-611-7245

859-885-7804

www.rjcorman.com

7

Rail Insights

212-620-7208

212-633-1165

conferences @sbpub.com

12-13

RCE Equipment Solutions Inc.

866-472-4510

630-355-7173

dennishanke@rcequip.com

29

Railway Education Bureau, The

402-346-4300

402-346-1783

bbrundige@sb-reb-com

35,36

Tracks Unlimited LLC

908-769-6840

ellenb@tracksunlimitedllc.com

NRC16

Western-Cullen-Hayes, Inc.

773-254-9600

773-254-1110

jm@wch.com

20

Willamette Valley Company

541-484-9621

541-484-1987

alisha.barrowcliff@wilvaco.com

Cover 4

William Charles Constructions

815-654-4700

815-654-4736

rbinfo@rbic.com

16

Advertising Sales MAIN OFFICE Jonathan Chalon Publisher 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7224 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jchalon@sbpub.com AL, KY, TN Jonathan Chalon 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7224 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jchalon@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 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7260 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jmarullo@sbpub.com AR, AK, AZ, CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, In, KS, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WI, WY, Canada – AB, BC, MB, SK Heather Disabato 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 683-5026 Fax: (312) 683-0131 hdisabato@sbpub.com The Netherlands, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal,

Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland Dr. Fabio Potesta Media Point & Communications SRL Corte Lambruschini Corso Buenos Aires 8 V Piano, Genoa, Italy 16129 +39-10-570-4948 Fax: +39-10-553-0088 info@mediapointsrl.it

Switzerland, North Germany, Middle East, South America, Africa (not South), Far East (Excluding Korea / China/India), All Others, Tenders Louise Cooper International Area Sales Manager The Priory, Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom +44-1444-416368 Fax: +44-(0)-1444-458185 lc@railjournal.co.uk Scandinavia, Spain, Southern Germany, Austria, Korea, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe Baltic States, Recruitment Advertising Michael Boyle International Area Sales Manager Nils Michael Boyle Dorfstrasse 70, 6393 St. Ulrich, Austria. +011436767089872 mboyle@railjournal.com

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.

Japan Katsuhiro Ishii Ace Media Service, Inc. 12-6 4-Chome, Nishiiko, Adachi-Ku Tokyo 121-0824 Japan +81-3-5691-3335 Fax: +81-3-5691-3336 amkatsu@dream.com CLASSIFIED, PROFESSIONAL & EMPLOYMENT Jeanine Acquart 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7211 Fax: (212) 633-1325 jacquart@sbpub.com

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.

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May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 37

New & Used Equipment

R. E. L. A. M., INC.

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3000 cu ft Covered Hopper Cars 4650 cu ft Covered Hopper Cars 4300 cu ft Aluminum Rotary Open Top Gons 65 ft, 100-ton log spine cars equipped with six (6) log bunks 60 ft, 100 ton Plate F box cars, cushioned underframe and 10 ft plug doors 50 ft, 100 ton Plate C box cars, cushioned underframe and 10 ft plug doors 26,671 Gallon, 263k GRL, NC/NI Tank Cars Contact: Tom Monroe: 415-616-3472 Email: tmonroe@atel.com rtands.com

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May 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 39

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Apply by May 24, 2019

Criteria:

Call for Entries

• Innovation • Safety • Service Performance & Reliability

The selection process for the Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence has begun and this year's chair, AREMA Past President and Honorary Member Michael W. Franke, PE, a former student of Dr. Hay, has issued a call for entries.

2019 HAY AWARD CELEBRATES 21 YEARS

The 2018 Hay Award was awarded to Arup for The Fulton Center in New York City. Congratulations!

Please visit www.arema.org to review the application process. Entries are due by May 24, 2019.

REGISTER NOW Join us in Minneapolis September 22-25, visit conference.arema.org to register.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR THE AREMA 2019 ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN CONJUNCTION WITH RAILWAY INTERCHANGE.

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