Norfolk light-rail official: Water may not be culprit

Water may not be to blame for the settling of light-rail tracks at the intersection of Brambleton Avenue and Second Street, The Virginian-Pilot reports. Don Lint, Hampton Roads Transit light-rail construction manager, said that once the tracks and the panels they are bolted to are removed next week, the agency will have a better idea of what went wrong.

On May 25, HRT officials
said they thought flooding was the culprit. The area across from The Hague
floods in unusually high tides.

Water "can play a role,
but we’re not sure it played a role in this," Lint said May 26.

He added that settling at
the crossing has caused some movement of the tracks, which can be a cause of
derailments.

Meanwhile, HRT President
and CEO Philip Shucet said 10 other light- rail crossings built in the same way
would be inspected for similar settling problems. He said the project’s $338-million
budget includes ample contingency money to pay for the repairs. The track
crossing, now on a ballasted base, will be replaced with tracks that are
embedded, providing a more solid foundation at the intersection. It will cost
$80,000 to $120,000.

Shucet also said the
problem will not cause HRT to miss its July 17 deadline for finishing track
construction downtown. In fact, he said, the work is still ahead of schedule.

The repair is expected to
take two weeks. Brambleton traffic will not be affected, but Second Street will
be closed.

"We’re doing what we’re
supposed to do," Shucet said.

He said high water could
be a problem for light- rail operations at times because the system was built
at grade level, which is less expensive than an elevated system.

"There might be times in
some areas trains cannot pass," he said. "A decision was made to build it at
grade…. There will be certain things we’ll have to deal with."

The light-rail trains are
expected to start running in May 2011.