The Washington State Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently completed the environmental study of the Kelso Martin’s Bluff Rail Project in Washington state, which would provide more frequent and reliable service for Amtrak Cascades passengers between Seattle and Portland.
United States Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx joined local, state and federal government officials, private donors and the Detroit community at a track signing ceremony where he formally announced $12.2-million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant funding for the M-1 Rail project. All of the streetcar project donors were recognized, including the two newest: Ford Motor Company and DTE Energy.
Kansas City Southern completed a large bridge project where it rebuilt six timber bridges on the Beaumont Subdivision in an area known as the Sabine River bottoms near Starks, La., in order to increase track speed to add capacity.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit (NYCT) marked the restoration of normal R subway service September 15 between Brooklyn and Manhattan with the successful completion of the Montague Tube subway tunnel that was damaged during Superstorm Standy.
Starting September 15, crews will begin work at the Harlem River Lift Bridge in New York to replace 60-year-old cables that lift the bridge and install all new electrical components designed to increase their resiliency to potential storm surge flooding.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded $53.7 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants that will help rail projects in six states and District of Columbia.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $2.5 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery funds to complete the master plan for expansion of the marine terminal in Seward, Alaska.
The Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) and the city of Seward submitted the application for the planning grant funds concurrently with an application for capital project grant funding. These grants are necessary to fund improvements to Seward’s West Dock, which primarily services passenger ships and is nearing the end of its useful life.
While the program makes competitive grants based on a variety of factors, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D-AL) said a recent visit by U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx certainly helped.
“I brought Secretary Foxx to Alaska in August so that he could get a better understanding of our state’s special transportation challenges. I’m glad to see the visit generated some real results,” said Sen. Begich. “These grant funds will be used to develop plans for the Seward dock expansion, a project that will provide family-wage jobs and increase transportation and economic growth in Seward and throughout the state.”
Sen. Begich organized a meeting between representatives of ARRC, Secretary Foxx and other transportation leaders during his visit to Alaska. During the meeting, railroad representatives pressed Secretary Foxx on the urgency of funding the Seward Marine Terminal Expansion project. In order to complete the project, ARRC must complete several studies including a passenger study, freight traffic study and transportation connectivity study. These elements will be the foundation of a new Seward Marine Terminal Expansion Master Plan, which will allow ARRC to prioritize infrastructure improvements at the terminal in order to better serve regional, state and national partners and customers.
Alon USA Energy, Inc., has received approval from the Kern County Board of Supervisors to construct a new rail facility at the Bakersfield, California, refinery and to make modifications to the refinery that will allow it to process light crude.
Several rail-related projects across eight states will benefit from close to $90 million million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants.
The M-1 Rail streetcar project in Detroit, Mich., has set up an assembly line near Cass Avenue to weld steel rail into about forty 560-foot-long strings of continuously welded rail (CWR).
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) will award $25 million in a Transportation Investment Generation Economic Recovery VI grant to the Maine Department of Transportation to replace the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge connecting Kittery, Maine, and Portsmouth, N.H.
Union Pacific will begin a major rail replacement project September 15 on its West Line, which serves freight and Metra passenger trains in Illinois.
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO-05) joined representatives from IP Automation and the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) for a tour of IP Automation’s manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., on August 29.
The official opening of the Mufford Crescent overpass marks the official completion of all nine Roberts Bank Rail Corridor (RBRC) infrastructure improvement projects in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit (NYCT) G Line service was restored on September 2 after a five-week suspension between Court Square and Nassau Avenue for maintenance crews to make Fix&Fortify resiliency repairs to the tubes, which were flooded and badly damaged during Superstorm Sandy nearly two years ago.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s Illinois Jobs Now! capital program will make a $102-million investment to improve system performance and reliability on a key segment of the Chicago-to-St. Louis high-speed rail line.
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) said on Aug. 28 that it has terminated its agreement with CSX Transportation, Inc., and CSX Intermodal Terminals, Inc., (CSX) to attempt location of the Baltimore Rail Intermodal Facility at Morrell Park and has pulled all state funding from the project.
Union Pacific will strengthen Kansas’ transportation infrastructure by investing $20 million in the rail line between Topeka and Kansas City, Kan. The project, funded entirely by Union Pacific, began June 16 and is scheduled to be completed by mid-November.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin are implementing a new initiative to fast-track hundreds of projects to improve more than 300 rail crossings statewide and upgrade safety warning features on rail crossings.