On
March 5, Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Ill) joined House Transportation &
Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.), Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and IDOT Secretary Gary Hannig for
the groundbreaking on the Englewood Flyover, which is now expected to begin
this year thanks to $133 million in new federal funding.
Engineers who design
facilities and structures live in a cycle of planning and planning again, the
BNSF electronic employee newsletter reports. But sometimes, even with the best
of planning and looking "around the corner," a surprise comes along
that requires a different approach. That’s what happened with the Burlington,
Iowa, bridge project, which involves rebuilding a bridge originally built in
1867-1868.
MTA Long Island Rail Road
customers using the busy Ronkonkoma Station now have almost 300 new parking
spots available to them thanks to completion of a railroad-funded renovation
project on the northeast side of the tracks in the Town of Brookhaven. The
rehabilitation of the former dirt lot included drainage, curbs, asphalt paving,
sidewalks, lighting, striping, signage, fencing and landscaping.
Hundreds – perhaps
thousands – of old creosote-soaked railroad ties dumped along a 30-mile stretch
of the Deschutes River may be removed in coming months thanks to persistent
cage-rattling by Eugene, Ore., businessman and clean-water enthusiast John
Brown, The Eugene Register-Guard reports.
IMPulse NC LLC promoted of
Jeffrey Wharton to president. Wharton previously served as executive vice president
and general manager for the company. He has more than 30 years of transit
construction and manufacturing experience and currently serves on the board of directors
of the American Public Transportation Association, and as Chair of the APTA Business
Member’s Business Development Committee.
Work on a $2.8 million
project to add additional signals to the Caltrain signal system will take place
between 8 p.m., March 8 and 4 a.m., March 9 at Fair Oaks Lane in Atherton, Calif.
A five-level parking
structure opened at Aurora, Ont., GO Station near Toronto offering customers
866 new parking spaces. Customers at this station now have access to more than
1,700 parking spots, making it easier to leave their cars behind.
The Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio approved construction authorization from the Ohio Rail
Development Commission directing Norfolk Southern to install flashing lights
and roadway gates at grade crossings in Montgomery, Summit and Warren counties.
PUCO also approved an agreement authorizing CSX Transportation to install
flashing lights and roadway gates at the Taylor Road (154-092R) and Ringwood
Road (154-089H) grade crossings in Oxford Township, Butler County.
Buses will replace train
service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and
Valley Stream, N.Y., the weekend of March 6-7 as work continues on the
construction of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island
Channel. The shutdown of train service on this upcoming weekend was added to
the LIRR’s original construction schedule because recent snowstorms have
impeded work on previous weekends. The railroad’s goal is to complete the
installation of both bridges before Memorial Day.
Earthquake Safety
construction at BART’s West Oakland Station will soon limit access to the
station. Beginning in mid-March, crews will move into a new phase of work that
will be done in two stages.
Koppers Holdings Inc. said that one of its wholly-owned
subsidiaries, Koppers International B.V. has completed a transaction to acquire
100 percent of the outstanding shares of privately-owned Cindu Chemicals B.V.
("Cindu") from joint owners Cindu B.V. and Corus Staal B.V. for an
undisclosed purchase price. Koppers has funded the acquisition primarily with
cash on hand in Europe.
Residents in the area of
the CSX Transportation freight yard on Franklin Street in Worcester, Mass., made
it clear at a meeting they are not looking to fight the company’s plans to more
than double the size of its facility, but they emphasized they want to have
some say in those plans to mitigate potential negative impacts to their
neighborhood, the Worcester Telegram reports.
At a Cleveland Regional
Transportation Authority meeting, Joe Calabrese, CEO & General Manager,
presented RTA’s federal legislative priorities. RTA is seeking four earmarks in
the 2011 appropriations cycle:
1. $5 million for the
construction of the proposed Mayfield Road Station
rehabilitation in
Cleveland near Little Italy.
2. $4.5 million for the construction of a new
Red Line station on Brookpark Road on the Cleveland-Brook Park border.
3. $1.5 million to
prepare the final design of a proposed .5 mile extension of
the Blue Line in Shaker
Heights.
4. $5.0 million to
construct the final design of the Clifton Blvd.
Transit Enhancement Project
in Lakewood and Cleveland.
The National Gateway
coalition has added "Project Updates," an online resource for community
members, contractors and others seeking information about current and upcoming
National Gateway projects, to the initiative’s Web site, NationalGateway.org.
Los Angeles Metro Blue
Line passengers will experience travel delays of up to 40 minutes for two consecutive
weekends beginning March 5 due to construction of the Expo light rail line,
which will connect with the Metro Blue Line in downtown Los Angeles. The bus
bridge begins March 5 at 9 p.m. Work will begin at 9 p.m. on March 5 and will
continue until the early morning hours of Monday, March 8, on the first
weekend. The same plan is for the second weekend beginning Friday night, March
12, and continuing until the early hours of Monday, March 15.
During weekends in March,
Metro in Washington, D.C., will weld rail and replace track fasteners, track
circuits and floating slabs that will help ensure more reliable Metrorail
service. Customers should expect travel delays during the weekends of March 5
to 7, March 12 to 14, and March 19 to 21.
Metro will not conduct major track
maintenance during the opening of the National Cherry Blossom festival on
Saturday, March 27.
Gary/Chicago
International Airport received its fifth installment of federal funding to
support airport expansion efforts, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville,
said, according to the Gary Post-Tribune. The $5-million grant will go toward
the airport’s runway extension project and is part of a $57.8-million
allocation over 10 years. To date, the airport has received more than $25
million from its grant awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration.
NJ Transit will cut 200 jobs and apply an emergency spending
freeze in an attempt to fill a $300 million budget gap. Executive salaries will
be reduced by five percent and contributions to employee 401(k) retirement
accounts will be cut by a third, The Star-Ledger reported.
Although the reductions will save more than $30 million, the
agency is expected to announce service cuts and fare hikes next week, which
could start as soon as May and could be increased by 20 to 30 percent. The
state is also dealing with its own $2.2 billion budget gap and may withhold
close to $33 million in subsidies from the agency.
The 200 union and non-union layoffs represent around two
percent of the 10,500-person workforce at NJ Transit, the nation’s
third-largest public transit system. It is the deepest one-year workforce
reduction in the agency’s 30-year history.
NJ Transit will hold a series of public
meetings and information sessions around the state later this month. They are
scheduled for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 25 at the Passaic County Community
College Theater in Paterson, NJ Transit headquarters in Newark, the Trenton
Transit Center and the Monmouth County Library in Manalapan; from 5:30 to 8:30
p.m. March 26 at the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station in Secaucus, Camden City
Hall, Morristown Town Hall, Long Branch Middle School auditorium and Port
Authority Bus Terminal in New York; and from 1 to 4 p.m. March 27 at Bergen
County Freeholders public meeting room in Hackensack and the Atlantic City Rail
Terminal.
Some of the world’s top experts in railroad technology came
to Pueblo, Colo., this week to hear about the latest research from what many
acknowledge is the industry’s top laboratory, the Chieftain reports.
It’s the 15th annual Association of American Railroads
Research Review, which has been drawing engineers, technicians and corporate
leaders here for years. Most of the research is done in Pueblo at the AAR’s
Transportation Technology Center Inc., the 52-acre site northeast of the city’s
airport.
Roy Allen, TTCI president, said that this year’s attendance,
435 by Tuesday afternoon’s count, was the largest ever.
Last year, he said attendance was down but things seem to
have turned around, due in part to more government money being spent on rail
research. "Of course that hasn’t been in freight but there is some benefit," he
said.
The primary theme of each year’s event, he said, has been
"improving safety and efficiency." From early Tuesday morning until breaking
for dinner just before 5 p.m., there was a steady stream of reports covering
the primary areas of investigation at the center. Today, many of those
attending will visit the center itself for tours and a first-hand view of the
research they’ve been hearing about.
Talks Tuesday covered results from the ongoing
heavy-axle-load program designed to help haulers of coal and other commodities
reduce wear on rails and wheels, new ways of monitoring track conditions to
prevent derailments and methods to extend the life of rail and rail cars and
thereby lower costs.
Allen said one of the highlights was a discussion of
automatic inspections of rail cars.
The center has patented some of its own devices that can
spot problems on cars as they move past and methods are constantly improving,
he said.
"Through very, very clever software, we can look for
cracks," Allen said. Besides wheels, the cars’ undercarriages can be checked,
along with safety devices like ladders and hand brakes.
The devices can check moving trains, traveling past at 40
mph or more so trains don’t have to be stopped for inspections and, he added,
people don’t have to do it. "The vision is to have most inspections of rail
cars done automatically, instead of having people walk through 20-degree
weather." Crews that had been inspecting can spend their time repairing things
the automatic systems discover, "turning finders into fixers," Allen said.
In addition to the AAR members in the United States, Canada
and Mexico, representatives from firms and government agencies in Germany,
Austria, China, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom were in
attendance.
Some of the world’s top experts in railroad technology came
to Pueblo, Colo., this week to hear about the latest research from what many
acknowledge is the industry’s top laboratory, the Chieftain reports.
It’s the 15th annual Association of American Railroads
Research Review, which has been drawing engineers, technicians and corporate
leaders here for years. Most of the research is done in Pueblo at the AAR’s
Transportation Technology Center Inc., the 52-acre site northeast of the city’s
airport.
Roy Allen, TTCI president, said that this year’s attendance,
435 by Tuesday afternoon’s count, was the largest ever.
Last year, he said attendance was down but things seem to
have turned around, due in part to more government money being spent on rail
research. "Of course that hasn’t been in freight but there is some benefit," he
said.
The primary theme of each year’s event, he said, has been
"improving safety and efficiency." From early Tuesday morning until breaking
for dinner just before 5 p.m., there was a steady stream of reports covering
the primary areas of investigation at the center. Today, many of those
attending will visit the center itself for tours and a first-hand view of the
research they’ve been hearing about.
Talks Tuesday covered results from the ongoing
heavy-axle-load program designed to help haulers of coal and other commodities
reduce wear on rails and wheels, new ways of monitoring track conditions to
prevent derailments and methods to extend the life of rail and rail cars and
thereby lower costs.
Allen said one of the highlights was a discussion of
automatic inspections of rail cars.
The center has patented some of its own devices that can
spot problems on cars as they move past and methods are constantly improving,
he said.
"Through very, very clever software, we can look for
cracks," Allen said. Besides wheels, the cars’ undercarriages can be checked,
along with safety devices like ladders and hand brakes.
The devices can check moving trains, traveling past at 40
mph or more so trains don’t have to be stopped for inspections and, he added,
people don’t have to do it. "The vision is to have most inspections of rail
cars done automatically, instead of having people walk through 20-degree
weather." Crews that had been inspecting can spend their time repairing things
the automatic systems discover, "turning finders into fixers," Allen said.
In addition to the AAR members in the United States, Canada
and Mexico, representatives from firms and government agencies in Germany,
Austria, China, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom were in
attendance.
Corporate Responsibility has named Union Pacific Railroad
among its 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2010. The only railroad named to the
list, Union Pacific is ranked second among all transportation companies and No.
69 overall.
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2010 measures Russell
1000 Index companies in approximately 360 data points across seven categories:
governance, environmental, human rights, employee relations, climate change,
philanthropy and financial. Union
Pacific ranks among the leaders in the governance and financial categories.
