TriMet’s MAX Green Line in
Portland, Ore., opened to the public on Saturday, September 12 and reached a
major milestone of connecting all three counties by light rail. TriMet’s fifth
MAX line extends from downtown Portland to Clackamas County. More than 40,000
trips were taken on the new Green Line on opening day.
Freight trains have begun
moving across a new $43-million bridge over Iowa’s Des Moines River that
reportedly is the tallest double-track railroad structure in North America, the
Des Moines Register reports.
The Boone High Bridge, which is 2,550 feet long
and 190 feet high, will improve operational efficiency and customer service on
Iowa’s busiest railroad corridor, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for the Union
Pacific Railroad, which commissioned the bridge project.
By now, those of us who
usually drive between Sauk Trail and Indianwood Boulevard on Orchard Drive in
Park Forest have found new ways to get from here to there, according to a
column by Jerry Schnay in the Southtown Star. The village is replacing sewer
pipes in the area, the start of a three-year project that will eventually
result in the complete renovation of Orchard Drive, including a center turn
lane north of Lakewood Boulevard and two left-turn lanes at the intersection of
U.S. 30 at the north end of town.
Although construction work
continues, on Saturday afternoon, September 12, CTA customers entering and
exiting the Fullerton station served by the Red, Brown and Purple lines will
begin using the new station entrance located approximately 75 feet west of the
existing temporary entrance. The temporary entrance was opened in October 2006
to allow crews to relocate the historic stationhouse to the north side of
Fullerton Parkway and build the new station in its place.
The look of Norfolk’s
light-rail starter line, scheduled to open in about a year, is starting to take
shape, The Virginian-Pilot reports. Stations have been designed. Electrical
poles and wires are going up. The pavement around embedded rail has been dyed
red.
Standing trackside outside
Metra’s 80th Avenue Station in Tinley Park, Ill., recently, Tom Britt wasn’t
happy, the Chicago Tribune reports. "This station needs to
be improved," said the Frankfort, Ill., resident, "desperately."
Design changes being
mandated by a railroad company will increase the cost of building an underpass
at the Robinson Street crossing in Norman, Okla., by about $1.4 million, city
officials say, according to The Oklahoman. Public Works Director Shawn O’Leary
said the city hopes to use stimulus money to cover most of the increased cost
of the now $26 million project.
Union Pacific railroad
officials responded to Braeside neighborhood residents’ concerns and agreed to
move the massive platform and communications tower being built next to the
railroad tracks on the south east side of Highland Park, Ill., Pioneer Press
reports. City leaders requested a meeting with the railroad company after a
group of residents attended the Aug. 24 City Council meeting and spoke against
the construction that created an unsightly streetscape along the once heavily
tree-lined railway.
TriMet’s MAX Green Line
opens to the public on Saturday, September 12, and reaches a major milestone of
connecting all three counties by light rail. TriMet’s fifth MAX line extends
from downtown Portland to Clackamas County.
Every day, 1,800 passengers
head to the rail station next to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, local media
report. Every day, they board more than 40 trains headed for Washington,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and destinations all along the Northeast Corridor.
It’s the 15th busiest station in the Amtrak network. Now, the Maryland
Department of Transportation wants to study the idea of doubling the station’s
size and recently applied for a $10-million federal grant for a detailed
engineering study.
The South Shore is alerting
passengers to a series of planned temporary weekend construction outages. The
second of five weekend outages is scheduled for September 12-14, 2009. South
Shore trains will not operate trains in either direction between South Bend,
Ind., and Gary, Ind., Metro Center on the following weekends from 2:30 a.m.
Saturday thru 3:00 a.m. Monday: September 12-14 and 26-28, October 10-12 and October
31-November 2. The South Shore will
operate regular weekend train service between Gary Metro Center and Chicago.
Union Pacific’s new Joliet, Ill., Intermodal Terminal will
support customer growth by increasing the railroad’s international and domestic
container capacity and improving rail traffic efficiencies in Chicago, the
nation’s largest rail center. Once on line, customers from across Union
Pacific’s network will benefit from Joliet’s annual capacity of 500,000
ocean-going containers. Officials and customers gathered Sept. 3 to celebrate
the construction commencement of Union Pacific’s nearly $370 million, 785-acre
Joliet Intermodal Terminal and CenterPoint Intermodal Center – Joliet, a
3,900-acre state-of-the-art integrated logistics center.
The
Chicago Transit Authority has awarded a construction management contract to
Parsons Brinckerhoff for a rail replacement and tunnel rehabilitation project
on the system’s Blue Line subway, which connects the downtown business district
with O’Hare International Airport.
The governments of Canada and Quebec gave the green light to the rehabilitation and development of the Outremont rail yards in Montreal. The total estimate of the project is C$120 million (US$117,016,080). The Government of Canada has earmarked up to C$30 million (US$29,254,020) for the project from the major Infrastructure component of the Building Canada Fund. The province will provide a further C$30 million (US$29,254,020), while Montreal will contribute C$60 million (US$58,508,040). Federal funding will be granted on condition that the project satisfies all federal eligibility requirements for the Building Canada Fund and that the Government of Quebec signs a contribution agreement.
The Florida East Coast
Railway wants to build a radio tower twice as tall as the Jupiter Lighthouse
about a football field from Bob Culpepper’s front door on Park Street, the Palm
Beach Post reports. And the former Jupiter mayor and nearby residents on the
north side of the Loxahatchee River are none too happy about it.
Picture Lewis and Clark
splitting up at some point between present-day Umatilla and Boardman and racing
to the Pacific Ocean, the East Oregonian reports. Two contemporary economic
explorers, the general managers of the ports of Umatilla and Morrow, are doing
just that. Their goal, however, is developing a better shipping route from the
mid-Columbia River to Puget Sound.
Beginning August 30, MAX
Yellow Line trains in downtown Portland, Ore., will move to the new tracks on
5th and 6th avenues along the Portland Transit Mall. Also on August 30, MAX
Green Line trains will begin two weeks of test runs on the Mall and along I-205
before opening for service on Saturday, September 12.
Community leaders joined
with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to break ground for a new
$8.5-million Rapid Transit station on East 55th Street and the east
end of I-490.The new station
will continue to serve both light rail (RTA’s Green and Blue lines) and heavy rail (RTA’s Red Line). The station is also served by bus routes #2 and #16. The estimated completion is fall 2011.
Traffic back-ups on
Arlington Boulevard and on Howell and 14th streets in Greenville, N.C., should
decrease when it becomes easier for trains to pass through those areas later
this year, the Greenville Daily Reflector reports. Construction on a new
connector railroad track near the intersection of 14th and Beatty streets
should begin at the end of September, according to Greenville Public Works
Director Wes Anderson.
Virginia has submitted
its first high speed rail application for the Arkendale to Powell’s Creek
project along the I-95 High Speed Rail Corridor, local media report. The project,
with a construction cost of $74.8 million, would build 11.4 miles of third
track in Stafford and Prince William Counties.
