Stretching nearly four
miles from east to west, the rail hub near North Baltimore will be largest CSX Transportation
site for the shuffling of rail containers, the Sun Sentinel reports. Wood and
Henry County officials took a tour of the sprawling site sitting on 500 acres
running on the north side of Ohio 18, just outside North Baltimore.
A $250-million Amtrak
project to revive passenger service on Florida’s historic east coast rail line
is building steam, along with hopes it can revitalize station destinations such
as Daytona Beach, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The project could re-establish
passenger trains on the 350-mile route between Jacksonville and Miami,
originally forged by Henry Flagler in the 1890s but discontinued in 1968 as the
interstate highway system became the prominent transportation mode.
RailPros, Inc., recently
opened a Downtown San Diego office to better serve San Diego area clients. The
office is headed by Mike Ruth, P.E., and Joe Aroyo, P.E., who are managing
projects for SANDAG, CCDC, NCTD and other major San Diego clients.
Construction will begin
soon on what can best be described as "bridges" over Tysons. One will
begin in May on the Dulles Connector Road (Route 267) and cross over Route 123
to the northwest side of southbound Route 123. Another will cross I-495.
Another will be built in the median of Route 7 from just west of Route 123 and
into the median of the Dulles Airport Access Highway and the Dulles Toll Road.
Contractor crews will
begin working this fall on elements of the western three miles of the 11-mile
Central Corridor LRT Project. In September, they will begin prep work to
retrofit the Washington Avenue bridge to accommodate light-rail trains by reconstructing
the bridge piers. In December, they will start work to tie in the Central
Corridor line from the Hiawatha LRT line just west of the Cedar-Riverside
Station to Pleasant Street on the East Bank. The bulk of the Civil West contract
work, though, will start in spring 2011.
Buses will replace train
service for Long Island Rail Road customers traveling between Long Beach and
Valley Stream the weekend of May 15-16 as work is completed on the construction
of two new railroad bridges over Powell Creek and Hog Island Channel. The
$24.5-million project, which is funded through the MTA Capital Budget and
federal grants, began in March and is wrapping up as planned in time to
accommodate the weekend beach crowds expected in Long Beach beginning Memorial
Day weekend.
Signaling its most forceful
objection yet – and perhaps protracted court battles – Union Pacific has
notified the California high-speed rail authority that it will fight the
state’s newest plans to run bullet trains from the South Bay to the Central
Valley, including along Monterey Highway in San Jose, the Mercury News reports.
J.L. Patterson &
Associates, Inc., a transportation-engineering firm providing engineering
design, construction management and staff augmentation to public and private
sector clientele, as a sub-consultant to David Evans and Associates, Inc., will
be providing engineering design management, track design and structures design
services for the Oregon Department of Transportation’s High Speed Intercity
Passenger Rail Project. The scope of work includes National Environmental
Policy Act and Preliminary Engineering Services.
San Bernardino County, Calif.,
transportation officials met a state deadline May 7 to keep a $202-million
railroad overpass project on track, according to officials who negotiated the
hastily finalized deal, The Press-Enterprise reports.
A planned $100-million
expansion of CSX Transportation’s freight rail facilities near Franklin Street
in Worcester, Mass., has been heralded by state and local officials as a major
boon for economic development, the Worcester Business Journal reports. But just
how many jobs the expansion will create, and what the impact on the local
neighborhood will be, remains to be seen.
As part of the Patrick-Murray
Administration’s Massachusetts Recovery Plan to support economic development by
strengthening public transit and rail service, Congresswoman Niki Tsongas
joined MassDOT Secretary and CEO Jeffrey Mullan to announce the groundbreaking
of the $17.4-million Haverhill Commuter Rail Project funded by the American
Reinvestment and Recovery Act. The project complements a $50-million
ARRA-funded double-tracking and rail improvement project on the Fitchburg
commuter rail line.
The Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) invited the public to a special
community meeting on May 18 to hear an update on the proposed alignments
linking the potential Century City and Westwood/UCLA stations being examined as
part of the Westside Subway Extension Project environmental study now under
review.
The first trains to use the
Greenville, N.C, new railroad connector rolled through the city the evening of
May 3, The Daily Reflector reports. The connector, constructed this year to
relieve traffic problems at several city train crossings, is located at the
intersection of 14th and Beatty streets near Garris Evans Lumber Company. It’s
the first major step in ongoing efforts to address train traffic in the city.
Several members of the
U.S. House of Representatives held a field hearing Monday in Miami to review
national high-speed rail plans, including Florida’s project to build a
high-speed line between Miami and Tampa via Orlando partly funded by Obama
administration stimulus money, the Miami Herald reports. While Florida sought
$2.5 billion for the Tampa-Orlando stretch and $30 million to advance the
Orlando-Miami leg, the Federal Railroad Administration granted Florida $1.25
billion for Tampa-Orlando and nothing for Orlando-Miami.
Construction begins Monday,
May 3, on a rainwater control project in San Bruno, Calif., the first step in a
grade-separation project that will result in dramatic safety improvements at a
key series of intersections in that community. Caltrain will build a new
underground box culvert to divert water away from the area during the
construction and help reduce flooding in the neighborhood east of the railroad
tracks.
CSX Transportation, citing
safety concerns, has told the New York Department of Transportation that
passenger trains traveling faster than 90 mph would have to do so in a separate
corridor located at least 30 feet away from the nearest freight track, the
Albany Times Union reports.
As the 2010 construction
season gets under way, Amtrak is embarking on $1-billion construction program
to fund capital projects designed to rebuild, upgrade and modernize its tracks,
bridges, stations and other critical infrastructure along the busy Northeast
Corridor and across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and
the Miami area.
Southern California
officials have one week to come to agreement on the public benefits of a
planned railroad overpass in Colton, or risk losing $125 million for the Inland
area, The Press-Enterprise reports. To quell concerns from coastal counties,
San Bernardino County officials have offered to pull their request for state
bond money for a massive interchange overhaul proposed near Devore. Officials
said they will find money elsewhere to reconfigure the Interstate 215 and Interstate
15 convergence.
On April 22, the Sound
Transit Board in Metropolitan Seattle updated the preferred alternative for the
East Link light rail project. The preferred alternative was modified to include
a shorter and lower-cost tunnel option in downtown Bellevue, Wash., as well as
a revised at-grade alternative through downtown. Inclusion of the tunnel was
facilitated by the City of Bellevue agreeing to provide up to a $150-million
contribution.
A proposal to greatly
accelerate construction of a dozen transit projects and expedite highway improvement
projects in Los Angeles County was approved by the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority Board of Directors. The 30/10 initiative, first proposed by Los
Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, would seek federal assistance to build
within the next decade a series of light rail, subway and rapid bus projects
throughout Los Angeles County. The Board also voted to explore federal funding
or public private partnerships to expedite local highway improvements.
