August 2016
TODAY
SPECIAL
EDITION
This issue of RailWorks Today is dedicated to RailWorks’
diverse range of interesting projects and
the skilled employees
who bring them to
fruition. Here’s just
a sampling of the
company’s summertime track and transit
construction and
maintenance projects
performed throughout
the United States and
Canada.
PNR RailWorks
Metrolinx – GO Transit
Greater Toronto, Ontario
Welder Aaron Grobe performs
turnout grinding maintenance
on GO Transit/Metrolinx track
in Burlington, ON. His work is
part of daily track and signal
maintenance provided by
PNR RaiWorks on 246 miles
(396 km) of track over which
GO Transit travels.
A monthly newsletter for employees of
RailWorks Corporation and its subsidiaries
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August 2016
PNR RailWorks
Metrolinx – GO Transit
Mississauga, ON
While performing signal maintenance on the Weston Subdivision near the Toronto
Pearson International Airport, Superintendent Nick Gaber (left) and Signal Technician
Kamlesh Patel take low voltage B12 readings on signal equipment in a bungalow
adjacent to the track.
RailWorks Track Systems, Bridge Division
Copper Basin Railway (CBRY)
Kearny, AZ
Laborers Scott Lowery and Scott Tadlock removed a track panel to convert a
ballast-deck to open-deck bridge. Superintendent J.P. Onhiser spotted and directed
both excavators.
RailWorks Track Systems
Iowa Department of Transportation
Council Bluffs, IA
In coordination with Ames Construction, Fremont- and Houston-based crews worked over
a 36-hour window to create a new alignment for the Iowa Interstate Railroad to access
MidAmerican Energy and Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy. In total, crews tore out and
constructed 1,100 feet of track on the new alignment, including removing 4,000 cubic
yards of existing embankment, cutting and placing 1,000 yards of fill and placing and
compacting 18 inches of sub-ballast. RailWorks constructed the track and put it back into
service within 12 hours. This work is part of the larger I-29 Corridor Realignment project.
Area Manager Randy Ruppert is overseeing this project with support from Superintendent Tony Morales.
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August 2016
PNR RailWorks
Metrolinx - East Rail Maintenance Facility
Whitby, ON
In a nearly CA$20 million project for the Bird-Kiewit Joint Venture and the owners of the Plenary Group, PNR RailWorks is constructing the track infrastructure for this new GO Transit
maintenance facility east of Toronto. Crews are constructing 12.5 kilometers of steel-tie track and more than 2,000 track meters of direct fixation track inside buildings and installing 52
steel-tie turnouts, Under the direction of Senior Project Manager Arash Barzegar and managers Sohrab Khatabakhsh, Agstya Kaul and Lee Therrien, the project will be completed by
August 2017.
Crews got off to a fast start in mid-July due in large part to the leadership of Project Manager Seify Hashemi, who passed away May 20. “Seify contributed greatly to planning and procurement stages of this project, which has helped us get off to a successful start.” – Arash Barzegar
PNR RailWorks
RailWorks Track Systems
NOVA Chemicals
Red Deer, AB
CHS Central Montana Co-op
Ft. Benton, MT
From mid-April to mid-June, PNR RailWorks constructed three tracks and a lap switch at NOVA Chemicals’ Joffre petrochemical complex as part of the company’s expansion of its polyethylene production.
A Cochrane-based crew, faced with space constraints, met the challenge of installing a No. 8 switch
on top of a No. 10 switch. The new lead, scale and load tracks they constructed totaled 3,200 feet.
The yard tracks shown in the photo are coming off the load track. Chris Cote served as project manager, with Pat Russett as general superintendent and George Dwernychuk as superintendent.
Under the direction of Project Manager Phil Paintner and Superintendent
Brian Wilson, a Spokane-based crew constructed 1,800 feet of track and
installed one switch and one derail for CHS’ new Kershaw fertilizer hub
plant. With capacity to store about 27,000 tons of dry fertilizer, the facility
is served by BNSF from a 110-car shuttle loop track, which was constructed by RailWorks in 2015.
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August 2016
RailWorks Track Systems
RailWorks Maintenance of Way
South Dakota Department of Transportation
Near Chamberlain, SD
A Chehalis-based tie gang worked its way west on Dakota Southern Railroad’s Mitchell-Rapid City line. RailWorks Track Systems and RailWorks Maintenance of Way are upgrading the track
to a Federal Railroad Administration Class 2 rating. The $14 million project is led by Project Manager Michael Rood with support from Project Manager Mark Hornby and Superintendent
Scott Collins.
RailWorks Track Services
Sprague Energy
Portland, ME
A crew under the direction of Project Manager Justin Echevaria, Estimator Dave Pratt and Supervisor Bob Dedrick renewed a crossing and
upgraded an existing turnout at this energy facility in southern Maine.
PNR RailWorks
Central Maine & Quebec Railway (CMQ)
Sherbrooke, QC
Trackman Yves Deschamps, alongside Operator Francois St-Pierre, cuts rail sections in order to join
track to a newly installed switch on the CMQ. Besides the switch installation, PNR RailWorks is installing
ballast and surfacing track for the CMQ, a Class 3 freight railroad. The CMQ owns rail lines in Quebec,
Vermont and Maine and ships forest products and other cargo from Montreal to Maine’s Atlantic coast. The
project manager is Étienne Laberge. Jean Francois Bérubé is the project superintendent.
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August 2016
RailWorks Track Services
Iowa Fertilizer
Wever, IA
Laborer Emmanuel Farrar worked with other St. Louis- and Vincennes-based crew members to bolt together a No. 11 steel turnout, one of 26 turnouts constructed at this greenfield project
on the Iowa-Illinois border. Project Managers Tim Wohlever and Phil DeClue are leading this project, which will wrap up this fall.
RailWorks Track
Systems
Southern Minnesota
Beet Sugar Cooperative
Renville, MN
RailWorks Track Services
New England Central Railroad (NECR)
Mansfield, CT
A crew working out of the Westfield, MA, office constructed a track panel for a new crossing
at Depot Road on NECR in central Connecticut. This work is part of a broader crossing
rehabilitation project for the Connecticut Department of Transportation. In all, this crew will
replace nine crossings and six turnouts between New London and Stafford Springs, CT. This
effort is directed by Project Manager Pat Devine, Supervisor Rocky Bradway and Foreman
Cody Freeman.
RailWorks is completing
the first of three phases
to upgrade the track at
this plant that annually
processes more than
3 million tons of locally
grown sugar beets into
different types of sweeteners. Crews are removing old 90-lb. track and
rebuilding it with new ties
and 115-lb. rail. First, they
cut the grade down and
installed filter fabric and
drain tiles to improve the
drainage. Superintendent
Bill Kadrlik is responsible for directing this
project, which wraps up in
August in time for start of
processing season.
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August 2016
RailWorks Maintenance of Way
CP
St. Paul, MN
RailWorks’ RGH20C rail grinder has been grinding switches and crossings on CP throughout central and northern Minnesota in July, including work at this crossing near St. Paul. Foreman
Rey Moreno can monitor all vital functions of the grinder from a screen inside the cab, which displays the grinding patterns, the angle of each stone and the set-down and pickup details of
each motor as they go through the sequencing cycles. Supervisor Shea Swindall is overseeing operations, which will move to North Dakota in the fall.
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August 2016
RailWorks Transit
New York City Transit (NYCT)
St. George, Staten Island, NY
Work began in 2015 on this $80-million, 30-month project to reconstruct the interlocking
on the Staten Island Railway after Super Storm Sandy. In the St. George Terminal looking
westbound towards Staten Island, RailWorks is constructing the new North Shore track.
This terminal consists of six passenger station platforms and 12 tracks. Two new designs
are being used for the first time on NYCT during this project: composite fiberglass ties
and Alstom 4000 switch machine layouts, which have required adjustments due to limited
clearances. Under the leadership of Project Manager Anthony D’Alessandro and General
Manager Frank DeLuca, crews have addressed the challenges and have met all schedule
milestones, while passenger travel has continued 24/7.
RailWorks Track Systems
L.K. Comstock National Transit
PNR RailWorks
El Paso Streetcar
El Paso, TX
GCT Deltaport
Roberts Bank, BC
Due to extreme daytime heat in El Paso, concrete pours are scheduled over evenings. In
this picture, RailWorks employees are covering the top of the rail with protective tape to
ensure no concrete adheres to the head of the rail or flangeway. RailWorks’ joint venture
partner, Granite Construction, physically places the concrete, but RailWorks crews come
in early to perform quality control on the track, and, once concrete is poured, remove
tape and rail boot zip ties. The joint venture is constructing a 4.8-mile streetcar system
between the downtown retail district and the University of Texas at El Paso. RailWorks
Track Systems began track construction in July. L.K. Comstock National Transit, which
will perform the systems work, is scheduled to begin field construction in February 2017.
The project manager is Sean McCray.
Trackmen Stanley Escarbarte (in the foreground at right), along with Sam Coghlan and
Frank Smith (near center) drill anchor holes for crane rail at GCT (Global Container Terminal) Deltaport. The Pacific Region crew is averaging 520 anchor holes daily, facilitating
the replacement of seven existing rail cranes with eight Künz 40-ton, electric, wide-span
cranes designed to increase intermodal yard capacity to 1.9 million TEU (20-foot equivalent
units, a measurement of container capacity). In addition, as part of the reconfiguration and
upgrading of the terminal’s railyard, PNR RailWorks is rearranging two sets of four tracks
into a single set of seven tracks. The project— led by Project Manager Floridor Oprea,
Superintendent David Pearce, Field Engineer John Rhee and Foremen Joe Lima, John
Lima and Jason Klassen — is scheduled to conclude in January 2018.
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August 2016
PNR RailWorks, Major Projects Division
Metrolinx
Toronto, ON
PNR RailWorks, Major Projects Division
Metrolinx
Cambridge, ON
As part of the six-year Union Station Rail Corridor (USRC) project, PNR RailWorks is installing all new solid state interlockings
and wiring 10 large 12 foot by 42 foot bungalows (signals houses). Work is being completed in a warehouse in Cambridge, ON,
and will be moved to the project site in downtown Toronto as work progresses throughout 2017. Shawn Malott, manager of
technical services, is directing the work. Juan Estrada serves as the project manager of the USRC project.
To avoid peak GO Transit train traffic, crews are working
overnight to prepare for installation of the conduit for the
Union Station Rail Corridor re-signalization project. In the
foreground, signalmen lift and lower the conduit trough
into an excavated pit at Bala curve. In the background,
a hydrovac subcontractor works ahead of the troughing
installation crew to excavate the trench pit.
HSQ Technology
East Contra Costa BART Extension (eBART)
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
RailWorks Track Systems
Fort Worth & Western Railroad
Dublin, TX
To put the track into service following a train derailment, Project Supervisor Lance Williams managed a crew working to
rehabilitate a switch with new stock rail and switch points, including Foreman Tony Flores and Laborers Lorenzo Hernandez,
Rudy Flores and Kenneth Lewis.
In the HSQ shop in Hayward, CA, Quality Control
Production Manager Hugh Carter, left, and Network
Engineer Ahmed Abduljabar test a network cabinet
for eBART, San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit
extension to the rapidly growing east Contra Costa
County. The extension involves approximately 10 miles
of new track between the existing Pittsburg/Bay Point
BART Station and the city of Antioch. HSQ provided
the network, closed-circuit television, public address
and telephone systems. HSQ’s contract is with the
joint venture partnership among Stacy and Witbeck,
Modern Railway Systems and Amoroso.
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August 2016
RailWorks Track Services
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago, IL
As part of a 55-hour weekend outage, RailWorks crews installed timber guard on the inner track over Wabash Avenue in downtown Chicago on the elevated “Loop” track. Work included
removing and replacing of all ties on the inner loop track as well as demolishing and reconstructing the existing structure over Madison Street, with track being rebuilt on both the inner and
outer loop track over Madison Street. Construction Manager Tom Jorczak and Project Manager Andrew Rolf are overseeing this work with support from Safety Manager Michael Lane.
L.K. Comstock National Transit
Sound Transit
200th Street Extension (S440)
With an expected revenue service start in late
September, L.K. Comstock is focused on testing and the final punch list. In June, linemen
John Seiler and Elton Stingley installed a
midpoint anchor along the 1.6-mile elevated
light rail extension. Over the duration of the
11-month project, L.K. Comstock installed the
overhead catenary system, train control and
signal and communications systems. Project
Manager Ben Neeley and Construction Manager Mike Akin led the project to connect the
current SeaTac Airport station and the newly
built Angle Lake Station.
10
August 2016
L.K. Comstock National Transit
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
Dallas, TX
On July 10 during a weekend cutover, crews worked at DART’s Ledbetter Station to tie in the overhead catenary system on the new South Oak Cliff Line Section 3 extension (to the existing
Blue Line. The new 2.76-mile extension will connect South Dallas with the downtown area and is anticipated to generate growth in the area. Project Manager Zafar Arif and Construction
Manager Clark Chance are leading this $21.4-million project, which is scheduled to open for revenue service in December 2016.
RailWorks Track Systems
Port of Seattle, Terminal 18
Seattle, WA
Chehalis-based crews worked nights and weekends to complete
this crossing-replacement project at Terminal 18 at the Port of Seattle. RailWorks removed the existing tracks and replaced ballast, ties,
rails and concrete crossing panels across 12 truck access lanes
(more than 300 feet) in front of the security gates at Terminal 18.
RailWorks crews completed this project on time with no disruption
to truck access. Project Foremen Jason Doll and Jim Barnes
directed the crew, which the Port’s Safety Department recognized
for good housekeeping, equipment inspections, operations and
peer-to-peer communication.