Railway Track & Structures - February 2009 - (Page 14)

AREMA NEWS Getting to know Gary E. Proskovec determining deviations to design necessary to accommodate varying geographic settings and to facilitate safe and efficient train movements in a cost-effective and safe manner. Railway projects provide the intriguing opportunity to provide a design not only for the trackage subgrade/foundation, but also for numerous other design considerations. Some of these include wetland permitting, archeology, geomorphology, rail, ties, granular layer materials, fore-slopes and backslopes, crossings, crossovers, signaling, drainage and associated structures, corrosivity of soils to steel and concrete structures, buildings, vegetation and erosion control. Satisfaction comes from communicating with contractors as they work on railway projects. It is very rewarding to facilitate involvement where everyone works together and strives to proactively perform construction operations that meet the railroad’s project design requirements in a timely and non-repetitive manner. These are some of the reasons that I chose a career oriented toward railway engineering. Over the past nearly four decades, the rewards and satisfaction I have had working on railway projects prove to me that I made the right choice. AREMA: How did you get started? Proskovec: I am a geotechnical engineer by profession. In the late 1970s, I had the opportunity to serve as the HWS Consulting Group lead geotechnical engineer on a C&NW Railroad project that was more than 100 miles in length and extended into the coal fields located within the Powder River Basin south of Gillette, Wyo. My initial involvement was associated with coordinating geotechnical exploration and soils testing analysis and providing design recommendations for this project that included not only the design of track subgrade for the new railroad line, but also every aspect of geotechnical engineering I’d been exposed to over the eight years prior to the start of this project. As the project evolved, I became exposed to more of the railway aspects of design associated with a main line heavy-haul trackage project. Some of these design aspects included drainage structures (culverts and bridges), new yards and crew change facilities, communication facilities, erosion, wastewater facilities, subballast and ballast availability, vegetation, public and private relations, etc., to name those aspects most prevalent on this project. HWS and I were involved with the construction of this project during the early to mid-1980s. This project was the beginning of my – and HWS’ – working with other Class 1 railroads and private clients that have requested railroad design assistance from HWS in 12 of the midwestern states and two of the southeastern states as of the present day. AREMA: How did you get involved in AREMA and your committee? Proskovec: Approximately 12 years ago, UP requested that HWS consider having one of our employees join AREA (now AREMA). In particular, it was requested that the individual join Committee 1 – Roadway & Ballast and, specifically, join Subcommittee 1 that deals with roadbed. At that time, this subcommittee had a technical rewrite assignment that was unfinished after 20 and 25 years. The information in this part of the Manual for Railway Engineering needed updating to be responsive to day-to-day needs and for general reference during design on railroad projects. Because I am a geotechnical engineer by profession and had been working on railroad projects for some 20-plus years, I was the HWS employee asked to join and to be on Subcommittee 1. The roadbed part of the Manual that Subcommittee 1 was rewriting has four sections: Exploration and Testing, Design, Construction and Maintenance. All four sections have similar considerations and should, therefore, have been presented along similar lines, but were not. It was apparent all four sections were written by different authors and groups and did not address what should have been similar base considerations. Therefore, it was decided that all four sections within Part 1 - Roadbed should be rewritten. I am happy to say that within approximately five years, Subcommittee 1 was able to rewrite all four sections within Part 1 – Roadbed. AREMA: Outside of your job and the hard work you put into AREMA, what are your hobbies? Proskovec: I enjoy playing racquetball, working on our home and our children’s homes remodeling and construction projects and tinkering around on cars. I really enjoy cars - it would be neat to be able to get involved with this hobby like Jay Leno. AREMA: Tell us about your family. www.rtands.com Gary E. Proskovec Chair, Committee 1 - Roadway & Ballast Vice President Geotechnical & Railroad Practices HWS Consulting Group Inc. ach month AREMA will feature one of our committee chairmen. We are pleased to announce that the February featured chairman is Gary E. Proskovec, chair of Committee 1 - Roadway & Ballast. AREMA: Why did you decide to choose a career in railway engineering? Proskovec: Early in my engineering profession at HWS Consulting Group Inc., I realized that I received extreme satisfaction from working on railway projects. This satisfaction came from a number of situations afforded by railway projects such as the following: Railway projects allow an engineer the satisfaction that comes from working with not only the railroad engineering staff, but also the railroad operations staff in the development of responsive design solutions for a project. The most responsive design is most often developed when railway engineering personnel and railway operating personnel are allowed to provide input, from their respective perspectives, into the final project designs and solutions. When a project design addresses not only apparent design topics, but also any potential unique issues inherent with the project, it is very rewarding. Railway projects are often within confined corridors and involve working with adjacent private and public landowners as part of a design project. It is satisfying to work with these landowners and not only maintain, but, hopefully, improve public relations between these landowners and the railroad. Railroad projects can be located within multiple geographic settings. Having the opportunity to broaden one’s knowledge when designs encompass varying geologic regions and conditions is very satisfying. One example is the satisfaction that comes from 14 Railway Track & Structures February 2009 E http://www.arema.org http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - February 2009

Railway Track and Structures - February 2009 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Railroads Stepping Up Use of Technology to Locate Rail Flaws Rail Lubrication Realizing Great Potential M/W Challenges: Track Settlement at Bridge Approaches Supplier Profiles Products and Literature People Calendar Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - February 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.