Railway Track & Structures - May 2008 - (Page 38)

Conrail Suppliers for Lehigh Valley Double-Track Project R.J. Corman Jacobs Engineering Southwest Signal E. E. Cruz Compass Corp. Kirby Reese Tracks Unlimited Stavola Salient Systems Oliver Communications GE Transportation Systems Comet Communication & Signal Universal Manufacturers PTMW Corporation TelMar Network Technologies Independent Aerial Equipment Track material procurement and distribution Engineering design services, project management Signal design and material procurement General contractor for track, civil and bridges Bridge work Brush cutting Tie unloading Ballast for C&S construction Middlesex impact detector Middlesex impact detector construction Hot box/dragging equipment detectors AEI site Communication towers Communication houses, cases Microwave radios Equipment for communication tower installations Kearny and the Norfolk Southern Croxton facilities. The sixth and final project of the North Jersey Infrastructure Program was the restoration of the former double track on the Lehigh Line between CP Potter near Edison, N.J., and CP Bound Brook in Bound Brook, N.J. This 10.5-mile double-track restoration eliminated yet another bottleneck where trains quite often would wait their turn to move over the singletrack portion of the heavily-traveled Lehigh Line. Lehigh double-track restoration A prerequisite to the North Jersey Infrastructure Program required that Conrail do a public outreach for the Lehigh Line double-tracking project. The railroad had to address concerns about adding a track by reaching out to all the communities along the project’s right-of-way. “Fortunately, we were restoring a track that had been removed in the 1980s,” said Tim Tierney, vice president and chief engineer of Conrail. “The right-of-way and undergrade bridges were already in place, and we didn’t need to acquire any additional property. In the outreach meetings, we explained the benefit to New Jersey of 38 Railway Track & Structures May 2008 adding capacity to existing freight corridors such as the Lehigh Line and how this project would mitigate local complaints regarding the idling of trains at each end of the single track that were waiting their turn. During these meetings, we passed out ‘kitchenstyle’ magnets with an 800 number on them so that citizens and adjoining property owners could have direct contact with the railroad to report any problems associated with the construction of this project. During the construction, we didn’t get a lot of complaints nor expressions of public concern about the project.” The New Jersey Department of Transportation was also involved with the double-track restoration due to the modifications of nine highway grade crossings in this segment. Conrail, NJDOT, and the local municipalities gathered and reached consensus on what was required at each grade crossing. In the end, while the railroad could not close any of these crossings, each crossing received substantial modifications and upgrades to the highway warning devices. Quiet zones were also a topic of discussion during the implementation of this project, but were kept separate from the restoration of the double track. Conrail stated that they would comply, as required, with quiet zones applications and work with municipalities as the process was carried out. However, Tierney noted, “Quiet zones must be driven by the municipalities, not the railroad.” The actual construction of the double track was pretty straightforward. A construction fence was placed between the live track and the new track being constructed over the entire 10.5-mile segment to act as a positive barrier to ensure that workers did not wander in the foul of live track. This served to enhance the level of comfort to the many construction workers engaged in simultaneous activities along the project path and for the train crews passing the work areas, as well. “It really helped that the winter of 2006-2007 had relatively mild weather,” Tierney said. “We lost no time due to weather, especially with site work and grading that usually would be impacted during the winter months in the Northeast. After 14 months of planning and construction, December 20, 2007, was the first day of revenue service over the new double-track Lehigh Main Line route.” While the normal track speed for this portion of the Lehigh Line is 50 mph, trains operated on the new double track at 30 mph for one month to condition the public to the new double-track operation. There are roughly 40 freight trains daily on the Lehigh Main Line route section from CP Bound Brook to CP Aldene, where New Jersey Transit joins operations on Conrail for five miles to the Northeast Corridor. With their 70 passenger trains operating via Newark, this joint operation that Conrail dispatches delivers 97-percent on-time performance without any imposed curfews. “New Jersey Transit is currently planning to build a new passenger tunnel to New York City, so we are anticipating considerable growth, with the number of commuter trains expected to double within a decade,” Tierney said. “That, of course, means more passenger train demand on Conrail’s Lehigh Line. Discussions are now under way with New Jersey Transit about future capacity options, including the possibility of adding a third track to www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - May 2008

Railway Track & Structures - May 2008 On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D NRC In Good Shape to Face Upcoming Challenges Pipe Ramming Can Aid Drainage Conrail Building to Handle Booming Northern New Jersey Traffic Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Advertisers Index Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - May 2008

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.