Railway Track & Structures - June 2008 - (Page 23)

quality product to the market place.” Hanson Pipe & Precast produces Premier® Concrete Railroad Crossings, which are tieless, precast, modular reinforced concrete systems that carry road-ways smoothly across railroad tracks. New to Hanson’s product line are several features, including the company’s new Premier Clad Panels. According to Hanson, the panels are designed for high-tonnage railroads, offer extra timber screw holes, 7,000 psi concrete and attached rubber, making it even more equipped for railroads that require high maintenance. The panels have the same design as Hanson’s modular crossings, but attach to 10-foot wood railroad ties and have a new skid-resistant diamond plate ﬁnish. Hanson also manufactures a module bridge system that takes the place of the bridge-decking materials and track-support system. According to the company, it allows for complete rail isolation, low maintenance and smooth highway crossing. Along with the system, a prestressed, closed-deck bridge enables the company to work with all railroads to design a con- crete bridge to replace wood bridges. Wayne Weszka, manager precast railroad products and Premier modular railroad crossings, notes increased use of concrete crossings, in addition to increased demand for Hanson’s Premier product. “Economically speaking, features such as tie-less construction, which is cost effective and minimizes the need for maintenance and extra expenses for parts, have proven to be crucial elements in the industry,” said Weszka. “There has been a high demand for the Premier product, which provides faster installation of crossings in order to keep road closures to a minimum.” KSA manufactures a full-depth, fullwidth concrete panel system that will accommodate a nine-foot or 10-foot wood tie. KSA also manufactures a concrete center panel only for 8.5-foot wood or concrete ties with rubber rail guard on the ﬁeld side. The newest system KSA has, which has been around for the past ﬁve years, is a full-width, full-depth concrete crossing on 10-foot concrete ties that comes with a feature that allows the ﬁeld panels to be secured to the concrete ties. Omega Industries, Inc., has seen a considerable increase in business as a result of new transit projects. The company’s products have been used on projects in San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and Santa Fe and Omega hopes to supply crossings for upcoming projects in Denver and Houston. “In order to keep up with industry demand, we have increased capacity at two of our four manufacturing plants (more than doubling capacity at our Texas facility),” said Mark Mottola, national sales manager at Omega. “Along with an investment in capacity, we have upgraded our engineering technology and added new key members to our engineering department.” According to Mottola, Omega hopes to double its Canadian business in 2008 due to a newly-developed crossing panel designed to satisfy the Canadian rail market. Mottola credits Omega’s Canadian distributor, Kess Martin with K.E.S. Resource Enterprises, for the successful introduction of Omega panels in the Canadian market. “One last note of interest is a new www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures June 2008 23 http://www.rtands.com

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

Railway Track & Structures - June 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Grade Crossings Provide Interface Between Railroads, Public Grade-Crossing Equipment & Materials Guide Fastener Suppliers Getting a Grip Grinding Plays Part in Rail Maintenance Big Picture Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Website Directory Advertisers Index Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - June 2008

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