Railway Track & Structures - September 2007 - (Page 37) Transit m/w Nashville’s new Music City Star commuter railroad in an early evening rain. Music City Star strikes a chord Rebuilding a lightly-used freight line brought commuter rail service back to Nashville and Central Tennessee, with a successful grand opening in fall 2006. by Tom Judge, editor ashville, Tenn., has been home to a galaxy of country music stars, but in fall 2006 a new star entered the city’s pantheon as Music City Star trains began carrying commuters over a renovated 32-mile stretch of track that hadn’t seen passengers in many decades. Greater Nashville has a population of 1.2 million and hosts 9 million tourists each year. Projected growth is 42 percent in the five-county metro area by 2025, with the highest growth being in the outlying counties. The projected job growth during that same time is 69 percent, but the majority of the job growth is projected N to be in Davidson County. Local officials decided that commuter rail was definitely in the picture. Planning for the line began in 1996, with actual track and signal construction begun in October of 2004. Station construction began in June of 2005. The first day of revenue operations was September 18, 2006. Scope of the project The Music City Star project consisted of 31.4 track miles from Lebanon, Tenn., to downtown Nashville. This included the construction of six stations along the way. Along with the station construction, the project includ- ed rehabilitation of the existing railroad track from Class 2 freight to Class 3 passenger service, bypassing an existing freight yard, adding a signal system, protecting grade crossings, upgrading a maintenance facility and replacing or rehabbing several bridges. Neel-Schaffer, Inc., a Nashville consulting engineering firm, was the project manager for the design and construction of the project. By using five different general contractors, the following work was accomplished: • More than two miles of new track was laid, including bypass tracks around the freight yard, storage tracks and passing sidings. September 2007 37 www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures http://www.rtands.com
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