Railway Track & Structures - October 2007 - (Page 32)

RTS1007 p25-36-Crossties 9/26/07 2:28 PM Page 32 regional lines, commuter/transit rail projects, and a variety of industrial activities such as ports and new ethanol and biodiesel facilities. These new applications are being developed as the industry continues to recognize the benefits concrete ties provide to reduce installation and life-cycle costs.” During the past year the company has supplied ties for a number of projects, including the Alaska Railroad, new transit lines constructed by TriMet and UTA and industrial applications, including the Port of Vancouver and a number of new ethanol plants in Nebraska, Idaho and Oregon, to name a few. Hammons concludes, “Concrete ties continue to gain broader acceptance and have increased market share across all segments. North America has generally lagged behind other global economies, specifically in Europe and Asia, in the use of concrete ties. However, we have recognized a genuine recent shift to concrete ties due to environmental issues and their life-cycle-cost advantages. We expect this trend to continue.” KSA produces prestressed concrete crossties designed for heavy-haul and transit systems, along with specialty ties for guardrails, restraining rails, grade crossings, turnouts and crane rail. The company developed a concrete tie with an improved railseat to help eliminate abrasion. Both CSXT and Union Pacific installed these particular ties in track. The other advantage to this system is the preinstalled fastening system that can be engaged by the TLM. Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc., manufactures a complete line of prestressed concrete ties, including ties for heavy haul, ties for commuter and light rail, turnout ties, guard rail ties and crossing ties. “Concrete ties continue to offer a costbenefit advantage, when life-cycle costing is considered. Our recent efforts have concentrated on maximizing this advantage,” said Al Smith, manager of sales at Rocla. “Concrete ties, specifically, seem to be given stronger consideration than even just a few years ago, especially for new, out-of-face projects. “The majority of our production goes to Class 1 railroads and their proportion is increasing. But the volume we provide to transit and passenger agencies is still important,” said Smith. “Rocla is proud to be supplying concrete ties for the New Mexico Rail Runner Project. Other sizable projects are being considered, and hopefully, Rocla will be successful in a few of these as well.” 32 Railway Track & Structures October 2007 Smith points out that Rocla’s Class 1 customers seem to be concentrating on increasing fastener reliability as a way to increase the service life of the tie and the company is cooperating with whatever testing each railroad customer is doing in that area. In addition to customer research, Smith points to other research centers as a means to gather information. “Places such as TTCI and PCI continue to provide new information that makes old practices obsolete. Concrete tie suppliers are often only too aware that improvements in our products are possible, but become impossible to provide due to restrictive specifications or practices that should be updated,” said Smith. Steel NARSTCO continues to strive to improve its market share through new cost-saving products for the railroad industry. “We are seeing a dramatic increase in our business this year due to our products being an economical alternate to the mainstay wood,” said John Fox, vice president sales at NARSTCO. “Our new steel turnout tie set design, with improved fastening and trough-style head blocks, is showing great results. “Being able to install our steel turnouts in half the time versus comparable wood, plus requiring 40 percent less ballast, are true measurable savings our customers are realizing,” said Fox. “NARSTCO steel ties and turnout sets are a viable alternate that more and more railroad customers are now buying and seeing the benefits.” Plastic and composites EnviroTie, Inc., manufactures steelreinforced-plastic bridge ties, solid-plastic ties and solid-plastic guard ties. The ties are manufactured exclusively by Plastic Pilings, Inc., which has 20 years of experience producing steel-reinforcedplastic marine pilings and timber for the U.S. Navy, port authorities, DOTs, and various other government agencies. According to the company, its ties are made from 100-percent recycled plastic, are creosote free, warranted against cracking, can be installed with standard wood tie equipment and can be made to meet virtually any strength required. “I notice that more and more companies and individuals, not just in the railroad industry, but the timber industry as a whole, are becoming increasingly environmentally responsible. I suppose you www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - October 2007

Railway Track & Structures - October 2007 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Crossties by the Billions Provide Essentials for Full Support Modern Tools Manage Risk M/W Challenges: Better Management of Thermal Forces in CWR TTCI Celebrates 25 Years as Facility, 10 as Part of AAR Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Website Directory Advertisers Index Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - October 2007

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.