Railway Track & Structures - October 2008 - (Page 28)

CROSSTIE REPORT entire crosstie industry. “We are seeing an entirely new dynamic in how [the sawmills’] ﬁnancial health is impacted, everything is increasing as far as their operating costs. Crossties are the only spot that has been constant, and, if not continuous, it has been increasing. All other products have either stayed the same, or, unfortunately, in the case of lumber, it has been severely reduced. It will require unprecedented levels of ﬁnancial investment to maintain any level of production in the short term,” said Clarke. 2008 RTA is currently involved in four research projects that include investigating RTA research alternative wood preservatives, studying the tie life curve, comparing inspection techniques and assessing a tie conditionbased risk analysis. “Our new RTA-Alternative Wood Preservative Research Project (AWPRP) at Mississippi State University is designed to be a side-by-side comparison of many new systems to creosote-only standard treatments,” said Gauntt. “This is being conducted on full size ties and in both a Formosan Subterranean Termiteinfested location and one not infested with FSTs. Obviously, this is a long-term project, the other three projects are being conducted by ZETA-TECH Associates and will be completed this year with the assistance of BNSF.” Project Two is looking at validation and calibration of the traditional USDA Forest Products Laboratory tie life curve using recent data from U.S. Class 1 railroads. According to Gauntt, the project will use tie life data from recent Class 1 railroad inspection of ties, both visual inspection (using TieInspect to accurately map the tie locations) and track strength-based inspection (using either GRMS or TrackSTAR). These data will be used to update and modernize the USDA Forest Products Lab tie failure distribution curve. The third project is a comparison of tie requirements, based on visual inspection as compared to track strength-based inspection (e.g., GRMS). “This activity will examine the difference in tie replacement requirements between conventional, visual inspection with lateral track strength-based replacement requirements. This difference will include the increased number of strengthrelated ties usually found by GRMS (as compared to visual inspection) and the reduced number of non-lateral strengthrelated ties, e.g., ties that have adequate gauge holding strength, but inadequate vertical, track surface, supporting capability, found by GRMS,” said Gauntt. RTA’s fourth project is a feasibility assessment for the development of a tie condition-based risk analysis. “In recent years, derailment risk assessment tools have been developed for broken rails, based on ultrasonic rail www.rtands.com 28 Railway Track & Structures October 2008 RTS1008 p27-37-crossties.indd 28 10/1/08 4:08:50 PM http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track & Structures - October 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Railroads Building Solid Foundation for More Capacity with Crossties Safety in High Density Areas M/W Challenges: CN Places New Bridge in Only Six Hours Products and Literature People Calendar Website Directory Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - October 2008

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