Becoming part historian to identify unknown and abandoned utility infrastructure from the bygone eras of railroading within the same footprint.

Transcription

1 RANDOLPH STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT AT ROANOKE, VIRGINIA Brian L. Putman, P.E. Principal Design Engineer Design & Construction Norfolk Southern Railway Company 1200 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA Jason D. Williams, P.E. Project Manager - Rail Anderson & Associates, Inc. 100 Ardmore Street Blacksburg, VA williams@andassoc.com Michael J. Breen Manager Construction Design & Construction 1200 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA Michael.Breen@nscorp.com Andrew Fagan Project Engineer Anderson & Associates, Inc. 100 Ardmore Street Blacksburg, VA Fagan@andassoc.com David M. Taylor Assistant Division Engineer Track Norfolk Southern Railway Company 435 Kimball Ave. NE Roanoke, VA David.Taylor2@nscorp.com WORDS = 4,360 not including above text, references text and 12 pictures ABSTRACT What began as a Signals Department budget request to upgrade the antiquated signal system through downtown Roanoke, this project became a major multi-departmental company infrastructure improvement project. Situated at an intersection of its Heartland Corridor and Crescent Corridor, Norfolk Southern Railway recognized the major benefit of upgrading the infrastructure facilities and doubling the authorized track speed through downtown Roanoke. Design also required accommodations for future Amtrak passenger service to the city and added operational improvement to the existing Locomotive Shop within the project limits. Completed in April 2014, this project represented a significant achievement to NSR as the work involved major changes to a very complex track and signal infrastructure interlocking while constructed under traffic without train delay. Topics covered by the paper and presentation will focus on: The design challenges to improve track alignments with new, longer turnouts to fit within a defined limit while sustaining all current traffic routes Becoming part historian to identify unknown and abandoned utility infrastructure from the bygone eras of railroading within the same footprint. AREMA

2 The monumental task of coordinating and implementing the new track and signal improvements while maintaining train traffic at all times on all routes in a highly congested area. This includes the phased cut in approach to maintain the traffic control system while 30 turnouts and 5 new control points were installed, and the challenges involved coordinating with internal departments, local utilities, and government agencies. RANDOLPH STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT AT ROANOKE, VIRGINIA Randolph Street is the control point located in downtown Roanoke, Virginia, where Norfolk Southern Railway s H-Line (from Hagerstown, MD) and N-Line (from Norfolk, VA) converge. The H-Line is part of NSR s larger 2,500-mile Crescent Corridor network, providing direct, expedited rail service between the Midwest and the Northeast. NS has added several intermodal facilities along this corridor as it parallels Interstate 81. The corridor is well positioned to remove truck traffic from the increasingly congested interstate system. The N-Line is part of the network Norfolk Southern has dubbed the Heartland Corridor. The Heartland Corridor was targeted by NS to provide a more direct and efficient intermodal route between the mid-atlantic and the Midwest. In order to be traversed by double-stacked intermodal trains NS has increased clearances in 29 tunnels and bridges along this route. By focusing rail growth along these two corridors, Norfolk Southern is removing long haul truck traffic from our nation s increasingly congested highways. This in turn reduces fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and saves transit time for customers. Figure 1: Norfolk Southern Heartland Corridor (1) Figure 2: Norfolk Southern Crescent Corridor (2) AREMA

3 With downtown Roanoke being the sole location on the NS system where the two Corridors meet, it became evident that rail improvements at this location would greatly benefit the operations of both corridors. But how did this intersection at Randolph Street become unconducive to growth with modern railroad practices? After all, the City has been functioning as an important location to the regions rail network since its inception. History First, we must go back to the beginning of Roanoke, when it was established as the town of Big Lick in The area became the convergence point of multiple railroads following the Civil War. Over time and through financial woes, mergers, and acquisitions, the smaller independent railroads became bigger conglomerations of railroads. In 1881 one of those conglomerations became the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in the Roanoke Valley. Having the new N&W Headquarters and a major passenger station located in the same location caused rail infrastructure to be continually added and modified. N&W housed its maintenance shops and began to manufacture its own locomotives at the Roanoke Machine Works; it was eventually renamed the Roanoke Shops, and today is called the East End Shops by NSR. N&W freight terminating and originating at Roanoke s hump yard on the west side of town and coal traffic passing through from the Appalachians to Norfolk, Virginia s Lamberts Point, resulted in a large volume of freight traffic passing through downtown Roanoke daily. Added to that was a significant amount of passenger service since travel by train was the predominant method of transportation in the era; needless to say the train traffic through Roanoke was very high. The East End Shops were within a stone s throw of the N&W s headquarters and downtown Roanoke, so the adjacent mainline freight rail lines made a convenient location for a passenger station. With the shops being located between two major routes (later to be known as Norfolk Southern Railway s H- and N-Lines) both passenger locomotives and cars could be quickly and efficiently removed from the mainline to be serviced. Through the years the N&W operated and maintained the functionality of this layout quite well, efficiently serving the needs of the era. Figure 3: Downtown Roanoke & Passenger Station (3) AREMA

4 In 1971, N&W ended passenger service on its network. There was no longer a need for passenger train servicing at the East End Shops so N&W demolished some of the passenger infrastructure and stitched together the terminated passenger track layout to serve strictly freight operations. The resulting track interlocking geometry contained un-necessary reverse curves and undersized cross-overs that restricted speeds from 10 to 25 mph. Original Signal System Along with a stitched together track interlocking, the railroad signals in the downtown area also continued to operate within the same system that was implemented during the time of the N&W. Signals technology improved in the industry, but the existing system, while functional and safe, became antiquated and difficult to maintain. Repairs were constantly needed and as time passed, parts became harder to come by as manufacturers phased out those outdated parts. Railroad employees were required to manufacture their own replacement parts and scavenge the system to find the parts they required to keep the signal system and the railroad operational. As the experienced labor force retired, the knowledge for repairing and fabricating replacement parts was taken with them. The NSR Signals Department set out to update the old Microlok control system that was interfaced with older cable and mechanical relays at Randolph Street Interlocking. Management quickly realized that not only would upgrading the signal system be an immediate benefit, but the Company could maximize their investment by combining this update with an upgrade to the entire track network at the same location. OLD, BUT ACTIVE, SIGNAL CABLES Randolph Tower Figure 4: Signal Cables On Fence Line & Randolph Street Tower Constructed 1949, Still Houses Signal System AREMA

5 Proposal To Upgrade Network & Project Design It was with this decision that in 2009, the Design & Construction department was contacted to provide a budgeting estimate for the Randolph Street Improvement Project. Upgrades to both the track and signals systems multiplied the project benefits by seeking to achieve a reliable, modern signal system while eliminating non-standard track alignments to increase through freight speed from 10 to 25 mph operations to 30 mph operations. Norfolk Southern had partnered with the Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation to begin improvements to the Crescent corridor on the B-Line from Manassas to Front Royal, VA. With the success of this program, the two entities believed another successful partnership could be formed at Randolph Street. Norfolk Southern would benefit by the modernization of the railroad through downtown Roanoke and VDRPT would gain the ability to seamlessly insert future passenger service from Lynchburg to Roanoke into the rail system without having to change any of the newly planned upgrades to the Randolph Street Interlocking. The Design & Construction Department began this rail improvement project with a field survey of the existing project area, including track and visually noticeable utilities and infrastructure. The data was collected in order to develop a concept alignment to determine if the goal of increasing track speed through the use of larger turnouts was even feasible. The existing turnouts were smaller, slower speed turnouts and some were no longer standard. For example, one non-standard track crossover was a combination of an old No. 12 turnout & a NSR No. 15 turnout. #15 TURNOUT #12 TURNOUT Figure 5: Number 7 Crossover With Substandard Turnouts In order to achieve the proposed 30 mph operations with any track movement, Design had to implement the new NSR Standard No. 15 turnout that was inherited in the Conrail acquisition. This Conrail turnout allows 30 mph movement through the turnout side due to the closure rails geometry. The footprint of Randolph Street between the west end and the east where the N-lines and H-lines diverged around the East End Shops was just long enough to fit all the No. 15 crossovers required to preserve the transportation routing movements that existed, along with the ability to insert two additional turnouts for a future dedicated passenger station track. The next major geometric challenge was to make the new track AREMA

6 geometry (with the modern 14-foot NSR standard track centers) tie into the old (N&W 13-foot track center) alignment at Control Point Park Street on the west end where the Hump Yard s Forwarding Yard Track Ladder begins. An alternate solution was required to avoid a costly redesign of the entire end of the Forwarding Yard layout. The goal was to only upgrade three turnouts with standard No. 15 turnouts; Design had to overlap the middle, western turnout with the other two turnouts while inserting three short curves. While this worked on paper, the Virginia Division Engineer had to give approval that they could physically construct these overlapping turnouts. Approval was granted since it was determined the overlapping turnout panels could have the ends of the tie lengths reduced in order to fit together. With their approval, Design was now able to circulate the completed alignment for final NSR approval. Once full NSR approval was granted, Design could move into the next step. However, since VDRPT was a partner in this project, they also were required to review the alignments for accommodations for future passenger service. VDRPT noticed that the future passenger station track was placed on the north side of the freight tracks. VDRPT commented that the future passenger service would be coming from Lynchburg, VA, so passenger trains would be coming into Roanoke from the east on the N-Line, on the south side of the East End Shops. If the passenger station was re-established on the north track, passenger trains would have to cross all freight lines in order to turn the train. This would temporarily halt all freight movements until the passenger train was oriented for its next movement. Since this delays freight movements on the Crescent & Heartland Corridors, NSR decided it needed to abandon the north side passenger station proposal and instead place the passenger station track on the south side of the freight lines. Therefore, turning the passenger train only involved occupying the N-1 Mainline and the Campbell Avenue Wye Tracks. This left the two H-Line tracks open (Crescent Corridor) and N-2 Mainline open (Heartland Corridor) for freight movements to occur at the same time the passenger train is turned. This new concept gained a quick NSR approval for its more fluid operations and the City of Roanoke preferred the passenger track and platform on the south side of the freight lines as this side of the tracks is more easily accessible by pedestrians. As Design moved into the next phase of project design, the East Ends Shops management was contacted to see if they could provide insight to the rail infrastructures waterlines, air lines, and electrical plans for current and old, abandoned facilities from the passenger service era. In one of the initial meetings, the Mechanical Group requested an operational improvement that would benefit the Mechanical & Transportation Groups. Mechanical could never independently access their North Yard at the East End Shops. Locomotives could only be moved in or out of the North Yard by Transportation since that movement from the East End Shops occurred by occupying the H-1 Mainline. A Transportation crew from Shaffer s Crossing had to traverse the mainline down to Randolph Street and perform the movements; this took time and money. The Mechanical Shops requested to reconfigure the access track off the mainline into the Mechanical turntable to allow a minimum clear length of two locomotive pullbacks. This would give the Mechanical Group access to the North Yard and end its dependence on Transportation. Design understood the operational improvement for Mechanical and was able to provide the necessary track geometry. This Mechanical Department improvement was able to place even more operational efficiency into the project. Figure 6: Final Approved Conceptual Layout AREMA

7 Infrastructure Identification & Design In order to start the detailed grading, drainage and demolition plans, Design had to first determine what infrastructure was active versus abandoned in place from the passenger service era. The bigger more obvious structures were easier to identify. There was the old abandoned passenger station tunnel that connected North and South Jefferson Street. Constructed in 1954 when the Randolph Street overpass was reconstructed over the tracks as the 2 nd Street Viaduct (known today as Williamson Road), the pedestrian underpass eliminated the Jefferson Street at-grade crossing over all the tracks, and it made a direct staircase connection to the west ends of the two passenger station platforms. Sealed off to public usage after the construction of the overhead Market Street Walkway that connects downtown to the Hotel Roanoke, all that remains inside is a 16 waterline covered by a utility crossing agreement with the Western Virginia Water Authority (WVWA). The staircase between the northern platform and the tunnel had been covered when the north two passenger station tracks and platform were removed and made into a parking lot for the railroad and the O. Winston Link museum, but now the remaining platform and tunnel access staircase had to be eliminated to accommodate the new track alignment. Figure 7: Old Access from Passenger Platform to Pedestrian Underpass Centerline H-Line Track #1 Proposed On Top Of Staircase Since the pedestrian underpass is 10-feet wide, per CFR 49 Part 237, it is classified as a railroad bridge requiring annual inspections and since the pedestrian tunnel no longer serves its original intent, the railroad wanted to eliminate the structure. However, with its ownership being in a three party agreement between NSR, the Commonwealth, and the City, the railroad had to get all parties to agree to structurally fill it. The Utility was notified of the railroads intent with the tunnel which affected the utility agreement. The WVWA countered with a proposal to eliminate two redundant waterlines that crossed the railroad outside, but nearby the tunnel, and replace these lines with a new line, utilizing the tunnel as the protective crossing casing for the carrier waterline. Since the railroad no longer wanted to maintain a tunnel, the WVWA agreed to have ownership and maintenance of the tunnel transferred from the original three party ownership into a sole WVWA ownership. This also required the Utility to agree to the railroad performing an annual inspection of the tunnel as required by federal law. With the tunnel resolved, the only remaining work to be performed by the railroad was sealing off the old platform staircase entrance into the tunnel, and filling up the staircase in order to construct a new track roadbed over its top. During construction, a wall was constructed in the tunnel at the staircase junction, the stairs were grout filled, and the staircase platform roof was demolished in order to make grade for the new track alignment. AREMA

8 Utility Identification Next, the utilities had to be identified. Design scoured through the real estate utility agreements on file to identify active and abandoned crossings. Not all utilities identified in the ground survey were discovered in the agreement files. However, when the railroad approached the WVWA about the old pedestrian tunnel, they had a pleasant surprise. Unbeknownst to the railroad, the WVWA was performing a system-wide GIS location survey of its entire infrastructure system and they needed to locate its facilities within the railroad right of way to finish up. Since the railroad had already performed its location survey for the Randolph Street project, and the WVWA had already performed its GIS location survey outside the rail right of way, each party happily agreed to share their respective survey information. Now that the railroad had identified all outside parties active utilities within the right of way, the railroad could now make the determination that all remaining utilities were originally constructed and owned by the predecessor railroad. Many of these utilities could be part of the passenger station and steam powered railroad generation. Now it was up to the Design team to correctly identify what could be eliminated during construction of Randolph Street Project. Again, the Design team s plan of attack on this issue was to locate the original predecessor railroad plans. Design began scouring all the old railroad files. Some information was found, but not near the level of detail to determine what was the abandoned in-place infrastructure. Design s civil consultant, Anderson & Associates, went to the Norfolk and Western Historical Society Archives facility to scour their collection for any drawings that would provide valuable insight, but again, while many interesting drawings were discovered, they were not the detailed infrastructure drawings required to identify how the abandoned infrastructure originally functioned and connected to the current structures. Design even scoured through the website Railpictures.net to find old N&W photos of Roanoke. Many interesting photos were found that provided insight into the operations of the passenger train era, but not enough detail to connect the dots on the abandoned rail infrastructure. Since the old railroad files were not revealing any useful original design plans, the Design team organized field meetings with a handful of East End Shop Mechanical Department employees that had gained a vast knowledge of the Shops infrastructure through their years of service at the Shops. These explorations began to provide insight as to the workings of the discovered infrastructure. However, this still didn t provide definitive answers as to the source point of a utility, or fear that if we opened up an old line, it potentially could not be closed. As Design continued to reach out to local field employees, one phone call suggested that Design attend the local Bridges and Buildings daily morning safety briefings, as there was a file cabinet that had some old drawings that was just collecting dust. Upon attending this meeting, this obscure file cabinet ended up containing the Holy Grail of original site drawings and schematics of various utilities. First, these drawings were brought back to Atlanta to be scanned and properly filed. Second, the Design team was able to use these original plans to answer the questions of how the utilities located in the original site survey were connected underground, what purpose they served, and their origin and designation/termination points. Examples are: Facilities for watering passenger trains and station, including drinking lines Water lines and valves to passenger station and Coach Yard Original source steam generation lines and output lines to service multiple buildings, and Modernization plans for the steam generating plant AREMA

9 With these original plans, the design and demolition plans could be confidently completed knowing we had the most closely accurate as possible plans. Drainage The last unknown area to address was drainage. The original Lick Run drainage canal was placed underground in a large brick arch culvert when the city was developed. Over 90 drainage inlets were identified in this culvert during the initial site survey, but the inlets remained a mystery as no specific drainage plans were ever discovered for the railroad. There were several active inlets that would be impacted by the final track alignments. These were redesigned to handle railroad loadings and the inlets were relocated. One new drainage structure was connected to the original brick arch culvert drainage system. Since the new tangential track alignments closely fit the original bearings of the old track alignments, it was decided that the current drainage system would continue to function since the track profiles were not being adjusted. As the design plans became finalized, it was now time to move into the construction phase of the project. Construction Planning In September 2012, grading work began for the new track alignment with the demolition of the vacant platforms for the former Roanoke Passenger station. The majority of the grading work was completed by December 2012 and at that point the Signal Department began their work on the new outlying control points of the interlocking at CP McKibben, CP 8 ½ Street and CP Park Street. While the preliminary work was underway, attention was turned to the means and methods by which the key portions of the project would be completed. Given the number of daily trains through the Randolph Street Interlocking, shutting down the interlocking for an extended period of time to perform the needed major track realignments and signal cut-ins was not a possibility. Furthermore, no detour route was available for trains utilizing the H-Line or for Heartland Corridor trains on the N-line needing Double Stack Clearance. For these reasons, it was agreed to that all work would be performed in a carefully planned out manner that focused on maintaining current train operations with as minimal disruption as possible to network service. NSR brought together its Transportation, Engineering (Design, Construction, Maintenance of Way, and Communication & Signals groups), Service Design, UTCS and PTC groups along with its design consultant, to coordinate and perfect a detailed construction phasing and train routing plan. As work was underway with the preliminary matters, an 11 phase plan was developed that would allow all the key items of the Randolph Street track realignments to be performed while maintaining train traffic with only a limited number of scheduled outages. The benefits of this plan were two fold in that not only would it allow train traffic to continue on all routes and minimize any disruption to operations, but it would also allow NS forces to complete their work without needing to foul live tracks or having to wait for track time. The plan would take 22 days to implement, utilizing smaller work forces on the track side and allowing the signal department to run their needed track wires and perform testing in the evening. AREMA

10 Figure 8: Summary sheet of 11 Phase plan for performing track work A key component of the plan was to assign routes through each phase for the 3 major routes H-line, N- Line and W-Line movements. These routes would be shown on the plan as Yellow, Orange and Green respectively. Each route would have a single track route through the work zone, which would be run on approach signals only and all switches on that route were locked and spiked to the designated movement for that particular route. The only switches to be used were at the outlying control points, which were universal crossovers and dispatcher controlled. These included CP McKibben, CP 8 ½ street, CP Campbell Ave and CP 24 th street. Once the train was through these points it had to be on its specified route as there would be no changing tracks until it was outside the Randolph Street interlocking. Additionally, the routes were pre-coordinated with dispatch and a program was uploaded into the Unified Train Control System (UTCS) to allow dispatch to know which switches they would have control of and which switches were locked for a through route. At the beginning of each phase, different switches were thrown and locked and a new program was uploaded into the UTCS. This allowed for designated construction zones to build the new track geometry in pieces, providing track authority protection to the work crews while allowing train movements on adjacent tracks. At the end of each phase, train traffic was switched between the old track alignment and the newly constructed alignment. Having these planned routes during each phase was a large key to the successful construction of the Randolph Street improvements. The date to begin the main cut in of the interlocking work was established to be Sunday April 6 th. In the 3 weeks prior to that time, the new CP McKibben would be cut in, the 3 new #15s and realignments at CP Park Street would be completed and ready for cut in, the H-line Main #1 was removed and the Randolph Street Tower was prepared for decommissioning and demolition. The new CP 8 ½ Street and CP Campbell Ave would also be readied so that once the older system was shut down, they could be cut in promptly. AREMA

11 Figure 9: Crews install new H-line to N-Line crossovers while train traffic passes on H-Line Main 2 On Sunday April 6 th the old signal system was retired and the Randolph Street tower demolition began. The old signal infrastructure was removed and initial N-Line and H-line track realignments were performed as part of the Phase 1 schedule of work. During the course of the next 3 weeks Phase 1 through 11 were completed in order and on schedule, resulting in the Randolph Street Interlocking becoming fully operational by April 28 th without a single train delay occurring. AREMA

12 Figure 10: The east end of the Randolph Street Interlocking looking west showing the large number of work groups across the full length of the interlocking. Conclusion The Randolph Street Improvement project was a major challenge to the railroad from its inception. Communication between all railroad departments and outside entities allowed the project to be efficiently designed. By working together as a team and keeping these open lines of communication, it even generated new ideas to not only improve upon the original scope of the Randolph Street Project, but also benefit agencies outside of the railroad. Numerous construction planning and train routing meetings were held to ensure the best plan would be implemented during project construction. The success of the project was a testament to the open lines of communication by all departments involved in the project. AREMA

13 Figure 11: Completed west end Randolph Street Interlocking looking east with N-line on right and H-line on left. Figure 12: Completed East end Randolph Street Interlocking looking west with (from left to right) W-Line, N-Line Main 1 & 2, 4 Pocket track and Roanoke Locomotive Shop lead, H-line Main 1 & 2. AREMA

14 REFERENCES (1) Norfolk Southern Corporation Website (2) Norfolk Southern Corporation Website (3) The Norfolk and Western Historical Society Website FIGURE CAPTIONS 1. Norfolk Southern Heartland Corridor 2. Norfolk Southern Crescent Corridor 3. Downtown Roanoke & Passenger Station 4. Signal Cables On Fence Line & Randolph Street Tower Constructed 1949, Still Houses Signal System 5. Number 7 Crossover With Substandard Turnouts 6. Final Approved Conceptual Layout 7. Old Access from Passenger Platform to Pedestrian Underpass Centerline H-Line Track #1 Proposed On Top Of Staircase 8. Summary sheet of 11 Phase plan for performing track work 9. Crews install new H-line to N-Line crossovers while train traffic passes on H-Line Main The east end of the Randolph Street Interlocking looking west showing the large number of work groups across the full length of the interlocking 11. Completed west end Randolph Street Interlocking looking east with N-line on right and H-line on left 12. Completed East end Randolph Street Interlocking looking west with (from left to right) W-Line, N- Line Main 1 & 2, 4 Pocket track and Roanoke Locomotive Shop lead, H-line Main 1 & 2 AREMA