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Construction to begin in Rhode Island on Northeast Corridor track project
How much track are they building for $41 milloin?
$41 million and over a year, dam, Im sorry to sound unpatriotic but other countries in Europe & Asia knock that out much faster and cheaper, I can see why jobs go south, north of the border or overseas all together. I have to start my own contractor biz so I can gouge the govt also.
I think the $41 M cost includes the design and engineering, contracting and oversight work for this project. It’s not all going to the rail contractor.
There are only two tracks at this point and an overhead stair structure which might also be affected. The original station is on the ‘south’ side of the tracks (the Northbound direction), and looking at Bing Maps, the new track will be on the ‘north’ side of the SB platform. It will also require new catenary poles and wire, a signal system upgrade, and it looks like they’ll be making the SB platform into a high level one. It’s tough to tell using Bing, but it does look like a low level platform, since there are mini-high level boarding areas on both sides of the tracks.
I’m guessing that the new track will serve as the stopping point for the Regional trains and the Acela will continue through the station on the current SB track, so the new platform will also require a wall to separate passengers from that tracks. The RoW and Catenary north of the station can accommodate three tracks, so that’s a cost savings. There’s an electrified stub siding just south of the station, which is probably the relocation project that Amtrak had to do in order to install this siding.
So, I don’t know if $41 Million is excessive for this project, but it’s a lot more than just throwin’ down some new track…
Just looked at the Providence Journal article- the First phase money for the contractor is $17 million.
Also, forgot to add that if both NB and SB Acelas are to use the center track, then you’ll need more high speed switches to connect both tracks, which then increases the signaling costs, since you could then have possible opposing moves on the center track, which means changes to any positive train control, etc…
I’m assuming there will also be a high level NB platform installed, which will be tricky to do during normal Amtrak operations. That’s one of the reasons why it will take so long- work windows will slow down the overall process in certain phases.
@Britt Reade III. Things are slightly different in Russia and China. The government does whatever it wants to do. If people object. Tough. As for environmental impact. who cares.