Hi everyone,
I was wondering something today. About how railroads deal with road construction cause as most wisconsin residents are aware that we are going though one of biggest road projects in history. The Marquette interchange rebuilding which is the cross roads of our freeway system. It’s where I 94, I 794 and I 43 all meet and a couple of the bridges cross over the amtrak,CP mainline and alot of times when I go over this bridge I see the lights are always red. So how does the railroad deal with construction. Do they have to get permission from their dispatcher or does the construction crew have to call the railroad and say that they will.Be working by the tracks and then the railroad can close that line for so many hours. And then after say 6 hours or so the railroad reopens the tracks for the train traffic.
most generally the construction company will pay the railroad for having a brakeman or conductor flag protect the construction workers when a train is due to come thru the flagman will make sure they stay clear of the tracks when the train runs the flagman will get a warrent to protect that area until another train showes up.
Usually, the contractor will pay the railroad for a flagman to provide protection. Depending on how involved the construction is, the railroad may opt to hold traffic while the contractor is working, or simply have the contractor clear the right of way, when a train approaches.
Such work areas, and times the areas are active will be listing in a train order, or division bulletin, depending on the railroad.
Nick
I have seen 2 instances where a major highway was being worked on over a railroad, they were protected by a from B, essentially a train can not go past before talking to the foreman in charge of that section of track. Your form B will list the time and the limits of the affected track and before passing the Red Board fo the form B the crew of the train must contact the foreman in charge.
The foreman is than responsible for making sure everyone is clear when he gives permission to pass through the limits and the foreman may give speed restrictions to the train or other specific instructions. The foreman will also work with the dispatchers to get permission to physically block the track in those limits for a specified time so as to do certain work, but with many rail lines they get very little time to actually block the rail line. I’m sure MC can give you the ins and outs of exactly what can and cannot be done within a form B.
For certain projects where they maybe putting in bridge girders or some such thing that cant have anything under it while being erected, they will cordinate with the railroad as to when they can do such a project and how much time, and generally there are some pretty severe money penalties if the project goes over the time limit when blocking a rail line.
Halstead: You work in an area where the more common type of contractor protection is used, and protected by a M/W foreman. Operating crafts protecting work areas is not the predominant way of protecting work activity. (I surmise that the fact it happens at all is a function of places & railroads that heavilly used switch tenders in the past. Having been put in jeopardy more than once in northern CA by SP line conductors too lazy to get out of their cars, I’m relieved to see that this is not a growing trend.)
Along with paying for the flagman, that highway contractor normally has to sign an agreement / contract with the railroad that requires insurance (railroad protective policy - not cheap) and some minimum 49CFR214 railroad awareness safety training before they set foot on the property. Plenty of contractors and projects around here get shut down and pushed-off the property for failure to comply.
Recently WYDot just replaced the A street overpass here in Rock Springs. And I think they way they did it is when they had work that endangered the trains running through the work zone they shut down traffic or moved it over to the line farthest away (RS has 4 main lines through town) and they would slow it down. They were also on the horn for pretty much a mile in either direction. There were alot of letters to the editor about it but it didn’t change anything.
This was a good question. I hadn’t thought about it before but the construction of a new overpass for a road here crosses CSX (with VRE), NS and the Washington Metro Tracks. The construction is part of the new Potomac Yard redevelopment phase. They are realigning a major road over and through the area.
Would they have to have personnel present from each railroad when they are working (Almost all the roads around here go over or under the tracks)?