The Long Island Rail Road is one of the few railroads to operate 24/7, 365 days a year. While most people take the interrupted train service for granted, few realize the challenges associated with performing the necessary construction to maintain a commuter railroad that never completely shuts down.
On Friday, December 2, 2011, ASCE members got to hear about the planning, engineering and construction behind the LIRR's $2.38B 2010-2014 Capital Program from Kevin Tomlinson, Chief Program Officer of the LIRR at the Long Island Branch's Annual Transportation Luncheon at Carlyle on the Green in Bethpage State Park.
Kevin spoke about some of the challenges associated with the LIRR's East Side Access Project—currently the largest construction project in North America—particularly the coordination of construction activities at the Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens, where the East Side Access' four tunnels need to connect to a complicated track network used by 740 trains per day and three different agencies (LIRR, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit).
The presentation also discussed some of the LIRR's upcoming projects, some of which are East Side Access readiness projects. Upcoming work will include improvements to the station building and platforms at Jamaica, a pocket track at Massepequa, yards along the Port Washington and Ronkonkoma branches, double-tracking east of Farmingdale and new substations in Queens.
Given tighter budgets in the current economy, Kevin also spoke about how capital construction projects are being done more cost effectively and that processes are being rethought to save money through value engineering and design-constructability reviews and the beginning of a Design-Build project with bridges. Track outage planning is also being reviewed to piggyback as much work as possible and incentives are being introduced to complete projects faster.
See the Met Section photo gallery for more pictures from this event.