Tracking The Improvements

By Michael Hartranft / Journal Staff Writer on Mon, Aug 15, 2011

Copyright © 2011 Albuquerque Journal

An $85 million project to add a second track through the rugged Abo Canyon corridor southeast of Belen is an engineering and construction achievement one really has to see to appreciate.

Fact is, with the exception of railroaders and nature enthusiasts who visit the area, not many people will.

Snaking through cuts among 400- to 500-foot-high bluffs at the southern end of the Manzano Mountains, the 5-mile-long Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway project is largely out of sight, except for occasional glimpses travelers might catch from its highway counterpart, U.S. 60.

BNSF in New Mexico in 2010 EMPLOYEES: 1,172 ANNUAL PAYROLL: $86.78 million ROUTE MILES OWNED: 896 ROUTE MILES TRACKAGE RIGHTS: 461

Carloadings n Originated in state: 110,932 • Handled within state: 3.2 million • Terminated in state: 36,976 RAILYARDS: Albuquerque, Belen, Clovis and Gallup INTERMODAL HUB CENTER: Albuquerque - Source: BNSF But it’s a critical piece of BNSF’S 2,200-mile transcontinental mainline between Chicago and Los Angeles, with 75 to 95 trains passing through the canyon each day.

And until June when the new track went into service, Abo Canyon was BNSF’s biggest bottleneck: Trains waiting for higher-priority freight to pass on the single track were sometimes held up for as long as three hours, even longer when it had to be shut down for maintenance.

“The transcontinental mainline is the heaviest trade corridor between Los Angeles and the Midwest,” said BNSF chairman and CEO Matt Rose. “…What Abo Canyon was doing was restricting that flow.”

Trucks off the highway

The project is part of an aggressive double-tracking program BNSF began in the 1990s, giving the company the capacity to handle more trains with fewer delays, less fuel consumption and reduced emissions and overall better service to customers, Rose said.

It also helps takes thousands of trucks off the highways at a savings to taxpayers who foot the bill to repair the wear and tear they cause on the roads, he said.

“The more efficient transportation (is) in the state, the more economically viable you’ll be to be able to compete for jobs,” Rose said.

Rose was among the BNSF executives, state, local and tribal government officials and other guests who toured the project earlier this month from the vantage of a special passenger train – a “recognition” event for all who worked on the project.

That would include Bob Boileau, assistant vice president of engineering, who devoted much of the past decade overseeing the work, from conception through construction.

“This is by far the most expensive double-track project I’ve been involved in my 33-year career with BNSF,” Boileau said as the tour train wended through the canyon at the sightseeing speed of 15 mph.

‘Never done before’

“At this location, it is very, very complicated,” he said. “It’s something we’ve never done before.”

Design engineering began in 2002 and took nearly 24 months to complete. Boileau said planners initially evaluated 10 potential routes for the project, paring them to three and then deciding on an alignment to the south of the existing track that allows two miles at speeds of 40 mph and three at 50 mph.

A lengthy permitting process followed – stretching to nearly 3 1/2 years, longer than the project took to build, with some intense watchdogging by groups concerned about the impacts on wildlife habitats and sensitive cultural sites. Construction started in the fall of 2008.

Boileau said project contractor Ames Construction had 200 or so people working at any given time during construction and that 75 pieces of heavy equipment were brought to the site. HDR Engineering of Albuquerque was the design engineer. TranSystems Corp. provided construction management.

“BNSF had 75 track and signal people on the project, so there were a large number of people involved,” he said.

Building nine bridges

The project had two particularly big components, Boileau said: Excavating 1.8 million yards of rock to make room for the additional track and building nine bridges, some up to 85 feet in height, Boileau said.

“Virtually all of (the rock) was blasted, which makes it very, very time-consuming and very, very expensive,” he said. He said about 1 million yards of the rock was used in the embankments along the track, with some used on railroad maintenance roads.

Over a 15-month period, there were 520 separate blasts, all highly controlled, given the presence of historic railroad structures from the early 1900s and more than 50 cultural sites, including some Pueblo rock art dating back to 1400 to 1600 A.D. There also was the need to avoid damaging walls of the canyon or disrupting the existing track, Boileau said.

“Out of those 520 blasts, we affected (had to stop train traffic on) the track three times for a total of 30 minutes each, which is pretty phenomenal when you think about it,” Boileau said.

All of the bridges were built last year, with the two largest spans measuring 600 and 500 feet long.

“We matched the location of the existing bridges with the new ones so we didn’t affect the flow of the Abo arroyo through the canyon,” he said, noting that it can race with rushing water during storms.

To address concerns about wandering animals, including Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep introduced in the area 30 years ago, the railroad company erected 7.3 miles of game fence to keep them off the tracks, channeling their movements from one side to the other underneath the bridges, Boileau said.

“We also have 21 game ramps so if some sheep would get inside the fence, there’s a place down on these game ramps,” Boileau said.

BNSF spokesman Joseph Faust said completion of the project leaves 32 miles of single track on the transcontinental mainline, including two stretches in New Mexico: nine miles between Vaughn and Carnero, and three miles between Fort Sumner and Agudo. There is also single track left in eastern Oklahoma and a short segment over the Missouri River immediately east of Kansas City.

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