Amtrak Invest $2.4 Billion for Next-Gen High-Speed Trainsets and Infrastructure Upgrades
WASHINGTON – Amtrak is contracting with Alstom to produce 28 next-generation high-speed trainsets that will replace the equipment used to provide Amtrak’s premium Acela Express service. The contract is part of $2.45 billion that will be invested on the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor (NEC) as part of a multifaceted modernization program to renew and expand the Acela Express service. “Amtrak is taking the necessary actions to keep our customers, the Northeast region and the American econom...
FRA Awards $25 Million in Grants for Positive Train Control Implementation
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today awarded $25 million in grants for 11 projects in six states and the District of Columbia to assist in implementing Positive Train Control (PTC). FRA received 30 eligible applications requesting $90.6 million, nearly four times the $25 million Congress provided in the appropriations bill that funds the FRA for Fiscal Year 2016. The list of awards is below. Many awards will help railroads achie...
Siemens Modernizes Rail Line in Turkey
Siemens is to supply state-of-the-art signaling technology for a main-line rail route covering around 380 kilometers from Samsun to Kalin. The line links the Turkish port of Samsun on the Black Sea with the railway junction of Kalin in Central Anatolia. Modernization of the signaling equipment enable the maximum speed to be increased from 70 to 120 km/h in order to cut the journey time between Samsun and Kalin from nine to five hours. Commissioning of the route is scheduled for 2017. Signal...
A Crash for Safety – DLR Testing New Crash Concept for Future High Speed Trains
Rail accidents, even those that occur at low speeds, can have devastating consequences – in many cases, hundreds of tons of moving mass collide with each other, and carriages crash into each other or even derail. In order to protect passengers and crew members and minimise the consequences of accidents, researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) have developed a new kind of crash concept. It involves the use of special crumple zones, which are loc...
U.S. Department of Transportation Honors PennDOT in Nation’s First Highway Innovation Showcase
HARRISBURG, Pa. – U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Victor Mendez and Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau joined state and local officials today at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Innovation Showcase, and recognized the Keystone State as a model for the nation in using state-of-the-art technologies on its highway projects. “For many years, Pennsylvania has inspired other states with their transportation innovations,” said Deputy Secretary Mendez. “The PennD...
Fluor-Led Team Completes Second Major U.S. Transit P3 Commuter Rail Line from Denver’s Union Station to Westminster
IRVING, Texas - Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that the Denver Eagle P3 Commuter Rail Project completed and opened the six-mile B Line from Denver’s Downtown Union Station to Westminster Station located in the growing Denver-Boulder corridor. This milestone marks the second major commuter rail line opening on the public-private partnership (P3) project this year for the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD), following the April 2016 opening of the University of Colorado A...
First Train Beam Installed at MiamiCentral
MIAMI – June 20, 2016 – The first of 247 massive precast concrete beams (also known as Florida I Beams or FIBs) was lifted into place at MiamiCentral Monday afternoon, as the 11-acre transportation hub continues to take shape in Downtown Miami. The beams average 73 feet in length and the largest spans are in excess of 120 feet. Approximately four FIBs will be installed each day over the next eight to ten weeks. The FIBs, produced in Tampa and trucked to Miami, sit on spring vibration isolator...
HDR Delivers Texas’ First Modern Streetcar System
The Union Station to Oak Cliff Dallas Streetcar TIGER Project is Texas’ first modern streetcar system. The project is a collaborative endeavor between the City of Dallas, North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the U.S. Federal Transit Authority (FTA). The 1.6 mile line received a USD 26 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant, separating itself from the other 17,000 TIGER grant applicants, due to its econom...
Rethinking Rail Signal Design
Global consulting engineering firm Hatch Mott MacDonald had used a conventional CAD-based system to design rail signal systems when serving its public and private clients around the world. However, this approach had serious limitations in an industry where building information modeling (BIM), the processes and standards that define it, are becoming a critical success factor. Traditional methods mean designs have no added intelligence or connections to related documents including bills of mater...
Sweco’s ‘Live BIM’ Railway Project Improves Efficiency on Hallandsås Project
The construction of a railway tunnel through the Hallandsås ridge in southern Sweden has a long history, but the end is in sight with the start of traffic services scheduled for late 2015. To help meet the demanding project schedule and the challenges of performing tunnel excavation and detailed engineering design in parallel, Trafikverket, the Swedish Transport Administration, chose to advance its use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) practices with the help of Sweco Infrastructure AB. Swe...
Stormwater Interview with Robert Page, P.E., Vice President, HNTB
Santa Barbara County North Branch Jail Expansion
February Issue 2026
