Fast-Track Design and Construction of Running Repair Shop for Metro-North Railroad

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1 Fast-Track Design and Construction of Running Repair Shop for Metro-North Railroad David W. Jacobs, PE Senior Construction Engineer MTA Metro-North Railroad Company Union Station 50 Union Avenue New Haven, Connecticut (203) (203) (fax)

2 Fast-Track Design and Construction of Running Repair Shop for Metro-North Railroad D. W. Jacobs, P.E. Senior Construction Engineer MTA Metro-North Railroad New Haven, Connecticut With the delivery of 342 new MU cars a few years away, Metro-North s MU car fleet will be approximately 525 cars. In order to perform maintenance on this equipment, both monthly inspections as well as running repairs, it was necessary to construct a new MU car repair facility at Metro-North New Haven Line s main terminal in New Haven, Connecticut. The project, from schematic design through construction, was fast-tracked so that the entire project took only approximately a year and a half. Construction of the 2-track, 600 foot long by 65 feet wide building in Metro-North s New Haven, Connecticut yard involved extensive utility relocations and close coordination between the consultant, contractor and Metro- North forces. In order to expedite the schedule, 1,400 steel piles and other long lead time construction materials were ordered and delivered to the site before a contractor was chosen. Working through the winter, the entire construction process took just over one year from start to completion. Key Words: shops, construction

3 Fast-Track Design and Construction of Running Repair Shop for Metro-North Railroad New Haven, Connecticut is the eastern terminal of Metro-North Railroad s New Haven Division. It is also the location of its major car fleet maintenance and inspection shops, as well as storage yards. With the high annual growth in Metro- North s ridership, approximately four percent per year, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) recently announced plans to purchase 342 new multiple-unit (MU) cars. This will increase the total number of New Haven Line MU cars to approximately 525. These new cars, designated M-8, will have pantographs to pick up 13.8kv as well as 25kv, 60 hertz AC power, and third rail shoes to collect 700-volt DC power when operating in the New York City area. At present, New Haven Line cars are maintained at one of two shops in Connecticut: New Haven and Stamford. While the Stamford shop is less than ten years old, the New Haven shop is over forty years old and was designed for a much smaller car fleet. Thus, it was recognized that in order to be able to adequately service the existing fleet plus the 342 new M-8s, expanded maintenance facilities would be required by the time the new cars started to arrive on the property. Two options were considered. The first was to add on to the existing shop. This could be done by either lengthening the existing shop, or making it wider to increase it capacity from three tracks to five. The other option was to building an entirely new shop somewhere in New Haven yard.

4 After considering costs, space availability, disruption to service, construction time and long range yard development plans, it quickly became obvious that a new shop was by far the preferred option. However, because of the projected delivery schedule for the new M-8 cars, as well as other operational factors, it was necessary to fast-track the design and construction of the new facility. An on-call consultant was authorized by CDOT to begin preliminary plans, along with sub-surface soils explorations, surveys, evaluation of interferences from existing utilities and preliminary foundation design. The area of the yard selected for the new facility was, up until construction of the Connecticut Turnpike in the mid-1950s when it was filled in, part of New Haven Harbor. Stable rock was very deep and the overlaying indigenous soil and fill was basically an organic, muddy material with poor bearing capability. Thus, many deep friction piles would be required. Since time was of such essence in the project, purchase of the steel piles was not placed in the construction contract. Rather, the piles were order directly by CDOT during final design and delivered to the site. This way, all the piles were available to the contractor to begin installing as soon as he was mobilized. This alone saved several months time and thousands of dollars in contractor s profit and handling. In total, over 700 piles were driven. Each pile was 80-feet long. A

5 40-foot section was driven and then another 40-foot section was spliced and driven for a total of 80-foot of embedment. The new shop, 600-feet long by 65-feet wide, will have two tracks. This will allow up to twelve cars to be serviced simultaneously, in either pairs or triplets. The building will also include a stores facility area, locker rooms and private offices for shop management personnel. Inspection pits will run the entire length of both tracks. Overhead catenary is being installed on both tracks leading to both ends of the building, and will be dead-ended on structures outside each end of the building. For safety, cars will be brought into the shop with diesel powered car movers. In order to provide hotel power to the cars (for lighting and system testing) while in the shop, a DC stinger system is being installed. This system brings 700 volt DC power directly to the car s third rail shoes by attaching a cable. One of the reasons that the catenary wire is terminated outside the building is so that workers have safe access to car roofs for maintenance. For example, an important function of the shop is to change car pantographs. In order to do this, six building column mounted one-ton jibs cranes have been installed. Jib cranes, rather than overhead cranes were specified, in order to eliminate interference

6 with the DC stinger system support steel, which is suspended from the main building beams. One of the major preconstruction issues that Metro-North had to deal with was the relocation of many underground and aerial utilities. Among these utilities was a ballast car washing tower, yard roadways, fiber and copper communications lines and 13.8kv yard power distribution lines. Again, prior to the contractor s start, Metro-North crews worked days, night and weekends to have all these utilities out of the contractor s way when he was ready to begin. This fast-track approach between CDOT, their design consultant (STV, Inc. of Stratford, Connecticut), Metro-North and CDOT s construction contractor (Manafort Brothers, Inc. of Plainville, Connecticut) required extensive cooperation among all parties. That happened and the result was a very successful project. Complete design was accomplished in approximately six months, and construction in only sixteen months.

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