Aug 7, 2020
GCRTA has a commitment to maintaining a state of good repair for infrastructure and assets. Part of this effort includes upgrades to our rail tracks. Over the past six weeks, the GCRTA Engineering team, along with our track department and Delta Railroad Construction, rehabbed the light rail “trunk line” between Kinsman and Buckeye-Woodhill. Based on the placement of this work, the Blue and Green Lines needed to be completely shut down to rail service east of Tower City.
So what comes with a track rehabilitation?
• 6,200 new timber crossties
• 25,000 linear feet of new 115#RE rail. This means that there is 12,500 feet of new rail that is replacing the old stuff, making it more unified across the rail network.
• 24 new insulated joints
• 12,000 linear feet of track undercutting
• 16,000 linear feet of track surfacing
• And hillside stabilization along E. 75th St.
All these pieces work together to give you a smoother and safer ride. The new track will also help with our track maintenance, with the updated sections becoming more unified with the rest of the system.
GCRTA is on a multi-year plan to upgrade all of our tracks. To date we have completed much of the Red Line and shared portion of the Blue/Green Lines. During this shut down, GCRTA construction teams worked with ODOT on Opportunity Corridor’s Phase 3 to place bridge beams for the new Opportunity Corridor Boulevard. By piggybacking on the existing shut down, there was no additional need to inconvenience customers to complete this work.
Looking ahead to the future, plans are in the works to complete the rehab of the eastbound tracks through Tower City in 2021.
