Rail
Weekly Update #13
8
July 2004
CWR PROGRAM NEARS
COMPLETION ON DM&E
As of July 8th, we had installed just over 68 of the roughly 97 track miles to be completed by November 19th. It appears we will meet or beat that schedule. The RJ Corman CWR crew returned to the DM&E yesterday, the 7th and started installing rail at MP 258 heading westward. They expect to be completed by the 13th or 14th of July. This will complete the CWR installation on the DM&E for the 2004 production season. The Corman crew will then begin installing ties between Verdi and Lake Preston. The CWR program on the IC&E gets into full gear on Monday the 19th when the LA Colo crew starts installing CWR in the Calmar area and the IC&E crew starts installing curve patch rail, also on the east end of the Mason City sub. The Colo group expects to take 30 workdays for their project and the IC&E crew will spend most of the rest of the year on the curve patch program, which will take them from Mason City, Iowa to near Polo, Missouri on the Mason City, Marquette, River and Kansas City subs.
¨
All
tie, crossing, and bridge work is now completed on the first stretch of CWR
between Springfield and Sleepy Eye and ballast has been dumped in preparation
for final surfacing and the raising of speed in this area to 40 MPH. We will complete the surfacing portion of
this project in conjunction with the completion of the Cobden siding project
which is now scheduled for between late July and mid August.
¨ Spot surfacing, bridgework, and tie work are continuing on the second stretch of CWR between Volga and Lake Preston. We now expect all track between De Smet and Volga to be up to at least an FRA class 2 (25MPH) by the end of the week of July 5th or very shortly thereafter. Within a few weeks after that we will install ties and do final surfacing in preparation for the speed being raised to 40 MPH. This area has been at 10 MPH since early 1997.
¨ The remaining 2 rail trains (150,000 feet) are scheduled to be here by the second week of August. Both of these trains are for the IC&E, one for the curve patch program and the other for the Calmar project