Surfacing
Weekly Update #9
10 June 2004
CONTINUING ON SCHEDULE
As of
the 10th of June, we
have surfaced over 200 of the 800 pass miles that we had projected to be
surfaced in the 2004 production year.
As of now, it appears we will meet that schedule.
¨
All
of the 53 new Ballast cars that were leased for 2 years have arrived on line
and are in service. The general consensus of the engineering forces is that
these cars are an excellent investment and allow increased efficiency of the
ballast unloading process.
¨
The
Brandt truck, operated by Ernie Lehmkuhl has been very instrumental in the
ballast unloading operation. This truck can pull up to 20 cars of ballast or
other material for MOW crews to unload saving on work train requirements and
increasing the flexibility of the MOW forces.
¨
Surfacing
continues at a very strong pace with over 25 miles completed again last week
and averaging over 20 miles per week.
We have eight surfacing crews operating on the two properties this year;
seven are our own employees and one a contractor, ARB out of Northwood,
Iowa. The surfacing crew foremen are
Mike Cherne at Chillicothe, Jason Teynor at Marquette, Remington Hill at Mason
City, Kent Maxon at Waseca, Earl Ruchdaschel at Huron, Jared Hook at Philip and
Bob Tech at Belle Fourche. The crews
are all doing an excellent job!
¨
As
of the 10th of June, over 80,000 tons (over 1000 car loads) of
ballast has been delivered. This is
over 40% of the 200,000 tons of ballast scheduled to be delivered this year.