Heartland Corridor Clearance Improvement Project
Location: West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio
Owner: Norfolk Southern Railway
Market: Rail
Construction Cost: $150 Million (Estimated)
Construction Start/End: 2007/2010 (Estimated)
Jacobs Associates’ Role: Lead Tunnel Consultant for the STV/Ralph Whitehead Associates Construction Management Team
This project will enable Norfolk Southern’s 531-mile-long Heartland Corridor – connecting Columbus, Ohio to Walton, Virginia by rail – to accommodate double-stack freight trains. The work calls for increasing tunnel clearances and modifying other overhead obstructions. When completed, this project will significantly expedite – by some 200 miles, about a day’s worth of travel – the journey for double-stack freight trains between the East Coast international ports and the Midwest.
Along the Heartland Corridor, 28 tunnels have vertical clearance deficiencies. These railroad tunnels range from 174 to 3302 feet long, with a sum length of 31,112 feet. Twenty of the tunnels can accommodate double-width tracks, and ten can accommodate single-width tracks. Depending on each tunnel’s condition and additional clearance required, possible clearance improvement methods include: modifying the track, notching or replacing the lining, and eliminating or replacing the tunnel altogether.
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