22 April 2009
DM&E to Rebuild Track Through Rochester This Summer
Rochester Minnesota USA - By mid-July
or early August, Rochester's section of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad will have all-new rail - and faster
trains.
Officials of the DM&E, now a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Railway, detailed plans to spend more than $12 million in southeastern
Minnesota this summer on a project that calls not only for replacing rail, but more than half a dozen switches, and perhaps a dozen
crossings.
Plans also call for upgrading the Zumbro River bridge and installing new "hot box" detectors on either side of Rochester
that are intended to spot defects that might otherwise cause derailments.
The improvements will enable the railroad to operate faster trains - potentially up to 49 mph, the planned maximum speed over the
whole line, said Randy Henke, the railroad's vice president of engineering.
Through Rochester, though, "I don't think we'll go there exactly," Henke said. "The plan is to go to at least 30 (mph),
which is what our timetable was when we started this project."
Faster-moving trains will mean that Rochester drivers will have to take extra caution at crossings. The
south-bound crossing on North Broadway, at Civic Center Drive, is one spot drivers frequently are seen stopping on the
tracks or under the crossing gates.
"They are taking a terrible risk when they do that," said Canadian Pacific spokesman Mike LoVecchio. "They've got to
stop before the crossing, and not impede the crossing. A train coming through is not going to have time to stop."
The state Department of Transportation will be in charge of re-marking the Broadway crossing. Specific plans for that
aren't drawn yet, said MnDOT spokeswoman Kristine Hernandez.
DM&E has spent heavily on rail replacement over the last five years, Henke said, and the project through Rochester is part of
Canadian Pacific's pledge to invest at least $300 million upgrading the DM&E line over its first five years of ownership.
Rochester will be part of a 30-mile project, stretching from about one mile east of East Circle Drive to near Claremont.
"Starting about the first week of May through about the middle of July, we're going to be doing something in town almost every
week," Henke said.
The new rail - 136-pound, continuous-welded segments - will be delivered aboard a
2,000-foot-long train starting around 10 May 2009, he said.
"You unload the rail like you're unloading long strings of spaghetti," Henke said. "You shove the train out from
underneath it."
The rail delivery will cause road traffic delays over two days, he said.
Actually laying the rail will have comparatively little effect on traffic. It will only take two days to get through Rochester, and
only affect traffic where two segments meet at a crossing, and must be welded.
"That won't be overly disruptive," Henke said, "except there will be 60 guys, with equipment, marching through town, so
there will be a lot of gawkers wanting to look and see what's doing as we lay rail.
"Typically when we go through a fairly large city with these type of gangs, everybody hits the brakes to take a look what's going
on," he said.
DM&E is trying to accommodate the city's plans for Rochesterfest and the 4 Jul 2009 celebration by accelerating plans
to replace the crossing on Second Avenue Northeast, near the Silver Lake Power Plant. That crossing lies near both community
celebrations.
Crossings are complicated to replace, Henke said, and the Second Avenue crossing is especially complicated, because a switch from the
main line to the power plant also lies in the crossing.
"That's something we absolutely, positively try to avoid wherever we can, but it's the only way to provide the coal plant with
service," Henke said.
Work will shut down Second Avenue for about two weeks. The railroad company hopes to have the work done before the start of
Rochesterfest on 20 Jun 2009.
"Right now we can't guarantee that, but we're going to try to do that, if we can get the crossing panels built fast enough and
delivered soon enough," he said.
Canadian Pacific is keeping its project costs private, but Henke said a rule of thumb is that rail costs $400,000 per mile to replace.
Over 30 miles, that adds up to $12 million.
In addition to that, he said, the railroad is spending more than $500,000 to upgrade the Zumbro River bridge with new railroad ties
and steel bracing.
On top of that, the railroad is spending still more money on the "hot box" detectors, as well as switches and crossings.
DM&E has 17 crossings in this area, but already replaced several of those in recent years.
The rail work is scheduled to be done by mid-July. The detectors will be up and running by 1 Aug 2009, Henke
said.
The new rail is expected to be more reliable than the old stuff, and that means fewer problems for Canadian Pacific in caring for it
and using it.
"We inspect seven days a week right now, all our jointed rail on the DM&E," Henke said, noting that the inspection
frequency is a voluntary practice adopted by the railroad. "We'll probably reduce that inspection level," he
said.
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