ATLANTA – Norfolk Southern’s engineering team completed $1 billion in improvement projects last year, including installation of new wayside detectors as well as repairs and replacement of tracks, bridges, and grade crossings.
“Our extensive infrastructure work is an important component of being a customer-centric, operations-driven railroad and represents an investment in the safety of our operations,” Chief Operating Officer Paul Duncan said in a statement today. “To safely deliver reliable and resilient service, our rails, bridges, and structures must be maintained to the highest standards, maximizing their productive lifespan.”
Among the projects:
Safety Infrastructure
108 hot box detectors installed
17 acoustic bearing detectors installed
218 CTC to ITCM towers added
2 Digital Train Inspection portals constructed
Tracks
619 track miles of rail work completed, an 8% increase over 2022
2.1 million replacement cross ties installed
1,745 miles of track surfaced
523 panel turnouts and 14 crossing diamonds installed
Bridges
40 bridges replaced
32,743 bridge ties installed
40,398 bridge, culvert, and tunnel inspections completed
Public Crossings
110 grade crossing warning systems added
“108 hot box detectors installed
17 acoustic bearing detectors installed”
Which will still not detect a hotbox…. Current HBD only detect one of the bearing raceways not both.. It’s time to move truck and bearing defect detection onboard…
Maybe I am old fashioned, but I would only what’s new — not the replacement of existing things. That is maintenance and should be ongoing — probably at a greater rate than railroads are doing. That said, I would count the safety and crossing work as construction to be given credit but the track and bridge work as replacing what is worn out.
Nothing new, James. Railroads have capitalized tie, ballast and rail renewal for as long as I’ve been reading TRAINS MAGAZINE. Same with highway departments — a new layer of asphalt on an existing road is a capital expenditure. The thinking being that new asphalt now prevents greater deterioration later. Ditto, painting of bridges.
Legit? I don’t know. I’m not an accountant or a lawyer.