With careful planning and attention to detail, we deliver unusual results. We work in close partnership with our clients, aggressively pursuing innovative value engineering options and other ideas to improve the end result. Here are a few examples:
Commonwealth Edison Company, Oak Park, Illinois This project required a 3,000' railroad track for the shipment of contaminated soil as part of large remediation project in a residential neighborhood. Special attention was needed since the track was built immediately next to a railroad mainline. Our work was the first task along the schedule's critical path and was completed on time with no overtime required to meet the schedule.
Further, the client was able to take advantage of the strengths we have with Engineered Constructors, our civil construction affiliate, and we provided additional construction services to support other phases of the project. These additional services included engineering, carpentry, and equipment fabrication and rigging.
Cerestar USA, Inc., Hammond, Indiana In May, this client called us for assistance with railroad track engineering. They needed to reconfigure their rail yard for a new rail scale and they planned to purchase a static scale. The most important factor: a November completion date, since their existing rail scale was too old to be recertified for commercial weighing.
We recommended a weigh in motion scale, which also allowed unattended weighing and resulted in reduced operating cost. The additional cost of this advanced technology was only slightly more than the static scale. Further, the system automatically captures railcar identification and weights, transmits this data to the client's mainframe computer, and integrates into their inventory control system.
The project became a turn-key design/build operation that involved railroad engineering, track construction and alterations, and construction of the entire scale. We self-performed almost all the trades required for the entire project and the new scale was certified for commercial weighing in early November, meeting the client's deadline.
This project was recognized as the "Industrial Project of the Year" by the Construction Advancement Foundation of Northwest Indiana.
GATX Rail Services, Hearne, Texas Our long-term relationship with GATX began at their East Chicago, Indiana plant. At their Hearne, Texas facility, they avoided any significant railroad trackwork due to bad experiences with local contractors. They needed major capital repair and they were concerned about the success of any such project as a result of these bad experiences.
After visiting the Hearne facility, we developed a long-term maintenance plan, which was expected to take five years to implement. The first year showed a significant improvement by reducing the number of derailments and other costly problems. The second and third years resulted in similar improvements.
In the third year, we were asked to develop a solution for the frequent derailments that occurred on one segment of track. We determined that the track could be reconfigured to eliminate the source of the problem and we proceeded with the necessary engineering and alteration. Our solution ended the frequent derailments that occurred here.
After the third year of capital maintenance, it was no longer necessary to continue the program because chronic railroad track problems no longer affected plant operations.
|
