Reconstructed Railyard

Croton-Harmon Facility Makeover on Fast Track

by Diane Greer

The busiest railyard in the Metro-North Railroad commuter rail system is in the midst of a $500 million reconstruction that will have largely used design-build techniques after starting out as a traditional bid-build job.

The four-phase effort at the Croton Harmon Rail Yard in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., will modernize the 100-acre yard, replacing 300,000 sq. ft. of existing structures with 500,000 sq. ft. of new maintenance shops and related facilities.

About $120 million in two phases is already completed, with the second phase wrapping up this summer. A third phase was set to start in late summer after Metro-North announced two design-build project awards - a $280 million contract for construction of two repair shops and a $12 million contract for a new wheel-true facility - to a joint venture of Slattery Skanska of Whitestone, N.Y., Parsons Brinckerhoff of New York, Edwards and Kelcey of Morristown, N.J., and ECCO III Enterprises of Yonkers, N.Y.

A growing fleet and outdated facilities spurred the massive project, said Michael Sickenius, Metro-North's director of shops, yards, and environment.

"It is our busiest facility, it is too small, it is over 100 years old, and it wasn't designed to maintain the new types of equipment," he added.

In 2001, Metro-North hired Parsons Brinckerhoff as program manager to help it develop a master plan to implement the project. Phased construction is helping to manage the complexity of the job and avoid disruptions to ongoing operations.

"A lot of utilities and interlocking parts of the operation had to be examined and moved around to make way for the ultimate build-out," said Greg Kelly, Northeast general manager for PB Americas, a unit of Parsons Brinckerhoff, which also was program manager for the first phase.

Metro-North employed a qualification-based bid process to select the design-build teams for two of the first three phases. Sickenius said design-build avoids the potential flaw in a traditional bid process of a low bidder not being the most qualified firm to handle the project.

When reviewing technical proposals and RFPs from experienced contractors, "it jumps right off the page how much they know," he added.

Metro-North offers a good fit for design-build teams, said Richard Lombardi, senior project manager for ECCO III, the general contractor on the first phase.

"Metro-North does a good job with their 30-percent drawings," Lombardi said. "They are one of the owners that knows what they want and they take the guesswork out of design-build."

The streamlined method also helps the team to keep a closer eye on costs, Lombardi added.

The first phase, started in 2001 and finished in 2003, wasn't a design-build effort, however. It entailed the initial reconfiguration of the complex, and Metro-North chose a traditional design-bid-build approach due to the complications that could have resulted from excavating in a busy, operational yard without detailed blueprints.
"We did a lot of detailed design, which was essential since you have an active yard," Sickenius said. "We like design-build in a cleaner site."

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The phase also involved the consolidation of train-servicing facilities, previously scattered throughout the yard, through the construction of five new one-stop servicing stations for 10-car trains. Each station is equipped with a fueling pad, toilet dumping facilities, potable water source, and wayside power. The team also built an inspection pit beneath one servicing station.

Another new feature is an innovative piping system to blow sand - used by locomotives for traction - from two new sanding towers into the servicing stations, replacing the previous method of transporting the sand by hand.

The phase also added new electric feeders in order to upgrade inadequate electrical service that caused intermittent power losses. The feeders, encased in concrete and running along the Hudson River, deliver additional power to the yard from an electrical substation in Ossining, 2 mi. away.

The first phase included one small design-build element - the construction of a pedestrian overpass. The 200-ft.-long structure allows employees to traverse the yard without walking across the tracks.

For the second phase, which began in 2004 and was completed in June, Metro-North chose the design-build method largely because of the potential for cost savings, Sickenius said. Metro-North hired a team of Railroad Construction of Paterson, N.J., as the general contractor and Gannett Fleming Engineers and Architects of Harrisburg, Pa., as designer.

By bringing in major team players all at once, the method also accelerates project delivery, which Sickenius said trims administrative costs and helps lock in material costs during today's volatile pricing markets.

"I can cut six months off the procurement cycle," he added.

Sickenius said one example of the savings was a suggestion by Railroad Construction to erect new buildings with prefabricated insulated metal and precast concrete panels, which go up more quickly and cheaply than split-face block.

Major elements of the second phase included constructing a new 12,600-sq.-ft. maintenance-of-way storage facility; a 5,000-sq.-ft. communications building that consolidates feeds for computer, fire, security, and communications systems; an 11,000-sq.-ft. expansion for a materials distribution center; and the rehabilitation of a substation. The team also built an onsite stormwater treatment center beneath the yard, with the water flowing through 4-ft.-diameter pipes into four 50,000-gallon oil-water separator tanks with 15,000, gallon-per-min. pumps.

The second phase's main purpose, however, was to prepare the yard for future work. The project team relocated several smaller buildings, parking lots, and outdoor storage areas to make way for the construction of two large shops in the next phase, Sickenius said.

The third phase will also use design-build to construct the new maintenance shops, one for locomotives and the other for coaches. The shops will be on the west side of the yard, furthest from neighbors to reduce noise impacts.

The current coach maintenance shop only accommodates four train cars, which requires the shop doors to remain open, even in winter, to accommodate longer trains. The new coach shop to be constructed in the next phase will hold eight-car trains.

The team will drive about 1,150 piles to support the new shops. Soil conditions and the high water table will require most piles to go down 100 ft.

In some areas of the yard, dirt excavated from the first two phases will be used to raise the ground level above the 100-year floodplain in preparation for the new facilities.

When completed, the overall project will have involved the installation of 14,000 tons of blacktop, 20,000 lin. ft. of track, and 4,200 ft. of electrical ductwork.

In the final phase, the project team will demolish the old maintenance shop and will construct a new shop designed to service electric cars. In all likelihood the final phase will use design-build, Sickenius said.

"Some people have the perception that with design-build, you just turn it over and the contractors do the job," he added. "We have just as much interest and involvement as you do with traditional design-bid-build."

Key Players

Phase 1

Owner: Metro-North Railroad

General Contractor, Steel, Concrete: ECCO III Enterprises, Yonkers, N.Y.

Design/Structural Engineer: Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York; Gannett Fleming Engineers and Architects, Harrisburg, Pa.

Architect: Sowinski Sullivan, Sparta, N.J.

Site Engineer: DMJM + Harris, New York

Phase 2

General Contractor-Steel-Foundation: Railroad Construction, Paterson, N.J. (and affiliates - RCC Pile & Foundation and RCC Fabricators)

Designer: Gannett Fleming Engineers and Architects, Harrisburg, Pa.

Architect: diDomenico + Partners, New York

Engineering Consultant: STV Inc., New York; DMJM + Harris, New York

Concrete: Architectural Precast, Burlington, Ky.

Electric: Verde Electric, Tuckahoe, N.Y.; Aurora Electric, Long Island City, N.Y.