Summer is often the key season for preparing infrastructure for the fall and winter months ahead. As the writers at Railway Age point out, the winters can be particularly harsh on railroads, especially the ones running through the Rocky Mountains. Winter not only brings heavy weather, but also the rush of traffic from transporting holiday goods around the country, as well as the grain trains bringing food to and from seasonal storage. With the future in mind, railways including Union Pacific and BNSF are shoring up and preparing for the long haul of winter, and they’re taking advantage of the mid-summer months to complete a variety of projects, including micropiling for increased avalanche safety. At Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring, we’re always interested when geotechnical engineering projects hit the news, and since this story concerns railroads in the Rockies, near our headquarters in Littleton, Colorado, it particularly caught our attention.
From our location near Denver, we get involved in all manner of shotcrete, shoring and stabilization projects throughout the summer, taking advantage of the good weather to make sure that infrastructure holds through the freezes and frosts of winter. It’s no surprise that other companies take advantage of the same opportunity. Railway Age reports that BNSF invests around $40,000 a year in maintenance on its snowsheds alone—some of which were originally built around a hundred years ago—to protect its railway from avalanches in the mountains. They use large micropiles to stabilize the footings of those snowsheds, which are vital to keeping the trains running through the winter, especially considering “more than a dozen avalanche chutes take direct aim at BNSF’s doubletracked main line.”
Whether you need micropile solutions for stabilization in the mountains or as part of a construction solution on flatter ground, our team of engineers at Thorcon Shotcrete and Shoring will devise a custom solution to fit your needs, time constraints and budget. Get started today and contact us with your project details!