The Federal Railroad Administration recently awarded more than $4 million to support three state department of transportation projects in two states aimed at upgrading and safeguarding railroad infrastructure.
The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities received more than $1.4 million to support the Alaska Railroad Corporation in replacing a howitzer-based avalanche control method with a Remote Avalanche Control System above ARRC's Portage Tunnel Door 4 in Portage Valley, Alaska, a remote location approximately 50 mi. southeast of Anchorage.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation gets more than $1.8 million to help construct two 1,500-ft. transload tracks to transport lumber and aggregate, plus a 558-ft. industrial lead track and a concrete maintenance pit in an existing locomotive maintenance building for the Ringneck and Western Railroad.
A second South Dakota DOT rail project is receiving $800,000 from the FRA to help improve safety along the Rapid City, Pierre and Eastern Railroad by upgrading and installing eight culvert structures. That project will help those structures better withstand future flows from the storm water basins at their location.
