Heartland Corridor Project Opens and Wins William Hay Award for Excellence

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Norfolk Southern Corporation's Heartland Corridor project won the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association's (AREMA) 2010 William W. Hay Award for Excellence in railway engineering. STV provided construction management services on this project. The award was presented during the AREMA 2010 Annual Conference and Exposition in Orlando, FL.

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The project removed obstructions from 28 railroad tunnels and seven bridges along a 530-mile corridor between Columbus, OH, and Norfolk, VA. The $190 million project will help save about a day's transit time for the freight railroad's double-stacked containerized trains between the East Coast and the Midwest. Currently, double-stack trains must take longer routes through Harrisburg, PA, or Knoxville, TN, because of clearance issues. Double-stacked cargo containers made their first run along the corridor in September.

The project met the criteria for the Hay Award for innovation, safety and service performance reliability, according to AREMA. The public-private partnership project will also provide a seamless and efficient intermodal route for Norfolk Southern, according to the association. Improved intermodal capacity will also divert trucks off highways, containing maintenance costs, and reducing exhaust emissions and highway congestion.

The Hay Award is named after the late Dr. William W. Hay, an academic leader in railroad engineering for more than 25 years. This is the 12th year AREMA has presented the Hay Award.

As the construction manager, STV provided field inspectors and engineers for all construction activities. Responsibilities included construction observation and documentation, and coordination between contractors and the railroad and scheduling for track time.

STV also provided project oversight for the corridor's seven through-truss bridges undergoing reconstruction. To increase clearances at three overhead bridges, either tracks were lowered or the structure itself was modified. In addition, nine side-detection-fences were modified, and three sets of overheads wires were raised.

With more than 1,700 employees in 32 offices, STV is a leader in providing construction management, engineering, architectural, planning and environmental services for transportation systems, infrastructure, buildings and other facilities. STV is 100 percent employee-owned. For more information, visit our website at www.stvinc.com or follow @STVGroup on Twitter.

SOURCE STV