Hanson provides renovation and rehabilitating services for BNSF

Hanson provided engineering services to BNSF for remodeling and rehabilitating the Corwith Intermodal Yard freight facility in Chicago. This project is located on 317 acres in Chicago’s downtown area. We worked with the client to improve access, improve traffic circulation within the facility, increase intermodal capacity by adding intermodal tracks, and increase efficiency by respacing existing intermodal tracks.

Phase plan developed
We developed a phased plan, removing 14 general freight tracks, constructing four new, 4,000-foot intermodal tracks, and respacing two intermodal tracks for greater efficiency. The project also involved leveling the grade at the south end of the yard and reconfiguring the tracks to allow the gathering of 27 general freight tracks to balance the lost capacity due to the new intermodal tracks.

Other improvements
We installed chassis racks and facilitated drainage and resurfacing of parking lots. In addition, we designed a sound wall to protect an adjacent residential area. Future work includes relocating crane and trailer repair facilities and designing new locomotive fueling facilities.

Another part of this project was designing a subway structure to accommodate tractor trailer under track access to the freight yard. The finished railroad structure has a 15-foot, 6-inch vertical clearance and a 25-foot horizontal clearance. The 85-foot-long bridge included sheet pile wing walls. This design was unique because of the necessity to keep two of the three tracks open at all times. The non-parallel alignment of the tracks and the 340-degree skew of the structure required three different phases of construction. Falsework, consisting of a temporary steel beam span, was lifted and relocated during different phases of the construction. The bridge structure consists of multi-steel stringers supporting a cast-in-place concrete ballasted deck. The closed abutments are steel H-piles with 6-inch timber cribbing planks covered with decorative concrete planks.

We provided all project management, engineering, surveying, permitting and construction management for the project.