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| PHOTOS: New Orleans (1223351) | |||
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PHOTOS: New Orleans |
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Posted by kp5308 on Sun May 19 11:32:52 2013 After arrival in New Orleans we checked out the new terminal for the 1.5 mile extension of the Canal St. Line, completed shortly before the 2013 Super Bowl at a cost of $45 million: Next day we headed up Canal St. to the St. Charles Line:  Which was open only to Jefferson St. due to trackwork:   Progress on this project was held up due to a dispute with the contractor hired to do the work: 
From the Times-Picayune article dated May 22 2011. The text below is the complete article: Planned rehabilitation of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar track has been shelved indefinitely after the company hired to do the work walked off the job, a top Regional Transit Authority administrator said this week. The streetcar tracks' wooden crossties have not been replaced since 1988, when the RTA undertook a $47 million program to renovate the St. Charles line's cars and its maintenance barn and replace all 13 miles of track and track bed. Smith Railway Services Inc. of Prairieville notified the RTA late last month that it wanted to terminate its contract to replace the aging wooden crossties that hold the streetcar tracks in place. RTA General Manager Justin Augustine said the company, which had been doing preparatory work on the project for several weeks, offered no explanation for its decision. Augustine said his staff has received reports that the work stoppage may have been ordered by Smith Railway's parent company, R&R Contracting Inc. of Grand Forks, N.D. Officials with both companies did not respond Friday to requests for comment. In March, the RTA announced that in order to minimize inconvenience and provide uninterrupted service on the city's busiest transit line, it planned to complete the $7 million project in 11 sections. Officials said then they hoped to finish the work in about 15 months. Now, Augustine said, it is unclear when work might resume. Shortly after crews arrived along the Carrollton Avenue segment of the line to erect temporary fences, remove sod and dump gravel, Augustine said, company officials "started making excuses, giving us multiple reasons why they couldn't proceed." After several failed efforts to restart construction, he said, the RTA received an April 28 letter from Smith Railway seeking to void the agreement. Augustine, who said the RTA has not paid the company "one red cent," has since notified Smith Railway that the company is in breach of its contract. Before the RTA decides whether to readvertise the contract or turn to the second-lowest bidder, Augustine said his staff must sort out the legal ramifications of the unusual action. By law, the company was required to post a bond guaranteeing completion of the work. In this case, the guarantee covers only the first $1.3 million phase of the project. Augustine said the surety company that posted the bond on behalf of Smith Railway has until next month to propose a way to do the work or else offer the RTA a cash settlement. While the crossties are nearing the end of their useful lifespan, Augustine said, the track will remain functional for several years. The more critical issue, he said, is a requirement that much of the federal grant money being used for the project must be spent by 2013. The St. Charles line is by far the RTA's busiest route, carrying more than 3.1 million riders last year. The wooden crossties have not been replaced since 1988, when the RTA undertook a $47 million program to renovate the St. Charles line's cars and its maintenance barn and replace all 13 miles of track and track bed. That project was the first complete overhaul of the line, which began operating in the 19th century. At the time, the agency used azobe, a tropical hardwood that officials described as the longest-lasting option available, one that would not need major repairs for at least two decades. This time, the RTA plans to use a recycled composite rubber and plastic material that transit executives say has become the industry standard.  The project includes complete replacement of all the grade crossings with precast concrete track panel sections:  Because the entire line is on the National Register of Historic Places, the park-like ROW must be maintained as originally constructed:  The only modern addition to the interior of the cars is the electronic fare collection box:  The 35 cars used on the St. Charles Line were built by Perley Thomas of High Point NC in 1923/24. The company still survives as the bus division of Freightliner Trucks:  The Canal St. Line came back to life on April 18th, 2004. The first car built for this service was #2001. A tremendous site on the history of the Canal St. Line:  All the 2000 series cars were built in house by NORTA forces in New Orleans. A well detailed description of the construction process is worth reading:  Before being tacked on to the back of the City of New Orleans to head back to Chicago we shot another Heritage GE:  And the departure of the Crescent for New York:  After lunch we left promptly at 1:45PM:  Shots along the way to Memphis are next! |
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