• Kiewit Infrastructure Co. has obtained a $57.4 million contract from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) to rehabilitate seven rail stations on the North Main Line branch of the Red Line. The work will extend the stations’ life until a long-term capital improvement plan is determined for that portion of the Red Line, CTA officials said in a prepared statement. Project work will include viaduct repairs, platform repairs or replacement, station waterproofing, lighting improvements and new station house finishes.
• Bentley Systems announced two initiatives aimed at supporting the construction phase of Crossrail, Europe’s largest construction project. The initiatives are designed to integrate the Crossrail supply chain to create best practices in information modeling for construction, Bentley officials said in a prepared statement. Crossrail’s Enterprise License Subscription (ELS) for Bentley’s application software portfolio will be broadened to serve the extended Crossrail enterprise, which now encompasses its Tier 1 contractors. Crossrail’s ELS connects project participants through the ProjectWise system of collaboration servers and services and eB software for controlling project information. A newly chartered Crossrail/Bentley Construction/BIM Academy will support the enterprise with applications of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the construction phase.
• Railinc Corp. announced that the first phase of the Comprehensive Equipment Performance Monitoring program (CEPM) — CEPM-Wheelsets — was implemented in mid-January. The new component tracking capabilities of CEPM-Wheelsets are designed to provide rail carriers, equipment owners, wheel shops and repair shops visibility into wheelsets’ health status and history. The ability to capture and view component-level data around wheelset applications and repairs will enable more effective recall management, improved maintenance planning and more-informed decision making, Railinc officials said in a prepared statement.
• Hotstart was selected by the Northeast States for Coordinate Air Use Management (NESCAUM) and six railroads that are part of the New England Locomotive Idle Reduction Project to provide Auxiliary Power Units (APUs), according to a company press release. NESCAUM, through a grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will use Hotstart’s APU technology to reduce idling, fuel usage and emissions for 27 of 29 locomotives. The NESCAUM project marks one of Hotstart’s largest APU projects and the ninth EPA-funded locomotive idle reduction project using the company’s technology, Hotstart officials said. In a separate action, Hotstart was selected by Montana Rail Link (MRL) to provide a new series of APUs for 34 locomotives. With the technology, MRL expects to eliminate 122,442 tons of emissions and save 10.7 million gallons of fuel over the next 11 years, Hotstart officials said. MRL was awarded a $1.13 million EPA grant for the use of APUs to reduce idling.
• Kelso Technologies Inc. obtained additional purchase orders valued at $1 million for its external pressure relieve valves (EPRVs). The new orders bring the EPRV product business for 2012 to more than $4 million. A key to the order was a major tank-car manufacturer’s designation of Kelso’s EPRV as recommended standard equipment on a series of its rail tank cars used primarily to transport ethanol and crude oil, Kelso officials said in a prepared statement. Delivery on the manufacturer’s initial $900,000 order will begin in April.
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