This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
9/17/2026
On Sept. 14, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) awarded the 2026 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence to the CSX Blue Ridge Recovery Project.
During the general session at AREMA's annual conference and exhibition in Kansas City, Missouri, AREMA officials presented the award to CSX for the major recovery operation the Class I undertook following the impact of Hurricane Helene in late September 2024 and the flooding that followed, which damaged about 60 miles of CSX's network.
The effort to restore rail service through the damaged regions of Tennessee and North Carolina was completed in under a year and involved over 50 contractor teams. Crews removed track materials that were washed away in flood water, reconstructed railbed and track and restored three bridges, among other recovery efforts.
AREMA created the award in 1999 to honor rail infrastructure projects that best address safety, innovation and service performance reliability. The annual award is named for the late William Walter Hay, a longtime AREMA contributor and professor of railway civil engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There were nine submissions for the award this year.
CSX created a video about the recovery project as part of its submission; it can be viewed here.