News Archive

RailTEC invites you to attend one or both of our one-week virtual railway engineering short courses. Each course will run Monday – Thursday from noon – 4:00pm (Central) and participants will earn 14 professional development hours.

Week One focuses on Track Engineering Fundamentals while Week Two focuses on Railroad Project Design. Past attendees include rail professionals, engineers, planners, consultants and more from employees throughout the rail industry.  Registration is open now.

Week One – Track Engineering Fundamentals
12-15 July 2021 | Noon-4pm CDT (via Zoom)
Lead Instructor: Conrad Ruppert, Jr.

Course Topics: Rail; Crossties & Fasteners; Ballast & Subgrade; Drainage; Slab Track; Turnouts & Special Trackwork; Track Structural Analysis; Track Structural Design; Track Standards & Inspections; Track Maintenance Technologies; Asset Management & Life Cycle Costs

Week Two – Railroad Project Design
19-22 July 2021 | Noon-4pm CDT (via Zoom)
Lead Instructor: Conrad Ruppert, Jr.

Course Topics: Horizontal Track Geometry; Vertical Track Geometry; Cross Sections & Earthwork; Railroad Location; Location Referencing & Track Charts; Project Phasing; Project Cost Estimation

For more information, click here to go to the Railway Engineering Short Course website.

The 101st in-person Engineering Open House (EOH), with its theme of “The Future, Today”, was held on Friday 31 March – Saturday 01 April 2023. There were over 200 student-led exhibits and this year there was an exhibit for every major. Each year this event draws thousands of students, families, teachers, and science-lovers to campus to partake in a truly unique experience celebrating all types of engineering. This is the place to see cutting-edge innovations before they are popularized, and see how students are at the forefront of science and engineering. Click here for the 2023 EOH visitor’s guide.

Continuing a tradition originally started in 2014, RailTEC hosted a group of middle and high school students and their chaperones from Hanson Professional Services and Springfield Frontiers International at the event on Saturday. Students participated in STEM activities and joined Hanson Professional Services CEO Sergio “Satch” Pecori for lunch.

Pecori is an Illinois Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering alumnus (BS 73, MS 74) and was awarded The Grainger College of Engineering Alumni Award for Distinguished Service for 2023. Recipients of this annual alumni award are recognized for professional distinction through outstanding leadership, contributions to the field of engineering, creativity, and entrepreneurship; as well as service to society, the professional community, and to the department, college, or university. Pecori and his company, Hanson Professional Services, have provided transformative support for RailTEC for many years. Click here to read about Hanson’s latest gift. To read CEE’s article about Pecori’s alumni award click here.

RailTEC is excited to share the news that Professor Riley Edwards has established a formal research collaboration agreement with MRS Logística S.A. in Brazil. The two entities share many areas of common research interests and there are similarities with North American rail research needs.  MRS Logística is a freight rail company that controls, operates and monitors the Southeastern Federal Railroad Network. It interconnects the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and São Paulo, spanning through the region that concentrates approximately 55% of Brazil’s gross domestic product and is home to the largest industries in the country.  MRS currently has two employees associated with RailTEC.

The Department of Defense will have the help of CEE researchers to develop better systems to evaluate the structural health of rail lines and modernize pavement design and evaluation procedures in a new project funded by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and led by Applied Research Associates Inc. CEE Professors Erol Tutumluer and Riley Edwards are leading the work for this multi-year research project called Advancing Power Projection through Lines of Communication (APPLoC). In the first year, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will receive $2.1 million in grant funding.

As a whole, the research efforts will specifically address the military engineering focus area of Infrastructure maintenance, repair and reconstruction technologies. Two major tasks that CEE department researchers will be involved in are the development of a rail structural capacity rating for DOD and the development of Joint Evaluation and Design Integrated (JEDI) Solution software tools for designing new and rehabilitated pavements for DOD. APPLoC will also develop and deliver innovative prototype solutions to rapidly assess the condition of existing infrastructure and support the rapid repair of damaged infrastructure such as pavements, bridges and railways.

To watch a news interview with Riley and RailTEC’s Principal Researcher Marcus Dersh click here. To read CEE’s announcement click here.

In the January 2023 issue of Railway Track & Structure (RT&S) magazine,  AREMA  President Trent M. Hudak wrote in his monthly Message From The President column about his experience attending his first Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC). He gave a glowing review of the conference complementing both the high quality program and presentations as well as the networking opportunities among railroad professionals.  Click here to read the article.

Consider attending the next conference which will be held 14-15 November 2023 on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The 25th RREC will feature presentations by railroaders, consulting engineers, academics and others involved in all aspects of railroad environmental topics.  The call for abstracts is open and those submitted by Monday, 20 March will be considered for the 2023 Program. Presentation topics are:

• Compliance for Operating Facilities
• Environmental Management Systems
• Environmental Permitting and Planning
• Incident Management
• Remediation
• Sustainability and Resilience
• Wastewater Management

Click here to submit an abstract or here to learn more about the conference.

Building on the success of last year’s Tracks to the Future: Railroad Transportation and Engineering summer camp, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is funding an even bigger program this year. Six universities (Michigan Tech, Penn State Altoona, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of South Carolina, the University of New Mexico, and California State University, Fresno) are working together to offer up to 120 high school students across the U.S. an exciting opportunity in rail. Learn what forms modern railroad track, explore railway equipment from around the globe, and analyze the latest operations, communication and control systems. Find out how it all works through virtual sessions, hands-on activities, and field visits to railroad facilities.

All applicants accepted for the program will receive scholarships that cover the program fees, so don’t wait, encourage your favorite student to get an application in today! Campers are responsible for their own travel expenses to and from their assigned campus host.  Similar to last year, all students will participate in a Hybrid Program that combines a virtual portion (at home) with a two-day visit to one of the three partnering campuses (max. 20 on each campus).  There will be two sessions this year.  The first, from 19-23 June, will feature campus visits to Michigan Tech, University of South Carolina or Fresno.  The second, from 17-21 July, will offer campus visits to Penn State-Altoona, University of Illinois or University of New Mexico.

More information on the Program and how to apply can be found on the Tracks to the Future web site. Registration is now open with a deadline of March 12th for the first cut on session and location options.  Applications will continue to be accepted after that on a first come, first served basis until each session/location is filled.  After locations are filled, applicants will be offered slots at remaining open locations.

RailTEC faculty, staff, students, and alumni had a strong showing in the rail section at the 102nd Annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, D.C. on 8-12 January 2023. In total there were over 75 separate references, including 49 authors, 20 Committee Members, 7 session chairs and 3 committee meeting chairs. Click here for a guide to 2023 RailTEC contributions at TRB.

The spotlight theme for the 2023 meeting was Rejuvenation Out of Disruption: Envisioning a Transportation System for a Dynamic Future. The thousands of transportation administrators, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who attended the conference participated in more than 600 workshops, lectern sessions, committee sessions, and poster sessions. CEE Online was one of more than 200 exhibitors who participated in this event.

The 103rd TRB Annual Meeting will be held in Washington, DC on 7-11 January 2024.

RailTEC was delighted to welcome back four University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni as William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar Series speakers for the Fall 2022 semester. Over 130 participants attended the seminars in-person while 450 people participated online. Links to their presentations can be found listed below, on our William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar page, or on our RailTEC YouTube channel.

The Fall 2022 speakers were:

23 Sep 2022 | Mike Wychocki, Eagle Rail, Synthesizing the Benefits of Trucking and Short-line Railroad Technology for Shipping Container Movement

14 Oct 2022 | Tom Roadcap, Brighline, Brightline: Bringing Private High-Speed Passenger Rail to the United States

28 Oct 2022 | Mike Mendenhall, Hanson Professional Services, Springfield Rail Improvements Project

11 Nov 2022 | Mark Dingler, HNTB, Use and Misuse of Data, Metrics and Simulation

A big thank you to all the presenters who shared their time and knowledge this semester.  Please join us next semester when online seminars begin again.

It was great to be back in person for the 24th annual Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC) held on 2-3 November 2022 at the iHotel Illinois Conference Center. This two day conference had over 430 people registered who had the opportunity to hear over 45 different presentations, visit with almost 50 exhibitors, and attend one of three technical tours. The conference has seen significant growth since the first event in 1999 that had 150 attendees and 9 exhibitors.  Mark your calendars now for the 25th annual conference to be held 14-15 November 2023 at the iHotel Illinois Conference Center in Champaign.

Also at RREC the 2022 Environmental Excellence Award from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) was announced. This is the highest honor for environmental professionals in the railroad industry. The seven nominees for the award were:

1. 1. Nick Pryor, Environmental Project Manager, Kansas City Southern
   2. Michael Linder, Western Regional Manager, Field Operations, CN
   3. Mike Mendoza, Senior Engineer, Environmental, CSX
   4. Troy Carpenter, Regional Manager Environmental Operations, Norfolk Southern
   5. Dina Ledbetter, Senior Environmental Specialist, Amtrak
   6. Kevin Peterburs, Senior Manager, Site Remediation, Union Pacific
   7. James Taylor, Assistant Director-Advanced Energy Innovation, BNSF

The award was given to BNSF Assistant Director-Advanced Energy Innovation James Taylor.  Read the article in Railway Age here.

The final program is available for the 24^th annual Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC) which will be held on 2-3 November 2022. Please join us at our new location: iHotel Illinois Conference Center, 1900 S 1st Street, Champaign, IL 61820.

This event features a conference keynote address by Matthew Tejada, Director – Office of Environmental Justice, United States Environmental Protection Agency and an AREMA Committee 13 banquet keynote address given by Alissa Yakali, Sustainability and Supplier Relations Manager,| Honda Development & Manufacturing of America.

Over 50 additonal speakers will be presenting during the two days on all aspects of railroad environmental performance and compliance, presented by railroad managers, environmental engineers, and researchers from all over North America.  PDH’s are available. This annual conference enables rail industry employees to meet with peers throughout the railroad environmental community to exchange views, learn about new techniques and technologies, and generally stay in touch with the direction of the railroad industry’s environmental programs.

Click here for the conference program and website.