(The following appeared on the Grand Junction Free Press website on April 13, 2009.)
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Officials with Union Pacific Corporation are predicting local drivers will soon spend less time at crossings waiting for trains to pass, because trains will be operating more efficiently as a result of the nearly $11 million in track improvements made by Union Pacific Railroad to its line from Grand Junction to Helper, Utah.
When the project is complete, crews will have removed and installed 75,600 ties, spread 17,000 tons of rock ballast to ensure a stable roadbed, renewed the road surfaces at 20 crossings and installed nearly three miles of new rail in various curves. Crews replaced the rail in the curves in February, 2009 between the Colorado/Utah border and Helper, Utah. A second crew is replacing the ties and crossing surfaces from Grand Junction to about eight miles west of the Colorado border at Westwater, Utah, beginning April 9. This project is scheduled to be completed by the end of May.
Union Pacific invested nearly $43 million for capital projects in Colorado, and $47 million in Utah, during 2008.
During 2009, Union Pacific plans to invest $1.8 billion in strengthening the track infrastructure across its more than 32,000-mile system.
Union Pacific Corporation’s principal operating company, Union Pacific Railroad, links 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country.