Catenary pole replacement imminent on the NEC?

[TheOneKEA]

I traveled along the NEC south of BWI Marshall recently and noticed that there are new concrete foundations with heavy steel bolts set into their upper surfaces along the right of way, adjacent to the existing PRR catenary pole foundations. There are several foundations along the line near Bowie State and several more along the line near New Carrollton.

Amtrak’s web page for their ongoing work on the NEC mentions that catenary hardware upgrades are occurring but doesn’t go into detail. Will the new concrete foundations be used for both the catenary and the 138kV transmission, or just the catenary?

[west point]

Did you notice if the new post holders were adjacent to present poles or at the shorter distance standard for constant tension CAT ? Note that curves are already closer on PRR poles so new pole holders should probably be near old poles ?/

[TheOneKEA]

Did you notice if the new post holders were adjacent to present poles or at the shorter distance standard for constant tension CAT ? Note that curves are already closer on PRR poles so new pole holders should probably be near old poles ?/

The concrete foundations near Bowie State were adjacent to existing catenary poles while the foundations near New Carrollton were not; some of them were in very different locations and a few of the new ones were only separated by a few feet.

[Backshophoss]

Most of the Cat poles date back to when PRR hung the wire on the NEC,and could be ready to rust away or are not usable for constant tension
wire cat. Same could be said of the concrete foundations they are mounted on!
As each interlocking has been changed,all the wire is rerigged,needing new cat poles for wire support.
Where possible,Amtrak is moving the transmission/signal power lines to their own poles/pole line off the cat poles to improve the grid and
cut down on massive grid failures due to wrecks/pole damage and wire snags.

[Ken W2KB]

Most of the Cat poles date back to when PRR hung the wire on the NEC,and could be ready to rust away or are not usable for constant tension
wire cat. Same could be said of the concrete foundations they are mounted on!
As each interlocking has been changed,all the wire is rerigged,needing new cat poles for wire support.
Where possible,Amtrak is moving the transmission/signal power lines to their own poles/pole line off the cat poles to improve the grid and
cut down on massive grid failures due to wrecks/pole damage and wire snags.

Does this affect the non-Amtrak electric utility transmission overbuild? Lots of miles of the NEC has utility overbuild on the leased from Amtrak structures.

[Acela150]

Amtrak is installing a new interlocking just south of New Carrollton. That might be part of it.

[Backshophoss]

If there are other"air rights" users involved,they work with Amtrak to move their lines to the new poles.

[amtrakhogger]

Cat pole replacement north of Bowie State is to replace poles that are settling and are becoming out of plumb.. They poured new footings for about 6 new cat poles.

[TheOneKEA]

Cat pole replacement north of Bowie State is to replace poles that are settling and are becoming out of plumb.. They poured new footings for about 6 new cat poles.

A significant portion of the NEC formation in that part of MD runs through similar types of soils and geology, so I wonder if Amtrak is checking the rest of the route and preparing to replace more of the poles.

Will the new poles use guyed wires to support the catenary or fixed metal spans?

[EuroStar]

It seems to me that there is a strong preference to using fixed K-frames over guy wires, but guy wires are still widely used in Europe and are probably somewhat cheaper. Why do we prefer the K-frames? Easier/faster repair after catenary snags?

[JimBoylan]

Why do we prefer the K-frames?

In a discussion of new higher speed catenary in New Jersey, it was mentioned that guy wires used instead of cross beams sometimes require unavailable real estate for their anchorages.