I just passed by Okerson and Howell Rds today. They are laying ballast! There's a big mound of it by Okerson Rd. Some sort of wheeled, non-railroad vehicle was doing the ballast laying while on the tracks.
CharlieL wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 7:37 am
From what I can see from the road, they have proceeded, with ties and rail, between a third and half the distance from Okerson to Howell.
This is not going near as fast as the clearing or roadbed prep. nor would I have expected it to.
The track laying seems to have gotten to just under the Rt 33 bridge, which isn't too far from Howell Rd. Maybe a quarter of a mile to go before they reach Howell Rd? Maybe less? I can see them reaching Howell Rd by the end of this week.
Let's say they take two weeks to get the 0.6 miles between Okerson and Howell Rds done. There are around 5-6 miles between where they started at Okerson, and Railroad Ave in Farmingdale. At that rate, they would finish the project in about 8-10 weeks at minimum, and we're 2 weeks into that time frame so far. At that rate, they could finish the track laying by late April or early May.
April or May is probably too early too account for whatever holidays/issues/etc. may arise, especially as there's no sign that crossing work will start soon.
They only started laying tracks last week IIRC, and we had just had the 3 or 4 day President's Day holiday weekend, so I don't think the speed of work last week (or even this week) will be the speed from here on out.
CR7876 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 22, 2023 11:29 am
I'd be shocked if this project was done before November.
I'd be shocked if they didn't get the project done by summer. They've cleared the entire ROW of thick growth, and have begun leveling and grading quite a bit of the ROW. I'm not an MoW guy, but I'd imagine you'd want to get the project done ASAP before you have to start fighting the thick Spring and Summer vegetation growth before the tracks are even laid, before the elements start to affect the clearance and the grading that is being done now.