VRE's 11mi of High Speed Rail (Arkendale - Powell's Creek)

Does anyone have a link to map of the 11 miles of 3rd track that the Feds will help fund as part of the high-speed rail funding? It appears to be called the Arkendale to Powell's Creek track addition. When Virginia applied for High Speed Rail funds, it described it as

The proposed project would construct 11.4 miles of third track from milepost CFP 72 at Arkendale, Stafford County, VA to CFP 83.4 at Powell's Creek, Prince William County, VA on the CSX RF&P Mainline. The project is in the northern segment of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor connecting Washington, DC to locations in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The proposed third track utilizes the vacant main line slot on the recently completed double track Quantico Creek Bridge that parallels the original single track bridge. The $26M bridge was constructed with regional, Commonwealth of Virginia and local funds...
...The third track segment, like other third track segments previously constructed with Commonwealth of Virginia funds, can be used to meet, pass, and overtake trains in the corridor to provide a reliable performance schedule for intercity and high speed Amtrak passenger trains and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) commuter trains, while preserving the freight operational environment.

The project will construct 11.4 miles of new third track. Two new interlockings will provide universal parallel movements between the three track segments and the existing double track at each end of the project. New small stream and creek bridges and drainage structures will be built adjacent to five existing structures. Grade crossing warning devices will be modified/upgraded at six existing crossings. Three existing sidings will be adjusted to accommodate the third track. Limited areas of right of way acquisition will be required; however, the majority of the project will be constructed on CSX right of way.

According to the article at DPRT http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/news/details.aspx?id=441, the Feds granted this part of Virginia's original request http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/news/files ... 20Form.pdf as a PDF

As part of the January 2010 high speed rail awards, Feds have awarded a grant to fund what appears to be this project, but their map is worthless:

Richmond - Washington, D.C.: New high-speed rail track, more than 11 miles in length, will be built between Richmond and
Washington, DC. is project will eliminate one of the most severe bottlenecks along an extremely congested area on the
Southeast Corridor. e improvements to the route will improve on-time performance and lay the groundwork for future
high-speed rail in the region.

(The FRA's larger document here http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/Resear ... tte_dc.pdf as a PDF )

This probably doesn't help too much, but here's what VRE posted a couple of years ago. It was included in a project for a new station in that area. It's an aerial photo of the area along with a description of the original project. http://vre.org/about/projects/cip/cherry-hill.html

Here is a Google Map of Powell's Creek to Arkendale 3rd Track project that I made.

It is based on a PDF project-location map on the http://www.drpt.virginia.gov site.

The 11 miles of the project are basically centered on Quantico, starting about 5 miles north, and ending about 6 miles south of the Quantico station. The future Cherry Hill station is actually at the northern tip of the project, just south of the Powell's Creek bridge.

I noticed at the South end of the new extension on the satellite map you made that right where the 3rd track ends is where a defunct-looking siding is and then the siding hooks back into the tracks just a wee bit farther down. Will they connect to the north end of the siding and bring the new track all the way down to where it hooks back in. You may need to look at the map to see what I am talking about.

Thanks

Davis

The siding between Arkendale Road and Aquia Creek is, on rare occasions, used to store maintenance-of-way equipment. Since the Arkendale crossover is just north of there (about a mile from the bridge over the creek), I expect that the new third track will end at Arkendale.

Four years ago, the Fredericksburg, Virginia, newspaper created a map to go with one of my columns. It shows the location of a few projects where the Commonwealth of Virginia was adding or wanted to add track. I got permission to scan it and upload it, so I added it to my website at http://www.stevedunham.50megs.com/Cross ... #CSX3rdtrk

I have moved the southern end of the project in the Google Map of Powell's Creek to Arkendale 3rd Track that I made. Now it ends at Brent Point Road, and Google Maps tells me my track line is 11.26 miles long (the official length of the project is 11.2 miles...when my endpoint was further south, my line had been 11.6 miles long)

I found this large and helpful Cherry Hill master plan image showing the proposed Town Center and VRE Station

I have updated my map at Cherry Hill and Arkendale to more accurately show what I believe are the start and endpoints, and have moved the marker to the proposed Cherry Hill station location.

this is a dumb question, but.. what is the current allowable speed of the nippon-sharyo gallery cars anyway? I''m guessing 90mph?

“The Powell’s Creek project was our first ‘shovel ready’ project and as soon as we get the money in hand we will be able to begin construction,“ said Department of Rail and Public Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Pickett.

Ok, so is the money in hand? Has construction started?

superbad wrote:this is a dumb question, but.. what is the current allowable speed of the nippon-sharyo gallery cars anyway? I''m guessing 90mph?

Guess again. Per http://www.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/ag ... 22/9-A.pdf Page 4.

"The railcars are rated for 79 mph service. This is the maximum speed allowed by CSX on the Fredericksburg line and by Norfolk Southern on the Manassas line.

As far as I know, the maximum speed on CSX anywhere between Washington and Richmond is 70, and in Quantico (where VRE is continually warning about possible "high-speed trains" approaching) it is 55. From what I've heard, on the eve of Amtrak in 1971, the RF&P downgraded its line from 79 to 70 so it wouldn't be obligated to maintain it at the higher quality.

According to VDOT's original plan, construction was supposed to beging "Q2" 2010...that's April, May, or June. Now that we're 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through Q2, Are there any signs out there on that construction is actually starting?

I haven't seen anything through there, but we have had slow orders off and on through that area for the last 2-3 weeks or so. Between the Quantico and Brooke stations (Prince William into Stafford County, north to south).

the-rail-life wrote:I haven't seen anything through there, but we have had slow orders off and on through that area for the last 2-3 weeks or so. Between the Quantico and Brooke stations (Prince William into Stafford County, north to south).

That could be a good sign! Maybe some surveyors out there?

Davis

Arlington wrote:According to VDOT's original plan, construction was supposed to beging "Q2" 2010...that's April, May, or June. Now that we're 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through Q2, Are there any signs out there on that construction is actually starting?

Surely, some VRE rider or CSX/RF&P fan out there has seen actual construction by now?

On other TIGER project's I'm following* (where the whole idea is to get work going quickly, while people need the jobs) supplies were marshaled by the "host" railroads even before final funding was in place, and by now construction has clearly begun on both projects. Can the same be said for this project?

*(the Pan Am Rail & MBTA's joint work to extend the MBTA commuter line from Fitchburg, MA line to Wachusett, and trackwork by Pan Am rail to extend Amtrak's Downeaster from Portland ME, to Brunswick)