civilsmith | Civil Smith LLC

Lumber Mill Facility – North Carolina

by civilsmith | Jan 18, 2023 | Industrial

Halifax County, North Carolina

Klausner Lumber’s (now Binderholz) selection of a greenfield site in rural Halifax County, North Carolina was driven in part by the fact that the site had very good access to CSX’s mainline corridor. CivilSmith, PLLC teamed up with Creative Rail Solutions, LLC to provide a wide range of services to include conceptual design, cost estimating for establishing amount of grant funding, detailed rail design, rough track roadbed grading design, track construction specifications, bidding and contract documents, contract administration, and construction observation services. CivilSmith and Creative Rail Solutions provided assistance to Halifax County in their efforts to land this high tech lumber production facility by Germany-based Klausner Lumber as part of their multi-state expansion into the U.S. market. From the early stages of the site selection process to the rail yard being placed in service, the CivilSmith/Creative Rail Solutions team worked through many details and challenges throughout the entirety of the project.

CivilSmith and Creative Rail Solutions coordinated with Halifax County, Klausner Lumber, NCDOT Rail Division, and CSX throughout the entire duration of the project to develop rail designs that met the rail operational and capacity needs of this state-of-the-art lumber milling facility while meeting the strict design requirements of CSX. This project was fully grant-funded and as such required meticulous development of bidding and contract documents that met the requirements of both Halifax County and NCDOT.

Project Highlights:

3 Industrial Turnouts
8,500+ Track Feet of Yard and Connection Tracks
1 Mainline PTC Turnout by CSX
Heavy-Duty Steel Tie & Turnout Construction

Civil/Site Design: Green Engineering

Track Construction: RRCI

Interactive Aerial Imagery (Google Earth)

Project Photo Gallery

CSX Mainline & Greenfield Site

CSX Mainline & Lead Track - Near Completion

Lead Track from CSX Mainline - Near Completion

Yard and Connection Tracks - Near Completion

Steel Tie Turnout Sets by NARSTCO

Steel Tie Track Construction

Aggregate Distribution Yard – South Carolina

by civilsmith | Jan 17, 2023 | Industrial

Mt. Holly, South Carolina

To meet the demand for high-quality aggregate products in this coastal region, Vulcan Materials chose this greenfield site just north of Charleston, SC along CSXT’s service corridor for their new regional distribution yard. CivilSmith and Creative Rail Solutions teamed up to assist HGB and their client Vulcan Materials with all phases of design and construction for this new aggregate unit train unloading operation. Preliminary planning and design included several operational considerations for bi-directional service from the north or south while allowing the unit train to be pulled into the site without stopping in order to quickly clear this busy rail corridor. Constraints at each end of the project required some creative designs to include the use of a double crossover configuration as well as incorporating an existing industrial neighbor’s switch into the new staging siding.

CivilSmith and Creative Rail Solutions coordinated with Vulcan Materials, HGB, and CSX throughout the duration of the project to develop rail designs that met the rail operational and capacity needs for the new unit train aggregate unloading operation. Track construction specifications and quantities were provided to Vulcan for their use in their bidding process. Periodic construction observation site visits were provided by Creative Rail Solutions to assist Vulcan with track material and installation quality control. The project included detailed coordination and design efforts with CSX in consideration of CSX’s installation of power-assist turnouts with signalization at both ends of staging sidings.

Project Highlights:

8,000+ Track Feet of Sidings and UnloadingTracks
2 Industrial No.10 Crossovers
4 Industrial Turnouts
2 Mainline Power-Assist Turnouts with DSP Derails by CSX
High-Volume Aggregate Pit by Vulcan

Interactive Aerial Imagery (Google Earth)

Project Photo Gallery

CSX Mainline & Greenfield Site Before Construction - South End

CSX Mainline & Existing Industry Switch Before Construction - NorthEnd

CSX Mainline Power Turnout Completed - South End

CSX Mainline Power Turnout Completed - North End

Double Crossovers

Industrial Turnouts

Pit Track

Rail Car Unloading Pit

Ethanol Transload Facility – Alabama

by civilsmith | Jan 16, 2023 | Industrial

Southern Alabama
A regional fuel supplier’s expansion of their distribution facility included adding a new rail facility to be constructed on a greenfield site. The new inbound commodity required the construction of a new rail yard with an 80-tank car unit train capacity. The site is served by CSX and the operational requirements included bi-directional switching for inbound and outbound rail movements.

CivilSmith teamed up with Creative Rail Solutions to assist POND Engineering handle all aspects of the rail design, CSX approval, track specifications, and construction phase services. Coordination and assistance was given to POND during the grading and drainage design phase to confirm that track roadbed grading and culvert crossings met CSX’s specifications for industrial tracks.

Bi-directional service to the site was accomplished by the use of wye tracks springing from two separate mainline turnouts in CSX’s mainline track. Access to the site required creative alignment design that met CSX’s specifications, provided adequate rail car capacity, and avoided adjacent properties by others.

Civil/Site Design: POND Engineering

Track Construction: Trac-Works

Interactive Aerial Imagery (Google Earth)

Project Photo Gallery

Greenfield Site Before Construction

Switching Lead

CSX Mainline Turnout for Wye Track

Firestone Building Products – Alabama

by civilsmith | Jan 15, 2023 | Industrial

Tuscumbia, Alabama
Firestone Building Products doubled their rail capacity for receiving a new bulk commodity by rail . This facility has received plastic resin by rail for two decades and this rail expansion represents significant new rail traffic to their Tuscumbia, Alabama facility. This project would include detailed coordination with Firestone’s mechanical engineering consultant, Quad Plus, as they managed the project to include manifold piping design along and over the proposed new tracks.

The CivilSmith team managed all aspects of the rail portion of the rail expansion project to include surveying, geotechnical exploration, detailed track and track roadbed grading design and approval, permitting, project specifications development, bidding services, and construction phase services. CivilSmith worked closely with Firestone’s project management consultant Quad Plus. Project construction phasing plans and scheduling were required during the final stages of construction to insure that Firestone would have a sufficient of raw materials to supply their operation.

CivilSmith coordinated all efforts between the industry and other stakeholders to include the adjacent landfill, Norfolk Southern, mechanical design team, and others as needed. Geotechnical exploration revealed a suspected old sink hole area that required remediation prior to preparating of the track roadbed. CivilSmith coordinated with S&ME to include their recommendations into the overall project bid documents and specifications. The project also included the design and specifications for a new at-grade industrial drive crossing for adjacent landfill usage with heavy-duty dump trucks.

Track Contruction: Shelton’s Railroad Construction
Surveying Services: LandPro Surveying
Geotechnical Services: S&ME
Mechanical Engineering & Project Management: Quad Plus

Interactive Aerial Imagery (Google Earth)

Project Photo Gallery

Before Construction

Construction Phase

Industrial At-Grade Crossing for Adjacent Landfill Use

Completed Rail Yard Expansion

Completed and Operational

Lifetime Products Resin by Rail – Tennessee

by civilsmith | Jan 14, 2023 | Uncategorized

Lifetime Products located on a site with an existing building and expanded that building further onto the site which had never been served by rail. Having the ability to receive inbound plastic resin raw materials by rail was one of the top priorities of locating on the site. Rail access to the site would require crossing an existing public highway between the Norfolk Southern mainline and the project site.

CivilSmith joined the BWSC engineering team to handle all aspects of the rail design and permitting through NS. Coordination with the civil/site designer, general contractor, and railroad signal consultant was required throughout the duration of the project. For the new public at-grade crossing, CivilSmith developed rail alignments that closely aligned with existing road profiles, met TDOT Rail Division standards, and was specified to meet the heavy traffic needs of the crossing Significant coordination was required with the signal design consultant as well as with the DOT.

Bidding phase services were provided to assist the owner and general contractor in their efforts to get competitive pricing from well-qualified rail contractors. Construction phase services were provided by CivilSmith to assist the general contractor in reviewing material submittals and to inspect track construction on a regular basis.

Civil/Site Design: Barge Design Solutions

Track Construction: RRCI