E. S. Wagner Company served as the prime contractor for the expansion of the Norfolk Southern Rail Yard Facility in Bellevue, Ohio. This facility built, in the1960’s, is one of the largest and busiest in the Norfolk Southern (NS) network and has become their largest sorting yard in the country. The expansion of the site took place within the footprint of the existing rail yard which is 6 miles long. Careful coordination between E.S. Wagner’s management personnel, NS construction managers, and the NS staff responsible for the daily operation of the yard was an essential condition to what became a very successful project for all.
E.S Wagner’s contracted work on this project consisted of over 200,000 cubic yards of excavation, 195,000 tons of dense grade aggregate and 50,000 linear feet of storm, exfiltration trench, sanitary sewer and water line. Additionally, E.S. Wagner built a very unique phased bridge structure that now carry trains from the hump into the new class yard. The structure sets directly adjacent to the existing yard hump master retarder. The bridge incorporated over 5,300 linear feet of drilled secant shafts with a cast in place smooth concrete face. Over 2,200 cubic yards of concrete and almost 2,300,000 pounds of reinforcing and structural steel was also required. E.S. Wagner was contracted for the asphalt paving, electrical, communication conduit, and signal conduit and air packages requiring the installation of nineteen Cummins Diesel emergency generators with the largest weighing in at 60,000 pounds.
After the beginning of construction activities, E.S. Wagner became concerned that the railroad’s original plan for construction of the site’s required embankments was in jeopardy of failing due to the poor existing soil conditions. After performing additional site investigations to gather the required information, E.S. Wagner proposed an alternative that eliminated the project’s off site earthen embankment and chemical modification requirements in favor of a special blended crushed aggregate embankment placed over geotextile fabric. Working closely with the Owner and Engineer to refine this procedure and gain approval, E.S. Wagner was able to move forward with construction in a manner that both stabilized the suspect existing conditions and provided an all weather surface, thus aiding the project schedule.
More than 713,000 tons of aggregates were placed on the entire site. Nearly 50 miles of track bed was prepared and turned over to Norfolk Southern track construction department. Due to E.S. Wagner’s redesign, the project finished on schedule to complete the class yard construction of 21 track miles.
