A new factory at Union Pacific Railroad's 22nd Street yards will begin popping out millions of concrete railroad ties this summer to replace old wooden ties on the railroad's Southwestern rail line.
The Tucson concrete tie plant will employ about 70 workers and have an annual payroll of about $3 million, according to UP spokesman James Barnes.
Besides providing replacement ties, the plant will supply ties for the railroad's ongoing project to build a second set of tracks on the railroad's El Paso-to-Los Angeles route over the next eight years.
The concrete ties cost about 5 percent less, provide a smoother ride and have a lifespan considerably longer than wooden ties' 30-to 40-year life expectancy, Barnes said.
Concrete ties are preferred for routes that carry particularly heavy trains — such as coal trains — or a lot of traffic, such as the El Paso-to-Los Angeles route, he said.
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The new concrete-tie manufacturing plant, and an adjacent facility where the used wooden ties they replace will be "rehabilitated," are on the southeast end of the 22nd Street yards, next to Fairland Stravenue.
The concrete tie plant is being built for and will be operated by CXT Inc., a division of Pittsburgh-based LB Foster Co. The plant uses manufacturing technology developed in the Netherlands, according to Jim McCaslin, CXT's manager for the Tucson project.
Once operational after a testing and commissioning period this summer, the plant should produce 1,200 to 1,400 ties a day, McCaslin said .
The 35,000-square-foot plant will be equipped with a crane that will roll the length of the building, pouring concrete into forms that each contain 18 steel cables stretched at a tension of about 6,000 pounds.
After concrete is poured into forms, McCaslin said, the ties cure for seven or eight hours then are stockpiled for 14 days while they continue to become stronger. After curing, they can be loaded onto a specialized rail-construction machine and used to build new track or replace old track.
Crews using the machine can lay 4,000 to 6,000 ties a day, McCaslin said.
The machine digs out the ballast — the coarse rock laid around under and next to the railbed — removes the old wooden ties, lays a new concrete tie, clamps the rail to clips on the top of the new concrete tie, replaces the ballast and stockpiles the used wooden tie for return to the yard.
Until the Tucson plant goes into production, UP crews are using concrete ties manufactured at a plant in Grand Island, Neb., and now stockpiled in the 22nd Street yard.
Barnes said the wooden ties picked up by the machine are returned to the Tucson yard, off-loaded and moved to another facility where they are rehabbed — injected with plastic and either returned for use on another rail line or sold for non-railroad uses such as landscaping.
Although creosote — the preservative used in wooden ties — is considered a possible carcinogen, Barnes said that was not a factor in the decision to use concrete ties to replace wooden ties and lay a new second set of tracks on the El Paso-Los Angeles route.
Diversified Design & Construction Inc. of Tucson is the general contractor for the concrete tie plant and Tucson-based Fast Fab Erectors Inc. is handling the steel construction.