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1/15/2021
Sound Transit earlier this week awarded Advanced Rail Management Corp. (ARM) a five-year, $24-million contract for rail grinding, polishing and engineering inspection services on the Link light-rail service in Seattle.
The contract includes corrugation measurement and track geometry, ultrasonic and eddy-current testing as part of the inspection and quality assurance requirements, ARM officials said in a press release.
ARM officials said the contract is the first of its kind in North America to require rail polishing that adheres to customized acoustic requirements that are based on the ISO 3095 standard. That standard is more demanding than the EN 13231-3 standard that North American railroads and transit systems typically grind to, said ARM officials.
Under the contract with Sound Transit, ARM will implement a gradual-preventive grinding program. To prepare for the program, ARM and its consultants will conduct a comprehensive inspection to quantify rail surface conditions on the system. ARM will use data from the measurements it gathers to prioritize locations, estimate metal removal and determine the total number of miles to be addressed, ARM officials said.