advertisement

---

• AECOM Technology Corp. has obtained a contract to provide final design services for the Regional Transportation District of Denver's (RTD) Interstate 225 light-rail line. AECOM will provide final design for tracks, seven full stations and part of an eighth station, multiple traffic signals and grade crossings, landscaping, permitting, drainage, utilities, park and ride areas, eight bridges and transit systems. The 10.5-mile line is part of RTD’s FasTracks program.

• Ansaldo STS Australia has obtained an $83.2 million contract to provide signaling, communications and transmission systems for a heavy haul rail capacity enhancement project at Rio Tinto's operations in Australia's Pilbara region. When completed, the railway duplication will extend from an Emu siding to the port at Cape Lambert.

• ENSCO Inc. recently delivered to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) its first track geometry vehicle (TGV), a specialized rail car equipped with advanced technology designed to analyze the condition of rail and track infrastructure, and issue alerts on potential defects. The TGV enables WMATA to test track during operating hours as well as nonrevenue hours, providing in-house capability to perform inspections with greater speed and efficiency, ENSCO officials said in a prepared statement.

• At MINExpo International 2012, which will be held Sept. 24-26 in Las Vegas, Caterpillar plans to exhibit an Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) SD70ACe locomotive to provide mining industry representatives an opportunity explore railroad technology that transports minerals to market, Caterpillar officials announced. At 420,000 pounds, the locomotive "earns its place alongside some of the largest mobile equipment in the world," they said. In 2005, EMD introduced the 4,400-horsepower SD70ACe model for heavy haul freight applications worldwide.

• Logistics provider SNCF Geodis and wind turbine manufacturer Vestas have launched a "breakthrough" in the transportation of wind turbine blades with train-delivered, 55-metre-long wind blades moved from Germany to Denmark, generating "significant reductions" in transportation time, costs and greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a press release. The first blade-by-train shipment, consisting of nine wind blades, was transported in less than 20 hours from the Vestas plant in Lauchhammer, Germany, to the port of Esbjerg, Denmark, mainly by electric railway, the companies said. By road, it would have taken 72 hours, involving nine trucks accompanied by 18 safety cars, they said.

• Parsons Brinckerhoff has named Norman Rhodes tunnel services technical director in the firm's Mechanical and Technical Excellence Center. Rhodes is considered one of the world’s experts in the application of advanced engineering analysis to solve complex design problems, according to a company press release. His experience includes development and application for the first general-purpose computational fluid dynamics models for three-dimensional ventilation and fire analysis to their present-day application in design. Rhodes most recently served Hatch Mott MacDonald, where he oversaw the fire life safety and security practice for North America and Canada.