Technical Sessions

Monday, September 15

New Format - All sessions are concurrent

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Communications, Signals & Information Technology Presentation: The State of Cybersecurity in Rail, Moderator: Susan F. Howard, Michael Baker International, Panelists: Miki Shifman, Cylus Corporation, Mark Johnston, Tri County Metropolitan Transit Agency and Todd Ellis, Hatch Engineering

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Engineering Services Presentation: BNSF Bismarck Bridge Replacement – Challenges and Solutions with the National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act, Lori D. Price & Abby Korte, Jacobs and Mike Herzog, BNSF Railway

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Maintenance-of-Way Presentation: Hi-Rail Limits Compliance System (HLCS) for BNSF Railway – Implementation Overview, Jim Barrett, BNSF Railway and Tom Aliff, Meteorcomm

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Passenger & Transit Presentation: BART Operating Plan Stability Analysis During Major Construction Outage, Ethan Call and Dennis Page, Hatch  

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Structures Presentation: San Luis Rey River Bridge, Br. 225.4 Repair Project, Richard Charles Kissel, Jacobs, Tim Harris, PE, North County Transit District and Zebadiah T. Hutchison, Stacy Witbeck

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Track Presentation: Keeping the "Go" in "Chicago": Design of the CREATE P3/GS19 Project, Joseph A. Abruzzo, PE, SE & Glen T. Campbell, PE, Parsons Transportation Group and Brett Guarino, CSX Transportation

Tuesday, September 16

Communications, Signals & Information Technology Technical Session

Session Chair: Jared Hopewell, AREMA Functional Group Vice President
Norfolk Southern Corporation

Session sponsored by   

 

7:30 – 8:00 AM

Next Generation Electronic Track Circuits – Applications in Remote Territory
Peter Bohmert, P.Eng., Hatch

8:05 – 8:35 AM

BNSF Paola Interlocker: Leveraging new technology to improve safety and performance at diamond crossings
Hannes Kalteis, Frauscher Sensor Technology USA and Carlos Aguilera, BNSF Railway

8:40 – 9:10 AM

NS’ CTC over ITCM Project
Michael Jason Rodriguez, Meteorcomm and Andrew Edens, Norfolk Southern Corporation

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Navigating Complexity: Best Practices for Highway Rail Grade Crossing Projects
Steven Phillips and Karen Hankinson, PE, TE, Olsson

9:50 – 10:20 AM

Break

10:25 – 10:55 AM

Vital Relays for Railroad Signal Applications
Leonard M. Wydotis, Siemens Freight Rail

11:00 – 11:30 AM

Sonification of Track Circuits
Roger C. French, Modern Railway Systems

11:35 AM – 12:05 PM

Non-Invasive Measurement of the Electrical Properties of Railway Track Under Operating Conditions
Stuart Landau, PE, SMIEEE, MIRSE, Parsons Transportation Group and Edwin R. "Chip" Kraft, PhD & Stephen Dillen, PE, Penn State University - Altoona

12:10 – 1:10 PM 

CS&IT Committee Open Forum Discussion
Moderator: Jared Hopewell, Norfolk Southern Corporation 
Panelists: Carlos Aguilera, BNSF Railway, Damon A. Smith, CSX, John D. Danyluk, Meteorcomm LLC, Leonard M. Wydotis, Siemens and Robert W. Kramer, Wabtec

Tuesday, September 16

Engineering Services Technical Session

Session Chair: Cassandra M. Gouger, PE, AREMA Functional Group Vice President
Union Pacific

Session sponsored by  


7:30 – 8:00 AM

Railroad Bridge scour protections in Santa Ana, CA
Ihab Allam, Malcolm Drilling

8:05 – 8:35 AM

Engineering Solutions for Growth: Repurposing Union Pacific’s Global 2 Intermodal Facility
Daniel White, GFT, David Nielsen, Union Pacific and Benjamin W. Grone, Olsson

8:40 – 9:10 AM

Biodiversity Off the Rails: ECWE LRT’s Line-Wide Restoration Plan in Toronto
Nick Copeland, Arup

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Impacts to Railroads: Survey Strategies for Bat Species in Compliance with the Endangered Species Act
Paige Anderson and Jessica Casey, Olsson

9:50 – 10:20 AM

Break

10:25 – 10:55 AM

Optimizing Pavement Designs for Cost-Effective & Sustainable Solutions
Jonathan Scott Gould, PE & Abbas Kachwalla, PE, AECOM and Rudy Cantrell, BNSF 

11:00 –11:30 AM

Building for the Next Century: Addressing Geotechnical Uncertainty in Railroad Bridge Replacement
Steven Shaup, PE, GFT and Joseph Juzwin, PE, HNTB Corporation 

11:35 AM – 12:05 PM

CSX Alexandria 4th Track Project – AF-RO Interlocking Construction Phasing and Visualization Support
Thomas W. Kinney, II, and Yanjuan He, Michael Baker International & Brett J. Sanders, CSX Transportation

12:10 – 12:40 PM

UPRR Bloomington Yard Expansion
Chris Harlan, Alfred Benesch and Chad Williamson, Union Pacific Railroad

12:45 – 1:15 PM

Public Agency Perspectives on Railroad Public Project Success
Moderator: Noreen Ellis, WSP
Panelists: Manar Nashif, Illinois Tollway, Jennifer “Sis” Killen, Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways and Chris Enright, PE, Colorado Department of Transportation

Tuesday, September 16

Maintenance-of-Way Technical Session

Session Chair: Matthew R. Porto, AREMA Functional Group Vice President
Amtrak 

Session sponsored by  

7:30 – 8:00 AM

Automated Detection and Analysis of Track Components at High Speed: An Effective Prevention and Planning Tool
Luc Faucher, PhD, CEFRAIL Research and Training Centre

8:05 – 8:35 AM

Field Performance Study of Strain Gauge-Based Systems to Measure Wheel Loads and Tie Reaction Forces under Changing Track Support Conditions
Md. Fazle Rabbi, ENSCO, Inc. and Debakanta Mishra, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

8:40 – 9:10 AM

Advancing Railroad Bridge Safety with Fiber Optic Technology
Tait W. Doeringer, KATCH Group, Merlin W. Betzler, Modern Safety Engineering and Christian M. Doeringer, University of Florida

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Proactive Crossing Management: Leveraging Technology and Collaboration to Prioritize Infrastructure Needs
Kirsten Clayward, GISP and Blanca Obregon, PE, GFT

9:50 – 10:20 AM

Break 

10:25 – 10:55 AM

Laboratory Investigation of the Effect of Ballast Cleaning on Track Drainage Under Extreme Weather Conditions
Yu Qian, PhD, & Yufeng Gong, University of South Carolina and Franco Fanucci, Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc.

11:00 – 11:30 AM

Evaluation of Railway Ballast Compaction with Bulk Stress as an Indicator
Qifeng Yang & Hai Huang, Pennsylvania State University

11:35 AM – 12:05 PM

Experimental Evaluation of Wheelset Dynamics for Improving Rolling Stock Traction Efficiency
Giovanni Mantovani, Nikhil Kumar, PhD Candidate and Mehdi Ahmadian, PhD, Virginia Tech

12:10 – 12:40 PM

Mitigating Maintenance of Way Equipment Collisions on Norfolk Southern Track via the Adoption of Advanced Collision Avoidance Technology
Sourav Kumar, Harsco Rail

12:45 – 1:15 PM

LiDAR, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Predictive Maintenance
Eric Laurent, Object Computing Inc and Jacob Kelly, BNSF Railway

Tuesday, September 16

Passenger & Transit Technical Session

Session Chair: Lucas A. Bathurst, PE, AREMA Functional Group Vice President
HDR

Session sponsored by   

7:30 – 8:00 AM

Technology Innovations in Capital Projects for Asset Management and Sustainability
Lindsay English, Arup

8:05 – 8:35 AM

Rail Decarbonization
Luv Sehgal, PE, ENV SP and Giles Pettit, Arup

8:40 – 9:10 AM

Examining the Feasibility of Level Boarding Passenger Platforms in Existing Freight Corridors
Marcin N. Taraszkiewicz, PE, HDR 

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Analyzing Train Dynamics Across Future SBB Bridge
Hamed Pouryousef and Dewitt David Moses, GFT

9:50 – 10:20 AM

Break

10:25 – 10:55 AM

Mitigating Trespass Intrusions on a North American Railroad via the Adoption of Advanced Intrusion Detection Technology
Sourav Kumar, Harsco Rail 

11:00 – 11:30 AM

Predicting Construction Outage Related Service Impacts on the Northeast Corridor
Dennis Page, Hatch and Anne Quevreaux, Arup

11:35 AM – 12:05 PM

LA Metro Regional Connector System Recoverability Study
Ethan Call, Hatch and Joseph Forgiarini, LA Metro  

12:10 – 12:40 PM

Realizing VRE's Long-Term Vision for Quantico Station
Dallas R. Richards, PE, Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Derek Overstreet, PE, DBIA, STV Incorporated 

Tuesday, September 16

Structures Technical Session

Session Chair: Walter F. Bleser, II, PE, AREMA Functional Group Vice President
RailPros 

Session sponsored by  

7:30 – 8:00 AM

Design of Rail-Carrying Structures with the Integration of Crash Walls
Shayne Renaud, P.Eng., Hatch

8:05 – 8:35 AM

Raising the Rails
Shannon B. McCauley, HDR, Garrett Cross, CPKC and Mickey Thatcher, Russell Marine, LLC

8:40 – 9:10 AM

Drilled Shafts for CPKC’s Ottensmeyer International Bridge Second Track, Laredo, Texas/Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Felipe Bobadilla Bautista, CPKC, David Coleman, PE, Geotechnical Engineering Associates, LLC and Matt Kinworthy, OCCI, Inc.

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Autonomous Operation of Movable Rail Bridges
Miguel Estrella, WSP USA 

9:50 – 10:20 AM

Break

10:25 – 10:55 AM

Applications of Two-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling in Rail Environments
Andrew Ramsey, PE, Wilson & Company, Inc., Engineers & Architects

11:00 – 11:30 AM

Lifespan of the Remote-Controlled Moveable Bridge: When the Gold Standard Meets the Budget
Rachael Gray Crandley and Samir Abdo, HDR

11:35 AM – 12:05 PM

The Impacts of Corrosion on the Performance of Reinforced Concrete Structures
David Comaniciu, GFT

12:10 – 12:40 PM

Application of Remote Sensing Technology on a Railway Bridge
Anna M. Rakoczy, PhD and Joanna Szczęch, EIT, Warsaw University of Technology

Tuesday, September 16

Track Technical Session

Session Chair: David C. Clark, PE, AREMA Functional Group Vice President
CSX Transportation

Session Sponsored by   
7:30 – 8:00 AM

Identifying Frozen Ballast and the Impact it has on Rail Gaps - A Laboratory and Numerical Study
Coleman Froehlke & Marcus Dersch, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

8:05 – 8:35 AM 

Ballast fouling sensitivity analysis with IoT based sensor
AQM Zohuruzzaman and Dr. Rakesh Salunke, Jackson State University

8:40 – 9:10 AM

Laser-based Systems for Onboard Detection of Flange Grease on Revenue Service Tracks
Aditya Milind Rahalkar, S. Morteza H. Mirzaei and Dr. Mehdi Ahmadian, Virginia Tech

9:15 – 9:45 AM

Bituminous Materials as Sustainable and Life-Extending Supplemental Coatings for Wood Ties
Ross Poland, PhD and Leandro Estrada, Heritage Research Group 

9:50 – 10:20 AM

Break 

11:00 – 11:30 AM

Turnout Frog Profile Optimization Through Dynamic Interaction Modeling with Revenue Service Wheel Profiles
Jaeik Lee, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

11:35 AM – 12:05 PM

A New Technology for Prestressing Concrete Ties with Shape Memory Bars
Bassem Andrawes, PhD, PE, F.ASCE, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

12:10 – 12:40 PM

Investigating the Geogrid Stabilization Effect on Fouled Ballast with Varying Moisture Levels
Yu Qian, PhD, PE, University of South Carolina and Shihao Huang, PhD, Tarleton State University

Wednesday, September 17

8:30 – 9:00 AM

Maintenance-of-Way Presentation: BNSF Midlothian Rail Port Parkway Project: A case study in slope stabilization along a rail track with minimal right-of-way area and track disruption, Donald Herbert, Tensar, A Division of CMC, Tony Swedin, SEMA Construction and Bruce Bush, GeoPier, A Division of CMC

9:00 – 9:30 AM

Passenger & Transit Presentation: Risk Management and Innovation at CTA’s Des Plaines Rail Yard, Matthew Gibbs, PE, Chicago Transit Authority and Kai Huang, PE, PMP, CDM Smith

9:30 – 10:00 AM

Structures Presentation: Sound Transit's Link Light Rail’s Floating Bridge: A Groundbreaking Feat of Engineering, Yifeng Ian Mao, PE, Sound Transit

10:00 – 10:30 AM

Break

10:30 – 11:00 AM

Engineering Services Presentation: GHG Reduction Potential – Case Studies and Opportunity for Hub and Spoke Rail Terminals, Brodie Yyelland, M.Eng., CEM and Shara Viaje, P. Eng., MSc, Tri Innovations Consulting Ltd. 

11:00 – 11:30 AM

Track Presentation: Triple Tracking for Growth along the BNSF Southern Transcon: Driving the Economy through Supply Line Expansion, Elias P. Clark, PE & Lisa M. Patterson, QSP/CRAM, HDR and Ronnie Garcia, BNSF Railway

11:30 AM – Noon

Communications, Signals & Information Technology Presentation: Cascade Tunnel GPS Preemption, Bryan R. Jarrett, Island Radar and James M. Barrett, BNSF Railway