BNSF Replacing Railroad Ties In Yankton Region

Amy McBeth, BNSF director of public affairs for Manitoba, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, told the Press & Dakotan that a tie gang is on its way to town.

“We have maintenance projects that we schedule and a big part of that is replacing rails and replacing ties,” McBeth said. “In this case, we have a tie gang working in the area. Right now, they’re southeast of Yankton and working their way up toward Yankton.”

In total, the crews will replace 51,000 railroad ties on around 75 track miles between Vermillion and Tripp.

The tie gang is expected to make it into Yankton sometime later this week as the workers move westward.

McBeth was unsure of the time the project will take, but said crews can finish close to two miles of track in a day.

Though crews will be working on the single-track line in the coming weeks, McBeth said that impacts on rail traffic will be minimal.

“When we have maintenance projects under way, we’ll hold train traffic for work to be done,” she said. “Typically what we’ll do is we’ll have work windows — periods of time when train traffic is held so that maintenance work can happen and, when that’s finished for the day, run trains.”

She added that it involves the coordination of a number of entities to do the work safely.

“In this case, we have a tie gang that travels our network, so it’s a coordinated effort between our engineering teams and our operating teams to schedule and plan the work, in the case of this work, and resume train operations when the projects are done.”

Some crossing maintenance will also be a part of the effort.

McBeth said the ongoing work through Yankton is part of a much larger investment in the railroad’s South Dakota operations.

“For the year in South Dakota, we estimate we’ll invest about $33 million in our infrastructure this year,” she said. “If you look at the past five years (2013-2017), BNSF has invested approximately $220 million in our infrastructure in the state through maintenance projects like this.”

She said these projects are meant to keep trains running smoothly and safely.

“It’s another example of how we’re continually  investing in our physical infrastructure so that we can continue to serve our South Dakota customers and operate safely in the Yankton area and across the state,” she said.

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