BNSF plans to spend $189 million on Washington railways this year

“These are high-production crews that perform track surfacing to ensure a proper alignment, and to ensure the track is raised to the proper level for that geometry,” BNSF’s spokesman, Gus Melonas, told The Enterprise.

The Columbia Gorge main line has been in operation since 1908, and plays “a key role in moving local, national, and international freight,” Melonas said. “A critical component of that is a strong track structure.”

This spring, tie crews will make their way along the main line, replacing ties and adding ballast to hold the track in place. Finally, crews will come in to perform undercutting work to clear stray rock and give the rail bed its proper trim to enhance water drainage.

“We invest in this kind of maintenance work to keep our trains safe and running at the optimum speeds set for us by the federal government and by BNSF to meet our engineering standards,” Melonas noted.

BNSF has spent $500 million in Washington in the past three years to keep its more than 2,000 miles of track here in tip-top condition. But the Columbia Gorge line is a point of emphasis for the company.

“We’re investing in this line to ensure the safe, reliable, and efficient movement of freight from A to Z that moves through the corridor,” Melonas said, and added, “We’re a common carrier, so we don’t control what we haul. But we do control how we haul it.”

The company’s Columbia River Gorge line runs directly along the southern edges of Klickitat and Skamania counties. The route is one of the busiest in the Northwest; 35 to 40 trains a day carry all sorts of cargo, from fuels like crude oil from North Dakota to coal from Wyoming, to consumer goods like lumber and vehicles, to Washington agricultural products. Amtrak also runs two trains a day between Portland and Chicago.

“This year’s substantial investments in Washington are a clear reflection of how important our operations in the state are to our overall network and our unwavering commitment to always operate safely, for people and the communities in which we operate,” said Daryl Ness, BNSF’s general manager of operations, Northwest Division.

“We know our customers are competing in a fast-paced global economy where a smooth, efficient supply chain can be the difference between winning and losing in the marketplace.”

Ness said this year’s planned expansion and maintenance projects will help BNSF achieve the capacity flexibility it needs to support its customers’ growing demands and connect their products to the marketplace.

Moreover, the company is trying to be conscientious about rail safety in response to growing public concern about the wisdom of trafficking crude oil and coal through the Gorge and the communities that line BNSF’s main track.

BNSF’s maintenance program for Washington will include 1,011 miles of track surfacing and undercutting work, and the replacement of nearly 50 miles of rail and about 203,000 ties, as well as signal upgrades for federally mandated positive train control, a system of functional requirements for monitoring and controlling train movements as an attempt to provide increased safety.