UTU Local 426 Archived News.
Subject: Teneative Agreement Update
Date:
03/31/2008
News
March 25, 2008 The Association of General Chairperson (Dist 1) have approved the tentative national agreement, and will be mailed to members by late May for a ratification vote. Beginning in April Local meetings will be held where International vice presidents and general chairpersons will explain the agreement, respond to member questions. Meeting schedule will be posted as soon as it is available. Contract synopsis 2008 National Proposal
Subject: BNSF planning repairs to Pend Oreille railroad bridge
Date: 03/24/2008
News
SANDPOINT - BNSF Railway is lining up equipment and materials at Dog Beach for a project to replace aging piers and pilings on its bridge across Lake Pend Oreille. The replacement project is expected to last from April 1 to Oct. 1, according to Gus Melonas, BNSF's spokesman for the Northwest region. “Much of the work will be done from barges,” he said. The railroad is replacing a dozen support piers at the north end of the locomotive bridge, which is on the east side of the U.S. Highway 95 Long Bridge. The railroad bridge's piers and wooden pilings were installed more than a century ago, according to an encroachment permit the railroad was seeking from the Idaho Transportation Department. The bridge work will be timed to keep trains rolling across the span. “We'll plan train movements with work activity each day,” said Melonas. The BNSF bridge is a cardinal east/west link for northern transcontinental freight lines and Amtrak. The bridge handles an estimated half-million gross tons of cargo shuttling to and from sea ports on the West Coast, the ITD permit request indicates. The permit was needed in order to extract a couple sections of guardrail next to the northbound lane of the highway. But the request was dropped because the BNSF's construction access was addressed through a right-of-way agreement the railroad negotiated with the state, said Barbara Babic, ITD's Panhandle spokeswoman. The right-of-way agreement was obtained by ITD so it can construct the Sandpoint bypass. The state paid $6.4 million for approximately 40 acres of railroad right of way, according to Idaho Transportation Board records. The marshaling of equipment and materials at Dog Beach is being questioned as preparations for the Sand Creek Byway. “That project has absolutely nothing to do with the byway in any way,” Babic said, referring to the BNSF repairs. The U.S. 95 re-routing project is anticipated to go out to bid soon, although opponents of the bypass are expected to file a preliminary injunction to keep the project from advancing while they sue the Federal Highway Administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over permit approval of the bypass.
Subject: Havana overpass project set for summer
Date:
03/20/2008
News
By Mike Huffman Spokane Valley News Managing Editor If youre tired of waiting for that stalled train at Havana, some relief may be in sight for later this summer. Work is set to begin on the Havana Street overpass at the Yardley switchyard as early as August, which would be the latest development in the decades-long Bridging the Valley project to remove at-grade crossings in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Glen Miles, transportation manager for the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, said that bids for the project, which has received federal funding, will be solicited soon. The overpass, which will be similar to that of Fancher Road to the east, is expected to cost about $15 million. Most savvy longtime area motorists avoid Havana like the plague between Trent and Broadway. About 60 to 100 Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains a day run through the crossing, and switching operations can cause it to be blocked up to 18 hours in a 24-hour period. But the overpass is expected to relieve congestion in the area, especially on Freya Street to the west and Fancher. Just for safety reasons alone, its the kind of project we like to see done, Spokane Valley Council Member Diana Wilhite said last year. The upgrade of Havana is just the latest chapter of the larger Bridging the Valley project, which calls for grade separations or closures of 75 railroad/roadway crossings in this area. The idea is to keep cars separated from trains by constructing overpasses and underpasses at the most heavily used crossings. Crossings that dont receive much traffic will be closed altogether, such as the one at Vista Road. The other part of the plan involves aligning the existing Union Pacific Railroad mainline with BNSFs tracks, thus taking crossings at Pines and the freeway and in the heart of Millwood at the paper mill out of the equation. Funding of the projects is always tricky business, as the joint nature of responsibility means that the owners of many wallets have to agree to loosen them for the same projects. The Park Road project, expected to cost about $16.5 million, had been next in line for work. Recently, though, city officials have been rethinking the priority list and want to see an overpass at Barker Road just south of Trent be the next job to be done. There is no traffic signal at the intersection, and further development in the area is causing more and more cars to use the crossing daily. Once the overpass is constructed, it would allow more commercial truck traffic to also get through to Spokane Industrial Park. It may be tricky to get funds transferred from one project to another, however. While the state may allow the transfer of its allocated $5 million in federal funding for the Park Road renovation to the expected $22.6 million overpass at Barker, its unlikely the $2 million set aside by the state Transportation Improvement Board will get the same approval. An underpass at Pines Road and Trent Avenue expected to cost $13.3 million would be done after Barker, with the Park Road job at No. 3.