All Aboard!

Light Rail Comes to Charlotte

The 9.6-mi. South Corridor line will be the first of five mass transit corridors and a streetcar line that will connect the 850,000 residents of Mecklenburg County. While it will take about 20 years for that dream to become reality, the South Corridor will be up and running by next year.

By Bea Quirk

Bridge pylons are going up, roads being reconfigured, railbeds being dug and track being laid - all part of the job as the Charlotte Area Transit System builds the city's first light-rail line, the South Corridor.

The 9.6-mi.-long line is mostly on grade but includes eight structural steel bridges spanning heavily traveled city streets. It follows a railroad right-of way, and for about 3 mi. is just 40 ft. away from an operational rail line.

It will become the only train to run through a convention center as it zips through Charlotte's facility in a sealed tunnel built in 2004 for the city's vintage trolley line. For 3 mi. of the route, the trolley - featuring original refurbished cars and replicas - will run in tandem on the same track during off-peak hours.

CATS is a department of the city of Charlotte and currently provides public transportation via a bus system throughout the county. But its best-known - and clearly most ambitious - project is construction of the South Corridor, which runs from Interstate 485, a loop road around the city, north to its urban core.

The route runs along a major thoroughfare and goes by some of the city's largest employment and residential centers and features downtown stops at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena and the future site of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

The South Corridor is set to open in fall 2007. But that's only the beginning. The system will eventually feature five corridors, as well as a streetcar line connecting all of Mecklenburg County, with all the routes converging in the center city. Some lines will also feature light rail, while others will use bus rapid transit or commuter rail.

The South Corridor line has a budget of $426.8 million, and the entire system is expected to have a price tag of more than $2 billion. Depending on funding availability, it could take another 20 years for the system to be completely built out.

CATS has awarded nine contracts for the project, with Archer Western Contractors, part of the Chicago-based Walsh Group, winning two of the largest: $106.8 million for the roadbed, facilities and trackwork and $44.1 million for building 15 stations plus park-and-ride lots. The second largest contract, $52.5 million, was awarded to a California company, Siemens Transportation, for the light-rail vehicles.

A Charlotte company, Crowder Construction, was awarded contracts for demolition and site preparation and for construction of a 1,200-car parking deck at the I-485 terminus. Another local firm, Edison-Foard, is making the infrastructure modifications needed to convert the current convention center tunnel to light-rail use.

In conjunction with the CATS project, the city's engineering department has recently begun work on the $60 million South Corridor Infrastructure Program, which includes 25 different projects to support the light-rail line, such as widening roads and building new medians, sidewalks, curb and gutter, drainage systems, water and sewer lines and bike lanes. Charlotte-based United Construction and Sea-Land Construction out of New Jersey are the two major contractors for the work, which will be completed in spring 2007.

"These provide an infrastructure foundation for developers so they can redevelop and build along the corridor to build mixed-use developments that will make it successful in the long run," city engineer Jim Schumacher said.

Archer Western began work on the roadbeds in early 2005. "We did not have an existing operation in Charlotte prior to the start of these projects," said John Couture, the contractor's senior project manager in Charlotte. "This required us to set up business quickly in order to meet the tight project completion schedules."

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But Archer Western's work began even before it was officially awarded the project. Initial bids came in higher than budgeted, and CATS staff worked with the contractor and the other low bidder to rewrite the specs to bring costs down.

Archer Western was able to lower its bid by $35 million by making changes such as shortening several bridges and substituting less expensive materials; reducing some noncritical decorative and artistic specialty features; reducing the scope of adjacent roadway improvements; reducing the amount of new track and switches required; adjusting the contract schedule to allow more time to complete intermediate phases of work; and changing design of retaining walls and station foundations to a less expensive method of construction.

STV Group is handling construction management for the line and has 30 staff members on the project monitoring progress and conducting quality assurance checks. James Sampson, STV vice president and project manager, worked with CATS to create a Change Control Board, which discusses the impact that change orders have on other contracts and on the project's cost and schedule.

After CATS makes a decision on a change order, "We make sure everyone knows about it for coordination purposes," Sampson said.

Those changes are often in response to the unexpected. Even after conducting due diligence and environmental impact assessments, unanticipated conditions still came up that affected the budget and schedule. Geological features - such as voids in the bedrock - were uncovered, and unknown environmental hazards were discovered, such as a pit of buried batteries. Soil conditions found under the maintenance facility meant it had to be built on micropiles that went down 30 ft. to the bedrock below.

Keeping costs down despite change orders and skyrocketing prices for steel and concrete has been another challenge. David Leard, CATS project manager, said, "I spend most of my time staying on budget. It's a whirlwind. Every change has a ripple effect throughout the line."

CATS has also been creative in the way it adapts and finds ways to save money. For example, the agency was looking at a price tag of $5 million for the land to build the parking deck at I-485. But staff talked with the neighboring school that owned a ravine located between the line and the school building.

The result: CATS bought the land for $1 and is building the deck within the ravine, which will feature a playground for the school and neighborhood on its roof, which is on the same level as the school. CATS is building the playground for $450,000.

"It was a win-win situation for everyone," Leard said.

Dealing with Norfolk Southern Railroad has been difficult. Mark Boggs, a project director with Miami-based engineering consulting firm PBS&J, which conducted planning and design work for CATS, said negotiations with the company were intense in the planning stage over such issues as the sale of land, spatial separations, operating rights and liability insurance.

The intensity continued even after these issues were resolved. Archer Western's Couture said the railroad required special flagmen to protect its property that was adjacent to CATS' work areas. "Since CATS had no control over the railroad's resources, this problem delayed completion of some work on the project," he added.

Leard said the problems caused 76 days of delay in about a 10-month period.
However, Norfolk Southern recently agreed to increase the number of flagmen it is providing.

To make up for the delays and stay on schedule, Leard said work was resumed on a 24/7 basis in late March, a pace that will continue for about four to five months.

Sampson called the wide public support for the light rail system as one of Charlotte's strengths.

The system got its jump start in 1998 when county voters approved, with 58 percent of the vote, a ½-percent sales tax to fund the project. Ron Tober was hired as CEO in November 1999, and the initial major investment study completed and the CATS name announced in spring 2000. The final design was completed in August 2003, and a public ceremonial groundbreaking held Feb. 26, 2005, at the maintenance facility.

The South Corridor line has received federal funding of just under $200 million. Another $107 million has been received from the state, and Charlotte's sales tax has so far contributed $126 million.

"This system is something to treasure," Sampson said. "Charlotte has gotten into light rail early, and that's a good thing."