Amtrak has contracted Wohlsen Construction Company for its Unified Operations Center (UOC) Facility Project in Wilmington, Del. The award follows a competitive procurement that began in August 2023.
“One of our primary goals for the Renaissance Centre building is to create a new Amtrak Unified Operations Center to serve our nationwide rail network, which will drive enhanced reliability, efficiency, safety and customer service,” said Amtrak Executive Vice President, Service Delivery and Operations Gery Williams. “The new UOC is part of Amtrak’s transformation from legacy systems and practices to a modern, sustainable control center capable of supporting Amtrak’s long-term strategy to double ridership by 2040.”
Wohlsen Construction Company, a Wilmington-based company, will work with Amtrak to advance the build-out and construct workspaces, conference rooms, the operations center, the Tier-3 data center, video wall systems, mechanical and electrical system upgrades and building-wide improvements at the Renaissance Centre.
The investment for the UOC is estimated at more than $53 million to build an integrated 24/7 operations center to monitor and manage national operations and dispatch the mid-Atlantic Division, which encompasses all train movements in the Washington-Philadelphia-Harrisburg corridor. Additionally, the UOC will house the national operations control center, which manages Amtrak’s fleet and onboard crew assignments and coordinates the company’s response to service disruptions. A new Tier-3 data center will also be created at this facility to support Amtrak’s operations to ensure system resiliency.
The new UOC is being designed to improve the way Amtrak operations employees work by facilitating:
- Faster detection and responsiveness to operating events
- More effective customer communications during service disruptions
- More efficient fleet and crew utilization
- Improved rail traffic movement
The new Amtrak UOC is expected to be completed in 2027.
