GCRTA awards rail grinding project management services contract to ARM Corp.

Sept. 3, 2021

The services provided in the multi-year contract will improve wheel/rail interaction along GCRTA’s 48 miles of track.

Advanced Rail Management, Corp. (ARM), has been awarded a multi-year contract by the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) to provide rail grinding project management services. Greater Cleveland RTA’s Board of Trustees approved the contract at its June 29 meeting.

ARM says its services are designed to improve wheel/rail interaction on 38 track miles on the Red Line and 10 track miles on the GCRTA light-rail lines. ARM will provide project management and will be responsible for the quality, technical accuracy and the coordination of all required services through 2023.

ARM reports it will perform optical rail measurement to capture the rail profile and measure rail wear prior to the grinding and post-grind optical rail measurement to assess the effectiveness of the grind. Annual measurement will enable ARM to monitor wear rates over the course of the program.

“The scope of the project management role in this contract is unique in the rail transit industry,” said ARM President Gordon Bachinsky. “We look forward to helping GCRTA reduce wear and improve wheel/rail interaction and ride quality on the system.”

In its unique role as project manager and technical coordinator of the GCRTA grinding program ARM will:

Assess wheel/rail profile conditions and develop a grinding plan to remove rail defects and establish rail profiles to optimize wheel/rail interaction and improve wheel and rail life on the system.
Develop the grinding specifications, including the number of grinding passes required, grinding speeds, equipment requirements, and grinding templates for curve and tangent segments and special trackwork.
Review submittals and provide oversight of the bid process, including cost and track time estimates.
Provide overall project management, including development, application and review of a grind quality index, and quality control of the rail grinding program, overall.

In the summary of the ARM proposal submitted to Greater Cleveland RTA, the authority’s staff recognized ARM as having “successfully performed multiple specialized vehicle and system engineering studies to include wheel wear, noise abatement and wheel/rail interface problems for transit agencies throughout North America.”

About the Author

Mischa Wanek-Libman | Editor in Chief

Mischa Wanek-Libman serves as editor in chief of Mass Transit magazine. She is responsible for developing and maintaining the magazine’s editorial direction and is based in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Wanek-Libman has spent more than 20 years covering transportation issues including construction projects and engineering challenges for various commuter railroads and transit agencies. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.

She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and serves as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.

She is a graduate of Drake University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a major in magazine journalism and a minor in business management.