Union Pacific Sunset Route

Union Pacific Railroad's Sunset Route between Los Angeles, California, and El Paso, Texas, is vital to the railroad's freight movements throughout the Southern and Midwest regions of the U.S. To accommodate anticipated growth in freight volumes, the railroad needed to accelerate expansion of the corridor. HDR was hired to perform design and engineering services for three 100-mile segments of second main line track.

The project presented a number of design challenges involving 82 road crossings, 756 culverts, 140 bridges, six overhead structures, 3.2 million cubic yards of cut and 4 million cubic yards of fill. Although the project was later adapted to conventional design-bid-build, the project team utilized the original design-build approach to maintain an accelerated project schedule and enhance coordination between disciplines. This structure allowed discipline leaders to work collaboratively with agency and railroad counterparts and improved coordination between disciplines by providing a direct connection between the project manager, discipline leaders and subcontractors.