Streamlined Railroad Operations Through Holistic Approach to Interstate Program

HDR’s Will Sharp and Craig Hunter Share Insights on a Complex Railroad Relocation Effort in Iowa

When Iowa transportation leaders began the $1.4 billion program to modernize and increase the capacity and safety of Interstates 80, 29 and 480 in Council Bluffs, they asked an important question: “What if we also used this opportunity to streamline and reduce the impact of the railroad lines these interstates crossed?" The result was an award-winning railroad relocation task that greatly improved traffic flow for cars, trucks and trains alike. 

Engineers Will Sharp and Craig Hunter were deeply involved in the development of the approach used on the Council Bluffs Interstate System project, and they wrote about the railroad-specific benefits in a recent article for Railway Age magazine. 

“The project shows the importance of looking at large transportation programs from a holistic perspective, focusing not just on cars and trucks but the entire transportation system,” the authors wrote. “That outlook helped community and project stakeholders seize this once-in-50-years opportunity to optimize the whole system, improve safety, and keep both trains and drivers moving.”

Read the whole article about railroad coordination and development of a new common corridor in Railway Age.