91视频

TriMet is continuing to improve its MAX light-rail system, and on Monday an overhaul of tracks and infrastructure began in Hillsboro.

Crews with general contractor Stacy & Witbeck Inc. started demolishing asphalt and concrete along Southwest Washington Street in preparation for the replacement of old track, switches and other items. The work is taking place along approximately a mile of the blue line track, from the Hatfield Government Center station to the Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport station.

The scope of work in Hillsboro will include upgrading five electrical switches for better functionality in cold weather, and replacing signal equipment and sections of track bed at three crossings.

However, the main focus of the Hillsboro work is the replacement of a switch that allows trains to change tracks as they enter or leave the Hatfield Government Center station at the blue line’s western end. For several weeks, crews will be demolishing old asphalt and concrete around the embedded tracks, as well as preparing for replacement of a curved section of track that leads into the station.

鈥淭he track and signal replacement is almost two blocks long,鈥� TriMet project manager David Sauter said. 鈥淚t’s especially complicated beca

use it’s an embedded double crossover. This is why they’re going to be doing preparatory work over the next four weeks, so when the 15-day shutdown begins they’ll have demo’d all the asphalt and concrete from around the rails.鈥�

Four MAX stations 鈥� Hatfield Government Center, Hillsboro Central/SE 3rd Avenue Transit Center, Tuality Hospital/SE 8th Avenue and Washington/SE 12th Avenue will be closed from Oct. 13 through Oct. 27. During this time, the bumpy safety tiles along the edges of the stations’ platforms will be replaced. That work will be performed by Brown Contracting and Raimore Construction.

When that closure comes, Sauter said, a race against the clock will begin for work in the entire section.

鈥淒uring that time they’ll come into this area,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd they’ll start ripping out all the rails. They’ll start digging and getting everything prepped for new signal connections, new drainage connections, and then eventually the new base layer and track comes in.鈥�

Once the new sections of track are welded into place, rubber 鈥渂oots鈥� will be placed on sections of embedded track not pre-encapsulated.

All sections of new track procured for this project are coming from steel mills in Romania, where firms still have the ability to produce the girder rails used in TriMet’s system. The rails are shaped to provide a protective flange-work and allow the tracks to be embedded in city streets.

鈥淲e don’t have any (manufacturers) in the U.S. that can do that lateral rail,鈥� Sauter said. 鈥淪o all of the girder rail switches had to be machined outside the U.S. The materials are very similar with the metallurgy, but it’s something we just can’t get here.鈥�

Once work on the tracks is complete, concrete pours will take place along the sections of new track. Regular MAX service is expected to resume on Oct. 28.

鈥淭his was the last piece of blue line to be built,鈥� Sauter said. 鈥淚t was turned over in the mid- to late ’90s, so if you think about that, we’ve gotten about 20 years of service from that. And we’re expecting to get 20 or 25 years more service on this.鈥�

The work is part of a series of TriMet initiatives over the past several years to improve MAX infrastructure. In 2016 and 2017, major track, rail and switch improvements were performed on Southwest Morrison and Yamhill streets at First and 11th avenues in downtown Portland and the Rose Quarter Transit Center. Then, earlier this year, switch improvements and other work was carried out around the Providence Park station.