voestalpine Nortrak executes special trackwork encapsulation for NORTA streetcar project
Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, Editor, Railway Track & Structures; and Engineering Editor, Railway Agevoestalpine Nortrak's encapsulation of the Half Grand Union located at Canal and Rampart on New Orleans Regional Transit Authority's (NORTA) streetcar expansion is the first large scale field application of insulating material to the trackwork components undertaken in North America.
Encapsulation is the process of applying an insulating material to the track structure to reduce or eliminate Stray Current Leakage from the traction power into the surrounding infrastructure.
The trackwork was coated using voestalpine Nortrak’s proprietary system developed around the use of P-480, a very fast curing polyurea compound. P-480 is a material developed by the Willamette Valley Company and is a 100 percent solids material containing no VOC’s.
The NORTA’s North Rampart Street/St. Claude Avenue Streetcar Expansion Project is part of its French Quarter streetcar expansion project. The first phase of the program will include construction of streetcar track along 1.6 miles between Canal Street and Elysian Fields Avenue.
Both voestalpine Nortrak and Willamette Valley Company will be exhibiting at Railway Interchange 2015, Oct. 4-7 in Minneapolis, Minn. voestalpine Nortrak can be found at REMSA booth #4437 and Willamette Valley Company will be exhibiting at REMSA booth #4509.
