Linking Memphis
East-west trolley line offers new downtown route

By David Yawn

Falkner, Miss.-based Hill Bros. is wrapping up a major trolley line expansion in Memphis, and for the first time in about 50 years passengers will be riding the rails on east-west transits.

The $24 million Memphis Areas Transit Authority project will offer a new route on the downtown rail route, which until now included the parallel Main Street and Riverfront portions running north-south across the traditional central business district.

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"By extending to the Medical Center, we are connecting the second largest concentration of activity in the region," said Tom Fox, assistant general manager for planning and capital projects at MATA. "We're providing access to a number of hospitals, but also to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Southwest Tennessee Community College, Southern College of Optometry, LeBonheur Children's Hospital and other points."

Hill Bros. began construction in December 2001 and reached the 80 percent to 85 percent completion milestone last summer. The project should be completed this month.

The 2-mi. route extension runs east and west down Madison Avenue, with a terminus at Cleveland Avenue. The track itself goes almost to Watkins Avenue, which serves as a turnaround point.

Daily ridership on the existing legs of the trolley system averages 2,600, with more on the weekends, especially during events, Fox said. The summer is typically higher than the winter.

"We think the Medical Center line will be less prone to (ridership numbers) variations," Fox added. "There will be a lot of mid-day trip making within the line itself, possibly between LeBonheur and Methodist or UT to and from downtown. The places in Memphis where parking is most restricted is downtown and the Medical Center district, so it saves people time and money for moving cars on short trips."

Vintage and refurbished electrical trolleys are being used, though the rail and supporting bed are being built to specifications that will accommodate light-rail vehicles in the future, Hill Bros. project supervisors said.

The work includes tracks, two power substations, signal switching room, some retaining walls and seven trolley station structures in six locations. That's in addition to renovations on an existing station at Main and Madison. The primary construction work also involves overhead electrical systems. The overall work calls for more than 5 mi. of concrete-embedded railroad track, along with a half-mile of ballast track and 800 ft. of bridge track, said Danny McAlister, marketing manager for Hill Bros.

MATA and Hill Bros. agree that working in a dense urban environment was difficult in terms of maintaining traffic flow and access to businesses along the route.

Also, records of the old infrastructure and the street were not always accurate, so there were a few underground utility routing surprises.

Coordinating with utilities was important because companies such as Memphis Light Gas & Water Division and telecommunications firms have utilities and fiber optic lines under Madison. Each was contracted individually to move their lines, Fox said.

"Day-to-day coordination of the project with 14 sections is very complex, with each section having as many as six phases of operation - and with (at least half that number) of the sections under construction concurrently," McAlister said. The project had thousands of linear feet of saw cutting, roadway removal, structural excavation, storm drainage work, curb and gutter removal and replacement, installation of traction power, track signalization, sub-base preparation and more, he added.

It also required 15,000 cu. yds. of concrete work, overhead and underground contact systems, rail welding, installation of track and bases.

A chief logistical task was the interlocking intersection of the existing line at Main and Madison into the new east-west line. An underground basement was reinforced and new signalization introduced - all against the backdrop of a programmed and timed shutdown of the north-south running trolley line.

Bob Joyal, special projects manager and Jeremy Carpenter, project engineer, said they are particularly proud of the safety record: more than 620 days without a lost-time accident.

Joyal said at least one traffic lane was kept running in each direction for the duration of the project. The major portion of the continuous track is laid in a 14-in. concrete-reinforced bed, he added.

The rail is cast in place and embedded in a rubber boot, or in other needed instances, with elastomeric grout. On the approaches to the Danny Thomas Boulevard Bridge, the rail was placed with concrete ties and ballast.

An elaborate, multi-pole overhead system that supports the contract wires and related hanging assembly was yet another element of the involved project. More than 200 of these poles had to be aligned and anchored into the ground.

Delon Hampton & Associates' project team oversaw the design work on the MATA trolley extension project from its Atlanta office, sending professionals to Memphis on a regular basis.

"It brings together various nontraditional civil engineering-type work in that it has the rail aspects and traction power, signaling and overhead contact system elements," said George Obaranec, project manager with Delon Hampton & Associates. For instance, the breadth and specialization of these elements brought to bear the need to coordinate carefully to ensure compatibility for each element of construction.

The requirement to work in a busy urban environment posed special challenges in that the work had to carry on while permitting traffic flow and as normal commercial activity in the affected areas as possible, he said.

"This involved coordination with other bridge construction going, new school construction downtown as well some apartments being built in that vicinity," Obarenec added.

The overall benefit will be an improvement to the downtown and medical center areas with the extension of this trolley loop system.

Hill Bros. was formed in 1978. The company grew from a heavy earthwork contractor to a diversified heavy highway, road, rail and bridge contractor.

Over the years, it has been involved in the four-laning of Highway 61 from the Tennessee line to Tunica, the Winchester Tunnel Project at Memphis International Airport, and the Corridor X Highway 78 Bypass project around Jasper, Ala. The company employs more than 600.

"We have been recognized for our highway, road and bridge construction, however, our diverse work history also includes industrial and commercial buildings, landfills, railroad projects, sewer, draining and power plants," McAlister said.

Prime engineer on the MATA project was Delon Hampton & Associates. Project consultants were: Parsons Transportation Group (electrical); E.W. Moon Inc. (sewer and storm drain); Self Tucker Architects (architect); Jamnu H. Tahiliani & Associates (structural); Birmingham Engineering & Construction (soil and geotech); S.A.Williams, Inc. (cost consultant); and Ritchie Smith Associates (landscape).