Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "southern pacific"

I Street Bridge turns 100

2011-12-23T02:16:48Z

The 75-year-old Tower Bridge connecting Sacramento and West Sacramento may be one of the area’s icons, but the more industrial steel-truss I Street Bridge is older – built 100 years ago.

“The I Street Bridge is a very important part of our business today,” said Aaron Hunt, spokesman for the Union Pacific railroad, which owns the bridge. “We run trains across it every day of the year.”

The I Street Bridge is 363 feet long and weighs about 7 million pounds, according to a fact sheet distributed by Union Pacific.

When it was built, the swinging center of the bridge was the heaviest of its type in the world, and though it no longer holds that distinction, it remains the heaviest in the United States, according to the Sacramento Old City Association.

The bridge swings about 90 degrees on a central pedestal that is 42 feet in diameter and 84 feet high. Opening it allows boat traffic on the river, and Hunt said a Union Pacific staffer stays on-site every day to operate it. The swinging operation takes about two and a half minutes, he added.

When the bridge was renovated in 1993, some major components were replaced, including the disc upon which the bridge rotates. The controlling mechanisms were also changed over from direct-current electrical systems to hydraulic ones.

The first bridge on the site was a wagon bridge built in 1858, which was replaced in 1869 by the area’s first railroad bridge, built by the California Pacific Railroad. It, too, allowed for wagon traffic.

Construction on the current span began in 1910 by the American Bridge Company, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, according to Hunt.

Union Pacific took ownership of the bridge when it merged with Southern Pacific in 1996, Hunt said, and the cities of Sacramento and West Sacramento maintain the highway portion of the bridge.

Though dated, the bridge still pulls its weight, handling about 80 trains per day in addition to vehicular traffic on its upper deck.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.

City officials merging plans for arena, transit center

2011-07-14T01:22:16Z

Sacramento officials believe a new arena can be integrated with a future regional transit center in the historic downtown railyards – making this one of the country's most eco-friendly sports and entertainment facilities, Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said Tuesday.

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Dangberg gave council members a status report nearly halfway into a 100-day technical review of a proposed arena. The $387 million project is on an expedited schedule to be in operation by May 2015.

One of the most critical issues being reviewed is the need to coordinate construction of an arena with the previously planned transit center. Both structures would be built on a site constrained by railroad tracks to the north, the freeway to the west, I Street to the south and downtown buildings to the east.

Building two "very intense pieces of infrastructure" on the 33-acre site poses challenges, partly because they are both so big, Dangberg said.

"We believe we can integrate these two," he said. "If and when we successfully do that, we have the opportunity to create one of the most sustainable, green, interesting entertainment and sports facilities in the country, if we can successfully integrate these uses and have transit right there at the facility and many modes of transit right there," Dangberg said.

The city has set up technical review teams that are focused on the site itself. The teams are looking at transportation and transit issues, community development issues, economic development and how to reuse the Power Balance Pavilion site.

A town hall meeting on the future of the Natomas site is scheduled for Aug. 11, at a time and place to be announced.

Mayor Kevin Johnson's office and his arena committee, Think BIG Sacramento, are working on financing options with support from a consultant, Barrett Sports Group, and a finance team made up of staff from the city treasurer's office and Goldman Sachs.

The city is also looking at urban design issues with the goal of preserving and playing up historic assets at the site, such as the Sacramento Valley Station historic train depot, the Railway Express Agency Building and the historic Southern Pacific Railroad central shops.

City staff wants to create a legacy project that uses urban design elements to connect to those assets and new opportunities for downtown revitalization, he said.

"We have a very, very rich history on the site as the terminus of the Transcontinental (Railroad). And we need to treat it in a very special way that creates a development that is uniquely Sacramento and distinctly Sacramento," Dangberg said.

"It is not another disposable arena that we see in so many cities, but something that will be here for many, many decades or a hundred years as our central shops have remained in place and really a permanent part of our urban fabric and history,” he added.

For example, city staff wants to keep key site lines between the central shops and the depot and take other steps to ensure historical compatibility throughout the project, he added.

A downtown location without a large addition of surface parking on-site will allow the city and businesses to create a "street-to-seat" experience. By using existing parking located away from the site, people will see restaurants, bars, shops and establishments with entertainment on their way to the facility. This would provide more opportunities to stay downtown before and after games and other events. This is expected to help revitalize and activate downtown, a key element of the project, he said.

"If we don't achieve that with the amount of investment that we're putting into this, we might as well not bother putting it in the downtown," Dangberg said.

City staff will present the 100-day technical review on Sept. 13, rather than Sept. 6, because of the Labor Day holiday.

At that time, staff will discuss predevelopment costs the city will incur and provide a critical path and preliminary schedule to the City Council. Dangberg also has been talking with the city attorney about the process to select a development team. Think BIG Sacramento will provide a list of financing options.

Johnson's chief of staff, Kunal Merchant, gave a presentation on the mayor's arena committee, Think BIG Sacramento, and an update on the group's work.

Think BIG Sacramento is a 72-person committee brought together to facilitate arena development before the National Basketball Association's March 1, 2012, deadline for teams to file for relocation next year, he said.

An estimated 3,700 temporary construction jobs and 400 jobs for facility operation are expected to be created by the project, he said.

However, Sacramento resident Mac Worthy, one of two people who provided public comments on the issue at City Hall Tuesday, called into question the number of jobs the project would bring and predicted civil unrest if more people don't get jobs and improve their living conditions soon.

"We need jobs here. This thing ain't going to give us no jobs," he said. "The next two years (are) going to be the critical part, here…. Wake up, people. People (are) tired of being down, without a roof over their head, without enough money to go to the grocery store and buy food, can't even buy gas."

Think BIG Sacramento will host a four-county bus tour and town hall meeting Thursday to tell regional residents about the possible benefits of a new arena. A "Capitol Corridor Impact Report" will also be released.

The tour will start at 10 a.m. at the California Welcome Center, 2085 Vine St. in El Dorado Hills, then make stops in Davis and Roseville. A town hall meeting at 3:30 p.m. at Vision Service Plan, 3333 Quality Drive in Rancho Cordova, will be the last stop, according to a press advisory sent out Wednesday afternoon.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Pile-driving tests begin at Railyards

2009-11-04T04:55:06Z

Test pile-driving began Tuesday at Sacramento's historic railyard as the site's developers prepare for bridge construction.

The sights and sounds were a sample of what's to come in about four months when foundation work starts for bridges on Fifth and Sixth streets.

At that time, the developers at Thomas Enterprises realize some neighbors may be annoyed by the booms of about 400 piles being driven into the earth. But the noise won't be the same to all ears, they said.

"To us, it's the sound of progress," said Leslie Valpey, the project's development coordinator. "And activity at a time when there's not a lot of activity."

That sound also represents the historic Southern Pacific railyards coming to life again after decades of disuse and decay.

Other infrastructure work has already been done elsewhere on the site, where a $6-billion mixed-use district containing a new regional transportation center is expected to be built over the next 20 years.

Infrastructure work includes the initial grading of Railyards Boulevard and northern portions of Fifth and Sixth streets. Abatement inside the historic Central Shops and building up the elevated 10-acre Vista Park with soil has also begun.

The bridges will be built in the section of the 244-acre site that lies closest to downtown. The two bridges will provide a way for extensions of the two streets to travel over new, relocated tracks and into the heart of the Railyards.

Work crews are using a 120-foot crane to drive six test piles there this week. The piles create the bridges' foundations.

"The most important thing is really these (piles), because that's what's holding the bridge when it goes up," said Elias Rashmawi, director of land redevelopment for the project. "It's the foundation work."

Two types of piles — an H pile and a pipe pile — are being driven into the ground at three locations. Crews drive a 60-foot pile into the ground, weld a second of the same length on to that, and drive the entire pile down 115 to 118 feet, he said.

The piles go through sand, then gravel, then a layer of sand and gravel and silty sand, as well as water, because an aquifer starts 20 feet below the ground, he said.

Readings are taken on resistance, load and stress, to show how much capacity the piles can handle. The tests help the designers and installers determine which type of pile to use and at what depths and where. Pile driving for the bridge is expected to take one to two months.

The bridges will be built over the tracks, and two pedestrian tunnels will be built under the tracks. One tunnel will start at the historic Sacramento Valley Station and the other at Old Sacramento. Bridge construction is expected to be finished by next fall.

Track relocation work, which will be overseen by the city of Sacramento, will be done at the same time, according to Thomas Enterprises Vice President Suheil Totah. New tracks will be laid and trains will begin using those before the old tracks are dismantled.

Fifth and Sixth streets are expected to be completed after that.

Thomas Enterprises is handling all the bridge and road work as part of a partnership with the city. The city won a grant to fund construction of the Sixth Street bridge and the developer was awarded Proposition 1C funding for the Fifth Street bridge, Totah said.

Photos by Kati Garner. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Railyards shops cleanup to start

2009-07-02T03:28:08Z

Cleanup of historic Southern Pacific railroad shops is expected to begin late this month as the next phase of the Sacramento Railyards project kicks into gear.

Hazardous materials including lead paint, asbestos, metals and other industrial toxins need to be removed from the shops, which were built starting in 1868. Georgia developer Thomas Enterprises has put the abatement project out to bid and expects to award the contract in the next few weeks, said Richard Rich, development director for the Railyards project.

In its heyday, Southern Pacific practically owned the town. The railyards drove Sacramento's economy, and nearly a third of all the city's residents worked there. The shops lay at the center of the railyards.

The Railyards project, the country's largest infill project, will not only double the size of downtown, but the mixed-use district is being designed to recapture the importance of the former railroad site. The Central Shops being redeveloped near the Sacramento Valley Rail Station depot are the key to that, Rich said.

"Right now, the depot is kind of in a forgotten corner of downtown," he said. ""That'll put enough urban fabric around the depot that it becomes the center of the city again."

On Monday, the city won $55.8 million in Proposition 1C infill redevelopment funds from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. About $30 million will go to the $6 billion Railyards project. The new funding brings the project's state public bond funding to $115-$120 million, although none of that has been received, said Thomas Enterprises Vice President Suheil Totah.

The Railyards project also won $20 million in federal stimulus money this year and another $8 million in federal funds for a freeway connection project. The city and developer are pursuing another $100 million in federal stimulus money to help fund the city's future intermodal transportation facility. Developments are expected soon on the city's bid to get National Enviromental Policy Act approval for the facility.

The city has committed funding to the project and promised to build a city parking garage there as well. Thomas Enterprises has invested $200 million in the project so far. Private investment is expected to total about $5 billion, Totah said.

Central Pacific originally established the railyards during the steam locomotive era. The company later became Southern Pacific. The 244-acre site grew to contain at least 243 buildings.

The shops and other buildings began falling into disrepair in the 1930s when the Depression brought reduced rail traffic.

About the same time, diesel locomotives began to gain favor over steam locomotives. The Sacramento Railyards had been set up to produce and repair steam locomotives. Some diesels were worked on there, but retooling the railyards for diesel proved too difficult.

In addition, Southern Pacific moved most of its maintenance work to rural areas like Roseville as Sacramento grew. The railyard shops officially closed in 1999, four years after Union Pacific bought Southern Pacific.

Seven brick shop buildings were all that remained when Thomas Enterprises bought the site for an undisclosed amount in December 2006. All seven will be preserved and rehabbed for adaptive reuse. The massive Boiler Shop and Erecting Shop will be used for the state's Railroad Technology Museum.

Thomas will rehab the other five shops. The 56,000 former Paint Shop will contain a public market selling Central Valley products including produce, cheese, wine, meat and fish — similar to San Francisco's Ferry Building — near an extended Fifth Street. Other former railyard shops will house restaurants, nightclubs and retail stores. In the center, a football field-sized plaza will be built to hold large city events, a farmers' market or small performances.

"These buildings, which will surround the public open space, will form the nucleus of the cultural district," Rich said.

Hazardous materials abatement work is the first step to rehabbing the shops. About 80 percent of the work will be to remove lead-based paint from interior brick. Ten percent will be to remove sheetrock, floor tiles and pipe insulation containing asbestos. The rest involves other contaminants including heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyl or PCB, he said.

The "significant" cost of abatement won't be known until crews get into the work. Thomas Enterprises tested methods to remove the paint without damaging the hard, fired surface of the brick. Nothing worked, said Rich.

"That put us in a difficult position of how to do it without damaging the brick," he said.

Standards set by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior dictate that the interiors of historic buildings that were originally covered with paint must likewise be covered with paint during rehab. Workers will gently scrape as much lead paint off the walls as possible and the brick will be encapsulated with lead-free paint, he said.

Thomas Enterprises broke ground on the infrastructure phase last winter. Initial grading of Railyards Boulevard and northern portions of Fifth and Sixth streets has been done. Extending Fifth and Sixth streets into the site will help connect the railyards with downtown, said Totah, adding that more infrastructure work will start once the developer gets the state funding it's been awarded.

Building construction is expected to start next year on 5th, 7th and Camille streets. Construction may include housing, mixed-use and office.