Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "union 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.

Echoes of Kings' last move reverberate today

2011-03-26T01:30:39Z

The Sacramento Kings have a history of leaving town.

If the team's current majority owners work out a deal soon in Anaheim, Sacramento will become just one more city in a long string of former hometowns.

News of their possible departure emerged a little more than a month ago, leaving many people still trying to understand what the loss of the Kings might mean to the city and the region. That raises the question of what happened in Kansas City, Mo., which lost the team to Sacramento in 1985.

People who lost their jobs because of the move and the hardcore fans felt it most, say those in the pro sports industry. But others who watched the team closely at that time said the team's loss meant little to the city, financially or emotionally.

"It was minimal to none in terms of the impact," said TV and radio sports announcer Kevin Harlan, who started his career doing TV and radio play-by-plays for the Kansas City Kings in 1982.

The Kings were based in the Midwest in an earlier era for the National Basketball Association and basketball. The league wasn't that big and didn't have as many fans.

"It was certainly a different time," said Bob Whitsitt, who was vice president and assistant general manager of the Kansas City Kings and the Sacramento Kings from 1984 to 1986.

The Cincinnati Royals – a team that began in Rochester, N.Y., in the 1920s – moved west in 1972. For the first three years, the team was shared by Kansas City and Omaha, Neb. The name was initially changed to the Kansas City-Omaha Kings because Kansas City already had a major league baseball team called the Royals.

Splitting home games between two cities didn't help when it came to building a fan base. The team gave up its Omaha base in 1975.

The Kings also faced a lot of competition for sports fans and sports dollars in Kansas City, which had a National Football League team that had recently won the Super Bowl, the extremely popular baseball team and a National Hockey League team for a short time in the 1970s.

Kansas City was the smallest market to have teams from all four major sports leagues, Whitsitt said.

Kansas City and the surrounding region were devoted to college athletics, including basketball. One of the country's elite basketball teams is based 40 miles away at the University of Kansas, and two others are close by. Kansas City is also the "epicenter" of the Big 12 basketball tournaments, Harlan said.

"The professional basketball frankly never really caught on," said Dick Berkley, mayor of Kansas City at the time.

In 1981, the Kings also started competing for winter sports dollars against the Kansas City Comets. The pro indoor soccer team shared 19,500-seat Kemper Arena with the basketball team.

The Comets' owners were better marketers who appealed to a very young fan base. Downtown Kansas City wasn't much at the time, and people who lived in the suburbs usually stayed in the suburbs. The Comets changed that by getting kids to drag their parents downtown for soccer matches, Harlan said.

"The soccer team, I thought, probably had as much to do with the downfall of the team as anything," he said. "The NBA just really never had a shot."

The Kings were only able to attract an average of more than 10,000 fans to home games in the 1978/79 season. Turnout was usually far below 8,000 and less than 4,000 after the team's sale to Sacramento owners for $10.5 million was announced in 1984 – unless they were playing a popular team like the Los Angeles Lakers.

It wasn't until after Michael Jordan joined the league that the NBA really took off. Jordan started playing with the Chicago Bulls the year the Kings were sold to Sacramento.

The team's exodus after 13 years had a "modest" impact on property, sales and income tax collections. But there was no emotional impact from the loss, Berkley said.

"Frankly, I thought I would catch a lot of flak on it, because they left very abruptly," Berkley said. "I got four or five phone calls. I thought I would get hundreds.

"We were glad they were here. But the community did not gasp when they left," he added.

The Kings immediately found much more ardent fans in Sacramento, which has no other pro sports team. The Kings sold out many home games at Arco Arena.

"In Sacramento, it's the only thing in town," Harlan said. "It's the big show."

The reaction to the Kings' possible departure has been mixed in Sacramento. Die-hard fans have waged campaigns to keep them here. Local business leaders warn of an expected heavy financial loss to the region.

Other local residents, who voted down a past attempt to build the team a new arena, are equally passionate about their desire to see the Kings and their owners, the Maloofs, hit the road.

Determining what the team's loss might mean to Sacramento isn't easy.

Experts don't agree on what the financial impact might be. The 2010/2011 property tax bill for Arco Arena is about $1 million, with collected revenue split between the city and county.

Forbes listed the team's value at $293 million in January and annual revenue at $103 million.

The city can't provide information about property or sales taxes paid by the Kings' owners, said City Treasurer Russ Fehr. The California State Board of Equalization also can't reveal how much the Kings and Arco Arena pay in sales taxes.

Losing the team would negatively impact the region economically and psychologically. A generation of fans have grown up with the team, Whitsitt said.

"Certainly, if it left Sacramento, that would be a hardship for a lot of people in the community," he said.

The Kings also give Sacramento a lot of exposure on a national scale, said Whitsitt and Harlan.

"It makes your town feel like a big-league town," Harlan said.

Those outside the pro sports industry who have studied the question don't agree.

Dan Rascher, director of academic programs for the University of San Francisco's Sport Management Program, estimates the Kings bring $50 million in direct spending to the city – with about $10 million of that from the team's operational expenditures and the rest from people living outside the metropolitan area who travel here for games.

Indirect spending is estimated to be about 50 to 60 percent above that, said Rascher, who was hired 10 years ago by the city, the Kings and Union Pacific Railroad, which owned the downtown railyards, to create a feasibility study for building a new arena in the railyards.

The financial impact can depend on terms of the lease agreement teams have with government agencies for sports facilities.

Numerous studies of what happens to jobs, tax revenues and all other measures before and after teams move into cities have come to the same conclusion: There's no measurable impact, said Roger Noll, professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University. He co-wrote the book, "Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums."

Jobs and money spent to attend a game or on other area businesses before and after a game just gets redistributed, he said.

"There's no region-wide economic hit," Noll said. "From the point of view of the city itself, it's basically no effect. It's 98 percent hype that it matters to a city."

Government officials and business leaders are pushing forward on plans to build a new arena in Sacramento even if the Kings leave. Having a new arena is the city's only hope to draw another NBA team here, said Harlan, adding he thinks the Maloofs don't want to move.

The chances of getting a new NBA team may be "very, very slim" – partly because other cities are trying to lure teams, too, and there may not be enough companies in Sacramento to sponsor luxury suites, Harlan said.

“I would say if the Kings were to leave, I doubt the NBA would ever go back there," he said. "We said that about Kansas City. And now there's talk Kansas City might get a (new basketball) team."

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

DUI driver makes wrong turn onto RR tracks, UP trains delayed

2010-07-28T11:57:21Z

Midtown, Sacramento, CA An early morning, wayword, DUI driver, gets his car stuck on the tracks.

Per Sac PD at 2:11 a.m. Tuesday, they responded to a call for a vehicle stuck on the railroad tracks at the 19th and N street railroad crossing. When officers arrived, they discovered a vehicle that had made a right turn onto the railroad tracks and high centered on the tracks, delaying Union Pacific trains until 3 a.m. The driver was arrested for driving under the influence.

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Work underway on train station, tracks

2010-01-28T06:12:30Z

Maintenance work began Wednesday on Union Pacific railroad tracks in the Downtown Sacramento railyards, while ongoing upgrades continue at the historic Sacramento Valley Station.

Union Pacific has started rail maintenance work on existing tracks. Rail cars that are part of a track replacement train known as the TRT 909 are pulling up the rail and replacing railroad ties underneath, said Aaron Hunt, public relations director for Union Pacific.

"We have track improvement projects going on throughout the state currently," he said.

The work is not part of the $60 million Downtown track relocation project, said Richard Rich, development director of Thomas Enterprises' Railyards project.

The timing was determined by the amount of train traffic and loads on the tracks, even though those tracks will be ripped out in a year or so, as track relocation work is scheduled to start by May. Railroad track relocation is the first phase of a regional transportation center being built in the 244-acre historic railyards adjacent to the existing station at Fifth and I streets.

The design and location of the future transit hub must still be determined. Two weeks ago, Thomas and another development team proposed incorporating the transportation center into a new Kings arena if the arena were built adjacent to the existing train station.

On Tuesday, the California Department of General Services closed off a dozen parking spaces next to the train station for work expected to begin soon on upgrading the station's electrical system, said Linda Tucker, spokesperson for the city's Department of Transportation.

Those spaces won't be available until May 15. The station's water system is also being updated at this time, she said.

City workers are designing new front-entry canopies for all the doors and strengthening wall and floor connections, she said.

Workers have also secured the building against pests, updated the natural gas system, repaired basement leaks, removed some lead paint and asbestos, and done other work since the city bought the building on behalf of its residents in 2006. Amtrak leases the station from the city.

Sacramento Valley Station sits on a major national trade route, the Central Corridor, whose western junction is the high-volume Port of Oakland. Freight and passenger trains share three tracks in a configuration set up about the time the Sacramento station was built in 1925.

Track relocation work will include building tracks devoted to freight, in order to allow a higher volume of freight trains to move more quickly through Sacramento. Freight and passenger tracks also will be moved at least 300 feet north and straightened to allow for longer trains.

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.

Steamer Puffs Through Sacramento

2009-04-20T18:32:12Z

If you heard a "chug chug" and a different sounding train whistle through Sacramento this morning, you were most likely hearing Union Pacifics UP844 passing through in route to Oakland. We caught up with UP844 passing over the I street bridge coming into West Sacramento.

Within the past hour, UP844 has passed through Benicia where the train was greeted by large crowds and signs as well as being paced by a news chopper through Emeryville. If you missed this historical steamer, you will have a chance to catch it again as it comes back through in the next few days. See schedule below or go to www. up.com and search UP844.

UP844 Heritage Tour Schedule, California
• Monday, April 20
o Depart Roseville- 8am
o Arrive Oakland- 11am

• Tuesday, April 21
o Layover and Public Display at Oakland, Cal-UP Yard- 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Wednesday, April 22
o Depart Oakland- 9am
o Arrive Stockton- 11am
o Public Display, Stockton, Cal—Ace Station, 949 E. Channel St.

• Thursday, April 23
o Layover and Public Display- 8am to 5pm

• Friday, April 24
o Depart Stockton- 8am
o Arrive Roseville- 11am

• Saturday, April 25 to Wednesday April 29
o Roseville Layover and Public Display- 10am to 5pm
500 W. Atlantic St.

• Thursday, April 30
o Depart Roseville- 8am
o Arrive Orville- 11am

• Friday, May 1
o Oroville Layover at Mitchell Ave Crossing and UP Tracks

• Saturday, May 2
o Depart Oroville- 8am
o Arrive Keddie- 11:30am / Depart 12:30pm
o Arrive Portola- 3pm

• Sunday, May 3
o Layover and Public Display- 8am to 5pm

Historical Train Comes Through Sacramento

2009-04-20T07:49:18Z

At 8 a.m. today, the historic Union Pacific steam locomotive 844 will move through Sacramento in route to Oakland where it will be on display.

The Steamer has been in Roseville at the UP Yard for the past couple of days. Saturday, UP844, along with other UP locomotive memorables were on display for general public and Sunday they were held for a private showing accessed only by UP friends and family. If you are looking for good photo ops to catch old UP844 puffing down the tracks, it will roll out of Roseville and will be highly visible through the wetlands near CalExpo, You should also be able to see the puffer rolling through the downtown Amtrak station and over the "I Street" bridge.

If you miss it's robust whistle and chugs this morning, never fear because you will have another opportunity in a few days as she works her way back up through Stockton, Roseville and Oroville. A schedule has been provided below and the locomotives pictured will be accompanying UP844. You can read all about 844 by CLICKING HERE. Over the next few days you will be able to find the locomotives on display and open to the public in Oakland, Stockton, Roseville and Oroville.