Tower 55

[sechs]

Does someone have a map handy for those of us unfamiliar with the local geography?

This may be handy

Tower 55 is almost under the I-30 - I-35W interchange.

 

[Ryan]

Thanks, that's FANTASTIC.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I'll be down at FTW tomorrow (Tuesday 13 May) as I make a lunch run over to Joe's Coffee Shop in Irving and will be curious to see if any construction is going on up by the station; I know all the dilapidated Railbox Cars parked near there were moved out some time ago, perhaps to make way for construction on the third north-south line.

 

[railiner]

Does someone have a map handy for those of us unfamiliar with the local geography?

This may be handy

Tower 55 is almost under the I-30 - I-35W interchange.

Very nice link. I notice in the "Project Elements", no mention is made of building 'PRR style', flyover's or subway's to eliminate the major at grade junction. Perhaps that would be near impossible, or prohibitively expensive to accomplish, considering the highway also in the mix.....

 

[battalion51]

I think the challenge with trying to do a flyover or subway is the clearance that would be required. On the east coast you've got about 13' or so of clearance needed to move trains whereas a doublestack is going to need at least 21' for it to clear. With all of the foundations for the highways right there trying to do a subway would be very tricky engineering. Building a flyover could be just as tricky because of the grades you'd have to have to ensure a train could make the hill and the other obstacles in the area.

 

[neroden]

A diveunder was previously proposed, but it was sufficiently expensive that nobody funded it.

The diveunder would have taken the east-west tracks under the north-south tracks. It's actually relatively straightforward engineering; the hard part is keeping the trains running while constructing it.

 

[fredevad]

Does someone have a map handy for those of us unfamiliar with the local geography?

This may be handy

Tower 55 is almost under the I-30 - I-35W interchange.

I find it interesting that at one point it says "To alleviate congestion and enhance the flow of freight through

Tower 55...", leaving out enhancing the flow of passengers through Tower 55. Hmmmmm....

 

[railiner]

Does someone have a map handy for those of us unfamiliar with the local geography?

This may be handy

Tower 55 is almost under the I-30 - I-35W interchange.

I find it interesting that at one point it says "To alleviate congestion and enhance the flow of freight through

Tower 55...", leaving out enhancing the flow of passengers through Tower 55. Hmmmmm....

Thats probably because of the relatively few passenger trains versus the multiple freight trains involved....

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

When I was there Tuesday it looked like from what I could see from the FTW Intermodal Station and the TRE T&P station the Intersection may have actually been closed as there was no freight traffic to be seen, no Texas Eagles running (but lots of bitching pax regarding the bustitutions) and several areas of construction with plenty of equipment and materials about.

I still cannot understand if no flyover or flyunder is built how traffic congestion will be substantially reduced if trains still have to cross at level.

 

[the_traveler]

To further clarify the map, the southbound TE goes/comes from the line on the bottom of that map. The FTW station is on the top left of the map. the current line to DAL is on the right side of the map. The TRE tracks is from the station on the top left, continuing to the top left and then turning right to go to DAL.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

And from what little talk I heard here and there Tuesday the battle over moving the Texas Eagle to the TRE rages on. Film at 11.......

 

[frequentflyer]

An east west dive under is impossible since the E/W lines has a bridge just to the east of the Tower 55 over I-35.

 

[neroden]

I still cannot understand if no flyover or flyunder is built how traffic congestion will be substantially reduced if trains still have to cross at level.

(1) They're straightening the tracks out and increasing track speed. So trains will cross the diamonds faster.(2) In the north-south direction, they're adding tracks -- I think it's two in parallel now and will be three in parallel when they're done. (I could have the numbers wrong.)

 

[neroden]

An east west dive under is impossible since the E/W lines has a bridge just to the east of the Tower 55 over I-35.

Naw, it's straightfoward. It means the freight tracks have to go under I-35 as well. There's plenty of room.

As I say, the problem is keeping things operating during construction. If it were possible to just close the intersection and the junction for a few months, the engineering would be pretty straightforward. Of course, it isn't.

 

[neroden]

And from what little talk I heard here and there Tuesday the battle over moving the Texas Eagle to the TRE rages on. Film at 11.......

If you can get any news on that it would be appreciated. I really wish TRE would just agree. It would be the single biggest improvement possible for the Texas Eagle.