By Marty Gordon, NRVsports@ourvalley.org
Construction has begun on the future New River Valley passenger rail station and is progressing smoothly.
In information released this week by the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, the removal of trees has been completed along the entirety of the site in Cambria, including along the embankment by the old depot building and along the access road. Tree stumps may still be visible across the site; those are still being cleared.
The removal of trees along the north side of the tracks is underway to make room for the jack and bore machines. Jack and bore machines are used for installing pipes and other underground structures by digging a borehole beneath the surface, minimizing aboveground impact.
Precast drainage structures and steel casing pipes have been delivered, these will be used for the jack and bore operations, which were scheduled to begin the week of June 16.
Construction crews have begun to remove the existing tracks east of the new Norfolk Southern Maintenance of Way building, all the way down to the far eastern end of the project at the access road connection to Depot Street.
The proposed access road has been roughly graded. Rough grading is one of the ways construction crews prepare the subgrade, or the ground, for roadbed materials and the eventual finish grading. Large construction vehicles will continue grading, filling, and excavating at different areas around the site as construction progresses.
In Radford, crews are using a crane and vibratory hammer to install a sheet pile retaining wall south of future Layover Track 1. A sheet pile is a type of pile that is basically a flat piece of steel that has been shaped into an interlocking z-shape.
The contractor is expected to finish driving all of the sheet pile retaining wall at the Radford site in the next few weeks.
