You’ll get an exclusive look at how railroading meets its biggest engineering and construction challenges. Learn how railroads build and expand bridges, tunnels, and rights-of-way to last for generations.

Big Projects

BIG PLANS and BIG MACHINES make BIG PROJECTS

THE NEED TO BUILD • Big projects are essential to railroading, but they keep getting more difficult

THE NIMBY FACTOR • ‘Hiawatha’ situation shows how local opposition can stymie projects with regional benefits

MODERN and SPECTACULAR • 21st-century knowledge and technology create a landmark bridge with a classic look

ON BORROWED TIME • Amtrak’s Hudson Tunnels are at risk of failure, but can funding be found to replace them?

CALIFORNIA RISING FINALLY • Years in the making, America’s first true fast train is under construction, but an unlikely cast of characters could change its course

NATIONAL GATEWAY REALIZED • An expanded Virginia Avenue Tunnel is the last link in CSX’s new intermodal fast lane

BIG GOING • Japanese trainsets, new track, and superior planning could make Texas Central the first private high speed rail in the US

THE DALLAS-HOUSTON CORRIDOR’S LEGACY

The HOLE truth • Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel, railroading’s longest, transforms a route through the Alps

More to DIG

A MODEL project

THE OVERSHADOWED TUNNEL • Replacement of Amtrak’s Baltimore bottleneck, the B&P Tunnel, is stalled in the planning stage

FIXING the weakest link • Eighty to 90 trains per day use BNSF Railway’s 2,190-mile-long Transcon—and were delayed up to 3 hours trying to get through a 5-mile single-track segment through Abo Canyon, making it one of BNSF’s weakest links. But not anymore

CAJON PASS UNPLUGGED • Busy Southern California route was a bottleneck until BNSF Railway’s triple-track project

GALLERY