Boston, MA
With the proximity of Amtrak Southampton Street Yard to Old Harbor, stray currents are a recurring culprit for the frequent erosion of the site’s water main system. So when the existing line officially no longer met the required design criteria, they needed the expert excavation services of Loureiro to replace the 2,800LF water main, which required very strategic and extensive coordination to accommodate the unique complexity of the Amtrak rail system.
Over half of the pipe is to be installed between train tracks, requiring substantial coordination with Amtrak employees and schedules down to the hour, while carefully working around moving trains with multiple weekend accommodations to stay on track.
In addition, with the rail service powered by high-voltage electric power cables above the tracks, safety was another vital component to the project’s success. This was only to be matched by the significant hurdles the supply of special pipe materials presented to keep the project within its 10-month timeline. The replacement pipe, known as HDPE pipe, is a flexible thermoplastic material with much longer lead times than traditional pipe materials like metal or ductile iron. While it boasts the ability to resist corrosion and chemical damage, which was a major benefit to Amtrak’s specific site conditions, it also required Loureiro to use special equipment to fuse the pipe together and get special training to achieve a certification to perform the task safely and expertly.
