In 2012, Railroad Construction Company, Inc. was awarded two contracts by Five Star Electric Corp. for track work on the Queens Line in Queens, NY. Both projects are federally funded through the New York City Transit Authority / MTA.

Nearing the two year mark, the current signal system is undergoing upgrades to make it compatible with a Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) system. Five Star Electric has designed and partially installed the signal equipment to improve the reliability of the interlockings.

Railroad Construction will be installing new track in areas which are affected by the modernization of the signal system. We will remove an existing crossover and install a new double crossover in Type II track (concrete) including switch plate work.  Installation of insulated joints and tie blocks is ongoing.

The most challenging part of the project is the crossover work on both the local and express southbound tracks.  Work will be performed during scheduled track outages which have been planned months in advance so as to minimize impact to the system’s operations.

All activities have been coordinated between NYCTA, Five Star Electric and ourselves. Special attention has been paid to safety as much of the work will take place adjacent to active rail lines.

We would like to thank Gary Segal, Steven Ostrovsky, Bill Hartson, and Matt Preisel of Five Star Electric Corp. and Richard Rothamel, Dilip Patel, Yury Fayshmidt and Darren Leng of NYCT.  We are pleased to be involved in these projects and look forward to their safe and efficient completion.