Why were crews yanking out and replacing a brand-new 240-ft.-long stretch of rail and concrete on the not-even-opened-yet Southeast Line at McKinney St. (above), next to the Columbia Tap trail in East Downtown, earlier this month? Because back on May 30th, a 7.2kV CenterPoint Energy electrical line fell onto the tracks and their overhead line three-quarters of a mile to the south, at Scott St. and Coyle St.
Zzzzzzap!
In addition to the McKinney St. burnout, 20-ft. sections of rail and track slab got zapped near crossings at Nagle St. and Elgin. At the incident site, 80 ft. of concrete and anti-vibration insulation had to be scrapped and replaced.
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Metro’s board authorized up to $2 million for the replacement operation in October. A portion of that will be covered by Metro’s insurance, and they’ll be looking to CenterPoint and its insurance for the rest. McKinney St. was shut down earlier in December for the repairs; work on the McKinney section was due to be completed by the end of this month.
Photo: Carl Wilson
Well, that’s kinda scary. And costly.
Centerpoint = fail
I had seen them replacing small portions (a few feet) of track between McKinney and Coyle over the months and wondered if they were construction flaws. They had that McKinney section marked up with orange paint for awhile. Curious if this is a freak event or if there’s any chance that could happen after the line is running.