New Amtrak Maintenance Facility Allows for Local Train Repairs

The new Locomotive Service Facility at the King Street Coach Yard in Seattle, Washington, has recently been completed for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Amtrak. This $32-million project included the demolition of the previous warehouse onsite and construction of a new 31,000-square-foot locomotive service facility. PCL Construction Services, Inc. served as the general contractor for the new maintenance facility.

The new facility was constructed on top of 178 steel-driven pipe piles at a depth of 180 feet below grade and heavily reinforced structural concrete-grade beams were constructed to tie the pile foundations together, supporting the new pre-engineered metal building. This pre-engineered metal building not only offers train maintenance workers protection from the elements and improved air quality control, but it provides Amtrak with repair capabilities that could not be performed in the previous facility.

The new facility has two equally impressive components, a 55 ton overhead bridge crane and a 125 ton drop table, located in a concrete pit 25 feet deep. This equipment allows for the train’s traction motors or locomotive axles (trucks), to be moved throughout the facility via the bridge crane or dropped down out of the train via the drop table and pit.

Other infrastructure upgrades were also completed as part of the project, including an underground stormwater detention system, 12,000 lineal feet of yard track demolition, realignment and new yard track installation. An underground force main for industrial waste was added and routed over 1,000 feet from the new locomotive shop to Amtrak’s existing onsite industrial waste treatment facility.