Light Rail Extension to Folsom and the Amtrak Station, Sacramento Regional Transit

The Project

These projects were for two sets of PS&E for Sacramento Regional Transit. The first was the extension of the existing Light Rail line to the City of Folsom, and the second completed a 0.6 mile Light Rail extension in Downtown Sacramento from 7th and K Streets to Amtrak's intercity rail passenger station. The Folsom extension included ten at grade crossings, and the downtown extension included three new Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations. These final segments of the Amtrak/Folsom Corridor provide inter-connectivity with regional Capital Corridor trains and Amtrak's intercity national network rail passenger system.

Mark Thomas was responsible for all utility and surface improvements. The projects included extensive utility coordination with 19 private utility companies and the City of Sacramento Utility Department. Utility identification and relocation was challenging due to limited space and an abundance of utilities in the downtown area. There were limited utility records of what was built, so MTCo had over 300 potholes performed to identify utility types and locations. Ground Penetrating Radar was also used to assist in utility location.

The Challenges

The biggest challenge for the Amtrak extension portion of the project was relocating utilities outside of the LRT envelope in a crowded downtown area. This historic downtown area has hollow sidewalks which limited the available relocation space to within the existing roadway. Over the years numerous AC overlays created steep roadway cross slopes which made it challenging to design the LRT profile, curb ramps and station platforms to accommodate ADA requirements.

For the Folsom extension extensive coordination was required with UPRR for the placement of LRT tracks within their Right of Way. This segment also required multi jurisdictional coordination between Sacramento Regional Transit, Sacramento County, the City of Folsom, UPRR, and utility companies.

The Results

Working very closely with Regional Transit, MTCo designed utilities and grading for two PS&E packages. MTCo was also retained during the construction phase and answered RFIs related to civil engineering issues, attended weekly construction meetings and assisted with design changes. During both the Amtrak and Folsom extensions MTCo developed an extensive network of contacts with Regional Transit, local agencies, and utility companies. These relationships were important to complete the two project segments and have been extremely useful in our current work with Regional Transit.