Maintenance-of-Way Presentation The Mobile Mud Spring vs. The Union Pacific Railroad
(Room Ballroom A)
25 Sep 19
9:15 AM
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9:45 AM
Tracks:
AREMA Full Schedule
The Union Pacific Railroad’s Yuma Subdivision parallels the eastern shore of the Salton Sea, where California’s San Andreas Fault terminates into a complex tectonic environment. Geothermal activity creates mud pots and mud volcanos throughout the area from venting of gas (primarily carbon dioxide) pushing deep groundwater laden with sediment to the surface. These natural features will fluctuate with the gas pressure, amount of available groundwater, and other factors, but are normally stationary. In 2016, a mud pot expelled a copious amount of water and sediment from a field east of the dual tracks. The mud discharging from the “mud spring” clogged drainage ditches and filled a nearby channel with sediment to the top of the railroad bridge. The unique and alarming behavior of this mud spring was its rapid movement towards the railroad tracks. The railroad retained Shannon & Wilson in May 2018 to help devise a strategy to keep the trains moving as this mud spring approached the right of way. Geophysics and geotechnical methods were used to explore the mud spring. Using sheet piles, shoofly tracks, and rip rap, the railroad has managed to keep the tracks open as the mobile mud spring has torn into the main line tracks. Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and numerous universities are also assisting the railroad in trying to understand the mechanism driving the mud spring mobility. The strange phenomenon has been recently featured in major media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, and the Weather Channel. *Missed this Session or want to view it again? Stop by the VirtualAREMA kiosk located in the Registration area to purchase this product today!