Dive Brief:
- PCL Construction has delivered a $250 million Amtrak train facility in Seattle, wrapping the project on time and $50 million under budget, according to an Oct. 23 announcement from the rail corporation.
- The Maintenance and Inspection Facility will support the new Airo fleet which debuted on the Amtrak Cascades route in the Pacific Northwest last month. The finished building will continue to open in phases through the end of the year.
- The 100,000-square-foot building is the first of its kind for Amtrak, with three tracks for inspecting, servicing and performing heavy maintenance on a full trainset in one facility.
Dive Insight:
Edmonton, Alberta-based PCL Construction, with U.S. headquarters in Denver, first won the $300 million contract in the fall of 2024. Delivering the project under budget will allow Amtrak to use the $50 million to support other rail investments, Amtrak spokesperson Cheyenne Matthews told Construction Dive via email.
“After more than a decade of working with Amtrak, this project really reflects the strength of the partnership our teams have built,” Andrew Fernandez, PCL’s Seattle district manager, told Construction Dive via email. “That collaboration was especially important in coordinating specialized systems like the drop table and diesel exhaust extraction system, and I’m proud of how the entire team worked together to safely bring this facility to completion.”
That shallow drop table system was one of the first in the nation for passenger rail service, Fernandez said. It will allow crews to remove and replace undercarriage components without the excavation required by traditional drop table systems, he said.
In addition, close coordination between PCL and the design-build team led to the integration of the facility’s specialized diesel exhaust extraction system with the structural, mechanical, electrical and controls infrastructure, according to Fernandez. That early coordination identified and resolved a structural conflict before construction, avoiding rework and delays, he said.
PCL topped out the facility’s steel structure in March, per a company release.
The 700-foot-long building can accommodate an entire Amtrak Cascades Airo trainset for more efficient maintenance, Amtrak said. The 83 total Airo trains offer more seats, larger windows and better accessibility, according to an Amtrak fact sheet.
Specialized equipment inside the facility also includes an overhead bridge crane, monorail crane, wayside water and air hose reels and a fall protection lifeline system. Construction work also added a new, two-level, 39,000-square-foot parking deck for employees and covered storage for materials.
Over 40 subcontractors worked on the facility, per Amtrak, which created about 120 construction jobs. Other data around the project includes:
- 4,000 linear feet of rail
- 16,000 cubic yards of concrete
- 2.4 million pounds of concrete reinforcement
- 12 million pounds of structural steel
- 439 driven piles totaling 11 miles in length
- 132 drilled piles totaling three miles in length
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional information from Andrew Fernandez.
