The Uinta Basin Railway project has been and is a priority focus for the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition and its consultants. The project consists of the design of a new rail line into the Uintah Basin. As a result, exporting and importing product would increase and alleviating congestion and traffic on highways and roads would decrease. The extension of a heavy-duty freight railroad would link the resource-rich Uintah and White River Basins with the national railway system.
Benefits of the railway include:
- Increased revenues to local governments and economies
- Improved road safety
- Availability to more jobs
- A more diversified economy
JDE worked with the Coalition to procure various consultants who would work on the conceptual design, environmental, public outreach, freight analysis, and operations & maintenance analysis. JDE oversees the project management of various work being completed by all subconsultants to keep the project on budget and on schedule. In addition, JDE’s work on the project also includes performing the right-of-way analysis for multiple routes as well as conducting and coordinating topographical surveys of the preferred routes.
Furthermore, the Uinta Basin Railway project includes analyzing various routes and researching previous studies. JDE has been responsible to coordinate additional studies including an initial feasibility study performed by HDR Engineering in 2014. Additionally, the Coalition coordinated with R.L. Banks to have an economic and freight analysis performed which was completed in August 2018. This project is ongoing and is currently in a conceptual design, environmental analysis, and right-of-way mapping phase. The scope of this project also includes public relations and coordination with other governmental regulatory agencies.
For more information, you can visit the UBR website.
