Tom Bazan keeps digging and Metro has been forced to release more details of its efforts to fix MetroRail’s stray current problem. KTRH-740’s Brent Fuller reports that the price tag keeps going up:
The Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority first began repair work last year, after it was notified by Centerpoint Energy that some electricity was escaping from light rail conductors and leaking into the ground.
The problem, known as “stray current”, is not a danger to the traveling public. However, sustained exposure to electrical charges can corrode both iron and concrete. In the August 17 letter to Siemens Transportation Systems, Metro said it had already spent $243,000 repairing anchors at rail bridges which had been damaged.
Metro officials have said they expect Siemens to pay for all testing, repairs, management and other costs racked up during the transit agency’s stray current investigation. More than $917,000 has been spent from May 2005 to June 2006, according to Metro. Its unclear if Siemens has paid back any of that so far.
More repair costs are expected in the future. For instance, Metro told Siemens in the August 17 letter that an estimated $157,000 would be needed to fix 20 drainage installations along the rail line. The letter also indicated certain “thresholds” installed near the Pierce Elevated downtown would have to be dug up and reinstalled.
We certainly hope that any future light rail will address this problem in the planning stage and not in the post-construction stage.
DOCUMENT: August 17 METRO letter to Siemens (pdf).
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