Puerto Rico’s Urban Train to get $230M in resilience upgrades
The rehabilitation of 16 stations with federal funding involves new backup generators.
Puerto Rico’s Urban Train system is set for upgrades to improve its resilience and robustness, Josué Menéndez, executive director of the Integrated Transportation Authority (ATI), said in an interview with News is my Business.
“All of the stations will be rehabilitated due to the impacts of hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. We are talking about $230 million in federal funds,” Menéndez said.
A bidding process has already been completed, allowing the public corporation to hire a project manager to evaluate and assess the necessary improvements at each of the 16 Urban Train stations. Once the evaluation process is completed, the request for proposals will be issued.
The company overseeing the project is Hill International.
“Work began as recently as three weeks ago,” Menéndez noted. “It involves an evaluation to ensure all improvements comply with federal standards.”
Once the necessary improvements are identified, ATI will proceed with new specifications to carry out construction, rehabilitation or replacements that are needed.
“This will take years,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight, but over time, you’ll see improvements at the stations.”
Menéndez explained that the Urban Train is a complex system, and the upgrades will be made while the train continues to operate “in a way that service is not interrupted,” he said. “So that makes it more complex.”
The system’s redundancy is another key feature, he said, explaining: “We have five substations that run along the route … across three municipalities: San Juan, Guaynabo and Bayamón. If there is no electricity in San Juan, I can send power from Bayamón to San Juan and keep the train energized.”
However, if multiple areas lose power simultaneously, the train may “remain energized only in the middle,” he said. “What we will be doing is carrying out a resilience project, where generators will be installed next to each substation, so if we have a blackout … the train will always have electricity.”
He said the project is expected to take about two years to complete.
“Imagine if the train had worked the entire time after Irma and Maria. That would have been fantastic. That is what we want, to make it a robust system. With those improvements, the resilience will be greater,” Menéndez added.
