WASHINGTON, D.C. – STV today announced Amtrak has selected the firm to provide comprehensive design services for upgrades at the Ivy City Yard in Washington, D.C. In the most significant overhaul of Amtrak’s repair shops in its 54-year history, these upgrades will improve service reliability, enable more efficient maintenance practices and support projected ridership growth.
As part of a Clark-Herzog design-build team, STV will serve as the lead designer for the $480 million upgrade at Ivy City Yard, where Northeast Regional and Acela trains undergo routine servicing, inspections and repairs. The yard also serves Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) and Virginia Railway Express (VRE) commuter trains.
STV will perform design management, design quality management, structural, site/civil, geotechnical, electrical, communications, fire alarm, utilities and industrial engineering and architectural design. The firm will also provide design services during construction, offering ongoing support to resolve design challenges and streamline the processing of submittal reviews and requests for information (RFIs).
“STV has collaborated with Amtrak for more than 40 years and brings unmatched expertise to this project thanks to the more than 100 projects we’ve completed together,” said Robert Burnett, PE, design manager at STV. “Our deep understanding of Amtrak’s maintenance practices, particularly at Ivy City Yard, will allow us to drive solutions that we know Amtrak is looking for and that the community needs.”
Ivy City Yard is one of six key locations in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest that will be undergoing major upgrades as part of Amtrak’s $2 billion facilities upgrade program, funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). These enhancements will enable more efficient maintenance of Amtrak’s existing and future fleets – including NextGen Acela, Amtrak Airo and Long Distance trains – as the company transitions to state-of-the-art equipment and ushers in a new era of rail travel.
The project’s scope of work includes demolishing and replacing portions of the outdated primary maintenance structure at Ivy City Yard, constructing a new dedicated train servicing structure, relocating tracks and converting storage areas into service tracks. Structures built in the mid-1980s will be rebuilt with raised roofs to allow for more overhead space for machinery, the addition of a catenary system and space to safely allow workers underneath, inside and atop trains. Fuel stations will also be added for Amtrak’s new dual-power (electric and diesel) Airo trains, which will reduce the amount of time needed to transition from electrified service in the Northeast Corridor to non-electrified territory south of Washington.
STV’s history at Ivy City Yard is extensive, including its role in delivering the original 114,800-square-foot high-speed rail (HSR) shop with advanced systems such as a dust-free pneumatic sanding system. The firm also helped procure the first-generation Acela trains and the design of the HSR shop at Ivy City Yard.
Nationwide, STV is a leader in the passenger rail and transit industry, including the design of operations, maintenance and storage facilities. Recent and ongoing projects include the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) MARC Riverside Heavy Maintenance Facility in Baltimore, Maryland; the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Morris Park Locomotive Shop in Queens, New York; the Virginia Railway Express’s (VRE) Lifecycle Overhaul and Upgrade (LOU) Facility in Spotsylvania County, Virginia; the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) Northern Bus Garage Replacement in Washington, D.C.; the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) Charlotte Locomotive and Railcar Maintenance Facility in Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) Newhall Yard Maintenance Facility in Santa Clara, California.
