Chicago O'Hare Airport Construction - Union Pacific Railroad Track Monitoring

UPRR Track Monitoring during Chicago O’Hare Airport Runway 9R-27L Expansion Project

Construction of a 9 foot utility conduit pipe bored under Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) and Canadian Pacific Railroad (CP) tracks was required to improve navigation lighting at Chicago O’Hare’s newest runway. The conduit was needed to enable connection of power and communications cabling from the runway to structures, including towers and bridges, outside the airport.

Monitoring was required to maintain track alignment during the works. The use of conventional optical survey methods would have required frequent site visits and track access, so monitoring experts at Walsh Construction chose a Senceive wireless monitoring solution. Advantages included continuous reporting, regardless of weather or light conditions, and near real-time alerts to the project team in the event of significant changes in track alignment.

The Walsh team fitted wireless NanoMacro Triaxial Tilt Sensors to track ties and installed cellular communications gateways. No bulky cabling or external power systems were required. As soon as the monitoring system was installed, data was accessible on WebMonitor™ cloud-based data visualization software.

Use of this remote monitoring solution with its automated alerting allowed Walsh to reduce site visits and allocate more resources to other aspects of the project. A further advantage is that the system is modular and can be easily re-configured for use on future projects.