DavRail: Mud Spot Remediation Completed in Record Time
At Railway Interchange 2025, DavRail is one of many suppliers with booths featuring their latest in maintenance of way. According to DavRail, its Center Lift Technique is “designed to enhance the safety, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of your MOW projects.”
Back on March 15, 2025, the DavRail team used the “#CenterLift Panel Lifting System, successfully executed a mud spot remediation project – completing in just 12 hours what would typically take at least 48 hours.”
The challenge of the project was within the stability of a section of track. A “160-foot section of track on a secondary line was compromised due to chronic water pooling. Traditional remediation methods would have required removing the track in four 39-foot sections, consuming valuable time and exposing maintenance crews to suspended track hazards.” The solution then was to leverage the #CenterLift Technique through the remote-controlled Panel Lifting Service. A maintenance crew worked to rehabilitate the track and complete the mud spot remediation in the span of a single day.
As part of the project, crews worked to remove and repair two full 80-foot panels. First, they extracted the panels, thereby eliminating the need for a 39-foot sectional removal, and transported the panels to a stable, level work zone. Here, they set them over prepositioned replacement ties. According to DavRail, this eliminated “the need for a backhoe to insert ties, allowing for immediate spiking, and fully rebuilt track in record time.” Crews worked to rebuilt 160 feet of track while others regraded and compacted the subgrade. During this time, drainage improvements were engineered “to prevent future water pooling.” By moving the damaged track downline, DavRail says crews did not need to foul the adjacent line. The machines were deployed once more to set the panels back into place followed by ballast and tamping.
As a result of the method utilized, its maintenance crews spent less time in hazardous zones and completed said work faster off the mainline to minimize disruption.
DavRail President Andrew Davis said, “DavRail’s Center Lift approach to MoW is now proven to produce faster, safer results in the American marketplace. We’re ushering in a new era of efficiency for track work that does, in one shift, what used to take six shifts, and demonstrated how to help rail operators keep their heavy industry customers serviced at a high level with minimum downtime.”
A video of the technique can be watched at the link here.
DavRail’s booth is at #3039 on the first floor of the ICC Expo Hall.
