NJ Transit on Dec. 12 broke ground on the County Yard and Delco Lead Storage and Inspection Facility Project, part of the agency’s Resilience Program to provide an additional resilient storage location for railcars and locomotives for protection against future flooding.
The centrally located Delco Lead, along the Northeast Corridor in New Brunswick, N.J., will allow railcars and locomotives to be safely stored and protected during extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which flooded and heavily damaged NJT’s MMC (Meadows Maintenance Complex) in Kearny, N.J., and other facilities. “In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, County Yard and Delco Lead were identified as safe-haven storage locations for railcars and locomotives, as the land and yard are above the floodplain with a minimal number of adjacent trees,” NJT explained. As such, their location “provides an ideal storage location for railcars during extreme weather events if the MMC and Morrisville Yard (Pennsylvania) are evacuated.”
The project also includes construction of a new Service and Inspection facility on adjacent grounds and a crew quarters and employee parking lot at County Yard. The 1,250-foot-long Service and Inspection Facility, with two 12-car inspection tracks and five 12-car storage tracks, will be used for inspection and light maintenance and spare parts storage, “allowing for rapid inspection of rail equipment and its timely return to service following an extreme weather event,” NJT said.
In September 2024, George Harms Construction Company, Inc., Howell, N.J., was awarded a $498 million contract plus 10% for contingencies for reconstruction of four miles of the existing Delco Lead track, and construction of an adjacent one-mile-long track from County Yard to North Brunswick. The Federal Transit Administration is contributing $184.5 million.
“This groundbreaking marks another significant milestone in our mission to create a more resilient and reliable transit system,” said President and CEO Kevin S. Corbett. “By investing in resilient infrastructure, we are not only protecting critical assets, but also ensuring we can continue delivering reliable service to our customers when they need it most.”
