Normal Uptown Station Pedestrian Tunnel

Summary

Kaskaskia Engineering Group, LLC (KEG) provided geotechnical and environmental services for a Phase I Study of a pedestrian crossing and adjacent facilities of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Normal, IL. The project consists of the excavation and installation of a pre-cast concrete underpass tunnel system and retaining walls to support two sets of existing UPRR railroad tracks at the Uptown Station near MP 124.10. The underpass will be for pedestrian access and egress to the train station on either side of the existing tracks.

Project

Geotechnical services included coordination and logging of drilling and engineering analyses. Six (6) Standard Penetration Test (SPT) borings were completed for this project to depths ranging from 25 feet to 100 feet below the existing ground surface. The borings were drilled from May 14 through May 17, 2018. KEG personnel coordinated site access authorization with City of Normal personnel and performed geotechnical engineering evaluations including foundation analysis for support of the tunnel and associated walls, settlement, and global stability of retaining walls, based on the boring data obtained.

Environmental services included the successful submittal of the IDOT ESR form; development of a memorandum of environmental impacts; resource agency coordination; review of various supporting environmental reports; and successful approval of a Preliminary Environmental Site Assessment (PESA) in April 2018. Findings for the 3-acre project area for the PESA included no recognized environmental conditions (RECs) within the project area; three sites adjacent to the project area contained RECs; and, six sites along the project area contained de minimis conditions only. No significant environmental red flags were determined from the environmental services completed for the project.