Boatright Featured in the 2011 Crosstie Report

10/20/2011
2011 Crosstie Report
by Jennifer Nunez, assistant editor

For wood, concrete, composite/alternative and preservative suppliers, the crosstie market is looking up.

Boatright Companies recently completed $8 million in upgrades to its crosstie facility in Wilton, Ala., featuring a new borate cylinder, which they believe is the “wave of the future.”
Improvements, which were made between April and July 2011, included replacing an existing small borate cylinder with a new creosote cylinder, measuring seven ft. by 72 ft. and installing a new borate cylinder, measuring eight ft., six in., by 162 ft. Boatright believes this stand-alone borate cylinder could be the largest in the world. Boatright treats its ties with borate first, then puts them in the air for air seasoning. Kenny Dailey, director North American Railroad Sales says this kills the incipient decay that could be in the tie. “Then, we encapsulate it with creosote,” noted Dailey. “This allows for the tie to continue to diffuse in the air or the borate to continue to migrate to the highest concentration of moisture which is going to protect the heart. Boatright owns its own inventory and believes in protecting the tie during air seasoning with borates. It cuts down on degrade and improves drying times.
Boatright is proud to report that more than 175,000 ties have already run through the new cylinder since it started production in July 2011. Largest stand-alone borate cylinder in U.S. resides in Wilton, Ala.

With borate/creosote dual processing in high-demand for the wood crosstie suppliers, increased budgets for Class 1s, shortlines and transit systems and a focus on green technologies, the crosstie industry is booming with change. It’s a great time for the railroad industry and an even better time for crosstie suppliers.

According to Jim Gauntt, executive director of the Railway Tie Association, tie demand has shown remarkable resilience over the past few years. For 2011, the RTA expects growth in purchases of new wood crossties to exceed three percent. “Production has also ramped up from rather anemic levels in 2010, so the availability of wood ties has kept pace with demand to a large extent,” explained Gauntt. He says the sawmill community continues to be under pressure due to financial and regulatory nvironments and the dismal state of the housing market. Nevertheless, hardwood sawmills that produce ties have been insulated to some degree from the full effect of a weak economy. Even so, the available capital for sawmill investment and log inventories along with the increasing costs of fuel, insurance and other operating inputs continue to pressure the supply base. Gauntt believes there are two major factors driving wood crosstie demand in 2011, the 45G tax credit and a continuance by the Class 1s of their commitment to optimizing maintenance practices. “We believe a fundamental shift in maintenance philosophy occurred throughout the entire system of Class 1 railroads in the past decade,” noted Gauntt. “Once the last round of mergers had been completed, railroads found themselves in the best position in decades to move toward optimal steady-state infrastructure investment. This philosophy was enhanced with the mindset to invest for the future with strategically targeted new construction designed to improve efficiency and minimize capacity constraints. Thus, Class 1s have been able to be very aggressive in track maintenance and that has led to a superior record of stable tie demand in comparison to previous decades.”

In the other market segment, comprised of shortline and regional railroads, the 45G tax credit has been a major driving force for tie demand in the years it has been in effect. 2011’s tie demand increase of 600,000 to 800,000 is largely due to the effect of this tax credit, he says. “Due to recent downgrades in the expectation for U.S. economic growth for 2012, we expect tie demand will suffer a little next year,” noted Gauntt. “This won’t be dramatic and could be reversed, should the 45G tax credit be renewed.” The RTA econometric model predictions show a two percent growth in purchases in 2011, -3.2 percent in 2012, 2.9 percent in 2013 and 2.4 percent in 2014. Many wood tie suppliers mentioned the popularity of dual treatment processing, which is now being implemented by a number of companies and used by many Class 1 railroads. “I think every Class 1 now has committed to some level of borate-creosote product,” said Gauntt. There are certain species of crossties that are difficult to treat, such as white oak. White oak’s cellular structure is plugged with a wood structure called tyloses. It makes penetration of the wood cells difficult with creosote alone. Borates are a highly-effective water-born wood preservative in which wood ties can be dipped or be pressure treated, notes Gauntt. “Borates are able to diffuse across cell walls and remain mobile inside the wood following the diffusion process,” explained Gauntt. “The AAR/RTA long-term research project proved that once you build up a high concentration borate reservoir in the outer inch of an unseasoned wood tie, the borates will diffuse all the way through the entire cross section of the tie over a short period of time. This effectively protects even hard-to-treat species.”

He says that since borates remain water soluble, an oilborne preservative like creosote is used to protect borates from leaching when exposed to wet conditions. With the dual treatment process, the creosote is injected on top of borates or, in the case of some of new processes, the borates are injected with the creosote simultaneously. Creosote helps keep the borates in and water out. A few railroads found that some ties in high decay areas, in For wood, concrete, composite/alternative and preservative suppliers, the crosstie market is looking up.

AWPA zones 4 and 5 in particular, were failing in as little as eight to 10 years. Gaunnt says those ties are now lasting more than three times as long because of the borate technology, which provides significant economic benefit to railroads. RTA research The RTA is presently involved in two major research programs. The first is a long-term alternative wood preservative research project in conjunction with Class 1 railroads, which is in its fourth year of an expected 20-year evaluation period. The second project is an initiative to document the improvement in overall system-wide tie life that the implementation of borate and creosote dual treatment systems will bring to railroads. The former project’s status reports are on the RTA website and the latter project will be published following its presentation at the RTA annual conference in October. Wood Arch Wood Protection, in co-operation with its licensed producers who operate wood preserving facilities, has recently introduced a new option in crossties. It’s called the Chemonite® Crosstie.

Recently added to the standards of the American Wood Protection Association for Douglas fir ties, Chemonite® preservative (generically called ACZA for Ammoniacal Copper Zinc Arsenate) has been used for decades to protect difficult to treat wood species such as hardwoods and Douglas fir for pole, fence and marine piling applications. “With the increased cost and scarcity of creosote-treated wood, Chemonite ties offer an alternative choice that has a clean appearance without the strong smell associated with traditional tie preservatives,” said Bob Baeppler, business manager at Arch Wood Protection. As a result of offering this new treatment and species combination, Baeppler says Arch customers have found significant interest and growing demand for this product. “Competitive pricing, clean and dry surface and proven efficacy have made this an attractive choice. There have been many requests for copies of papers prepared for AREMA and RTA meetings,” he noted.

Baeppler says Arch is seeing more interest in ties with factory-installed end plates and for ties treated with borates, as well as the primary preservative. The crosstie business has been quite good for Boatright Companies, due to Class 1 railroads having record earnings this year. “We’ve had some ups and downs in the supply market,” said Kenny Dailey, director North American Railroad Sales. “One of the things that does concern us a bit is that we’ve had some significant increases in the prices of creosote, which of course is a necessity with the crosstie.” Dailey notes that as of Oct. 1, creosote will have gone up in price by 15 percent this year. He says Boatright is at the forefront of the dual-treatment process for wood crossties. “In 2003, Gary Woods, vice president of engineering for Norfolk Southern was sold on the fact that the NS needed to have borate ties,” noted Dailey.

“Preston Painter, engineering and Bill Rousis, purchasing, came to the then Seaman Timber Plant, now owned by Boatright Companies, because they were the farthest southern treating plant in the middle of the borate zone. “We were the first treating plant to work and develop the commercialized industrial application of borate. We went from the testing and with this, SeamanTimber Company and NS teamed up with Osmose Wood Preserving and Dr. Terry Amburgey and Dr. Shane Kitchens of TaskPro. In 2004, they developed thecommercialized industrial application of borates here, at what was then the Seaman Timber Company, owned by Jim Seaman.” Dailey says in the spring of 2004, the first 14,000 borate ties were installed in track near Laurel, Miss. Since then, close to two million borate ties have been shipped from the Boatright facility in Wilton, Ala.

“During that time, Shane Boatright was a part of this initial testing. He was a part of the borate process at this plant, marketing the ties to shortline and regional railroads, since its inception. He felt, and still does, borates are perfect for these roads as it extends tie life and results in less maintenance costs. Borate’s have been around for a long time in residential construction, Seaman Timber produced the first application with the railroad.”Boatright owns its own inventory and believes in protecting the tie during air seasoning with borates. Cuts down on degrade and improves drying times. Mike Pourney, president and CEO of Gross & Janes says business this past year has been great and the company is in an upswing mode as far as volume. Gross & Janes is on pace for about a 25 percent increase over last year at this time.
“As to what’s driving our growth ,it’s the Class 1 railroads’ increased capital budgets and their spending, which bodes well for the crosstie industry right now,” he noted.
One concern Pourney has relates to the severe drought in southern Arkansas and east Texas. If it doesn’t break soon, he says there could be some implications on the availability of hardwood. The company is currently considering pre-treating its ties with borate, as well. Left, Thompson Industries borate-treated wood ties during the air seasoning process. Gross & Janes ties placed in track.

“We’re planning to potentially continue to look at the borate treatment that some of the treaters are doing and see if there is an added value that we may be able to provide our customers,” he explained. Suppliers need to keep an eye on the lumber prices because of the recession, notes Pourney. “Lumber markets are really drying up. If these sawmills can’t find someone to buy their lumber, eventually they’ll stop cutting crossties,” he said. “It’s not at crisis level yet, but if it continues to be as depressed as the market is for any extended period of time, I think that will certainly have some impact on the sawmills and eventually the customers.” When a sawmill cuts a tie they’ve got to have somewhere to put it, Pourney explained.

“Eventually, there is a shelf life to lumber and a crosstie; they aren’t going to simply keep cutting and let that lumber set without being sold.”
Thomas Niederberger, vice president of sales and marketing Class 1 sales at Koppers agrees the wood crosstie market has improved since last year. “While the Class 1 tie programs have remained relatively consistent, the shortline and contractor markets have rebounded nicely,” he said. “Expenditures for ties and for that matter, overall track and infrastructure spending, continues to be a high priority.”
Niederberger notes that the contractor market was positively affected in 2011 by having several projects initially delayed in 2010 and then given the green light to proceed in 2011.“Probably the most noticeable trend for wood ties is the ever-increasing visibility and demand for borate treated ties,” he said. “After years of successful field testing, the long-term economic value of borate ties has driven both new and additional demand from many Class 1s in the past 12 months.” Niederberger says the regionals and shortlines have also begun to focus more on the life-cycle cost of ties installed in the higher decay zones. “We have seen an increase in borate tie RFQs, as well as an increase in general questions on the subject,” he explained. Probably the most important driver to the company’s tie business he says is the overall long-term performance record of the wood tie and the related lifecycle value it brings to customers.

“These two factors have kept track infrastructure expenditures at a reasonably consistent level in spite of the recent economic turbulence,” he said. George Caric, vice president of marketing at Stella-Jones, Inc. boasts that business has been steady, especially with the Class 1s. The company is in the final stages of shipping a large order of pre-plated ties for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority to replace concrete ties. Sales to commercial customers remains strong, as the demand to ship by rail continues to spark large projects, he adds.

Demand and interest continues for the borate-treated ties in the southern half of the country, Caric notes. Last year, Stella-Jones introduced the One Step Borate Process. He says customers can get the same benefits of the borate treatment without having to deal with two inventories. The benefit is that if a project comes up without notice, the company can respond with quick deliveries from its dry inventory.

“Tie life in the severe rot zones has everyone looking to use more borates,” explained Caric. Stella-Jones has started to treat its bridge switch ties with One Step Borate for use in the South. Its research department is working on a fire-retardant solution that will give protection to bridge timbers. “The rail industry is to be commended despite the economic downturn,” said Caric. “The industry has added yards and tracks and is building for the future. Our plants and the sawmills that supply the rail industry have remained busy and it looks like this trend will continue as more and more industries realize that shipping by rail is not only more economical, but provides sustainability as a ‘green’ method of transporting goods.”

Thompson Industries, Inc., provides oak and selected hardwood borate/ creosote dual treated and creosote only treated crossties, switch ties, crossing and bridge approach ties, crossing panels, bridge ties and timbers, specialty timbers, crosstie pre-plating and custom wood treating to railroads throughout North America. “What a difference a year makes,” declared Jeffrey Broadfoot, national sales manager at Thompson Industries and RTA president for the next two years (2011-2012). “Business is booming and as a result, we are treating ties 24/7. The Class 1s in particular have accelerated their orders from last year, especially for borate/creosote dual treated ties, which are installed in tracks located in the higher-decay areas of the U.S. and Mexico. Also, we are seeing many more wood ties being used on capital projects this year than last.” The company’s regional, shortline, commuter and contractor business is also strong, notes Broadfoot. This, he says, is due in part to the increase in stimulus and other infrastructure improvement grants and low interest loans they have been awarded. With the shortline tax credit extended through the end of this year, many of these railroads have proceeded with projects that had been postponed for the past two years.

Business has improved steadily for Thompson Industries since October of last year and has been building ever since, explains Broadfoot. The company is on pace to treat more than 1.2 million wood crossties and crosstie equivalents by the end of this year, which brings the company back to levels they saw prior to the recession. “We expanded and upgraded our borate/creosote dual treating tie operations earlier this year so that we could handle the increase in demand for these ties using the scientifically proven and original two-step process,” said Broadfoot. “We also added another 200 ft. of siding to our facility, so we can now handle even longer Class 1 railroad unit trains. With these upgrades, Thompson now has the capacity to borate/creosote dual treat 750,000 of these ties per year. Thompson will continue to invest in improvements of these types, as long as our railroad friends recognize the value of these improvements.” On the supply side of the business, things have not improved this year as much as Broadfoot would have liked. Some of the same problems that affected the industry last year have carried over to this year, he notes. “We are still facing a somewhat reduced wood tie supply due to a decrease in the number of sawmills producing ties,” he explained. “With credit still very tight, many mills simply are unable or unwilling to put in large log inventories. Since crossties are not the primary products for some sawmills, many mills are hesitant to make the investments necessary to produce crossties, especially when they are having a hard time selling their lumber.”

On a positive note, Broadfoot says some of the larger mills are in very good shape and have picked up some of the slack. Concrete “I wouldn’t call 2011 a stellar year, but it has definitely been better than 2010,” said Scott Craig, general manager at KSA. “The fourth quarter should be the highlight of the year due to a Class 1 project. I mentioned this project last year and we are just now, after about three and a half years, gearing up to start production. This will also help kick off 2012 to help make it a promising year. We also have the possibility of a major transit project that looks very promising that would greatly impact 2012.” The railroads are starting to put more of an emphasis on quality and their relationships with the suppliers, he notes. “It’s not that quality wasn’t important in the past, it’s that now the railroads see the advantages to working with the suppliers to better understand the products they are buying,” he explained. Craig notes that the railroads seem to require more test data now than in the past. The amount of information they require has escalated over the past couple of years. L.B. Foster says it is utilizing its two manufacturing operations to provide concrete ties for a wide variety of applications throughout North America. The Tucson, Ariz., facility primarily supplies the needs of the company’s largest customer, Union Pacific. Using the Tucson plant, the company also plans to expand the Southwest industrial market by offering the 529S concrete tie that was introduced in 2008. This tie has continued to gain acceptance in a number of light density mainline and other industrial applications, says the company. Its first facility, located in Spokane, Wash., produces a broad range of concrete ties and turnout ties for heavy haul, transit, port and other industrial uses. “Over the past five years, our Spokane plant has maintained a steady backlog of business,” said Mark Hammons, national sales manager.

“This year, Spokane was awarded some excellent projects and has far exceeded our 2011 goals. Among significant activity in 2011, was the completion of the Draper Line and Mid-Jordan Line in Salt Lake City and the City of Calgary Light Rail Extension. These are just a few of our successes in supplying concrete ties to the industrial and port markets. Our special thanks also go to the City of Calgary for their continued use of concrete ties and special trackwork since 1978.” In addition to UP, Canadian National continues to use its ties. About 25 percent of its Spokane plant is dedicated to CN tie production alone.

Hammons noted, “Last year, we talked about our R&D activities that would enhance our concrete ties. We have now partnered with both Kansas State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as several other industry partners, in two research projects.” The combined funding for these projects is $4.5 million, with $3.3 million coming from the Federal Railroad Administration.

The projects are “Quantifying the Effect of Prestressing Steel and Concrete Variables on the Transfer Length in Pretensioned Concrete Crossties” and “Concrete Crossties and Fastening Systems for U.S. High-Speed Rail and Joint Passenger/Freight Corridors,” respectively. The intent of this research is to develop high-speed rail design standards. “We have also partnered with the CN and Michigan Tech to lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive internal sustainability framework,” Hammons explained. “Past environmental initiatives have resulted in our Spokane plant being awarded the coveted Clean Air Award in 2011. Since 2007, we have also achieved a 50 percent reduction in overall plant energy usage and a 75 percent reduction in recordable injuries.” In the area of new products, The company developed ENDURA-TIE™, a concrete tie that adds abrasion resistance capability and durability without affecting flexural capacity. The ENDURA-TIE is currently installed in a CN mainline track, as well as a test track at Transportation Technology Center Inc., where it has been subjected to more than 200 mgt to date. The company has also lab-tested the tie to 10 million cycles without failure.

“In several months, we plan to work with CN to examine the tie for abrasion resistance,” noted Hammons. The company has also developed a Low Vibration Track(LVT) tie block and is working with its Transit Products team to supply a turnkey product for North American transit agencies. L.B. Foster produces the LVT tie block with embedded inserts and shoulders and then uses a pad and rubber boot supplied by its Transit Products team. “We have introduced our Radio Frequency Identification tie system, which is a product life-cycle management tool,” said Hammons. “We can map the concrete tie supply chain onto a Google earth-style map on a cloud server, providing full visual traceability, as well as instant and easy access to tie information such as design revision history, production material, quality control and more.” Hammons says a tie that has become increasingly popular is its concrete tie with an integral bottom pad used for the balancing of track modulus between bridge and bridge approaches, thus reducing ballast degradation on bridges. Business has steadily improved for Rocla Tie Inc., says Brett Urquhart, sales manager. The company is seeing substantial increases in tie volumes from 2010 to 2011.

The new Federal Railroad Administration regulations on concrete ties (see article in May RT&S, page 39) have been modified. The modified wording was published in the September 9, 2011 Federal Register. The new effective date for the changes in 213.109 (crossties) is November 8, 2011, and the effective date for the new 213.234 (automated inspection of track constructed with concrete ties) is July 1, 2012. Concern had been expressed to FRA about the new 213.109(d)(1), which says that to be counted as a good tie, a concrete tie shall not be “…deteriorated to the extent that prestressing material is visible.” While not changing the regulation, FRA explains in the preamble material, “FRA is not concerned with prestressing material being visible due to a wheel impact or due to the manufacturing process.” It also states, “…there is a distinction between a concrete tie being simply chipped due to wheel impact as opposed to actual deterioration.” Presumably, similar damage caused by tampers or ballast regulators would also fall in this category. Language is changed from “measure” to “indicate” at places in 213.234 to acknowledge that “…automated equipment cannot currently measure rail seat abrasion directly.” FRA added language in 213.234 stating, “Exception reports must be provided to or be made available to all persons designated as fully qualified under 213.7 and whose territories are subject to the requirements of 213.234.” A reasonable interpretation would seem to limit the requirement to distribute each report to those that inspect the territory covered by the report. In addition, while there is no change in the requirement of the new 213.109(d)(4) that deterioration or abrasion at any point under the rail seat cannot be 1/2 inch or more, now 213.234(e)(4) states, “Exception reports must note areas identified between 3/8 of an inch and 1/2 of an inch as an ‘alert.’” The preamble in the Federal register explains that it is not required to field verify an “alert” and that an “alert” is not an FRA violation. Those whose duties are governed by the new regulation should be familiar with the complete regulatory language and should not use this article as a substitute for advice of legal counsel. by Louis Cerny, railroad consultant FRA sets new effective date and makes revisions to new concrete tie regulations Rocla has become a major supplier to UP and continues to provide the concrete ties for BNSF. “We continue to provide services for handling used material and sorting these items for re-sale and use in non-mainline projects,” noted Urquhart. “We have also developed some new tie designs that make it easier to replace single ties in track, which has always been difficult to accomplish with concrete ties.”

The company says they believe that tie volumes for concrete ties will continue to climb. Many projects have been on hold due to the flooding in the Midwest and Rocla hopes to see those projects completed in 2012.Composite/Alternative “Business has been fantastic for us,” said Jim Kerstein, founder and chief technology officer at Axion InternationalInc. “Right now, we are the only composite manufacturer with a multi-year contract with one of the majors.” Axion opened a second manufacturing facility in Texas to compliment its production facility in Pennsylvania. This more than doubles its production capacity. The company has opened up roughly 11 new accounts in the rail business over the past six months.“No company wants to be a one trick pony,” he noted, “and we have a multitude of companies that seem interested in moving forward with composite ties, both here in the United States and on an international basis. Whether it’s Latin America, Australia or Europe. We also recently signed a joint venture agreement with a sister firm in Europe. It opens up that market for us all the more.”
There seems to be a growing interest in composite ties in problem areas of track, such as switch sets and in crossings and those are important growth areas for the company, Kerstein explains. “International business right now is fantastic. It is a really exciting part of our business,” he said. “That is directly tied to the potential for long-term performance for the recycled structural composites.”Kerstein says there is growing recognition that life-cycle costs have the potential to have significant savings for the railroads. Particularly in areas where there is high moisture, humidity, freeze-thaw and other difficult conditions.
“They play to our favor,” Kerstein noted. PlasTie LLC emerged 11 years ago when it started to develop a non-toxic plastic encapsulated wood oak tie. The company is currently in the transition stage of moving from Canada to the U.S. PlasTie is looking at relocating to northern North Carolina or southern Virginia.

“We developed the process in Canada and produced sufficient ties for testing under track in North America without any adverse feedback,” said Barrie Gibbs, chief executive manager at PlasTie. “We are in the process of commercializing the process in the U.S.” It is good to note the acceptance of alternative ties, he says. “The PasTie is not an alternative tie, but an improved crosstie,” he stated. “We are looking forward to the green enthusiasm in North America to encourage the trend to use green

products in many industries, including the railroad industry.” Preservation R-Solutions has come up with three new products. First, a polyurethane that will allow the company’s compound to be used in a variety of different application units. Second, a poly urea pre-coating to be applied during the production phase of a concrete tie. This product is applied in the rail seat area and will seal and treat to assist the concrete tie to resist abrasion. Last, a single operator cab enclosed Ride On Tie Plugging Unit with the ability to fill two holes with one shot. Thus, accelerating the production rate with a single operator. This unit is a big step in the development of a safe and reliable high production tie-plugging unit, says Mike Raab, general manager. “The industry has now determined that synthetic tie-plugging has merit and superior repair capabilities than to that of wood plugs,” noted Raab. “There is now an ongoing evaluation of the different synthetics being offered to the industry. For example, non-foaming products vs. a high-density foaming product, such as Railroad Solutions. We feel the nonfoaming products give the best repair because of its ability to mimic wood, bond to wood and as the product expands, the foam will repair the seat area in a more efficient way.” R-Solutions’ orders with the companies that perform contact work for its customers have increased significantly, he says. Recently, the company finished a 110-mile rail change job with Atlas Railroad on the New England Central Railroad. “Contractor work has become a good growth area for Railroad Solutions,” noted Raab. “We also have work in Canada.”

The customers want a turnkey operation, he says. This includes tie-plugging machines, tie-plugging compound, quality mechanical service and the ability to estimate the quantity of tie-plugging material needed for each project. Willamette Valley Company, a polymer formulating, manufacturing and equipment application company has been working with the railroad industry for the past 15 years. “SpikeFast has been the flagship product to the industry in the remediation of wood ties,” said John Murray, vice president of WVCO Railroad Division. “This tie-plugging technology, since inception, has been the industry choice because it has the greatest spike withdrawal ratio compared to the other competitive tie-plugging compounds. SWR is the withdrawal force divided by the insertion force.” WVCO will be introducing an improved tie-plugging polymer that has lower insertion requirements with an equal to or greater withdrawal force. The company says these improvements assure the reduction of spike kill, improve gauge holding and lateral plate stability.

“WVCO’s polymer CTR-100 is the industry answer for the repair and remediation of rail seat abrasion in concrete ties,” noted Murray. “The polyurethane polymer is used to act as a sealant in the concrete rail seat for mild RSA conditions and is also used to rebuild the seat where more degradation has occurred. Both polymers from WVCO help to extend the useful life of the tie while improving the physical properties (adding new density) in the rail seat that were present when the tie was new.” The concept is to utilize WVCO’s polymer as a deterrent to the early onset of rail seat abrasion. This polymer’s resilience is improving the seats wear factors, explains Murray. “The railroad industry is looking for new technology development with respect to the remediation of steel shoulders in concrete ties,” said Murray. “When premature degradation occurs in concrete tie steel shoulders, stainless steel skims are being utilized to provide a new profile for the worn shoulder and WVCO has a polymer that is used as a gap filler between the worn shoulder and the new shim. SRP-210 can be applied by cartridge application guns or metering systems for large projects.”

WVCO has also introduced a new product, FastPatch LV, for the repair of plastic inserts in concrete ties. Murray notes the polyurethane polymer has a water-thin viscosity and tremendous adhesion to concrete. When a plastic insert has been compromised, it is drilled out and the hole is partially filled with FastPatch LV. When the new insert is placed in the hole, the FastPatch LV is displaced filling the entire hole. The compound is fully-cured in in one hour and is ready to accept the fastener, he says.