Canadian National Intermodal Yard Project

When the Canadian National Intermodal Yard in Markham, Ill.—owned by the Canadian National Railroad (CNR)—expanded in late 2010, its storm water system had to be reconfigured. In fact, the system needed to be able to handle an additional 33,000-plus cu ft of storm water.

Normally, the designers and contractors would have added an aboveground basin for increased capacity. In this case, however, the yard needed every available inch of space it could get for shipping container storage and processing. For this reason, an underground solution seemed to be the answer, but space was limited there as well, and heavily loaded trucks pass through the area regularly. Because of its function, the yard also could not afford to be closed for very long, which meant a tight construction schedule.

With all of this in mind, the CNR hired Remprex Eng. Services to design the project and K-Five Construction to carry it out. They turned to StormTrap, an Illinois-based manufacturer of precast concrete modules, for help designing the new configuration. Once the design was decided, things moved quickly. In fact, all 78 precast concrete modules were installed in a single day.

“The installation went very smoothly,” said Chad Hewitt, P.E., the project manager. “The expediency of the system fabrication and installation was an asset to the overall project schedule.”

Besides keeping out of the way, another perk of the new storm water management system is its easy maintenance. Hewitt liked it because “you open a manhole and can walk inside to clean or inspect the entire underground structure.” Ultimately, the entire project was completed in nine days.