West Valley TRAX Light Rail Project – Utah DOT/Utah Transit Authority
The TRAX Light Rail extension line project in West Valley, Utah is also one of the most well known geofoam EPS projects in the U.S because of the shear size, environmental adaption, and complexity.
Geofoam EPS was needed because of the high settlement rate that was expected due to the soft deposits of Lake Bonneville, which would have taken three years to eventually stabilize. After extensive design considerations were evaluated by the UDOT and project engineers, geofoam EPS was chosen over traditional fill because of its lightweight, water resistance, and high compressibilty qualities. The ability to rapidly install the geofoam EPS blocks was later found to save months of project construction time and cost, saving millions of dollars in the process. Once the initial five feet of the loose subgrade was removed, layers of geofoam EPS were then added to give the entire site the necessary stability. After this, embankments of geofoam EPS up to 40 feet high had to be contructed for four bridges on the new rail line extension. When it was completed in April of 2011, over 2.1 million cubic feet of geofoam EPS was used for this massive project.
Congratulations to the UTA for winning the “2014 Public Transportation System of the Year”