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NJ’s Roseville Tunnel: Rehabilitation & Track Bed Work & Design-Build
Lead civil and traffic engineering for the design-build rehabilitation of a 1,000-foot, largely unlined rail tunnel from the early 1900s.
Project facts
| Client / owner | NJ Transit |
|---|---|
| Location | Byram, NJ |
| Role | Lead civil & traffic engineer (Design-Build team) |
| Delivery method | Design-Build |
| Budget (as published) | $32.5M |
| Disciplines | Civil / Site Engineering · Drones / Robotics / UAVs · Traffic / Transportation Engineering |
Overview
The Roseville Tunnel in New Jersey was constructed in the early 1900s and is approximately 1,000 feet in length, with roughly 85% unlined exposed rock and the remainder concrete liner. The project includes final rehabilitation design and construction of the tunnel and its approaches — structural repairs, safe rail-operations clearance, rock stabilization of the tunnel approaches, reduction of water infiltration through roof and sidewall upgrades, CCTV installation, and track bed preparation within the project limits. Because the project is surrounded by wetlands, the design involved a detailed erosion and sedimentation control plan, with check dams and silt fences to prevent silting during construction.
Lead civil & traffic engineering
Gedeon GRC Consulting served as the lead civil and traffic engineer responsible for all civil/site and traffic engineering design aspects of the project: field assessment; utilities; MOT/MPT; stormwater management; the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP); erosion and sedimentation control plans; drainage; track bed detailing including integration of geometric layout, typical sections, cross sections and clearances; grading; development of contract documents; construction support services; agency coordination; and permitting.
The area, surrounded by waterbodies, has flooded in the past during heavy rains — and one of the project’s objectives was to alleviate, if not eliminate, that flooding. Gedeon GRC performed a comprehensive watershed analysis to determine flow within the project limits and adequately size the drainage system, which consists of ditches with perforated pipes through the tunnel. Drainage calculations were prepared pursuant to the NJDEP Best Management Practices Manual for the 2-year, 10-year and 100-year events; sizing the under-drain pipes also required factoring in water percolating through the tunnel wall.
The design was performed on a fast-track schedule requiring multiple submissions and extensive coordination with all parties, with document controls managed in Bluebeam, Autodesk BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud to track and maintain deliverable schedules.
Drone-based verification
At no cost to the client, Gedeon GRC is utilizing the Flyability Elios 3 — a LiDAR-equipped drone — to map the inside of the tunnel. Periodic scans of the site can be completed in under 30 minutes and converted into CAD models, enabling the contractor to confirm the site is being built according to the design specifications.
Services applied
Civil / Site Engineering
Utilities, grading, drainage and site work for complex urban sites.
VIEW SERVICE →Drones / Robotics / UAVs
LiDAR-equipped drones and robotics for confined and elevated assets.
VIEW SERVICE →Traffic / Transportation Engineering
Studies, signals, MPT/WZTC and corridor design that keep people moving.
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