Newsroom

Rock by Rail is Vital to Bay Area Communters

Graniterock announces the introduction of two railcars now outfitted with a special public service message focusing on the importance of freight delivered via the railroad into the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Company will unveil the two newly painted informational 100-ton construction aggregate railcars at a special public introduction on Friday, June 8, 2007 at 11:30 am at its South San Francisco Branch at 1321 Lowrie Avenue.

Congestion on California’s highways continues to be an increasingly vexing problem. Commuters now seem to travel longer distances to reach the workplace. State and local agencies spend hundreds of millions of dollars constructing and maintaining an adequate road system. Bay Area businesses now modify their employees work hours to avoid peak traffic periods. Even with all of these programs gridlock still exists during the peak commute hours.

To counter this problem, Graniterock utilizes the rails to transport raw materials from Quarry near Watsonville to production plants along the San Francisco Bay Peninsula that produce ready-mix concrete and hot mix asphalt (blacktop) for residential and commercial building construction, and public roadway maintenance and construction. With service provided by the Union Pacific Railroad, a fleet of railcars leaves the Quarry every night and is delivered to plants in San Jose, Redwood City, and South San Francisco the next day. A typical railcar transports the equivalent quantity of aggregate hauled by four trucks with trailers, an 80-railcar shipment therefore replaces 320 round trip truck trips on Bay Area roadways daily.

Freight service on the Peninsula is scheduled nightly between the hours of 10:00pm and 5:00am to eliminate scheduling conflicts with Caltrain commuter trains. Maximizing the efficient utilization of rails in supporting both commuter and freight needs is vital to the welfare of the Bay Area economy. To stress this importance, Graniterock has developed a special paint scheme for a portion of its railcar fleet. The railcars, clad in a special paint that hinders graffiti paint, carry the message “Graniterock is on Track…each railcar keeps four trucks off your roads”.

To allow the use of Rock by Rail to jobsites not equipped with rail unloading facilities, in the early 1990s Graniterock developed the TransloadXpress™. It is designed to unload railcars at any point along the Union Pacific’s rail line. To date, the TransloadXpress™ has unloaded in excess of 350,000 tons (that is 3,500 truck and trailer loads) on projects from the San Francisco Airport to Travis Air Force Base.

Rock by Rail is in the best interest of Bay Area communities. The new railcar paint design is intended to educate the public about the importance of reliable rail service in meeting the infrastructure, economic growth, and congestion relief needs of the Bay Area.

Graniterock was founded on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1900. Graniterock has operations in Watsonville, Cupertino, Santa Cruz, Seaside, Salinas, Hollister, Aromas, Felton, San Jose, Redwood City, Oakland, Turlock, and South San Francisco. The Company’s Pavex Construction Division is a significant regional heavy engineering contractor building roadways, airports and private commercial and residential projects. Graniterock received the 1992 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the 1994 Governor’s Golden State Quality Award.