Setting up Master Agreement with Union Pacific Railroad
is huge timesaver

It can take up to two years to execute an agreement with Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) for the installation of safety improvement features like flashing lights or gates at a public rail-highway crossing. 

Waiting for a needed safety upgrade as parties review and exchange agreement language, eating up valuable project schedule time, can be extremely frustrating, for ITD and for the public. In early 2014, ITD began investigating ways to minimize that time requirement.

“Railroad crossing projects were being delayed and the program impacted, putting off safety improvements and benefits to the public due to the process,” explained Nestor Fernandez, ITD Resource Center Manager at the time, and now Mobility Services Engineer. “So we had to look at ways to streamline the process.”
 
Fernandez determined that the best solution was to enter into a statewide Master Agreement with UPRR, agreeing to standard overarching language. 

He spearheaded the initial effort, securing research and grant program funds that allowed him to hire a consultant to facilitate discussions and finalize the Master Agreement. 

Barbara Waite came on board as ITD’s Railroad/Utility Manager in July 2014. She continued the effort with the consultant hired by Fernandez.

“We had the agreement at 90-95% complete in summer 2015, when UPRR had a shake-up with layoffs and personnel changes and suddenly wanted to put it on the back burner,” said Waite.

It languished there until June 2017, when another personnel change at UPRR brought someone into the position who very much wanted to finish the project. Waite took just three days to finalize the agreement with UPRR. “I am pleased Barbara continued pursuing the implementation.” Fernandez said.

With the Master Agreement in place, a Supplemental Agreement is created for each individual safety improvement project. Project-specific information contained in the Supplemental Agreement references the Master Agreement.

“The Supplemental Agreement is signed at the local UPRR level, rather than the corporate level in Omaha, Nebraska. This allows an agreement to be executed in 3-6 months vs. the old process of two years,” explained Waite.

In FY19, there are five projects scheduled in the Rail Safety Crossing program with UPRR — using the Master Agreement approach could amount to the equivalent of 7.5 years of time savings.  In fact, Waite said in the 11 months that the agreement has been in place they’ve already seen very significant time savings…sometimes even more than 18 months.

"Wow - this is such great news, and a much-needed delivery 'easy button,'" D5 District Engineer Ed Bala wrote last July when the agreement was finalized by Waite.

Published 06-15-18