Challenges

• The East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area did not have train service into San Jose, so BART and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) agreed to extend the BART rail service to serve those communities and so the Warm Springs to Berryessa extension was Phase 1 of the project to reach San Jose.
• All planning, design, and engineering needed to take into account a second phase from Berryessa to San Jose.
• The extension was built in an active earthquake zone, so the designs needed to meet the most stringent requirements.

Solutions

• Hatch LTK performed complex electrical design and communication systems engineering design, with more than 560 integrated design elements.
• An expert team with experience in four major systems disciplines was used: traction electrification, automatic train control, communications systems, and system-wide lighting and general electrical design.
• The team provided computer modeling of the automatic train control system for safe braking distances, including full-block layouts and control limit line drawings, and prepared specifications for all train control equipment and installation of equipment.
• Hatch LTK worked with Alstom Corporation to develop a detailed interlocking and track circuit design and provided control room layouts to accommodate all equipment.
• The project team worked with HSQ Corporation to develop a rail intrusion detection system (RIDS) to monitor possible intrusions on a corridor shared with an active railroad (the RIDS system has the unique ability to provide stand-alone warning of track intrusion or, to provide real-time emergency activation of programmed input into the Train Control System, which can trigger a train slow order or emergency stop orders).
• Hatch LTK provided full design and specification for two 115 kV substations and an AC 34.5 kV sub-transmission system. This system provided power to six 1,000 Vdc traction power substations, trackway lighting, station power, and trackway auxiliary equipment. The DC traction power system provides power for up to ten car trains, running on two-minute headways.
• Hatch LTK engineers used fiber optic-based and copper wire-based technologies to provide data transmission for monitoring of passenger stations (active signage, closed-circuit TV, security access, fires system annunciation, etc.) and the status of the traction power systems.
• Our communications engineers provided the critical integration and interface between the trains on the alignment, the train control system, and the BART Control Center.
• The integrated communications systems combined numerous control sub-systems, including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks, unified optical networks, and a dedicated secure network (BARTnet). The state-of-the-art passenger stations utilized CCTV security, passenger live information signage, background noise-sensing PA systems, monitoring, and control of lighting, fire alarm systems, and smoke exhaust systems, blue light and emergency telephone systems, door and gate security, and control, and emergency lighting systems.
• Provided systems design for two new stations, Milpitas and Berryessa, and ten miles of light rail track.
• Collaborated with three partners to perform complex systems engineering, including design of ac electrification of the trackway, automatic train control, dc traction power systems, system-wide lighting and general electrical design, and system-wide communications linking all elements of train operations.
• Expanded an existing TrainOps^™ computer simulation model to determine how the current service, which terminated at Warm Springs, could best be extended to Berryessa.

Using TrainOps^™, Hatch LTK provided solutions for routing and dispatching BART’s five service lines while providing sufficient scheduled layover time at terminals, complying with fleet availability, providing timed meets (connections) between service lines, and complying with BART’s service standards in terms of levels of service and service regularity.

Highlights

• The Berryessa extension project created 6,520 direct jobs and 12,350 indirect jobs.
• More than 30,000 residents live a half-mile from the Berryessa Station.
• The Milpitas Station contains multicolored glass work (“Ethos of Man”) above its entrance, celebrating the ethnic, cultural, and environmental diversity of Milpitas.
• The Berryessa Station features a cast bronze wheel titled “Life,” inspired by the nearby San Jose Flea Market.
• Together, the two new stations have over 3,100 parking spaces and forty-eight electric vehicle charging stations.