COLUMBIA CITY, INDIANA, April 14, 2009. Dynamic Composites, LLC, has
shipped its first production order of its “green” composite railroad
ties to the BNSF Railway Company. After testing evaluation quantities of
these ties, BNSF Railway placed an order for 4,000 ties. Nine railcar
loads of ties are being shipped in March and April for delivery to
Texas. The ties are made from a variety of recycled materials, including
steel, rubber, and plastics.
Dynamic Composites, a majority owned subsidiary of Steel Dynamics,
Inc. (NASDAQ/GS-STLD), manufactures composite railroad ties at its plant
near SDI’s Structural and Rail mill at Columbia City, Indiana.
BNSF Railway Company, a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Santa Fe
Corporation (NYSE:BNI), operates one of the largest North American rail
networks, with about 32,000 route miles in 28 states and two Canadian
provinces.
Chuck Cadwell, general manager of Dynamics Composites, said, “We’re
very pleased with this breakthrough order that will provide the
opportunity for our product to prove itself in actual railway use. It is
a unique product that offers numerous advantages.”
The composite railroad tie employs a core made of flat-rolled steel
(provided by SDI’s Flat Roll Division) filled with concrete, which in
turn is encapsulated by a tough skin consisting of a blend of shredded
tires and recycled plastics. Steel provides strength, concrete provides
mass, and the black covering—applied using an extrusion process—provides
protection from moisture and the elements. Where spikes are driven into
the tie, a special compound of recycled materials is used, rather than
concrete.
In addition to being environmentally friendly, the tie’s design and
construction offer numerous advantages over conventional
creosote-treated wood ties. The composite tie is heavier, more solid and
stronger, offering better vibration-dampening qualities, better
load-bearing capability, smoother ride, and less wear on railroad
rolling stock. Another advantage is a longer life, an estimated 60
years, which could be 4 or more times the average life of a wood tie,
depending on its application and environmental conditions.
Compared to wood ties, the composite tie costs about twice as much.
However, its long life helps to offset the higher price, particularly
considering the cost and downtime of replacing ties on a busy rail line.
Clearly, the composite tie will show a life-cycle cost advantage in
such hard-to-reach or hard-to-maintain applications as tunnels, trestles
and bridges, wetlands, and areas prone to insect infestation.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the BNSF and other Class I
railroads as we seek to expand our engineered composite-crosstie
business,” Cadwell said. “Based on user feedback, we’re already making
improvements in our tie design, and we expect to continue to innovate.”
For example, Dynamic Composites has recently developed a new tie
design as a result of discussions with BNSF. The cross section of the
new tie is trapezoidal, wider at the base than at the top. It is
designed to spread the weight of the train across a larger area of the
ground below. The BNSF was looking for a better solution to this
problem, which is especially an issue at the entry to tunnels, where
it’s important to preserve the integrity of the approach, not compacting
the base supporting the tracks. The new design increases the surface
area of the bottom of the tie by 10 percent, distributing the downward
force across the larger supporting base and reducing the psi.
“This is just one example of how our engineered products can be
designed to meet specific performance requirements, as opposed to the
traditional ties,” Cadwell explained. “In the new tunnel and bridge
applications that we are exploring, the ties will require somewhat
different configurations than the tie for general use, but we’re
confident we will be able to design and manufacture these products to
meet the stringent performance requirements of our railroad customers.”
Contacts
For commercial inquiries, please contact:
Kelly Runkel
(260) 625-8652
kelly.runkel@dynamic-cci.com
Fred Warner, Investor Relations Manager
(260) 969-3564 or fax (260) 969-3590
f.warner@steeldynamics.com
More information and photos available on these websites:
www.steeldynamics.com
Forward Looking Statements
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