Press Release voestalpine Nortrak GIC for Nortrak

GIC Railroad Products USA, LLC (GIC) and voestalpine Nortrak Inc. (Nortrak) announced a partnership today to provide North American railroad and transit customers with a new generation of high performance concrete-based track support systems. The “GIC by Nortrak” partnership will supply freight railroads with a range of pre-stressed concrete crossties tailored specifically for heavy-haul, shared-access corridor, industrial and yard applications. Additionally, “GIC by Nortrak” will supply passenger and transit railroads with crossties for ballasted track and rail seat blocks for ballastless track.

The “GIC by Nortrak” partnership leverages Nortrak’s industry-leading concrete quality and production capability and GIC’s ground-breaking concrete tie and block technology. Nortrak has nearly a decade of experience providing quality, high-performance concrete turnout ties. GIC’s innovative crosstie and rail seat support technology meets or exceeds AREMA’s design qualification requirements and offers significant advantages over conventional designs:

• Reduced risk of rail seat deterioration/abrasion
• Eliminated risk of end splitting/bond failure
• Reduced ballast pressure at the base of tie
• Reduced width of ballast section needed for new construction

GIC crossties are currently in revenue service on several Class I and passenger railroads and exhibit excellent performance. For ballastless track, GIC’s rail seat block technology delivers the following advantages:

• Highly cost competitive
• Increased construction speed
• Increased adjustment capabilities

According to Nortrak’s CEO, Dave Millard, the new “GIC by Nortrak” partnership will realize tremendous synergies. “We are really excited at the prospect of collaborating with GIC. Coupling Nortrak’s strength in concrete production and customer support with GIC’s excellence in design and technology should prove to be a game changer for the market.”

The complete “GIC by Nortrak” product line will be available from Nortrak’s Cheyenne, Wyoming plant for 2017 projects. For more information regarding the “GIC by Nortrak” products, please contact Ryan Kernes (rkernes@gic-usa.com) or Steve Mattson (steve.mattson@voestalpine.com).