CN Rail

The CN Rail railway network has over 32,000 route-kilometres of track in Canada, and the value of goods delivered by rail every year in the 100’s of billion dollars.  Railway geohazard management is an important component of the railway’s risk management system, and is used to reduce the frequency of train derailments and service disruptions caused by damage to rails or rail bed, debris on the track, debris impact on locomotives, and triggering of warning devices. Despite these risk management systems, geohazard events still occur, and can cause damage to or loss of transported goods, delay to transported goods, environmental harm, damage to railway equipment, and injury or loss of life. 

BGC is retained by CN to provide emergency on-call response to geohazard events such as rock fall, bank erosion, and landslides throughout the Pacific Division. In this role, BGC responds to a request for geotechnical and hydrotechnical support to the railway engineers and operations team as they work to restore service to the affected track. Typically, these call-outs occur within 12 hours of a request, and include tasks such as: 

• Installation and monitoring of instrumentation
• Definition of exclusion zones
• Installation and monitoring of rainfall gauges
• Photogrammetry
• Coordination and management of surveyors to monitor critical area(s)
• Acting as the site contact for CN Geotechnical
• Monitoring slopes while crews work below
• Provision of engineering advice as requested by CN

BGC is proud to support CN in their commitment to safety and protection of the environment.