Ameren UE, Missouri’s largest electrical utility, opened a “West Facing Rail Turnout” at its plant outside of Labadie, Mo, about 35 miles west of St. Louis. The rail spurs allows unit trains to deliver low-sulfur western coal to the 2,389-megawatt plant in a timely, more efficient manner than it had been able to before.
RailWorks constructed the plant’s west-facing connecting tracks during the fourth quarter of 2006. Within the three-month work window, RailWorks installed tracks #1, #2 and #3, comprised of approximately 16,500 track feet of new 141# continuous welded rail on wood ties and 4 turnouts.