Mobile Mud Spring Work Recognized as a 2021 RT&S Top Project 

Shannon & Wilson’s work on the Mobile Mud Spring project was recently recognized as a 2021 Railway Track & Structures (RT&S) top project. 

As part of this recognition, Shannon & Wilson’s Travis Deane and Dean Francuch were featured on the Rail Group on Air podcast to discuss their award-winning work: “Protecting Transcontinental Rail Tracks from a Moving Mud Spring”. The podcast explores how the unprecedented Mondo mud spring in California created havoc for the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks and Shannon & Wilson's role in protecting this critical infrastructure.

UPRR retained Shannon and Wilson in May 2018 to evaluate the mobile mud spring (about 80 feet from the tracks) and develop options to mitigate the threat. Our geotechnical services included geophysical surveys, subsurface explorations, relief wells, and construction of a sheet pile wall. Our efforts focused on maintaining railroad operations while attempting to understand and affect the mud spring movement.

The unique mobile mud spring has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, and ASCE Civil Engineering magazine.  The mechanisms driving the mobile mud spring are currently being studied by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and several universities.