The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association, Inc. (NRC), elected two new members to its Board of Directors and released the winners of the 2015 NRC/RT&S Contractor and Safety Awards.
Bill Reimer, Owner and CEO, R&R Contracting, Inc., and William "Wiggie" Shell, President and CEO, Georgetown Rail Equipment Company (GREX) were elected to the Board.
Reimer began his career in the railroad industry working for Burlington Northern and held various positions from laborer to operator to superintendent. He began R&R Contracting in 1988. During the past 27 years, the company has grown, performing design, construction, inspection and maintenance for customers in agriculture, energy, transit, shortline and Class 1 railroads.
Shell brings more than 38 years of rail industry experience to the NRC Board. He began his career in 1977 with the Georgetown Railroad Company where he held various positions for more than 21 years. He joined GREX in 1998 as Director of Mechanical Safety. In 2001, he was promoted to Vice President of Operations. In 2009, he became President and CEO.
The NRC also announced the 2015 Safety Award winners, who will be recognized at the 2016 NRC Conference in San Diego, Calif.
Underwritten by Commercial Insurance Associates, these awards seek to recognize those NRC contractor members with strong workplace safety programs. Participation in the contest increased this year, with 51 rail contracting companies preparing entries.
The NRC notes each of these companies should be commended for their extensive efforts to promote and improve safety in the rail contracting industry and for subjecting their full safety program and range of practices to an exhaustive outside review.
"These companies represent the very best of the NRC and the entire railroad construction and maintenance industry," stated the association.
In each company size category, there were multiple contestants with perfect scores. NRC says this reflects very well on the participating contractors and speaks to the fact that the railroad contracting industry is safe and getting safer.
The winners are listed as follows:
Platinum Winners - Score of 100 out of 100 points American Track Generations Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc. Delta Railroad Construction Fay, and I+IconUSA Company Fritz-Rumer-Cooke Georgetown Rail Equipment Co. HD Machines, LLC Herzog Contracting Corp Herzog Services Inc. K.W. Reese Inc. Kenny Construction Company Kraemer North American, LLC L.K. Comstock National Transit Inc. Lone Star Railroad Contractors MEC - Mass. Electric Construction Company Musselman & Hall Contractors, LLC PNR RailWorks Railroad Constructors Inc. RailWorks Track Services RailWorks Track Systems Inc Rhinehart Railroad Construction Inc. Stacy and Witbeck, Inc. TRAM Construction US Trackworks LLC
Gold Winners - Score of 80-99 points American Rail Marketing LLC Capital Railroad Contracting Inc. Clayton Railroad Construction, LLC CR Construction Company Crafton Railroad Company Inc. East Coast Railroad Services GW Peoples Contracting Herzog Railroad Services Inc. Holland Company J-Track LLC Kelly-Hill Company Loram Maintenance of Way Moran Environmental Ragnar Benson Railroad Construction Co. of South Jersey Railroad Construction Company Inc. Railroad Controls Limited Sharp and Fellows Tranco Industrial Services, Inc. Trans-Global Solutions, Inc. Trumbull
Silver Winners - Score of 70-79 points Armond Cassil Railroad Constructors Coleman Industrial Construction Frontier Railroad Services Omega Rail Services, Inc. Queen City Railroad Universal Rail Systems