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The Gulf Coast
Magnetic Levitation Transportation
Technology Deployment Program, also known
as the "Maglev" Project, was part of a
competition sponsored by the Federal
Railroad Administration (FRA) to identify
one or more locations in the United States
to initiate the implementation of an
inter-city, high speed rail transportation
system. Maglev is the abbreviation for
"magnetic levitation," an experimental
propulsion system that uses
electromagnetic forces to propel specially
designed vehicles (trains) along a fixed
guideway at high rates of
speed.
Also referred to as
"contactless technology," prototypes of
these trains can attain speeds surpassing
350 miles per hour.
The FRA sponsored
this competition to demonstrate the
potential of Maglev to provide a service
that could compete with air travel in the
300 to 500 mile range, thus freeing up air
space and airports for longer range
service and avoid the pressing need to
construct new airports. Since the Maglev
technology is new to the United States,
the FRA decided to fund at least one
demonstration project of forty to fifty
miles to prove the system's capabilities.
New Orleans was one of seven U. S. cities
competing for this demonstration
project.
BKI was part of an
international team of transportation
planning and engineering firms conducting
the conceptual planning, design, and
feasibility analysis of a 47-mile long
segment of the Gulf Coast Maglev system.
This segment connects the New Orleans
Central Business District to the
International Airport and the suburban
communities on the north shore of Lake
Pontchartrain. BKI conducted the initial
planning for the Project Team. This effort
included data collection, the preparation
of base maps, and the initial screening of
corridors, alignments, and terminal and
station locations.
The anticipated
construction cost is approximately $2.0
billion.
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