Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 145 / Friday, July 27, 2018 / Notices 35699 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Railroad Administration 

[Docket No. FRA–2017–0074, Notice No. 2; 

Safety Advisory 2018–01] 

Addressing Electrode-Induced Rail 

Pitting From Pressure Electric Welding 

AGENCY: Federal Railroad 

Administration (FRA), Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice of Safety Advisory. 

SUMMARY: FRA is issuing Safety 

Advisory 2018–01 to remind railroads, 

contractors, and the rail welding 

industry of the potential for electrodeinduced rail pitting and fatigue cracking 

during the pressure electric rail welding 

process. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Matthew Brewer, Staff Director, Rail 

Integrity Division, Office of Railroad 

Safety, FRA, 500 Broadway, Suite 240, 

Vancouver, WA 98660, telephone (202) 

385–2209; or Mr. Aaron Moore, Trial 

Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, FRA, 

1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, 

Washington, DC 20590, telephone 

(202) 493–7009. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 

16, 2017, FRA published a notice of a 

draft safety advisory in the Federal 

Register to address electrode-induced 

rail pitting from pressure electric 

welding and seeking comment on the 

issue. 82 FR 38989. FRA noted its 

investigation and research into the issue 

demonstrated that improper electrode 

contact to the rail during the welding 

process could result in electrodeinduced pitting that may lead to fatigue 

fracture and ultimately rail failure. As a 

result, FRA’s draft safety advisory 

contained specific recommendations to 

help the industry prevent electrodeinduced pitting. 

FRA presented the information 

contained in the draft safety advisory to 

its Railroad Safety Advisory 

Committee’s (RSAC) Rail Integrity 

Working Group. Subsequent RSAC 

discussions and comments submitted by 

the Association of American Railroads 

(AAR) indicated that the rail industry 

agrees with FRA’s concern that stray 

arcing can result in the formation of 

electrode pits and that fatigue cracking 

can then develop from these electrode 

pits. AAR noted, however, that FRA’s 

draft safety advisory did not present any 

information to support a finding that 

rail failures from electrode-induced rail 

pitting are a wide-spread problem. 

Further, AAR noted that its member 

railroads report they have seen no 

indications of a systemic problem 

involving electrode pitting, and that 

railroads and welding companies have 

procedures in place to prevent electrode 

pitting and remediate it when it does 

occur. Accordingly, AAR asserted that 

FRA should not issue any 

recommendations burdening the 

industry such as those included in the 

draft safety advisory. 

After consideration of AAR’s 

comments and input from RSAC 

discussions, FRA agrees with AAR’s 

position that, although stray arcing 

during the pressure electric welding 

process can result in the formation of 

electrode burns or pits on the web, 

head, or base of rail, and that fatigue 

cracking can develop from those burns 

or pits, railroads and welding 

companies have procedures in place 

addressing the issue of electrode pitting. 

Accordingly, in issuing Safety Advisory 

2018–01, FRA has not adopted the 

specific recommended actions listed in 

its draft safety advisory and instead 

intends Safety Advisory 2018–01 to 

merely remind railroads, contractors, 

and the rail welding industry to be 

diligent in complying with existing 

practices and procedures designed to 

prevent electrode-induced pitting in rail 

and to mitigate the pitting when it does 

occur. 

Safety Advisory 2018–01 

Pressure electric welding is the 

process of using a hydraulicallyoperated welding head that clamps 

around two opposing rail ends, pressing 

an electrode on each rail, then 

hydraulically pulling the rail ends 

together while arcing current through 

the electrodes into the rails, causing 

them to essentially melt together to form 

a continuous rail. Stray arcing during 

this process results in the formation of 

electrode burns or pits on the web, 

head, or base of the rail. Fractures in the 

rail may originate from the electrode 

pits because they behave as stress 

raisers (also referred to as stress 

concentrations). Fatigue cracks may 

develop at locations of stress 

concentration. Once a fatigue crack 

initiates, the localized stress encourages 

the growth of the crack, which may 

potentially lead to rail failure. FRA 

believes electrode pitting may be a 

contributing factor, if not the root cause, 

in some accidents involving rail web 

cracking. 

Figure 1 below shows a photograph of 

a rail with electrode pits in the web. The 

location of these electrode pits, when 

they occur, is typically four to eight 

inches on either side of the weld. 

Electrode-induced pitting from pressure 

electric welding may also occur in the 

head and base of the rail. It is unclear 

whether traditional ultrasonic rail 

testing can consistently detect electrodeinduced pitting. 

In 2016, FRA’s Office of Railroad 

Safety requested technical support from 

The National Transportation Systems 

Center (Volpe) to study the fatigue and 

fracture behavior of rails with pitting 

from electrodes used in welding. Volpe 

enlisted technical support from the U.S. 

Army’s Bene ́t Laboratories (Bene ́t) to 

conduct forensic examination of three 

rail sections with electrode-induced 

pitting in the web from the pressure 

electric welding process. FRA obtained 

these rails from members of the railroad 

industry. Bene ́t’s examination included 

fractography (the science of studying 

fracture surfaces to identify the origin 

and causes of fracture), metallography 

(the science of studying the 

microstructure of metals to provide 

information concerning the properties 

and processing history of metallic 

alloys), and testing to determine the 

chemical composition and tensile 

mechanical properties of the rail steel. 

Bene ́t confirmed the electrode-induced 

web fatigue cracking is a result of pitting 

caused by inadequate electrode-to-rail 

contact. 

Specifically, Bene ́t’s metallurgical 

analyses concluded the cracking in the 

rail web originated from the pitting 

created by inadequate electrode-to-rail 

contact during the pressure electric 

welding process. The fractographic and 

metallographic examinations revealed 

evidence of fatigue cracking originating 

from the pitting and fast fracture once 

the fatigue crack reached a critical 

length. Figure 2 below shows three 

photographs of the fracture surface of a 

crack found in one of the rails Bene ́t 

examined. These photographs support 

the metallurgical evidence indicative of 

three stages of fatigue fracture: (1) Crack 

initiation or formation originating from 

the pitting; (2) crack propagation or 

growth by metal fatigue; and (3) final 

rupture or fast fracture. Figure 3 below 

shows photographs of the 

microstructure near the electrode pits in 

each examined rail, providing further 

evidence the cracking originated from 

the pitting created by improper 

electrode contact during welding. 

The results from the metallurgical 

analysis also suggested premature and 

sudden rail failure may result from high 

wheel-impact load (e.g., flat wheel), 

especially in cold-weather 

environments when the longitudinal rail 

force is tensile. Results from the 

chemical analysis and mechanical 

testing indicated the chemistry and 

mechanical properties of the rails 

selected for evaluation were within 

specifications the American Railway 

Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way 


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35700 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 145 / Friday, July 27, 2018 / Notices 

Association (AREMA) published, except 

for the hardness measurements in one 

rail, which were slightly lower than the 

AREMA minimum. Hardness is a 

measure of the resistance of a material 

to surface indentation produced by a 

carbide indenter applied at a given load 

for a given length of time. The lower 

hardness in that rail, manufactured in 

the 1950s, may be attributed to lower 

concentrations (compared to the other 

two rails) of alloying elements, 

specifically carbon, silicon, and 

chromium, which were still within 

AREMA tolerances. Testing of the 

chemistry and the mechanical 

properties revealed all three rails were 

made from standard quality steel 

containing no other defects except the 

electrode-induced pitting. 

FRA recognizes that the industry 

already has practices and procedures in 

place to avoid electrode pitting during 

the pressure electric welding process. 

Therefore, FRA is issuing Safety 

Advisory 2018–01 to remind railroads, 

railroad employees, railroad contractors, 

and welding companies and their 

employees of the importance of 

complying with those procedures to 

prevent electrode pitting and, 

ultimately, to prevent rail failures. (FRA 

has posted a copy of this notice on its 

public website, www.fra.dot.gov, where 

you may view the figures below in their 

full resolution.) 

BILLING CODE 4910–06–P 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 145 / Friday, July 27, 2018 / Notices 35701 


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Figure 1: Electrode-Induced Pits in a Rail 

Figure 2: Photographs of Crack Fracture Surface in Examined Rail 

Figure 3: Photographs of Rail Cross Sections 
35702 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 145 / Friday, July 27, 2018 / Notices 

Ronald Louis Batory, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2018–16022 Filed 7–26–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–06–C 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary of 

Transportation 

[Docket No. DOT–OST–2018–0108] 

Vendor and Grantee Invoice 

Submission Process Change 

AGENCY: U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice of enforced change with 

request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The DOT invites the public 

and other Federal agencies to comment 

on a proposed vendor invoice 

submission change. DOT will submit 

the proposed information collection 

request to the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) for review, as required by 

the Paperwork Reduction Act. This 

notice sets forth new processes and 

procedures for vendors and grantees 

that submit invoices and receive 

payments for DOT Operating 

Administrations (OAs). Existing users of 

DOT’s eInvoicing system, including 

grantees and vendors, will also be 

required to use Login.gov. DOT’s 

objective is to improve efficiency and 

reduce unnecessary burden on vendors 

and grantees by eliminating existing 

manual processes for invoice entry, 

invoice approvals and user registration 

to reduce costs, increase timeliness of 

payments, and improve data quality. 

Introducing e-authentication to facilitate 

user validation and account 

management will greatly reduce the 

burden on vendors and grantees by 

eliminating the current paper based 

registration process. This electronic 

invoicing process is currently used by 

DOT’s grantee community and was 

successfully piloted to select vendors. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before September 24, 2018. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be directed to the U.S. 

Department of Transportation, Office of 

Financial Management, B–30, Room 

W98–431, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, 

Washington DC 20590–0001, Anthony 

Chestnut, (202) 366–9661, 

DOTElectronicInvoicing@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

OMB Control Number: 2105–0564. 

Type of Request: Revision to 

previously approved information 

collection. 

Background: This notice sets forth 

new processes and procedures for 

existing and future vendors and grantees 

that submit invoices and receive 

payments from DOT Operating 

Administrations (OAs). The vendors 

and grantees involved must meet the 

following requirements to participate: 

• Vendors and grantees will need to 

have electronic internet access to 

register in GSA Login.gov and login into 

Delphi eInvoicing system. 

• The identities of system users will 

be verified prior to receiving access to 

the Delphi eInvoicing system. 

Information required for Login.gov 

includes his/her email address, full 

name, phone number, and password. 

• System users will Register with and 

Create an account with GSA Login.gov. 

System users will provide his/her email 

address and receive an email back to 

confirm. They will then create a 

password and input a telephone number 

and opt to receive either a personal call 

from Login.gov or text message with an 

authentication code. 

• Once the system user is 

authenticated, he/she will complete a 

System Access Request for Delphi 

eInvoicing system. The users will 

provide the following information: Full 

name, office phone number, work email 

address, vendor name, purchase order 

(contract or grant award) numbers, and 

agency doing business with. System 

users will provide the form to DOT to 

finalize the access. 

• Once access is complete, vendors 

will submit invoices electronically and 

DOT OAs will process invoices 

electronically. 

Affected Public: All Current and 

Future DOT Vendors and grantees. 

Total Estimated Number of 

Respondents: Greater than 5,000. 

Total Estimated Number of 

Responses: Greater than 5,000. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 500 (Initial Registration Only 

Calculated at 5 Minutes per). 

Frequency of Collection: One Time. 

Annual Estimated Total Annual 

Burden Costs: $5,000. 

Public Comments Invited: You are 

asked to comment on any aspect of this 

information collection, including (a) 

whether the proposed collection of 

information is necessary for the 

Department’s performance; (b) the 

accuracy of the estimated burden; (c) 

ways for the Department to enhance the 

quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information collection; and (d) ways 

that the burden could be minimized 

without reducing the quality of the 

collected information. 

Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act 

of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501–3520, as amended. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on July 24, 

2018. 

Jennifer Funk, 

Acting, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, 

Department of Transportation. 

[FR Doc. 2018–16089 Filed 7–26–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–9X–P 


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