Spokane Valley-based CXT Inc. says its division here that makes pre-stressed concrete railroad ties has landed two contracts, with a combined value of more than $3 million dollars, to supply more than 24,000 ties and fastenings systems for the City of Calgary Light Rail Transit system, in Calgary, Alberta.

Mark Hammons, Spokane Valley-based national sales manager for L.B. Foster Co., the Pittsburgh company that operates CXT as a wholly owned subsidiary, says CXT recently was awarded the larger of the two contracts, worth about $2.3 million (Cdn.), to produce 14,500 concrete ties for expansion of the light-rail system to the northwest and northeast of Calgary. A general contractor involved in the light-rail project, Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, then awarded CXT a separate contract, worth about $1.4 million (U.S.), to produce another 9,700 ties for a five-mile rail line extension in the western area of the city, he says. Currently, $2.3 million (Cdn.) is equivalent to $2.2 million (U.S.).

CXT has begun producing ties here under the city of Calgary contract and expects to complete that work in October or November, then will start production of the ties ordered in the smaller of the two contracts, Hammons says. It expects to wrap up all of that production work in about January, though some of the ties won't be shipped until the middle of next year, he says.

CXT, which moved to the Spokane area in 1987 from Edmonton, Alberta, says it has maintained a relationship with the city of Calgary since becoming an approved product supplier to the city's light-rail transit system in 1980.

The company's concrete-tie plant here also is working on a number of other sizable contracts for other customers, including the Canadian National Railway Co., the Port of Portland, the Port of Long Beach, the Caltrain commuter rail line in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, Hammons says.

"We're busier than what we had planned on being this year," he says. He attributes that strong demand partly to federal stimulus spending on transportation infrastructure projects, but says, "We've stayed somewhat consistent throughout the economic downturn. I would expect it to continue to grow."

In addition to the plant here, which currently employs about 50 people, CXT operates concrete-tie plants in Tucson, Ariz., and Grand Island, Neb. Hammons says the Tucson and Grand Island plants are operating at full capacity, and the Spokane plant, which has the engineering and production capability to make a broader range of custom railroad ties, is at about 75 percent capacity.

CXT operates two divisions here, CXT Rail Products and CXT Precast Products, which altogether employ about 150 people. CXT Rail Products is located in a 55,000-square-foot building at 2420 Pioneer Lane, just east of Sullivan Road, while CXT Precast Products, a maker of pre-fabricated restrooms and outhouses, occupies a 120,000-square-foot building at 3808 N. Sullivan, inside the Spokane Business & Industrial Park.

L.B. Foster bought CXT 11 years ago for about $20 million. The Pennsylvania conglomerate has been in business for more than a century and manufactures products for the rail, construction, energy, and utility markets.