Manassas Park council hears Dominion Energy on crossing-arm failures tied to suspected stray voltage

Dominion Energy representatives told the Manassas Park City Council that recurring failures of the railroad crossing arms at Manassas Drive appear linked to stray electrical voltage correlated with recent transmission-line upgrades.

Calvin O'Dell, the city's director of community development, said Norfolk Southern technicians told staff they had been tracking a stray-voltage issue at the crossing "for nearly 15 years," and that the voltage had recently spiked at the same time Dominion increased voltage on a nearby transmission line. "They had said that recently ... the stray voltage they were tracking had increased," O'Dell said.

Rob Mason, who identified himself as an engineer in Dominion Energy's transmission operations group, described testing and modeling the phenomenon. He said Dominion and Norfolk Southern collected simultaneous measurements on the rails and on the power lines in August and commissioned an engineering study; Mason said the consultant's preliminary report was expected by the end of next week. "One of the things I was taught early in my career is you don't really understand a problem until you can turn it on and off, at will," Mason said, describing the need for models and validation before designing mitigation work.

Mason also addressed whether large new data centers in the region are responsible. "The data centers are not causing this, but the data centers are causing increased load flows," he said, explaining that an abnormal system condition (other transmission lines out for upgrades) concentrated power flows onto the line that parallels the railroad.

Council members asked whether Norfolk Southern and the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) had been briefed and who would be responsible for the crossing arms during the transition of rail ownership; staff said Norfolk Southern has maintained the crossing arms while VPRA completes acquisitions and that Norfolk Southern has been cooperating with measurements and testing. No formal action or vote was taken on the presentation; staff said they would continue to coordinate with Norfolk Southern and Dominion and return with technical updates as the consultant's report becomes available.

The presentation clarified the immediate next steps: Dominion will validate its model against the August field data, then work with a consultant and with Norfolk Southern to design and implement mitigation measures if the study identifies causes that can be remediated by electrical fixes. Council members did not discuss changes to local policy or budget during the presentation.

What happens next: staff and Dominion expect the consultant's preliminary findings by the end of next week and will report back to the council when the results are available.