Pile Driving Next to 3rd Rail Power

[muuddfun]

How close to active 3rd rail power have any of you driven piles?

We are driving piles for a bridge bent located between two rail tracks. The rail people do not want to shut off power to two tracks at the same time. They only want to allow one to be taken out of service. We will be maybe two or three feet away from the 3rd rail power, and using a swinging leads. I am not seeing this as a safe operation. 3rd rail power is 600V at 10,000 Amps.

Is there any way to do this safely?

 

[Geostructsparks]

Structural protection - I was thinking something more like a blow-out collector, e.g. a big bell-shaped thing ( a 15 x 15 concrete slab, on integral legs, about 5 feet high, that can be dropped by a crane over the track, the third rail, no trains can go through, but the third rail stays on directly underneath. That way there is a little working surface for people, the top of the structure is high enough so the ends of the leads can't reach the rail, the hole is there only where the piles go. Custom built to fit the railroad track, etc.

This keeps the third rail in operation except while placing or removing the cap, but I don't remember if you actually needed trains to use that track...