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May 2009
— by Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Many rail bridges date back more than a century and are getting older by the year. Yet, most freight railroads are limited in how many structures they can address this year due to recessionary and budgetary constraints. At least a few projects that might have been delayed will advance in ’09 because of an influx of $142 million in federal stimulus dollars for bridge repairs.
While the feds are providing funds on one hand, they’re instituting bridge-related regulatory changes on the other. The Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (H.R. 2095) requires the Federal Railroad Administration to issue a new rulemaking on bridge inspection and management programs by October.
The rulemaking will mandate that roads conduct a bridge inventory and annual inspections, as well as determine a capacity rating and develop a management program for each bridge.
The regulation won’t greatly impact Class Is, which have performed those tasks for years, says Norfolk Southern Railway Chief Engineer of Bridges and Structures Jim Carter.
“But to some extent, the rulemaking could affect regionals and short lines,” he says.
Despite the regulatory and recessionary effects, Class Is, regionals and short lines plan to complete a host of bridge projects this year. Rehabilitation work will continue to be vital, but the replacement of old major river-crossing structures and outdated timber trestles will remain their modus operandi for keeping bridges up to date.
BNSF Railway Co. has increased its total structures budget to $91.3 million from last year’s $76 million primarily because the railroad will undertake more major bridge work, or those projects costing more than $10 million.
“Several years ago, we looked at our major river crossings and developed a plan to address them that goes out to 2035,” says Steve Millsap, BNSF’s assistant vice president of structures. “The plan addresses 111 bridges in total, of which nine have been addressed in the past nine years.”
This year’s agenda involves major bridges near Sandpoint, Idaho, and in Amelia, La., and Burlington, Iowa.
Last year, the Class I completed first-phase work on the 4,769-foot-long Idaho bridge, which crosses Lake Pend Oreille. In June, the railroad plans to begin the second phase of the project, which calls for replacing the substructure and 16 52-foot spans. BNSF has awarded a contract to Advanced American Construction Inc. of Portland, Ore.
Piling work will be slowed by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service restrictions on disturbing bull trout, says Millsap. The agency is limiting pile-driving “blows” to 77 per day instead of a typical 7,000 because the wildlife service determined the blows are damaging to the trout.
“It’s like being able to hit a nail with a hammer only once a day,” says Millsap.
Construction also will be slowed to replace a 693-foot-long bridge over Bayou Bouef in Amelia because the U.S. Coast Guard is limiting work to six hours per day to decrease impacts on water traffic. However, work windows for the project, which began in February, will widen toward the end of construction, which is expected to wrap up in September, says Millsap.
OCCI Inc. is the prime contractor for the project, which calls for replacing a 150-foot swing span. In 2005, the bridge was damaged by seagoing equipment during Hurricane Katrina.
BNSF also plans to upgrade a Mississippi River bridge in Burlington to ensure barges no longer strike the structure regularly. The Coast Guard has ranked the bridge the third-highest on its barge-strike list. Last month, BNSF officials learned the railroad will receive $28.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) proceeds to help fund the $168 million project.
Located along the Class I’s Chicago-to-Denver mainline, the bridge was has reached its serviceable life, says Millsap.
“The masonry piers date back to 1868 and steel trusses date back to 1891,” he says.
The project calls for replacing the bridge’s 362-foot swing span with a 300-foot vertical lift. To be completed in two phases, the project also includes upgrades to the 2,000-foot structure’s approach spans.
Design work for the project has been completed. The Coast Guard will obtain bids for the swing-span portion of the bridge over the navigable channel while BNSF will handle the approach spans, says Millsap. Construction is expected to start in late 2009 or 2010 and conclude in third-quarter 2011.
A regional and short line also are advancing bridge projects after receiving a big assist from stimulus funding. The CN-owned Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Co. obtained $49.4 million to reconstruct a bridge on the Illinois River near Morris, Ill.
Built in 1895, the bridge poses a “serious obstruction” to the inland river navigation system because the structure’s lift span allows only 120 feet of clearance for barge traffic, according to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who helped secure funding for the project. The structure is considered the “most hit bridge in America,” Durbin said in a press release.
Meanwhile, the Columbia Terminal Railroad will gain a new single-track bridge over U.S. Highway 63 in Columbia, Mo., because the federal government is funding the entire $8 million project with ARRA dollars funneled through the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT).
The short line, city of Columbia and MoDOT plan to build a 460-foot-long bridge, including ballasted thru-plate girder spans over the highway, ballasted deck plate-girder approach spans and 2,400 feet of approach track.
The grade separation project will enable the parties to eliminate a highway-rail crossing along the 70 mph, divided freeway, which has been the site of many highway-rail and freeway accidents, says Christian Johanningmeier, a Columbia Terminal Railroad engineer.
“There have been three incidents with our trains resulting in five injuries, and numerous non-rail incidents resulting in at least 10 injuries and two fatalities,” he says. “The non-rail incidents are mostly rear-end-type crashes involving haz-mat and school buses, which slow or stop for the crossing.”
The project also will enable the short line to reduce maintenance costs, “particularly for the crossing itself and for maintaining the active warning devices,” says Johanningmeier.
Modjeski and Master Inc., with help from Hanson Professional Services, is completing the project’s final design.
As of press time, the short line planned to let the project for bids at April’s end. The railroad intends to issue a notice to proceed to the winning bidder by June 15, says Johanningmeier.
Although CSX Transportation won’t be receiving any stimulus funding assistance this year, the Class I has boosted its bridge program spending 10 percent to $55 million.
The railroad plans to rehabilitate dozens of existing structures and start two major projects, which call for rebuilding one track on a double-track bridge over the Anacostia River near Washington, D.C., and replacing three truss spans on a bridge over the Mahoning River in Youngstown, Ohio.
NS won’t obtain stimulus dollars for bridges, either. Nonetheless, the Class I plans to complete 74 new projects this year, as well as 21 carry-over projects from 2008.
The railroad increased its budget by 12 percent primarily because of higher costs for materials, such as steel and concrete, says NS’ Carter.
This month, the Class I expects to complete repairs to a drawbridge in Norfolk, Va., which crosses the Elizabeth River’s southern boundary.
Contractor Fenton Rigging is replacing five tread plates over the segmental girder.
“After repairs are complete, the bridge will roll straight when it’s raised and lowered, and not skew,” says Carter.
NS also plans to replace 34 timber trestles, totaling 4,327 bridge feet, with pre-stressed concrete ballast deck structures. For the past 20 years, the railroad has aimed to eliminate aging timber trestles on core lines, says Carter.
“Timber trestles now represent 7 percent of our bridge population,” he says, adding that the percentage is small for a Class I.
The Kansas City Southern Railway Co. (KCSR) is eliminating old timber trestles this year, as well. The Class I will spend $2.5 million to replace three timber bridges in the Morton, Miss., area with concrete spans.
KCSR also has budgeted $2.1 million to replace a 600-foot-long timber structure in Meehan, Miss., built in 1928. The railroad plans to build a 350-foot-long concrete-span structure and fill in the remaining 250 feet.
In addition, KCSR will spend $1.3 million to rebuild three mainline bridges in Whitfield, Miss. Totaling 80 feet in length, the structures will support a newly constructed siding.
Aging timber trestles are a priority for the Indiana Rail Road Co., too. The 500-mile regional plans to replace timber ballast-deck bridges over the Wabash River in Palestine, Ill., and the North Fork Embarras River near Oblong, Ill., with pre-stressed concrete structures.
“The timber, caps and stringers are decaying,” says General Manager of Engineering Peter Ray. “Timber bridges are expected to last 40 years and concrete bridges will last at least 50 years.”
The new concrete bridges will feature longer spans, from 24 to 34 feet vs. the timber bridges’ 14-foot spans, to enable river debris to better flow under the structures and not get caught in openings, says Ray.
Meanwhile, the Alaska Railroad Corp. (ARRC) is focusing a portion of its $6.3 million bridge program — which includes $4.5 million from the Federal Transit Administration — on aging structures, including the replacement of 50-year-old timber-pile foundations.
The program calls for rehabilitating six bridges by replacing spans, installing new deck material or upgrading components. In addition, ARRC will address two major projects.
A bridge near Palmer built in the late 1930s needs rehabbed piers because the original timber foundation is old and “wasn’t built as well as it could have been,” says Tom Brooks, ARRC’s assistant vice president of engineering and chief engineer.
The freight and passenger railroad also plans to replace a bridge over Little Goldstream Creek near Nenana that was built in the 1920s.
ARRC is building a ballast-deck structure adjacent to the old bridge, which will be demolished after work concludes later this year.
“The foundation has gone into permafrost and is degrading,” says Brooks.
Although time has caught up with the structure, some of ARRC’s 162 bridges that also were built in the 1920s still are in service, he says.
“Many are in good shape,” says Brooks.
To keep their bridges in tip-top shape, freight roads
expect to continue replacing structures that have exceeded their serviceable life and rehabilitating others with worn-out components.
As long as much-need dollars are available from federal, state and local sources, there’ll be fewer century-old bridges on their networks.
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