advertisement

---

Last week, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded a contract for a new railroad bridge over the Osage River to OCCI Inc.

The $20 million project calls for building a second rail bridge over the Osage River adjacent to an existing Union Pacific Railroad bridge in Osage City and constructing a new second mainline track on both sides of the new bridge, totaling about one-half mile. The new track will connect to an existing line, providing about 130 miles of double track from Jefferson City to St. Louis, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) officials said in a prepared statement. Work is slated to begin in early March and conclude at 2013’s end.

The project will remove the last single-track bottleneck on UP’s line between Jefferson City and St. Louis, and increase the reliability of Amtrak's on-time performance, MoDOT officials said.

"Removing this last single-track portion will improve the velocity of both Amtrak and freight trains,” said UP Director of Public Affairs Ben Jones.

In 2006, MoDOT commissioned a rail line capacity study with the University of Missouri to address increasing delays to Amtrak and freight trains operating across the state. The study helped MoDOT and UP identify projects that could increase rail-line capacity between St. Louis and Kansas City, and boost on-time performance of Amtrak and freight trains.

“When the bridge is completed, rail service in Missouri will become an even more valuable transportation asset,” said Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon.