It's amazing how long it takes to get minor repairs done on the railroad, especially if the track is passable at a lower speed. Interrupt a busy main line completely and look out! They can really get it done when the equipment and manpower is mobilized.
This was from a few days before the bridge failed. The trees and the river bank around the affected pier seem to be in place yet. The shots of the bridge are about half way through the video.
Will have to wait for the water level to drop another 30 feet to be sure but it does appear that the river channel moved a lot.
We can see those trees under the bridge span have already washed free and are sinking into the river. There must have been quite an eddy formed there.
OK, it is all clear to me now. All the yellow beams I saw them unloading were for the platform to run the crane out onto to drive piles. They are driving piles on each side of the span and then will insert a crossmember between them to lower the bridge and trestle spans onto. At present they are tilted up just a bit. I guess they are just leaving the old pier there for now. This is all just a WAG. A totally uneducated guess. But that is my story, and I am sticking to it.
I would believe that after they finish (re)building, we will see a whole bunch of additional rock dumped along that area.
This is just an awesome thread with all the before and during pictures, I agree with Ryan in that just let a busy MT go out of service and watch the $$$ flow like water under the Brazos bridge. Most interesting to see how they will stabilize a very unstable base for all this. I know little of engineering (Civil that is) Bed being 1/4 mile below all this and saturated earth to deal with.
This is fascinating to watch. Russell, you're doing a great job documenting the action and progress, thanks.
Nah, not yet. If they come back and totally replace it all, then maybe. Looks like this is shaping up to be just a "quick" repair job. A lot of welding and cutting going on around the new piles that were driven in yesterday. They welded on some angle tabs to the side of the pilings. Then they cut the pilings off to a finished height. Looks like they will have to cut the top of the old pier off to get any crossmember beams between the sets of pilings. Looks like that one guy leaning on the railing has a custom made sombrero hard hat.
I believe they are welding more pipe sections on top of the piers and then driving them deeper. Then they scoop out the mud with a clam shell device that is dropped down the pipe. When they pull it back up they dump a bunch of muck. I guess they will then fill the pipe with concrete. Here is a close up of the mud scoop.
Driving piles to build new trestle bents, the other ones having been exposed by the bank erosion. Steel pipe for new pier pilings have been cut off. Looks like some of the cofferdam has been cut away and concrete removed from old pier. Adding re-bar for reinforced concrete pier above steel pipe.
Some drone shots of the cofferdam repair to the pier. Looks like there was not much concrete there. What little there was pulled away and allowed the high water to wash all the mud out that was encasing the pier.
The main pier pilings have been capped off with concrete platforms that will support the cross members to hold the bridge up. An orange demolition line has been painted across the top of the old pier and a jack hammer is knocking off everything above it to make clearance for the cross members. The jack hammer machine is on a platform suspended from the crane. You can kind of see the hydraulic arm with the jack hammer head in this image. And here is all important observation stand, erected on top of one of the main pier pilings, for all the supervisors to observe and make their recommendations from.
I notice there is a cooler present. Probably so they can have chilled iced tea to sip as they watch and then get in the way.
I have not been by the bridge in a few days. I heard they will start running trains again today. I will have to swing by on my way up to the family property in Central Texas. Got my Amtrak ride on the detour in, just in the nick of time.
