Fantastic repair, and completed before the Brazos has fully recovered. There must be a building full of repair plans for every possible catastrophe. Just a matter for a team to inspect the site, select the correct plan, assemble staff, contractors, vendors, material, and logistics, and finally go to work.....WOW Russell, thank you for your excellent coverage.
These guys are good! This is how projects should be done. Now I am hoping someone may be nearby to catch the first train across.
Do you think there will be future work to put a more substantial pier in place? Is the girder even connected to the two new piers, or is it just resting on them, with the bridge resting on it? (Yeah, some of my questions may be due to being from earthquake country -- and not being a civil/structural engineer)
With regard to Rick's question, as I recall, railroad bridge shoes float on the cap? Due to expansion/contraction?
After all the repairs are done they should get the painting gang out there and paint the rusty bridge.
Typical UP. Here UP DS say they dispatch more MW than trains lol. Should not compare here to there, but. Prolly crews are either, furloughed, DOL or LOS (Lay off sick). I never seen the like in my RR career. Great thread though.
Well, I guess it is all cleanup and bank stabilization from here on out. The river is not going to go down very fast. They are dumping huge amounts of water from reservoirs in North Texas on the west side of Fort Worth. I crossed the river between Milam and Robertson Counties this afternoon and it is quite high there yet. Here is a photo of the new pier taken while I was waiting for the "first train" on Wednesday. I guess it finally came but I was on the road by then.
Trains are rolling. I saw a total of 5 trains from Post Oak to Richmond, about 20 miles worth of track.
... and now the rumor is that the bridge is still sinking and will be replaced and should take about 18 months.
If still sinking, it will require some interesting engineering to stop that problem. I'm going to be interested in seeing project!
They may have to consider a truss or cantilever design supported by massive concrete abutments if they can't get enough adhesion for bents. NASA had the same problem when the Saturn engine test stands were built at the Mississippi Test Facility. The original design called for 2500 200' piles to support the stand. When the first pile was hit, it immediately shot out of sight like an arrow into Devil's Swamp mud. They ended up having to use 500' piles to get enough adhesion. Apparently nobody noticed that the core samples had been obtained from 3/4 mile away......
The bridge will be out of service for two weeks, don't know if they started or not. I'm guessing they're going to try and do another patch before they have to spend a lot of money. UP is a very cheap company.
The next pier out has been shifting. Not as severe as the first one but I guess they are gun shy. Can't detect much from this angle. Using a barge, they have set three piles on the west bank and mounted huge cable winches on top of them. I guess they are going to work this next job from barges secured by these winches. They were starting to set more of them on the east bank while I watched.
Build on the Cheap, and pay Double later for what it would have cost to do it right originally. Been There, Done That, Got Lotsa Coffee Cups.
