Western Railroad Discussion > UP Brazos River Bridge Reopens-Again

After weeks and weeks of continuous round-the-clock labor the UP’s Brazos River bridge in Richmond, Texas on the Sunset Route opened for traffic in the early morning hours of Saturday July 23rd.  In addition to the UP’s normal traffic trains from the BNSF and KCS also crossed the bridge utilizing normal trackage rights in and out of Houston and Amtrak’s #1-the Sunset Ltd.-made an on-time appearance in the late evening.  Watched by MoW crews traffic was held to a 20mph speed restriction which will remain in place for a while.  More work continues in and around the site, albeit at a much more relaxed pace, and was empty of workers on Sunday afternoon.  Running ahead of schedule the targeted reopening was planned for July 27th. 
 
1. Workers swarm all over the new steel work surrounding the sinking central pier as the final work of attaching the bridge deck to the new supports is completed on the Brazos River bridge on July 22th.  Below the welders a workman climbs out of the space between steel beams while weatherproofing the assembly with sealer.  Below the bridge deck a welders silhouetted legs stand on the original masonry pier whose top portion has been jack-hammered away to make room for the lateral beam assembly.  
 
2. Just a few hours after the bridge has reopened for service the M-EWEG [Manifest-Englewood (Houston) to Eagle Pass, TX] makes its way west through the construction area under a 20 mph speed restriction.  Similar to the repair on the first failing pier multiple lateral and longitudinal horizontal steel beams make up the new central span support sitting atop concrete caps attached to triangular-fabricated tubular pilings.  Four temporary yellow piling caps are still in place and the removed top portion of the original pier is clearly visible as open space.

3.  Cruising over the newest support SD70ACe 8727 passes overhead with an eastbound on Sunday July 24th the first full day of the bridge having returned to service.  Crawling with workmen less than 24 hours before the job site is now largely empty save for a few machine operators and UP Track Gang 9337 inspecting each train’s passage.  An area once inundated with the harsh sounds of heavy construction the tranquil sounds of birds, crickets and flowing river have returned punctuated by the passage of each train.

Tom Kline
Houston, TX
 

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4. A closer view of the new construction shows the stacked span girders and central attachment to the bridge deck.

5.  With the busy Sunset Route now complete again trains were crossing the Brazos River at 20-30 minute intervals on Sunday July 24th, the first full day of the bridge being open.  Though open to traffic additional construction will continue in the area as the job is finished up.   A look through the clearing in the trees in the background the red boom of the hapless Link-Belt 240 excavator which was pulled from the river last month can be seen at work moving materials around.

6. Using brute force the operator of a Caterpillar 223C excavator yanks the remains of a steel sheet piling out of the mud during demo cleanup at the base of the first pier which failed back in April.  To the left of the photo the brown steel piling, concrete top cap and black welded cross braces of the replacement pier rise above the machine.

Tom Kline
Houston, Texas
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/16 20:21 by cuontv.

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Amazing heavy-duty work, and you have covered it excellently with obviously lots of time and effort expended and perfect photography! It has been fascinating and a pleasure watching the progress of this difficult repair, and all due to your efforts. Thank you! === === = === JLH

7.  Having been lifted out of the river by the white American-Terex HC165 crane pushboats Sir Kettlewell and Sir Johnson sit high and dry on the bank now that their job is complete.  Soon the compact tugs will be loaded onto flatbed trailers and trucked back home to Jefferson City, Missouri.

8.  A wider view of the previous photo shows a large disturbed area of the west bank settling behind the western-most pier which is above the river channel.  Hopefully this is not a harbinger of future problems though the river level continues to drop and poses the questions of just how far-reaching the flood scouring occurred and to what depth?  This subsidence is recent and was a solid mass only a week before.

9.  Heading east across the Brazos River SD70AH 9016 rolls over the western-most pier which is seen from the other side of the bridge deck from the previous photo.  The base of this pier is sitting on top of a large square concrete foundation whose corner can be seen extending from the steep bank.  There is no subsidence occurring on this side of the bridge.

Tom Kline
Houston, Texas
 

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10. Once occupied by a 3 foot diameter 70 foot long piling supporting a 12,000 lb., dual-drum diesel-powered winch set only this hole remains on the west bank of the Brazos River making for a doozie of a pothole.  Of the several winches that were set up around the work zone only a couple remain in position.  Of my many visits to the job site I never saw them in operation or set up giving any indication as how they were used. 
 
11. Whether cautious, curious or a little of both the engineer of UP AC4400CW 5524 eases across the Brazos River bridge well below the 20 mph speed restriction while looking out the open cab side window at the new work done below.  The bridge opened hours before and hosted the normal Saturday parade of trains all under the watchful eyes of MoW crews round the clock.

12. Blurring across the repaired bridge blue Hanjin and red Hamburg-Sud containers meld together in a time-exposure of this intermodal heading east to Houston.  Below the spans pushboats Mudd Tug 3 and 7 maneuver a spud barge away from the new central pier and towards the bank to off load the white American-Terex HC165 crane.   Unfortunately for me they were taking the bridge lights with them.

Tom Kline
Houston, Texas
 

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13.  No longer having to also detour via the BNSF the KCS returned to normal operations under trackage rights on the UP to and from Houston with the reopening of the bridge.  Deep in the night several hours after opening to traffic this northbound grain empty joined the parade with gray AC4400CW 4580 in the lead.

14.   Rolling across rusty spans held up by new supports the CSX-powered Z-JXLA [Intermodal-Jacksonville to LA] makes its way west late in the night with a priority block of Tropicana reefers on the head end while two pushboats jockey barges and equipment below on Saturday July 23rd .   During the weeks of detours this train was rerouted via the former MKT/MP lines through Austin, Texas.

Tom Kline
Houston, Texas
 
 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/16 21:25 by cuontv.

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Thanks for taking the time to post all the details and photos of the bridge repair.  I enjoyed them.

Tom - Outstanding reporting job.

Paul Brennecke
Golden, CO

Awesome coverage of this entire event.   Any chance of a new two track bridge or is this fix permanent?  

Thanks so much for taking the effort to cover this event. Great photos!

Amazing work, but very complicated compared to the simplicity of the previous structure.  Many of these old, old bridges that RR's spent money building are coming due for replacement.  One has to wonder if this emergency repair will be left as the "new permanent" bridge, or if a new one is now being planned?

Amazong work alright, I bet those MOW guys are gonna get a nice paycheck after all this!

Your photos and naration have really made this project well-explained and understandable throughout the weeks.  Thanks for your efforts and photos.
Brian Stevens

Extremely well done!

Great coverage and photos. In this latest series the water level normal or still high?

What know how, engineering and sweat have gone into this project. Your pictures are of the highest quality combined with an excellent narrative. Thank you for your time and effort. For me it was like looking at an article in my National Geogrpahic magazine.
John 

A very impressive series of reports by you over the period of this rebuild.  

Many thanks for your reports.

Mike

Michael McInerney
Marion, South Australia,

That was one hell of a flood for all that damage!
Thank you for reporting the process!

Posted from Android

Top-notch reporting, again.  Well done!

Yes, this was quite a repair, and the new 'pier' is quite complicated compared to the old.  But, the railroad is open.  Designing and building a whole new replacement bridge is a much bigger project that would take many more months, even a year or more, to complete.  Now the revenue can flow once again.

But the larger point is true.  There are a lot of bridges and retaining walls that are coming due for major upgrades or full replacement.  And that is big $$$$ regardless.

~RGDave

Following this project, with Tom's excellent reporting and photos, justifies my TO subscription.Well done.