Western Railroad Discussion > Bridge Replacement on the Moffat

Hello-

Union Pacific has been planning for several months to replace an old wooden bridge located on the Moffat Tunnel Subdivision between Rollins and Tolland. Fall seemed like a good time to do it, because the water levels in South Boulder Creek would be near their lowest and the weather would still be good enough to work.

My dad and I headed out west this past Saturday to see what traffic was like on the Moffat. We could not find any trains moving at all. We made it up to Tolland and discovered why. Saturday was the day that old bridge was torn down and the new bridge was put in place.

In this first picture, South Boulder Creek is near its highest point last May as UP 6590 east leaves the divide behind.

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Crews work to secure the first section of the bridge in place on the cement supports. Several weeks ago, the river was detoured through huge pipes, and the pipes were then buried in dirt to allow movement around the bridge.

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The first section of bridge is almost complete and the second can be lowered into place soon.

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The bridge was brought in piece by piece on flatbed trucks. The dirt road leading to the Moffat Tunnel that these trucks had to use starts on the north side of the tracks, but takes a sharp 90 degree curve south under the tracks at the west end of Rollins. The dirt under the bridge was lowered to accomodate the huge vehicles.

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The crane prepares to life the next section of bridge into place. I've never seen so many vehicles along the road leading to the Moffat before! Flagmen were out to protect the one lane road along the construction site.

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It was odd seeing a section of mainline completely missing! The last eastbound was the MRONY-19 early that day. The old bridge was quickly torn down and hauled away. The new bridge was in place shortly after nightfall (although I was not around to see the first train!)

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Finally, for the last picture, UP crews prepare a section of panel track to be placed over the bridge once construction of the bridge has completed. The panel track is laying on top of the mainline just east of the bridge.

Have a good week!!!

Kevin Morgan
The Front Range
http://www.drgw.ws/

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Great work! But the pictures are mislabeled. They should read Sat Oct 22nd 2005- Not Sat Oct 23rd 2005.

Lodiboi

Thanks for catching that...I'll plead guilty to being way too tired to safely operate a keyboard this evening! heh

Kevin

Track wasn't open unilt around 0200 Sunday morning. And the last eastbound was a coal load :) CEYMS something. If you wanted to see traffic you should have been there Sunday morning.......a whole lotta westbounds, at least 10 or so by noon I didn't really count them.

Thanks for the pics

KatDiesel Wrote:
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> Track wasn't open unilt around 0200 Sunday
> morning. And the last eastbound was a coal load
> :) CEYMS something. If you wanted to see traffic
> you should have been there Sunday morning.......a
> whole lotta westbounds, at least 10 or so by noon
> I didn't really count them.
>
> Thanks for the pics


Thanks for the update Kat...I knew I heard the horns of westbound late Saturday night, so I was close! As for the last eastbound, thanks for the correction! I was going based on something I heard across the scanner, but that was apparently inaccurate. :) I heard that "a manifest" was the last train over the bridge...then, I saw the MRONY at Plain and assumed (you know what they say about that) that it was the last train mentioned (as there were no other eastbounds between Plain and the bridge).

Kevin

Well done Kev. Enjoyed that !

FrontRange Wrote:
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> Finally, for the last picture, UP crews prepare a
> section of panel track to be placed over the
> bridge once construction of the bridge has
> completed. The panel track is laying on top of the
> mainline just east of the bridge.
>
> Have a good week!!!
>
> Kevin Morgan
> The Front Range
> http://www.drgw.ws/


Hi Kev-
Wonder whose garage they kept that panel track in? Doesn't look like it's got a single bit of rust!
-Wes

FrontRange Wrote:
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> Crews work to secure the first section of the
> bridge in place on the cement supports. Several
> weeks ago, the river was detoured through huge
> pipes, and the pipes were then buried in dirt to
> allow movement around the bridge.

Too bad that bridge doesn't look wide enough to accomodate two tracks... We could've propagated all kinds of rumors!
-Wes