Western Railroad Discussion > Burlington Bridge

I haven't posted an overhead shot of the bridge project at Burlington, Iowa for a while. It appears that work on the lift span is complete, and two of the new fixed spans are in place on the Ill. side.

A stop at the Burlington Junction is always worthwhile; their crew was just finishing their day's work with C415 701.

Andy

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Good stuff!

- Jeff

Love Pic #1. One assumes the larger trestles closest to the far shore are the newer ones. Any Idea when the renewal will be completed?

Thanks for posting.

Interesting to see a new bridge using that much steel in these times. Will this be painted or left in that natural rust-like finish?

Also interesting to see the C-415, I had thought they had all left the building a long time ago.

Really nice shot of the bridge, I make a trip every Christmas to California from Cincinnati on Amtrak and the last few years it has been interesting to see the progress they have made on the bridge. I went over this past December and January.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Interesting to see a new bridge using that much
> steel in these times. Will this be painted or left
> in that natural rust-like finish?

Likely left in its natural state. This is probably some make of "weathering steel", which is designed to rust in such a way that it creates a "crust" that protects the inner metal from water and oxidation.

BN was one of the early users of this kind of steel, on the big Latah Creek bridge built as part of the reroute through Spokane, WA in the 1970s.

NZ

Responding to TCnR, NebraskaZephyr Wrote:
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> -----
> > Interesting to see a new bridge using that much
> > steel in these times. Will this be painted or
> left
> > in that natural rust-like finish?
>
> Likely left in its natural state. This is probably
> some make of "weathering steel", which is designed
> to rust in such a way that it creates a "crust"
> that protects the inner metal from water and
> oxidation.
>
> BN was one of the early users of this kind of
> steel, on the big Latah Creek bridge built as part
> of the reroute through Spokane, WA in the 1970s.

To elaborate, US Steel perfected a weathering steel in the early 1970s, slapped a brand name of CorTen on it, and tried to sell it to the world. In addition to the Latah Creek Bridge in Spokane, which was a great advertisement for the product, Steel constructed its 64-story, 800-odd-feet-tall Pittsburgh headquarters of the stuff, and its rail subsidiary, the B&LE, even placed an order for some 200 CorTen hoppers. The then-Avis to USS's Hertz, Bethlehem Stool, responded with its own weathering product, Mayari, in what had to have been the ultimate battle of rusting structures. Beth Steel, alas, is gone, and what once was mighty USS is but a CorTen parody of what it once was...

Basically, it does not need paint. Standing water is still a problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cor-Ten_steel

Was Corten the steel used under the stainless steel fluting on most light weight passenger cars?

KR

billio Wrote:
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> Love Pic #1. One assumes the larger trestles
> closest to the far shore are the newer ones. Any
> Idea when the renewal will be completed?

Correct, and sorry, I don't know what the completion date is. Seems like work is going slower now that the lift span is done. There is another fixed span that looks esentially complete, resting on barges just to the south that will doubtless be installed soon.

Thanks for the kind remarks guys!

Andy

billio Wrote:
> To elaborate, US Steel perfected a weathering
> steel in the early 1970s, slapped a brand name of
> CorTen on it, and tried to sell it to the world.
> In addition to the Latah Creek Bridge in Spokane,
> which was a great advertisement for the product,
> Steel constructed its 64-story, 800-odd-feet-tall
> Pittsburgh headquarters of the stuff, and its rail
> subsidiary, the B&LE, even placed an order for
> some 200 CorTen hoppers.

The Richard J. Daley Center building (originally the Chicago Civic Center), in the heart of the Chicago Loop, along with its famous Picasso sculpture out on the adjoining plaza (today known as Daley Plaza), are also constructed of USS Cor-Ten steel. That building and its Picasso are together probably the best known use of Cor-Ten over the years. Personally, I happen to like the stuff, and the both the Daley Center and its Picasso are longtime personal favorites (as is the aforementioned Latah Creek Bridge in Spokane).

Here is a photo of the aforementioned Latah Creek bridge in Spokane, taken in 1980 when it was 7 or 8 years old.

I think they are planning one or two more closures of the Mississippi River bridge this spring to finish replacing the remaining approach spans on the east end, which usually results in detours of the California Zephyr over the UP for a day or two.

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billio Wrote:
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> To elaborate, US Steel perfected a weathering
> steel in the early 1970s, slapped a brand name of
> CorTen on it, and tried to sell it to the world.
> In addition to the Latah Creek Bridge in Spokane,
> which was a great advertisement for the product,
> Steel constructed its 64-story, 800-odd-feet-tall
> Pittsburgh headquarters of the stuff, and its rail
> subsidiary, the B&LE, even placed an order for
> some 200 CorTen hoppers.

I was thinking late sixties, but I'm not positive. N&W built some CorTen steel hoppers too back in that era and left them unpainted. After a few years they were pretty nasty looking.

Go with mid- to late 1960s. The college I went to had a science building made out of the stuff; I was there in 1967. It didn't look as good as the stuff in Chicago or the Latah Creek bridge, and may have been an early effort. (The building was later enveloped by a larger science center; I don't know whether the siding is still exposed anywhere.

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

On buildings and bridges, at least, Cor-Ten weathers until it's almost black, and loses the rusty look entirely. That doesn't look bad at all. I don't know that it would weather quite the same way on a moving piece of rail equipment.

Interestingly, stainless steel is used for rail cars in the UK, Europe, and South Africa. Expensive and heavy. You're probably a lot better off with aluminum.

shoretower Wrote:
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> On buildings and bridges, at least, Cor-Ten
> weathers until it's almost black, and loses the
> rusty look entirely. That doesn't look bad at
> all. I don't know that it would weather quite the
> same way on a moving piece of rail equipment.

Maybe all of the coal dust, diesel fumes and other stuff that the car got exposed to had something to do with that.