Western Railroad Discussion > Sounder Tacoma Bridge Construction Update 2/18/17

Picking up from where I left off, which was in the wee hours of Saturday 2/18/2017, I’m back in the daylight, which is to say about 12 noon.

1) Work continued in my absence on the east end too, where Stacey and Whitbeck have graded the new alignment from Main 2 to the new bridge.

2) Back at the G street bridge (west end), I arrived in time to see the last of the 4 bridge beams being cut in half in preparation for shipping to the scrapper.

3) The old pier hanging around for nothing to do.   It will be gone by sun-up Sunday.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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4) Just a little more torching and the welder will have the last beam in two pieces.

5) When I took this image, it occurred to me this might be the last time the herald was seen.   But if all works out, both of the heralds may be saved for preservation.

6) While work continued on the bridge demo, the SpeedSwing was busy move sticks of rail out on to the new bridge for guard rails.  The guard rails would become an issue in the next 36 hours.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/17 20:32 by DelMonteX.

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7) Jaws giving the halved bridge beams a little nudge to get the load balanced.

8) The Milwaukee Road under wire one last time.  Unfortunately, it’s a Milwaukee Road bridge beam being trucked away under Sound Transit’s Tacoma Link Catenary.

9) Took a break for a while an dropped back by around 8 pm first to the east end, where the crew had called it a day after getting the roadbed ready for concrete ties.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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10)  At the west end Rhine was still working on removing the west end bridge abutement.

11)  On my way home, I caught a very late Starlight at nearby 21st Street.  Had I been less tired it might have occurred to me to take the shot a little to my left and get Union Station in the background.   For, it won’t be long before the last passenger train passes by Union Station.

12) And just because I like scary things, the scariest thing on wheels was waiting for Amtrak to clear…. an oil train.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

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Thanks for your coverage, Steve.
Tim Costello

I am going to miss the old S-curve trestle bridge. Progress.

wdkerr - Tacoma

Interesting pics!!  Thanks for posting.

Thanks so much for taking the time to photograph and post them for others.

Was this all done in a weekend, or did they have to discontinue any sounder trains?

Oil train - not scary at all.

What a great series of photos and narrative for this entire project and the multiple posts to this board!! Great work there Steve Carter!
Talking about the whole scope..day shots, night shots, cab rides and walks!!
Reminds me of a project I took on of documenting the building of NS's Whitaker IM Yard in Austell Georgia back in the late 90's early 20's.
Especially the replacing of a single track to double track deck bridge over the Sweatwater Creek just south of the yard at the Austell Box Board Plant.

We have a project here in West Georgia where a new Grade Separated Underpass is being built on the Norfolk Southern's Alabama Division East End District.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,4233971

Not sure I will be able to match your work here but I can come close.
Again, thanks for spending time covering a part of a railroads operations that tends to get overlooked.
 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

This series is an incredible view of the ground level engineering in a huge project.

Thanks for the great work

dcfbalcoS1 Wrote:
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> Oil train - not scary at all.

Tongue-in-cheek.  Its scary to those who think its going to blow up at any second.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

Northbound, right?   Thus its an empty oil train?  Not that this would constrain the panic mongers out there.

If an oil train is northbound in to Tacoma, it's almost certainly loaded.   This one I believe went to US Oil via Tacoma Rail.   Northbound out of Tacoma can be either empty or loaded.

march_hare Wrote:
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> Northbound, right?   Thus its an empty oil
> train?  Not that this would constrain the panic
> mongers out there.

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

Again, a great series of images and accompanying comments.

Thank you

Mike

Michael McInerney
Marion, South Australia,

Thanks, Steve, for your continuing coverage.  I keep waiting for the next installment like a little kid.

Thanks for all the nice comments.  It's nice to know my efforts are appreciated.
 

Steve Carter
Gig Harbor, WA
My Photography

They are appreciated! Very interesting.
Thank you.
Gonut