Western Railroad Discussion > The Progress on Progress 2

I mentioned this the other day-  The UPRR has decided to replace the little bridge over the old miners ditch in front of my place up here in Dutch Flat.  I know this is not near as sexy as the Malley Shed tear down, but on the other hand- I got curious about just how they were going to tear down this old bridge without shutting down the RR (or the Ditch, for that matter!).  And so this series...

The first thing they did was staging-  they delivered all the cast concrete culvert sections needed, and all the tools needed.  This took about 3 or 4 days.  Next all the underground utilities in the area were located and marked (paint & flags) by a UPRR electrician.

There are actually 2 bridges under there.  One built in 1926, the other in 1938.  My guess would be the '26 bridge was built during double tracking and maybe the original late 1800's era bridge was replaced in 1938.  Yesterday they dug around to find where the bridges met and made some measurements.  BTW:  The bridges are not failing-  this is just UPRR "Progress"

Photos 1&2.  Digging around...
Photo 3.  Getting in the clear for an EB BNSF "rights" train.  After they finished they buried the hole.
SR

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What does the old bridge look like? Do you have an end view?

Sure-  it's not really remarkable, but someday it might be?  Just a small wooden span you'd never notice, but it's 1926 & 1938 build dates maybe make it worthy of some small respect?
SR

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Good series that i will like to follow. I think it will be interesting to see how they do this without tearing up the RR.
Brian Stevens

I'm curious to see how long they take. That excavator is relatively cheap to rent, the turret crane is not!

They say the job should take about two weeks. We shall see...
SR

I say they're worthy of big respect, for all the tough winters and heavy trains they've endured---and they're still in great shape!!  Too early to replace them!!  Give them another 50 years!

Any idea when the ditch was concreted?

It was about maybe 6yrs ago, something like that. The ditch had been owned by PG&E for decades. They spun it off to the County, forming the Placer Country Water Agency (PCWA), in the 80’s or 90’s (I was paying close attention) and the PCWA has been tweaking it ever since.
SR

I liked it better before- more fish.

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> It was about maybe 6yrs ago, something like that.
> The ditch had been owned by PG&E for decades. They
> spun it off to the County, forming the Placer
> Country Water Agency (PCWA), in the 80’s or
> 90’s (I was paying close attention) and the PCWA
> has been tweaking it ever since.
> SR
>
> I liked it better before- more fish.


Wow, very recently then. Maybe the fish will come back!

The fish did come back, but I don't know that they're as happy.  (they look kinda pissed, actually)  There were crawdads too, but they're definately gone forever.
SR

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> The fish did come back, but I don't know that
> they're as happy.  (they look kinda pissed,
> actually)  There were crawdads too, but they're
> definately gone forever.
> SR


Definite bummer:(