Eastern Railroad Discussion > Battle Creek River Bridge Failure on March 19, 2019.

On Tuesday, March 19, 2019, around noon, the Battle Creek River Bridge - MP 181.34 CN Flint Subdivision, Pennfield Township, Calhoun County, Michigan, failed. The Main #1 side of the bridge sagged. My understanding is there were no cars derailed, and no injuries. The Train went into emergency after the Locomotives and a dozen or so cars had crossed the bridge. The Conductor walked the train and discovered the bridge failure.

What I heard about this Bridge Failure was the vertical supports holding up the concrete deck failed, and this allowed the Bridge Deck to sag.  From what I understand about this, the supports failed below the water line of the Battle Creek River. There was a lot of concern about what caused the bridge supports to fail. CN took a number of water samples from the river to see if there is something in the water that could have caused this. Another concern was that maybe the steel used for the supports was defective, or maybe it was not of the quality required to support the bridge deck and any trains that crossed it.

CN Crews worked from March 19 to April 1 removing the sagging bridge deck, and replacing it with a new concrete deck. They only replaced the old deck on Main #1, which is the track on the north side of the bridge, the Old Westbound Main.

They discovered on the Main #2 side of the bridge that it was also corroded and could possibly fail. They poured concrete around the vertical supports on the Main #2 side of the bridge. The concrete would add additional support for the bridge deck.

I took about 200 photographs of the Bridge and crews working there.  I'm trying to find a few that will show what was happening there.

Ron





 

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Another 3 photographs of the Bridge and Crews working on the bridge

Ron

 

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3 more. These were taken March 31.

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3 more. These were from April 1, 2019.

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3 more from April 1, 2019.

This is all for right now. I'll try find some more a little later today.

Ron

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A video


Ron

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Ron Wrote:
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> A video
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> Ron

Wow, that's am interesting use of a hi-railer.

Agreed. Never thought about that type of setup. Pretty efficient really. I suppose as long there isn't a steep grade the truck should be able to stop with that much weight.

Here's another video from March 25, 2019. The Hi-Rail Truck with that old concrete bridge deck.

Several retired CN Track People, no longer living in Michigan, saw the videos of the Hi-Rail moving that concrete bridge deck and made the same comments as a couple here on Trianorders did.
Looks like we found a new use for the log truck cart. Air brakes must be disabled to use with hi-rail.

Ron
 

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Another video of them moving that old concrete bridge deck with that Hi-Rail Truck.

Ron

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Do passenger trains use it ? 

Amtrak 365/364 Port Huron-Chicago do. #365 around 9:30 AM going west, and #364 around 8:00 PM going east.

Ron

Thanks for posting!! Really enjoyed the upclose coverage. Well done!!

Looks like all that construction work accidentally improved the ability to get some good photos by clearing out a lot of brush.