A $16 million project to replace the Canadian Pacific Railway's century-old swing bridge over the Black River at La Crosse, Wisconsin, with a lift bridge will be completed during the last week in April, a railroad spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Completing the new railroad bridge that week will involve rerouting trains and closing the Black River to navigation, spokeswoman Laura Baenen said.
The bridge will be closed to train traffic from at least April 26 through part of April 28, she said. The river under the bridge will be closed to recreational and commercial navigation at 7 a.m. April 26, for up to 120 hours straight, she said.
"Everything is dependent on river current and winds," Baenen said of the timetable.
During the last week of April, the railroad will replace a 307-foot truss swing span with a more modern rolling bascule span. That will turn the swing bridge, which was built in 1902, into a lift bridge.
A bascule span is hinged on one end so it can be lifted, to allow boats to pass. A swing span swings open to let boats pass.
The railroad is making arrangements for a public viewing area on French Island. It will open April 26, so spectators can watch the old span being removed and the new span installed. "We're not set up to accommodate (spectators) until then," Baenen said.
Work on the bridge replacement project began in November 2002.
Baenen said improvements to the bridge, which is a mile south of the Interstate 90 bridge, will allow train traffic to operate more fluidly between Wisconsin and Minnesota.
"The new structure will substantially reduce maintenance costs in our current high axle loading environment and provide more reliability in operations, benefiting both the railroad and users of the river," said Ray Strelesky, manager of project services at the railroad's U.S. administrative offices in Minneapolis.
Baenen said at La Crosse, about two dozen freight trains and two Amtrak passenger trains a day cross four bridges over the east and main channels of the Mississippi River, the Black River and the French Slough.
