CSX Upper River Bridge: Proposal to Remove

[jimnorthwood]

Not exactly new news here; however, it appeared in our weekly newspaper yesterday so thought I'd share:

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D0 ... Bridge.pdf

[Saturnalia]

Gotta love the enviro stuff in there. All the trees will be cut in winter, so that bats are in hibernation and thus less likely the effected by the cutting of "potential habitat trees", or something to that effect.

[MSchwiebert]

It'' be interesting to see how this pans out. The bridge has been allocated as part of a proposed hike/bike path for quite some time. So to me this says one of two things: 1. The existing bridge is either unsuitable, or too deteriorated for carrying a a hike/bike path on it and will be replaced by one that is. Or, 2. The hike/bike path idea (at least across the river) is dead.

[bluestreak81]

I can't imagine the costs of replacing the bridge with a bike trail bridge. But it does not seem to mention, other than it being an alleged eyesore to some, if the structure of the bridge is failing and a hazard to boat traffic below. If they were to paint it, maybe that would be helpful. I bet it would cost less.

[jimnorthwood]

MSchwiebert is correct that the bridge has long been a component in the planned trail to link Wood and Lucas counties. The report notes the bridge is in "critical condition", and suffers from pier deterioration and possible structural damage as a result of the derailment that took place out there about 35 years ago, and effectively ended its useful life.

[bluestreak81]

There is an actual photo of the derailment, but I don't know who owns the photo for permission. Although here is a newspaper photo of the tracks. Unfortunately the quality is bad. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 4577&hl=en. At least one car did separate from the rails. I am definitely not a structural expert, but it appears to have only affected the first span of the bridge that touches the mainland. I would suspect the rails and timbers bore most of the damage. Both of which have been removed. There is also an article from 1984 that discusses that the railroad had intended to abandon the bridge anyway since there were no customers on the 3 mile segment (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 0885&hl=en) which makes me question if the bridge was too heavily damaged to be repaired. Another article states that it was only the tracks that were damaged on top of the bridge https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 1139&hl=en. The Chessie acquired the line 7 months after the derailment. Articles stated the repairs (in 1982) ranged from $800 thousand to $1 million to place the bridge back into operation. However, the obvious remains that the bridge has not seen any maintenance since 1982 which could attribute to the deterioration. But aren't there many railroad bridges out there that have been out of service longer than that and are still structurally sound? The piers also seem to be in decent condition. But there could be more than what I can see from this distance that may prove otherwise. If anyone reading this, who happens to own the photo of the derailment, could you please post on here? Thank you.

[jimnorthwood]

Derailment or not, the Upper River Bridge would have eventually been abandoned anyway. Toledo wanted trains eliminated from the busy grade crossings of West and South Toledo. It took until the July, 2000 re-opening of the Toledo Belt in East Toledo to accomplish this goal.

[Saturnalia]

After abandonment, is the railroad still responsible for structural inspections on structures such as bridges?

[MSchwiebert]

My guess is once the RR abandons the property they wash their hands of things like bridge inspections. In this instance I believe this is why ODOT is involved.

[redcrumbox]

Is I-90 lower than the through truss? It is interesting to note the beams lead away from center. Bridgehunters has it listed as a Pratt. The through truss portion is Howe.

[jimnorthwood]

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2016/0 ... ished.html