Freighter hits Conrail bridge.

[M.D.Bentley]

A freighter hit the Conrail bridge this afternoon . Bridge Is out of service and Is being Inspected. More info later.

[Brian_F]

Any particular Conrail bridge?

[MRC_Andrew]

The only "Conrail" bridge I can think of that could have an encounter with a freighter is the Conrail Shared Assets movable bridge over the Rouge River in southwest Detroit. That could cause some headaches if it were out of service for any length of time, I'm guessing.

[JustinB]

Any reroutes??

[CR900945]

Reroute which works easiest is to run from Delray to the N&W bridge then down the Shore Line ex-DTSL to YD and rejoin CR Shared Assets.

[NYCMan]

Any speculation yet as to what happened? Was the bridge tender asleep? Did the captain of the freighter fail to stop? Was there a train stopped on the bridge? Did the bridge fail to open?

Would love to hear from any of you who has their "secret, highly placed, inside confidential source" regarding what secrets they have learned.

[detroitbench]

Reroute which works easiest is to run from Delray to the N&W bridge then down the Shore Line ex-DTSL to YD and rejoin CR Shared Assets.

Any chance you could highlight this route on a map?

[GP30M4216]

I've sailed under the Conrail Bridge numerous times and am familiar with the area. See this map, the bridge is near the bottom - Delray Jct. is toward the upper right.

Here's a view of the bridge:

Looking outbound (from I-75 toward W. Jefferson)

AIS suggests the freighter is the MV Algosteel.

[Doktor No]

Who put that bridge there?

[MRC_Andrew]

I've sailed under the Conrail Bridge numerous times and am familiar with the area. See this map, the bridge is near the bottom - Delray Jct. is toward the upper right.

Aerial Map Delray Rouge.png

Here's a view of the bridge:

Conrail Bridge.jpg

Looking outbound (from I-75 toward W. Jefferson)

AIS suggests the freighter is the MV Algosteel.

That looks like it would be a pretty straightforward detour, but what is the volume of traffic on both of the lines that would be involved and could it create an undue bottle neck? I haven't watched trains in that area in quite some time.

[rettop]

Back in 1968 I worked putting a 5 foot sewer line from Scott Paper to the Detroit Sewage Treatment facility (under Jefferson Ave.is the Main Interceptor for Detroit--32 feet in diameter of raw sewage!) If you look on Google Maps just to the SW of the air photo in the article there is a single track running that splits into two lines and then in to 12 tracks leading to two structures (repair facility ?) At the time I was working at the site it was NYC track; we had to go under it about 25' below grade. "No way" said NYC--this has to be approved by the engineers in NY city! BS said the general contractor (one local uses it once a week). Working on the weekend they shot the 5' pipe under the rail line. Except on Sunday night there was the "storm"; got there Monday morning and it was washed out with the rail hanging in the air. That old contractor had that filled and fixed by 5 o'clock that day. We never heard a word from NYC about going under their track.
This track you can follow on Google joins up with the line going over said bridge; anyways does anyone know if it leads to a repair place or what is going on at the buildings? They are by the river.

[ConrailDetr​oit]

I've sailed under the Conrail Bridge numerous times and am familiar with the area. See this map, the bridge is near the bottom - Delray Jct. is toward the upper right.

Aerial Map Delray Rouge.png

Here's a view of the bridge:

Conrail Bridge.jpg

Looking outbound (from I-75 toward W. Jefferson)

AIS suggests the freighter is the MV Algosteel.

That looks like it would be a pretty straightforward detour, but what is the volume of traffic on both of the lines that would be involved and could it create an undue bottle neck? I haven't watched trains in that area in quite some time.

The CN trains that run over Conrail trackage rights will use the old Route over the NS Bridge.

NS Detroit Line Trains going north can use the Junction Runner to the Michigan Line then head east to Livernois or the east side.

St Marys Cement and Detroit Sewer may not be able to get rail service now?

[M.D.Bentley]

OK. Heres the story. Yesterday around the 3:00 p.m. one of the tugs that pushes barges up and down the Rouge river struck the Conrail bridge. The bridge was only out of service for about 90 mins while Conrail's B & & dept inspected the bridge for damage. Today the are still at the bridge , stating the the damage was minor. Bridge goes up, bridge goes down.................

AND before anyone complains about freighter or tug. I was on the phone with the disp when they had to hang up because "The bridge just got hit by a freighter !" And I didn't get back to this until today because of real life stuff.

[GP30M4216]

In the three seasons I sailed up and down the Rouge, I recall getting "zinged" by both the Conrail and NS bridges twice each, I think. Usually it was due to something wrong with a train sitting atop the bridge (or, once, not actually on the span but still on the circuit, therefore, "bridge no go uppie"). One year NS crews were doing a lot of rewiring on the NS Bridge and we were often delayed by 15-20 minutes. One summer evening of note, though, we did get hung up by a mechanical problem with the Conrail Bridge....we were stuck for at least a couple hours if not longer. I remember seeing our captain's eyes bug out when the bridge tender told him over the radio they were consulting Philadelphia about bridge repair! (Obviously it helped to have some knowledge of Conrail's headquarters location....). We ran tours out of downtown Detroit, and fortunately for any potential passengers, this was at the end of our day.

We tied up at the US Gypsum dock on the west wall above Jefferson Ave. bridge to wait it out. The ore carrier Kaye E. Barker, heading for the Rouge, came in behind us which allowed me to get some great photos of them coming through the Jefferson Avenue bridge. I know we were there till after dark before whatever failure was overcome, the bridge lifted and we were able to head in to the home dock for the night. When we arrived the next morning, much to our surprise, the boat was white - covered in chalky white grid which had been blowing out of US Gypsum's facility for several hours!