Before they built the dam a couple of miles downstream from here, this stretch of the river must have been a rapids. That means the river scoured the bottom down to bedrock. So they are buildings piers keyed into the bedrock that can withstand the lateral forces of a true arch. Since it is a true arch rather than a tied arch, they don't have the option of building the arch near a shore and floating it into place like they did, for example, the Eggner Ferry Bridge. To keep the navigation channel open, they are using back stays to build the arches with 35' to 65' steel segments.
Beginning this fall or early winter [2018], crews will begin lifting the 35- to 65-foot steel segments into place. Currently, the steel segments are being fabricated at a plant in Gary, Ind., after which they will be trucked to the Quad-Cities, said Danielle Alvarez, the I-74 project manager with the Iowa Department of Transportation....Cable stays will be used to hold the segments into place, while the rest of the segments are raised and fitted together. There will actually be two arches in each direction on the new bridge, angling inward to form a pair of basket handles....Alvarez said the tied-arch design at Talbot Memorial Bridge (Centennial) between Davenport and Rock Island is more of typical of Mississippi River crossings, but the relatively shallow water depth and rock elevations under I-74 allowed for the new bridge to be a true-arch design. The cost of the steel fabrication, as well as putting the segments into place, is $17 million for both spans, according to the Iowa DOT. [ArchIsNextStep]
I have not been able to find construction photos of the arch construction.
The "Y" part of the piers looked like they could be precast "trophies" similar to the ones used for the new Pensacola Bay Bridge. But these photos shows they built the piers in place.
Brad Gareston posted Who says 650’s can’t float? Lynn JohnsonMy friend in Galveston Texas built this barge. Heck of a setup! [A comment indicates there are 20 booms in the air on this project.]
Brad commented on his posting New bridge in the Quad City area. I’ll ask for me- said they moved her in from NJ.
I don't normally do yet another steel tied-arch bridge, but when you get a view as unique as this, I went for it. This is "reverse railfan." Specifically, it is a photo from a train instead of a train. And at the bottom is some photos of the cantilever truss that it replaced.
William A. Shaffer posted The Jefferson Barracks Bridge at St. Louis, MO (Shot through the window of Amtrak #22 en route to St. Louis) (Photo by William A. Shaffer)
By Service Depicted: Other ServiceCamera Operator: SSGT PAUL GRIFFIN - ID:DFST9500065, Public Domain, Link Roads and farmland in St. Louis area are hard hit by floodwaters. Location: SAINT LOUIS, ILLINOIS (IL) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) 1993
Westbound bridge built 1984; eastbound bridge built 1990, The navigation channel span is 910'.
The eastbound span of the Jefferson Barracks (I-255) bridge was opened in December 1990, not 1986. It was opened right around the time that Iben Browning predicted that there would be a major earthquake on the New Madrid Fault. It took some time to complete the eastbound span, as there were money and construction issues. They also dropped one of the horizontal steel members from the arch into the Mississippi River while it was being hoisted, and some time was lost while they retrieved it. I remember that there was a lot of talk at the time about how that earthquake (if it happened) might affect the new bridge. I do have some pictures of the old bridge alongside the new one while it was being build back in the early and mid-80's. The old Jefferson Barracks bridge was completed in 1944 as a war-time measure to allow the Illinois side better access to the western part of the St. Louis area. At that time, there were no bridges on the Mississippi River between the Chester (IL) bridge and the MacArthur Bridge in St. Louis and only a ferry at Davis Street in south St. Louis that crossed over to East Carondelet in Illinois. There was also a railroad ferry that operated between the Carondelet section of south St. Louis and the railyard at Dupo, Illinois that I believe stopped operation sometime in the 1950's. The old Jefferson Barracks was a toll bridge until 1959, when the bonds were paid off. It closed for good when the new bridge opened in 1984 and was eventually demolished. I remember there was a proposal to dismantle it and ship it to South American to be rebuilt somewhere (I never did hear what country was involved)there, but that obviously never came about. [Bridge Hunter comment by Al Bertram]
Some photos of the previous bridge from the Bridge Hunter comments.
While watching the video below, I could not identify what type of drawbridge was over the Black River, even when I looked at a 3D Satellite image. It seemed to be a Scherzer rolling lift bridge, but I could not clearly identify the quarter-round rolling members, even in the photos on Bridge Hunter. But John's photo below clearly shows a rolling member. I didn't know they still built this design.
The predecessor bridge was a swing bridge. So the US Coast Guard has been successful in getting a swing bridge removed from the Mississippi River. But John explains that this channel is used by recreational boats. Commercial (barge) traffic uses the west channel. When I looked at the satellite image, it appeared the Black River was just another channel of the Mississippi River. John explains "the Black River was once a separate river in this area, but it was captured a few miles up river by the Mississippi a few centuries ago." [Weeks-#7]
Dennis Weber posted A Look @ Freight Cars on CP's Mississippi River Bridge LaCrescent,Mn. 9-2017 CP Train 471.
Originally, it was steam powered. It was converted to electricity in 1952. It is staffed 24/7. [Historic Bridges] It was rebuilt in 1928. The US Coast Guard condemned it in 1998 and ordered that the swing span be replaced with a lift span. So far the replacement has been just talk. This is one of four bridges that island-hops across the Mississippi and Black Rivers between La Crosse, WI and LaCrescent, MN. "La Crosse is one of three places that the Amtrak Empire Builder passenger train crosses the Mississippi River, with the other two being Hastings, MN, and Little Falls, MN." [Weeks]
I'm not exactly sure where this bridge falls for priority. It's a critical line for oil and freight to and from Chicago. However, it depends on who's paying for the replacement (and it probably won't be the railroad). If it's paid for by the coast guard (who is the only ones who want it replaced, due to the navigation channel), it may be a while. It's behind Clinton, Iowa and likely Dubque, Iowa for replacement due to narrow navigation channels. However, the railroad intends to double track the bridges here and further up the river at Hastings within the next few decades, so it may happen then. [Bridge Hunter, Posted September 23, 2015, by John Marvig]
HeavyMovableStructures, Photo 3 in Home Page scroll [The photo is not identified, but it sure looks like this bridge. Unfortunately, the link I was after, http://www.heavymovablestructures.org/assets/technical_papers/Alteration-of-the-Canadian-Pacific-Railway-Drawbridge.pdf, is broke. Poking around the site quickly comes to "Under Construction" text.]
This route was still the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroad on the 1928 RR Atlas, thus the label rrMisc instead of rrCaNW.
C&NW bought the M&StL in 1960. Bridge built 1909; Abandoned 1971; Partially lost to fire in 1981. "The vertical lift section was locked in the up /open position until the lift portion was accidentally destroyed by fireworks and the ensuing fire on June 29, 1981. The 220 ft lift section fell into the river blocking river traffic on the main channel of the Mississippi River for more than a week until it was removed by the US Army Corps of Engineers." [Bridge Hunter] John's page provides more details of the fire and describes the decline of the town.
Robert Daly posted two photos with the comment: "Remains of the Minneapolis & St Louis bridge over the Mississippi, Keithsburg, April 13 2013."
Bridge Hunter Previous [This was the original Iowa Central Bridge that was built in 1886. We cans still see most of the stone piers of this bridge south of the 1909 bridge in a satellite image.]
The image below is interesting for several reasons. Notice how low the river level is. In most of the photos of this bridge, the shore-side tower is in the water. No wonder the steamboat is hugging the far side of the opening, the draft must be shallow. The old bridge was removed in 1910, and this photo must have been taken while they were planning the removal. Note the men standing to the right of the stone pier on the right. A swing span had been added to the old bridge. The problem is, this image shows the old bridge behind the new one. But that would put it north of the new bridge. But the satellite image shows the old piers were south of the new bridge. Furthermore, there does not appear to be enough room between the two bridges for a swing span to open. But the swing span looks symmetrical, which rules out using a short span on the new-bridge side with a heavy counterweight. I wonder if the smokestacks can be hinged at the white lines. If the river level was as high as it is in the other photos we have of the bridge, then those stacks would have a tough time clearing the lift span. That is, the up position is not very far up.
Bob Freitag shared BNSF lift bridge, Prescott, WI from BNSF Historical Society Facebook Page.
Carolyn Susor commented on Bridge Hunter:
I call this the "Mickey Mouse" bridge because the tower sheaves look like Mickey Mouse's ears.
Ted Gregory updated Ted GregoryTed and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Fascinating Railroad Structures.The BNSF (CB&Q) drawbridge across the St Croix is actually on the MN/WI state line. In this view, I am standing on the Prescott, WI side. This bridge can be a serious bottleneck as its double track on both ends. This is BNSF's Twin Cities to Galesburg, IL mainline. At Galesburg, IL, BNSF comes in from 6 different directions in to a massive hump yard (most traffic continues to Chicago). Marty BernardThe BNSF does have a line from Savanna to Galesburg. Don;t know what shape it is in. Ted GregoryTed and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Fascinating Railroad Structures.JeffMarty I believe traffic splits near Savannah at Plum River. Priority traffic heads east to Rochelle and Aurora. Freights drop south thru Denrock, Barstow, Colona, Orion, Rio, Galesburg. South from Plum River is also old Q. I havent beeb south of Savannah to Galesburg yet. Track looks really good on Google maps. I saw an auto rack train at Gburg, a rail train near Rio, on Google satellite. All I could tell you is the amount of traffic that runs through Rochelle on BNSF is nowhere near what runs out of the Twin Cities.
Another through truss bridge is being lost, this time to a steel girder bridge. John reports that the bridge is structurally sound and should last at least another 30 years. Evidently Missouri can afford to replace a bridge just because the lanes are too narrow. It seems Illinois can't afford to do anything. In 2005, it was repainted from green to grey. So Missouri can also afford to throw away paint.
Photo by Steve Lombardi, May 2018 [The new bridge is upstream.]
"One of the spans collapsed during construction and had to be rebuilt." [Historic Bridges] "This photos was taken when the bridge was being constructed. The collapse was caused by faulty false work. One worker was killed in this collapse." [Jeremy Ruble in Bridge Hunter]
On Bridge Hunter, Lisa included two photos with her comment: "First photo of the Champ Clark Bridge was taken after it collapsed on September 6th 1927. One man was killed, one was seriously injured and several narrowly escaped. The collapse of the bridge was due to faulty false work. Second photo of the bridge was taken five days before the bridge collapsed."
1
2
History This picture shows the span of the Champ Clark Bridge shortly before it fell in the river resulting in one fatality... Credit: Clay Logan and Ray Dolbeare
Photo taken by Jeremy Ruble, License: Released into public domain
July 13, 2018 Newsletter How many construction inspectors do you see in this picture? Look hard...you may have to squint! Doug Pettig with MoDOT and our photographer demonstrate just how monstrous crane is that lifts all the girders and other parts of the bridge into their places. There are a total of six Manitowoc 7000's in the world, and Massman Construction Co. owns two. The one at the Champ Clark Bridge was previously used on the Stan Musial Veteran's Memorial Bridge in St. Louis, and the other on the Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City. [It is configured as a ringer crane. The girders it lifts are 140' long and weight 197,000 lbs.]
MoDOT Flickr Here we have a pano out on the IL dock. So on both sides of the picture you are looking back onto the dock. Going from the left to the right of the picture you are turning to the right and looking downriver, then straight across the river, and then up river before returning to looking down the dock. [By downloading the original resolution photo, 20960x3872, I was able to determine that the left crane is the 7000 ringer we saw above, the middle crane is a Manitowoc 999, and the right crane is a Manitowoc 2250.]
May 11, 2018 Newsletter [The two forms are reusable. I wonder how they release the forms from the concrete after the concrete has set so that they can be lifted and moved to the next pier.]
May 11, 2018 Newsletter This is an inside look at the column form and steel. Inspectors like Joe Smith, who provided this picture, have to climb down inside the form to check the spacing between the rebar cage and the form. "We need good spacing for the concrete to fill in around it," he explained.
MoDOT Flickr An above view of Pier 2. We are in the middle of a pour in this picture. He have the shafts that are under the water set and drilled. He then lowered a rebar cage into the two shafts. Then we are coming through and placing concrete in the shaft. Directly below the bottom crane boom and above the red box you can see the top of the shaft. On the farthest left barge is the concrete pump and the two barges with the tugs are the concrete transports. The large buckets are loaded off the bank and barged over. Then the crane picks the bucket off the barge and workers unload the concrete into the pump truck. This then pumps the concrete through a pipe down into the shaft +80ft. [The 999 is handling the concrete buckets and the 2250 has the foundation drill attachment. Both cranes are on spud barges. The tall, skinny brown pipes are shoved down into the river bed to anchor the barge for work. Obviously, they are pulled up before the barge is moved to a new work location such as the next pier.]
MoDOT Flickr Here the girder has been lifted off the truck and is being carefully maneuvered by the crane to be placed out on the barge. [Looking at the photos below, it appears that they assemble two girders as a unit on the barge before they lift it onto a pier and the falsework to reduce the amount of fabrication work that has to be done high over the water.]
Champ Clark Bridge Replacement posted three photos with the comment:
Construction on the Champ Clark Bridge hit a significant milestone today with the erection of the first structural steel girder sections. When complete, the bridge will be made up of 68 steel girder sections, as well as 12 concrete girders. Together, these girders will support the bridge deck, which forms the road surface. Congrats to Massman Construction Co.and the entire project team!
[2250 is on the left end, and the 7000 is in the middle. Note the 7000 is lifting more than half of the load. because it is a stronger crane.]
1
2
3
The construction web page contains a webcam with a time-laspe "button." It is interesting watching the seasons change and the ice appear.
