I read the other day that Union Pacific and the Terminal Railroad (TRRA) is going to replace the Broadway Street span (over 100 years old) on the run up to the MacArthur Bridge. Apparently the bridge is too weak to support certain train types. Now that UP has gotten TRRA to remove the 1917 roadway deck from the MacArthur, they can run larger, heavier trains on the span when the Broadway span is replaced.
So what about the remains of the 1917 road deck? (It used to host US 66) It actually was used with tolls until 1981! until TRRA tore out the East St Louis alignment back to Mississippi Street, where it is owned by the City of East St Louis. You can still drive up to the dilapidated toll Illinois entrance on 10th Street. The Missouri entrance land was sold to Ralston Purina.
It sat abandoned for many years and was falling apart. It appears TRRA has removed the original 1917 road deck plating but left the spans in place all the way to 7th Street in St Louis.
Another oddity is that when I-55 was expanded in urban south St Louis, they replaced one of the deck spans supporting the now dilapidated and hardly used toll road. Why didn't they close it then?
Here is what it looked like before the 1917 upper roadway was removed.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/MacArthur_Bridge_%282%29.jpg/300px-MacArthur_Bridge_%282%29.jpg)
Here is what the 1917 roadway looked like before TRRA removed the highway on the Missouri side.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7906/46549532074_1ed3340935_z.jpg)
Here it is today. Highway deck removed. The Broadway street spans for both the railroad and old US-66 are on the left.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7807/46549567164_9181b96bed_z.jpg)
A better pix of the roadway in its prime days with the Broadway Street spans.
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sZTPYwoWilU/XEEIjsY0EUI/AAAAAAABS5U/3AgpXta2NOsWqWwG1nJpowHl1lRwO1ksgCLcBGAs/s1600/50104249_10218625094726683_7937511446076719104_n.jpg)
It must have been terrifying driving over that old beast in heavy rain, wind, snow, fog or ice. Those S curves were incredibly sharp. It would have scared the shit out of me.
Here is a guy who got up on the bridge while the contractor was taking down the road span. Very dangerous!!
https://www.historicaerials.com/location/38.615830985007676/-90.18251895904541/1958/15 (https://www.historicaerials.com/location/38.615830985007676/-90.18251895904541/1958/15)
You can change the year to see how the bridge was phased out by the Interstate.
So UP is going to replace the ramps to the bridge and not the bridge itself?
Quote from: longhorn on May 10, 2019, 11:27:31 AM
So UP is going to replace the ramps to the bridge and not the bridge itself?
The bridge is owned by TRRA, but its primary customer is UP getting Chicago bound traffic over the Mississippi. Amtrak also uses it.
They are not replacing the span over the river, since they removed the 1917 road deck it is expected to last at least another 100 years they said.
The Broadway Street span can not handle horizontal loads and long trainsets. According to the press TRRA is replacing the truss over Broadway with a girder plate arrangement.
According the the press:
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2019/02/11/7-million-federal-grant-will-help-update.html (https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2019/02/11/7-million-federal-grant-will-help-update.html)
QuoteThe Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis won a $7.17 million federal grant toward replacing a truss on the west approach to the MacArthur Bridge that runs over South Broadway near Interstate 55 in St. Louis.
The Consolidated Railroad Safety and Infrastructure Grant is through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Rail road Administration. The Terminal Railroad Association, or TRRA, which owns the bridge, will cover the remainder of the project's $14.5 million total cost, officials said.
MacArthur Bridge, constructed between 1906 and 1913, links St. Louis and East St. Louis over the Mississippi River. The new project will bring it up to current rail standards, TRRA officials said.
The current structure represents a physical obstacle to longer and wider rail cars. Improved clearance with the replacement truss will eliminate a 317-mile re-route for so-called dimensional loads, which are larger or heavier than typical rail shipments.
The project will replace the current truss with deck plate girders, increasing the horizontal clearance from 13.4 feet to 15 feet, officials said. The change will allow the bridge to accommodate 315,000 railcars going forward.
TRRA looks to award the contract for the work by year's end, with the two-year build to start in 2020 for completion by 2022, according to Asim Raza, TRRA's chief legal officer and director of corporate affairs.
The MacArthur Bridge project "is part of a continuous effort by TRRA to create a more fluid system in the St. Louis area for freight traffic," Raza said.
The federal funds awarded "are consistent with the public benefits associated with the project by helping to lower industry shipping costs and ensuring schedule reliability for intercity passenger rail service on the Chicago-St. Louis Amtrak corridor," TRRA President Mike McCarthy said Friday in a statement.
UP just cut a deal to reroute traffic from Kansas City that crossed the MacArthur Bridge to the Norfolk Southern route that crosses farther north.
A lot of history in this bridge, being the former US 66 river crossing once upon a time.
Going to St Louis as a teen ~20 years ago, I always wondered why there was never any car traffic on the car/upper deck...Clearly its because it had already been closed for 15-20 years by then! Both decks were visible from the parallel, slightly up river Poplar St Bridge. The Upper/Road deck is completely gone now - but I have crossed the Mississippi on that bridge - riding Amtrak between CHI and STL
At one time this bridge hosted US 66, US 40 and US 50.
Later US 66 was re-routed and it became ALT US 66.
US 50 was moved south to Jefferson Barracks.
US 40 moved to the Poplar Street Bridge.
After this the City of St Louis did a swap with TRRA. The city took over the Eads Bridge since TRRA was having problems with clearances on the rail section (it is now a transit line). The local governments took over the road approaches after that.
Once upon a time you could go up inside the Eads and see where TRRA punched out the arches in the original limestone to get high cars to fit.
I remember crossing the Eads and the Chain of Rocks bridges when I was a kid, but while my dad said we did cross the MacArthur once, I was too young to remember. We were going to Oklahoma. He said it was a dangerous bridge.
After the I-270 bridge was done north of town, we went that way instead.
Quote from: edwaleni on May 11, 2019, 02:05:14 PM
At one time this bridge hosted US 66, US 40 and US 50.
Later US 66 was re-routed and it became ALT US 66.
I thought 66 crossed on the McKinley until Chain of Rocks was opened.
Quote from: rte66man on May 12, 2019, 12:35:57 PM
Quote from: edwaleni on May 11, 2019, 02:05:14 PM
At one time this bridge hosted US 66, US 40 and US 50.
Later US 66 was re-routed and it became ALT US 66.
I thought 66 crossed on the McKinley until Chain of Rocks was opened.
Here's a list of the bridges used by 66 in Saint Louis.
https://www.facebook.com/513201722060059/posts/route-66-used-five-bridges-at-st-louis-here-is-the-storymckinley-bridge-first-ri/1460511053995783/
Quote from: edwaleni on May 11, 2019, 02:05:14 PM
At one time this bridge hosted US 66, US 40 and US 50.
Later US 66 was re-routed and it became ALT US 66.
US 50 was moved south to Jefferson Barracks.
US 40 moved to the Poplar Street Bridge.
After this the City of St Louis did a swap with TRRA. The city took over the Eads Bridge since TRRA was having problems with clearances on the rail section (it is now a transit line). The local governments took over the road approaches after that.
Once upon a time you could go up inside the Eads and see where TRRA punched out the arches in the original limestone to get high cars to fit.
I remember crossing the Eads and the Chain of Rocks bridges when I was a kid, but while my dad said we did cross the MacArthur once, I was too young to remember. We were going to Oklahoma. He said it was a dangerous bridge.
After the I-270 bridge was done north of town, we went that way instead.
It also hosted US 460 until it was decommisioned in the mid-70's.
I find it very hard to believe that this is the very same bridge that I used to ride across on my many childhood trips along Route 66! But at least it still has a useful purpose in serving important rail traffic.