The Brazos river Bridge is right next to Highway 90A, just east of Richmond Texas, you can see the bridge from most of the town, so once it began to sag, everyone in town would have noticed...like Sugarland, which is a few miles closer to Houston, Richmond is a railroad town, build around the tracks.
With the detour off the Glidden Sub, traffic here at the Port is showing up in short burst.
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The Brazos River bridge is on the original GH&SA 'Sunset' route between Houston and San Antonio, now part of the UP Glidden Sub. It is a single-track bridge, also used by KCS and BNSF, and Amtrak Trains 1&2. It is the most direct route into Houston from the west, and has a lot of traffic, including many UP and KCS container trains.
The east pier of the truss bridge was originally on the east bank of the Brazos, and is now in the river and is sinking. The approach off the east bank is standing, but is also now in the river. The Brazos began to wash out the east bank when the river level got to 50' or so and kept rising to about 54' (normal is about 14'.) A huge volume of floodwater has been coming downstream for about a week. It may still be another week or so before the water level comes down enough to begin repairs, and will probably require a huge amount of fill, if it's possible to re-route the river back to its original course. Going to be a lot of work.
cx500 The pier foundation may have been a spread footing rather than piles. While current practice usually calls for piles, that was not always the case a century or more ago. The railroads will routinely monitor the footing conditions, either with divers or at low water levels, but very occasionally extreme and prolonged flood conditions can cause rapid deterioration. It seems that the settlement of the pier was found by a watchman or patrol, rather than a train, a sign of safe railroad management. John
The pier foundation may have been a spread footing rather than piles. While current practice usually calls for piles, that was not always the case a century or more ago. The railroads will routinely monitor the footing conditions, either with divers or at low water levels, but very occasionally extreme and prolonged flood conditions can cause rapid deterioration.
It seems that the settlement of the pier was found by a watchman or patrol, rather than a train, a sign of safe railroad management.
John
About this same time of year; it was 2010 [June 10th] Kansas had been in the throws of some very heavy rainfall, and a similar bridge pier issue occurred here in Kansas. The location was on the Chikaskia River Bridge, just north of Caldwell,Kansas. This line is currently the UPRR's OKT sub, but was originally the Rock Island RR, south of Wichita.
The photos in the linked article are of UP train that was stopped out on this bridge, it was a alert engineer who saw a problem, put the train in emergency, got it stopped before it went off the bridge.
Link/Photos @ http://www.gordon-elias.com/blog/840/union-pacific-train-removed-from-sagging-bridge-in-caldwell-kansas/
The train was later that day backed off the bridge successfully, and it was determined that the pier had been a victim of scouring in the high water.
Vermont Rail Systems' White River Bridge in White River Jct. VT was damaged in 2011 during tropical storm Irene when the south pier shifted in moving water. The masonry pier dated to the 1880s and was set on "ledge" but not anchored to it. The new pier installed by the State of Vermont - the line's actual owner - is well and truly anchored, while the original north pier is still in use.
Found a bunch of before and after pictures. Does appear one pier underscored ? Maybe pier was on wooden pilings ? MC any thoughts ?
https://swrails.com/2016/06/07/up-brazos-river-bridge-woes/
Any pictures or reports on the bridge. The UP has not updated their web site with more info. Other sites say one pier has major shift or pier may have even sunk ? Sunset limited will be cancelled SAS <> NOL until bridge fixed and freight back up cleared.
http://www.up.com/customers/announcements/customernews/generalannouncements/CN2016-14.html
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