Finally might see faster service across the newer bridge once it is constructed:
http://miprc.org/News/miprc-supports-missouris-infra-grant-application-to-renovate-the-merchants-bridge
Picture of the bridge 'as it will be improved' in this PDF report:
http://www.modot.org/plansandprojects/documents/TheMerchantsBridgeRehabilitationProgram110217Final.pdf
Seems to me that the five-minute Amtrak saving, part of which is attributed to grade-crossing improvements, is conservative. Most of the money goes to making the connection safer and better for freight and capable as an alternative if cone of the other Mississippi crossings goes out.
A quesstion: what determines which bridge is used for passenger trains?
A year and a half ago, when I went from Los Angeles to Chicago, we used the McArthur Bridge (and the former C&EI route to Chicago). I do not know which bridge was used when my wife and I went from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1997 (I was already asleep).
Johnny
This project appears to be planned for a minimum of down time.
1. Reinforce bridge piers
2. take track out of service
3. Float off old bridge trusses then float on new trusses. Meanwhile replace regular bridge members to ballast type.
4. Install new track
DeggestyA question: what determines which bridge is used for passenger trains?
It appears pretty clear that although this project is largely billed as 'freight/intermodal oriented' a big selling point is the prospective time reduction for Amtrak LD and regional trains. I would suspect all passenger would go this way when the work is complete, at least until major work on the McArthur bridge is done in a few years.
Deggesty A quesstion: what determines which bridge is used for passenger trains? A year and a half ago, when I went from Los Angeles to Chicago, we used the McArthur Bridge (and the former C&EI route to Chicago). I do not know which bridge was used when my wife and I went from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1997 (I was already asleep).
I take the Texas Eagle about once a year from Dallas to Chicago and return. I have only been across the MacArthur Bridge but other posters say they have been on the Merchants Bridge so I wonder if the train dispatcher or TRRA-St. Louis decides based on traffic?
They removed the former upper deck of the MacArthur Bridge that used to carry highway traffic, got to be a tad bit lighter now with all that structural steel gone. As for the steel in the approaches and rest of the bridge, got to be enough steel there to keep the US Steel Plant in Gary going for a good year....when they replace that.
You know if it was me just for appearances I think I would replace the MacArthur bridge with a nice suspension bridge but please not another Caltrava design......thats been over done in this country.
I've ridden that route a couple of roundtrips a year for several years. It seems to me that the choice of bridge perhaps is whatever works for the dispatcher at the time, in particular southbound.
Thanks; so it seems that the traffic at the time determines which bridge is used now.
Coming east, as I was eating breakfast before we left St. Louis, another passenger asked me if I knew which bridge we would use, and I could only tell her that we had to wait and see.
I did know that we were detouring between St. Louis and Chicago.
Here is a map I found online of the approaches to the two bridges, if anyone is interested.
http://www.idothsr.org/environmental_documentation/tier_2/granite_city_to_saint_louis/map.aspx
I'd hate to see the MacArthur Bridge demolished. It always was second to the Eads in historical value and design, but is very unique in it's own way. Lots of fond memories crossing it in a car in the 1950's, and the first view of St. Louis when arriving from small town southern Illinois.
BLS53I'd hate to see the MacArthur Bridge demolished.
It was my impression that most of the visible bridge would be kept; the engineering change being similar to a conversion to ballasted-deck, and at least some of the weird compromise on the approaches would be rationalized.
The second span of the Merchants bridge has been removed. No time yet when new span will be installed.
The Walsh Group - Walsh Construction & Archer Western on LinkedIn: Merchants Bridge - Second Truss Removal | 10 comments
Watch: Checking in on the progress of the Merchants Bridge - Railway Track and Structures (rtands.com)
One more question since I will probably ride the Texas Eagle in the future. What are the approx completion dates of the two bridges over the Mississippi rehab projects?
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