ST. LOUIS — The third span of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis’ Merchants Bridge, the Mississippi River crossing which has been undergoing rebuilding since 2018, is slated to be floated into place today (Friday, Aug. 26). Trains News Wire will provide updates as photos become available. As of midday, as shown in these photos, the new span had not yet been moved in, while the old span remained on a nearby barge. More information on the project is available in this News Wire story from earlier today.
This is a major upgrade for this bridge. From a steel deck to a ballasted deck bridge. It brings increased capacity, weights and speed. To cross the bridge should now take minutes at 30-60 mph.
The biggest problem will be the approaches to the bridge. Rebuilding the bridge to a first class standard is no good if your approaches have lousy track, manual interlocks, and all the things that slow trains down. (like forgetting approach lighting to turnouts!)
They can’t start on the MacArthur until this gets done. The Broadway street span is down to nothing but rust in places.
Big plus for region as it will restore the two track bridge back to original use allowing two trains crossing concurrently and at original design speeds. Believe the bridge was down to only one of two tracks being active at a reduce speed in order to keep the old spans from falling into the river.
Infrastructure Week!
Nice to see the bridge folks getting some good press.