The $75 million bridge replaces the former Erie Railroad Portageville Bridge, an often-photographed iron-and-steel landmark built in 1875. It stands more than 230 feet above the Genesee River in New York’s Letchworth State Park.
“This is a very exciting day for Norfolk Southern and for the future of freight rail service in New York’s Southern Tier region,” NS CEO James A. Squires says in a statement.
The new span, built 75 feet south of the old truss bridge, allows NS to run industry-standard 286,000-lb. cars over the Southern Tier line, up from the current 273,000-pound limit. Trains can move across the bridge at 30 mph, up from 10 mph on the old span.
The line carries about a dozen trains per day and is a key link in Norfolk Southern’s route to New England from the west. It also handles some freight bound for Canada and northern New Jersey.
The first train to use the arch bridge was 36T, a Buffalo to Allentown, Pa., manifest train. The last train across the old bridge was I2K, an intermodal train bound for the NS terminal at Mechanicville, N.Y., NS spokesman Jon Glass says.
NS officially broke ground for the new bridge, and 1,200 feet of new track on either side of the river, on Oct. 28, 2015. The project was funded by a combination of NS, federal, and state money. NS paid the lion’s share of the cost by kicking in $59.5 million.
“The successful completion of this bridge is an excellent demonstration of how the public and private sectors can work together on freight transportation projects that generate significant public benefits and are vital to U.S. commerce,” Squires says. “It’s also a testament to Norfolk Southern’s robust bridge program and the ingenuity of engineers and railroaders.”
The 1875 bridge, the second built on the site, will be dismantled.
The Erie’s first bridge over the Genesee opened in August 1852. The timber span burned down in May 1875 and an iron replacement was quickly built.
Construction on the iron bridge began on June 13, 1875 and was completed in just weeks. It opened on July 31, 1875.
The old bridge was strengthened in 1903, when steel deck girder and steel deck truss girder spans were added, according to an engineering presentation by NS and Modjeski and Masters, a Pennsylvania firm that designed the new bridge.
The 1875 span, 53 miles southeast of Buffalo, was deemed beyond its useful life more than a decade ago.
Why weren’t all the above suggestions for the new bridge investigated? Because NYS is a cheap, filthy, corrupt political snake-pit. I loved the 1875 span. While working in Rochester for 20 years I went to Letch quite often and stayed over Christmas week in the cabins for years reading TRAINS magazines.
A beautiful park…too bad it’s in NY. The biggest problem NY has is the systemic application of raw sewage poured onto its residents and the accompanying corruption/payola.
It’s a beautiful span. I’d love to see it in person.
But no, I moved to FL. Well run income tax free state. I’ll die here.
It’s risky to make predictions, but the Tier is not likely to ever see EL type frequency on this line. The high water mark was in the mid 90’s, when on a fairly typical Saturday(usually the busiest day) you might see two westbound CR stacks, an NYSW westbound stack, possibly an eastbound from each of those roads, though the eastbounds were less predictable; OIBU and BUOI, a CP merchandise train each way, a pair of CP intermodals each way, and whatever coal trains showed up. NS has increased the trains they run from their takeover, but still not what it was when CR had it, and a shadow of the traffic EL ran. There will be no need to double track the bridge, and the sidings that CR installed were sufficient for the traffic at the time they were put in, mid 90’s. Even when EL had it, the line was single track with sidings west of NT, roughly where CP River was under CR, so the single track west of Portage goes back a long way. As Howard Fine notes, there is plenty of right of way where track 2 was removed to put track back in if needed.
Yea, after spending the last 2 decades reducing the former Erie from ABS double track stick rail to CTC single track CWR, they suddenly are going to need double track across this new bridge. Are you kidding me, Hunter Harrison is drooling at the NS single track across New York, green with envy over what the nag has that he doesn’t have. Hunter is trying real hard to run off enough of his own business so he can get his version of single track heaven, too.
I was wondering about that as well William. I thought that was the plan at one time, but apparently the plan changed at some point. Perhaps no one wanted to step up a pay to maintain the old bridge? Or maybe in the context of the entire park, one bridge was considered more visually appealing? All conjecture on my part of course…
What is NS’s reason for dismantling the old bridge and not converting it to a pedestrian walkway, due to it’s historic status?
Time will tell Paul, hindsight is 20-20 and outside of crystal ball there is no way to say if 12 trains a day will ever grow into the Transcon level of traffic that makes bottlenecks out of isolated single track bridges. For every Pecos River Bridge there are dozens, if not hundreds, of former double track bridges that now only see one or two trains a day on the single track that remains.
NS built one heck of bridge and they should be justifiably proud.
you build a new bridge from scrap and they make it a single track instead of a double track span , maybe its me but this probably be a bottle neck down the road and late trains cause they have to wait at a siding to cross it , Not to smart Mr. planning engineer .
There is no need now or in the future for a second track. The line has room for sidings close to the bridge due to former double track with wide right of way that the six foot gauge Erie had built. Save the old bridge? the state and park clearly don’t want it and will not pay for it and insisted NS remove it. The new arch is a beautiful improvement for this location, the old nostalgic, but what an eyesore when the fencing and installation of coiled barbed wire that would be required. Every year some Darwinian misfits fall from the edge of the gorge that require very risky rescue efforts or body recovery, besides remember the same design and era Kinzua that collapsed during construction efforts to continue use as a scenic attraction.
The single vs double track didn’t stand out to me as much as just increasing to 286,000 pound cars. Why not 315,000?
The first train across should have had for power:
NS 1068 (Erie)
NS 1700 (Erie Lackawanna)
NS 8098 (Conrail)
NS 3680 (NS)