BRUNSWICK, Mo. — Debris from heavy rains took out a Norfolk Southern bridge over the Grand River on Tuesday, suspending service about 90 miles east of Kansas City, Mo.
The stricken bridge was on the Kansas City district between Kansas City, Mo., and Moberly, Mo.
NS is diverting traffic to other railroads and the incident is resulting in shipper delays in the Kansas City area of from 48 to 72 hours, railroad officials say.
As the situation was being assessed Wednesday, NS officials had no estimate on when service on the line would be restored.
Brunswick Emergency Management Director Brent Dickerson reported Tuesday that for safety reasons and to allow NS crews to operate uninterrupted, there were barricades on the river to keep boaters away from the collapse area, according to CentralMoInfo.com.
More details: Line is ex-Wabash. Bridge was a deck plate girder. It was already bowing out a couple of days ago from debris accumulation on the upriver side. NS reportedly physically cut the rails on both sides so that when the bridge gave way, it wouldn’t take more than the bridge rails with it. They also already have a work crew on site clearing debris, but the river is still running high, so it will be a while until they can make a full assessment and get working on a replacement.
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https://www.freightwaves.com/news/norfolk-southern-rail-bridge-collapses-in-missouri-flooding
Eeks, this is the line UP is going to use while they work on the MacArthur Bridge for 2 years.