ST. LOUIS — The 133-year-old Merchants Bridge celebrated its official reopening on Thursday, marking completion of a $222 million project to replace the vital structure connecting Missouri and Illinois near downtown St. Louis.
The Mississippi River crossing dating to 1889 owned by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis serves six Class I railroads and Amtrak. Its completion culminates almost a decade of planning and four years of reconstruction. It doubles the capacity of the bridge, which had been limited to one train at a time because of structural concerns.
Thursday’s event was attended by about 150 invited guest and featured elected officials and transportation leaders from Illinois and Missouri, along with representatives of TRRA, Bi-State Development/St. Louis Regional Freightway, and Walsh Construction.
“In our 133-year history, TRRA had never previously built a bridge, but we were looking to the future and the growth in freight volumes expected in the next 30 years and knew that replacing the Merchants Bridge and adding the needed capacity would be essential for us to capture some of that increased volume and solidify the region’s positioning as global freight hub,” said Asim Raza, TRRA’s chief legal officer and director of corporate affairs. “Our collaboration with the St. Louis Regional Freightway to position this project as the region’s No. 1 infrastructure project priority helped garner the national attention needed to secure federal funding, and today’s celebration is a signature moment to highlight the success of the bi-state, bi-partisan, public-private partnership that made this project possible.”
The Merchants Bridge required reconstruction due to speed, clearance and load restrictions. Not replacing the Merchants Bridge would have resulted in rail traffic being rerouted out of the region, potentially limiting shipping options for area rail-reliant businesses, increasing costs and lost jobs, and adding stress to an already over-burdened U.S. supply chain network.
Under general contractor Walsh Construction, reconstruction of the bridge used innovative methods that improved safety and speeded completion. Rail outages across the bridge were limited to just 30 days over the course of the four-year project. The Federal Railroad Administration awarded TRRA a $21.45 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant for the project in 2020; TRRA provided 90% of the construction costs.
To bad no one with a brain wants sends east coast intermodal through this gateway. oh wait CSX severed their line to St Louis. maybe NS ? you could avoid Chicago all together
CSX has 2 connections at East St Louis. The St Louis Sub and the Illinois Sub.
The St Louis Sub goes to Avon Yard west of Indianapolis. From there it can reach all points east.
The Illinois Sub *is* disconnected at O’Fallon and is listed as out of service all the way to Flora, Illinois. This route goes directly to Queensgate Yard in Cincy but it has some long term use issues.
As noted above UP signed a trackage deal with NS a couple of years ago to use the KCMO-Hannibal route to reach their tracks in Springfield, Illinois. UP can still use the south approach to the MacArthur which I think is the former Cotton Belt and UP still has access to the river crossing at Thebes.
CSX likes to take southeast destined traffic off of UP at East St Louis and turn them south at the Vincennes junction on the Illinois Sub to their yards in Hopkinsville, KY.
As far as CSX between Vincennes and points east. There are 2 tunnels in Indiana between Mitchell and Seymour that have some clearance issues. Seymour to Queensgate is used as a directional to Louisville sharing the L&I. But CSX took out much of the B&O trackage east of Cincy that gave them a direct St Louis to Atlantic Ocean route. As it stands today you *have* to go into Queensgate which duplicates the St Louis Sub. CSX cannot express anything west without going through Chicago, Avon or Queensgate. Memphis is not a direct route and if you believe them, the New Orleans route is so oversubscribed that even Amtrak cant go through.
Now, lets get the MacArthur fixed!
As understood that is planned. Walsh construction certainly has the know how if same technique can be used . Has anything been started for that replacement?
The river spans of the MacArthur which is also owned by the TRRA will not be replaced. They removed the 1923 era road upper deck over the tracks (which used to host US-66) which the engineers say will extend the life of the bridge another 80 years.
What desperately needs repair is the approach on the Missouri side. There is a span over Broadway Street which is not only in bad shape but due to its alignment causes UP to have a dimensional and weight restrictions. It is also reliant on the aforementioned US-66 road span also over Broadway, while not used since the 1980’s, it shares some of its load bearing with it and it has essentially become a rusting hulk of old steel. This puts the rail side of it at risk.
So TRRA is going to rehab the Missouri approach from the west and replace much of the steel beams and remove what is left of the 1923 road deck.
UP signed a trackage rights agreement with NS two years ago to use their KCMO to Hannibal route to reach Springfield Illinois until the work is complete. TRRA, Missouri, Illinois and the US DOT are all funding this effort.
While not verified, many believe that CSX will keep the Illinois Sub (East St Louis to Queensgate) disconnected at O’Fallon until these repairs are complete. UP periodically used the CSX line to route traffic to the former C&EI line at Salem.
They could have put the ribbon across the tracks and left a train cut it.