The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Historic bridge to be replaced by railroad company
A historic bridge in Painesville is being replaced.
Painesville Township Administrator Mike Manary said Norfolk Southern Railroad is replacing the railroad bridge that spans from Bank Street, next to the former Coe Manufacturing site, across the Grand River to E. Walnut Avenue.
Norfolk Southern spokesman Jon Glass said crews are building a new singletrack railroad bridge over the Grand River to replace the existing single-track rail bridge. The new bridge will be 1,318 feet long.
Norfolk Southern hired two firms in Ohio to design and build the bridge, generating economic benefits for Ohio communities. HDR Engineering of Cincinnati designed the new bridge. The general contractor building the bridge is Great Lakes Construction Co. of Hinckley, Ohio.
“Construction of the new bridge began in March 2017 and is expected to be completed and supporting train traffic by late summer of 2018,” Glass said. “Work crews now are constructing the foundations and concrete towers that will support the bridge. The bridge foundations are being drilled down to bedrock, a distance that ranges from 30 to 100 feet below ground surface.”
The foundations, essentially a concrete shaft, will consist of steel-reinforced concrete and the steel bridge spans that carry the track will be outfitted with a precast concrete deck, he said.
Crossties, rail, and rock ballast will be laid atop the concrete deck. Construction should not affect traffic flow.
“The existing bridge was built in 1905 by the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, aka the Nickel Plate Road, a Norfolk Southern predecessor railroad,” he said. “Given its age and ongoing maintenance costs, rehabilitating the old bridge did not make economic sense. While the bridge was strengthened in the early 1940s to handle heavier loads, the time had come to replace it with a modern structure.”
Replacing the 112- yearold bridge is pertinent to regional rail system.
Glass said the new bridge will allow Norfolk Southern to continue safe rail operations and will cost much less to maintain.
“In addition, the new bridge’s concrete towers will have less of a footprint in the Grand River, improving the flow of the river in that location,” he said. “The new bridge span will be supported by seven concrete column towers, while the old bridge is supported by 14 towers.”
The Norfolk Southern line over the bridge is known as the “B Line”. This main line extends between Bellevue, Ohio, and Buffalo, N.Y. The line typically carries 10 to 15 Norfolk Southern trains daily through Painesville, moving freight that includes finished automobiles, aggregate stone, and consumer goods packed in shipping containers and trailers, he said.
Glass said Norfolk Southern directly serves about a half dozen industries in Painesville on a secondary rail line known as the Fairport Branch Line. One local train daily moves product to and from customers in Painesville, including goods such as coiled steel, sand, plastic pellets, chemicals and animal byproducts used as a nutritional supplement for livestock.
Although Norfolk Southern did not disclose the cost of the individual capital construction project, Glass said the company makes significant investments in track and railroad facilities to ensure safe and efficient operations that meet customers’ service needs.
“Across its 22-state system in 2017, the company expects to spend more than $1 billion on projects related to maintaining or replacing track and railroad infrastructure, including railroad bridges,” he said.