MoW: Flood of 2019: NS/Wabash 1913 Bridge over Grand River near Brunswick, MO was Destroyed

(Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

<update>

NS replaced the bridge in 27 days. (source)

An example of what NS should have been doing long before the debris pile got so long. (The NS press release implied that the debris quickly piled up. But a newspaper report said the local residents watched the pile build up with dread.)
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The year of 2019 just keeps on raining. I labeled these notes with "wwMou" because the bridge is close to the mouth of Grand River at the Missouri River.

Massman Construction Co. posted two photos with the comment:

The

Norfolk Southern Corp

Railroad Grand River Bridge Emergency Repairs project recently earned

Engineering News-Record

Midwest Awards of Merit for Best Small Project and Safety on a Small Project.

Following the destruction of the existing Grand River Bridge due to historic flooding and water-borne debris, Norfolk Southern needed to repair the critical river crossing as quickly as possible. Massman rapidly mobilized and lead the safe construction of the replacement spans, working around the clock to restore rail service in just 27 days – weeks ahead of the originally estimated schedule.

Congratulations to the project team!

Hanson Professional Services Inc.

|

Hayes Drilling, Inc.

. |

Coreslab Structures - ARIZ Inc.

 

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This photo shows that the river is no stranger to floods.

Photographer unknown, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)

After a logjam had shoved a pier out of alignment, NS crews cut the rails so that adjacent good piers and spans would not be damaged. "Norfolk Southern sent out a service alert for the bridge Tuesday saying, 'train service has been suspended between Moberly and Kansas City, Missouri, due to debris (caused by heavy rains).'" [KOMU] This is on NS's mainline to the Kansas City gateway market. After they cut the rails, the river removed the damaged part.

Screenshot @ 1:03

The river was not near as full as it was when the steam engine shot above was taken. But the video below shows that the logjam was huge. I normally avoid profile videos of horizontal subjects, but this one is just too informative to pass up. The caption claiming BNSF is wrong, it is NS/Wabash.

Screenshot @ -0:33

Screenshot @ -0:31

Screenshot @ -0:22

After a significant amount of logs flowed through the gap, there was still a lot of logs upstream.

Screenshot @ -0:06

Building a pier down to bedrock won't help it resist lateral forces. But it is good to know that it took a massive logjam on a fast flowing river to generate enough lateral force to displace a pier. Dirt can be rather strong. Some railroads will use a crane on the bridge to remove logs stuck against a pier so that such a large logjam doesn't have a chance to develop. The crane just lifts the logs from the upstream side and swings them over to the downstream side. (Update: according to the podcast reference added at the top of these notes, this logjam came down the river already formed. They did try to use cranes to save the bridge, but the jam was just too big. They later determined the jam was 2.5 miles long! But this news report indicates the jam slowly built up at the bridge.)

Another video  Unfortunately, it also has a profile format. But it includes audio so you can hear the pops as the bridge breaks apart.

Josh Grider posted three photos. But between the time I saved the post and the time I looked at the post the next day, the post had been deleted.

I found my notes about the May flood around Brunswick. This NS route was out of service back then because water was on the tracks!

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Update:
Aaron Bryant posted three photos with the comment: "NS Hi-rail crane truck with a clamshell attached, sits on a wooden trestle, on the Coal Creek Branch, cleaning debris from around the wooden piers. Photos taken in Raven, Va. 10/2/19."
Jeff Coburn That's me !
Tony Gee Whaaaaattttty NS allowing preventive maintenance!!!! Something must’ve happened recently.

Dennis DeBruler The expensive lesson near Brunswick that taught some management that preventive maintenance is cheap:
https://www.facebook.com/mitch.adams.758/videos/1421517684665532/
They deliberately cut the rail. I wonder how bridges that are downstream from NS will deal with that pile of debris that NS created.
Blake Boeckman Cleaning drift around bents isn’t standard procedure for NS? That’s a class 1 call via FRA. That’s mandatory 30 day repair to avoid being fined.
Blake Boeckman Not to mention the scouring drift accumulation causes. But after watching the bridge they let get carried away I’m not surprised. Hey NS if you guys need a consultant for structures and superstructures give me a shout. Not looking good in that department.
Art Peine Crane with clamshell bucket can do wonders for those type of problems. Drop the bucket break it up or lift it over not a fast job but beats replacing bridge.

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Jim Morris posted two photos with the comment: "The NS bridge in Mo. that washed away is being rebuilt."

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safe_image for NS Missouri bridge to return to service Monday night

On October 1st, [2019] the

Norfolk Southern Corp

Grand River Bridge in Brunswick, Missouri, was washed away by debris and high waters. On October 28th, we completed our emergency repairs to the bridge and train service was restored. Congratulations to our project team for their quick work on this emergency project.

Dave Durham posted the question: "Haven't seen much action on the NS Hannibal line the last 2 times I was at Valley City/Griggsville. Does anyone know of a slowdown in business that would cause this?"
Adam Taylor A bridge at Brunswick, MO, was washed out. Traffic is detouring via Saint Louis.
Dennis DeBruler Let us know when the trains return to the Hannibal line. It will be interesting how long it takes to fix the bridge.
https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../flood-of-2019...