BNSF/Santa Fe Bridge over Mazon River

(Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Why am I writing some notes about a plain old steel girder bridge? Because one normally doesn't see the girders in the water.

Brandon Elliott posted three photos with the comment: "The insane rains have caused flooding on the BNSF Chillicothe Sub, the water in the Mazon River has risen up to the bridge over it, the first picture and the drone picture were taken today, the low water picture was taken April 8th."

1

2

3
Dennis DeBruler It appears that the engineer who computed the height of the Santa Fe embankment did a fairly good job. If he thought he added a generous fudge factor, it was needed.

I can testify to the insanity of that rain. We got over 3" in just a couple of hours Sunday (May 17, 2020) afternoon. We had the highest inflow into our basement that we have seen in over 40 years of living in Downers Grove. My wife was running the Rug Doctor while I was running the wet-dry vac. I could fill the wet-dry in just a couple of minutes by putting the floor attachment in a low area because the hose stayed full of water until it finally drained that area. Fortunately, our sump pump had no problem dealing with the part of the basement that it keeps dry.

The following comment reminded me that this creek is near the Northern Illinois Coal Mine where the Tully Monster fossils were first found.

James Alann, Jun 2019
Beautiful river and great fossil site. Glad we loaded up in years past when it was accessible.Too bad a few locals got greedy and now canoe access has been block for everyone else & you'll get arrested for trespassing!

I assume these people are looking for fossils and not clams.

Kim Kostelac, Aug 2019

Update: this is becoming "the water is touching the girders" notes.

Marshall  County EMA posted [May 28, 2020, rain]

Todd Pendleton shared
IAIS bridge over Thenius Creek in Sparland.
Gary Talsky Did it get "bumped" like last time?
Jeremy J Schrader These bridges wind up this way every time there’s a significant rainfall

The camera car was in the opposite lane so I could not get a good street view of the creek. But this satellite image confirms the creek is filling a fairly large cross section.

Satellite