These are notes that I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
BNSF $15m Bridge Replacement over Little White Salmon River at Drano Lake, WA
Construction crews are driving pilings for two main piers that will support the new BNSF rail bridge over Drano Lake in Washington. The new structure will replace a century-old BNSF bridge over Drano Lake that serves a BNSF route that operates east from Vancouver along the northern side of the Columbia River. The new bridge will span 440 feet and include a 360-foot central steel through-truss span. It is part of BNSF's larger effort to upgrade its Washington statewide rail network, company officials said in the newsletter. Once construction of the bridge's two main piers are completed, the finished truss will be loaded onto a barge and floated up the Columbia River to its final location. [ProgressiveRail]
BNSF.com (source) [This link has several more photos of the project.]
Johnathan Tuom posted a video with the comment: "Looks like the railroad bridge is on its way up the gorge. Left Vancouver, Washington this morning. This clip was over 17 minutes in length so I cut the audio and sped up the footage."
The 40-wheeled movers were used to "drive" the truss onto the barge. The swap should happen in mid-Sept in less than 36 hours to minimize the impact on the train traffic. The BNSF line carries an average of 40 trains per day through the Columbia River Gorge, including Amtrak’s Empire Builder trains. [columbian]
safe_image for BNSF bridge replacement bound for Drano Lake[N free articles/month] The sun sets as crews move the BNSF railroad truss bridge to a barge on Monday evening. The bridge will be floated about 60 miles up the Columbia River to Drano Lake, where it will be installed to replace a century-old bridge on the rail line. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)
"a 360-foot-long, 2.7-million-pound steel truss"
Devane Crewse posted twelve photos with the comment: "Bnsf railbridge swap."
[I assume it is this bridge. I doubt that BNSF is currently swapping more than one bridge. However, these photos may be a year old because Advanced American Construction's web site talks about just the replacement over Wood River. But I didn't see the big ringer on that project that is in the twelfth photo of this collection.]
Here is a time-lapse video of tugboats taking the bridge under tow in Vancouver, Washington for its trip up the Colunbia River. If you click on the written link below you can see the comments including a video of the bridge underway.
Bernadette Price provided a video in a comment on her post. I thought the tugboat in front was rather small for this load. Then at the end you can see a much bigger towboat pushing the load. So the tugboat is mainly for steering because the "muscle" is provided by the towboat.
BNSF Railway posted four photos with the comment: "The new bridge on Drano Lake in Washington has finally settled into its new home 18 days after it departed Vancouver by barge, a unique experience as bridges are usually built on-site. Crews worked around the clock for eight hours to remove the old structure, a 113-year-old truss that dated back to the original construction of the rail line through the Columbia River Gorge, and maneuver the new one in place."
Fred Bedard shared with the comment: "New bridge installed in 8 hrs. Incredible." [The figure I saw was that the railroad was shut down for 36 hours.]
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3 [It is a shame that they did not identify the lock.]
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