New BNSF bridge to be barged to site.

bcp · Apr 18, 2020

Article at:

Clark Asks: Railroad bridge under construction in Vancouver bound for Columbia River Gorge

An anonymous reader wants to know: “Behind the Vancouver Marine Park boat launch, there is a large bridge under construction. What is it? How will it be moved when it’s done?”

www.columbian.com

Article about the other bridge mentioned, that was barged to its site.

Fought BNSF Railroad Bridge Wind River — Fought & Company

Hamilton Construction contracted with Fought & Company to fabricate the Wind River crossing bridge for BNSF, located in Home Valley, WA. Hamilton began accepting and assembling sections of the bridge on a 70’ x 100’ floating barge, located on the Willamette downriver from the St. Johns Bridg

www.foughtsteel.com

Bruce

Bob · Apr 18, 2020

Not too far away, the BNSF bridge 5.1 over the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon was done in the same manner back in 1989. It was converted from a swing bridge to a vertical lift bridge, and the change over was done in 72 hours. How is that possible? Well, the vast majority of work was done ahead of time. The new support structures were built in place of course, but they were able to do it so that the track remained open during the work.

The tricky bit was swapping the span out. The span was constructed in a nearby shipyard, quite possibly the same one in Vancouver, though I'm not certain of that. The bridge was complete and ready to go before they floated it into place. The company I worked for installed the track and ties on the structure. The whole thing was built in a giant dry dock so that it could be floated out when completed. It was interesting to work, even though we weren't above the water, we were still up in the air, and so it required some serious safety precautions. The work went well and the swap was completed on schedule, with the line opened when they said it would be.