I just posted an article from Progressive Railroading over in Flimsies. Go on pop over there, I'll wait here.........

Back? Great. :-) Of course, the article is a bit weak on detail. I'm not real familiar on the area. From google Maps, it appears to be a double track bridge over the road below. Anyone have any before pictures and any opinions why the bridge has to be replaced, etc.?

Greg

For one thing, it's not exactly up to modern seismic standards, IIRC. The entire area is being redone as noted in the article, and the existing main span is rather narrow by today's standards and not exactly conducive to the sort of work that needs to be done (not to mention the existing piers have probably been run into by quite a few motor vehicles over the years); having a single longer span would make that work much easier. Vertical clearance is a foot lower than the nearby bridges, so that could also be a factor. There is also a lot of corrosion underneath as well. It's probably cheaper and certainly easier to simply replace the existing bridge with a new span than to try and correct all of the above problems.

This probably won't be the only bridge that gets replaced in the near future, as the Quint Street bridge just to the south has the same issues with the exception of vertical clearance. In fact, one issue is actually worse, since the street itself passes underneath the mainline at a sharp angle; as a result, the bridge piers are closer together and one set is actually in the middle of the street, plus the road lanes are obviously much narrower between those piers.