Friday, November 01, 2019

Raising the 11foot8 Bridge



A while back, we told you how they were going to raise the 11foot8 bridge in Durham, North Carolina. Now we can watch Norfolk Southern and the NC Railroad Company doing it. How do you raise a railroad trestle? They are jacking it up with a dozen hydraulic jacks resting on top of trellises. Really. Just scooch the whole railroad up eight inches, slip some metal shims in the space between the plinths and the bridge, and then set it down. Next, they have to regrade and align the tracks for some distance from the bridge to make it usable to trains. They have some remarkably specialized machinery for those jobs. I guess we'll have to call the this 12foot4 bridge from now on. (via Boing Boing

4 comments:

WilliamRocket said...

My job for the last 40 years has basically been sorting out issues that others have been unable to see solutions for. Seems to me it would have been easier and cheaper to lower the road under the bridge and some 20 metres (lots of feets) each side, do a drainage system that has an automatic sump pump, and viola ! But then, what do I know ? Lol.
While I'm about it, could someone adjust the carptha thing so once I have proved I am not a robot (by clicking on the thing) it remembers that I am not a robot ! This assumed metamorphosis of my body and its functions every few minutes, wearies me somewhat.

smittypap said...

I'm gonna miss those can opener videos.

Douglas2/Unknown said...

WilliamRocket -

I'm not seeing it on Wikipedia or the various bridge FAQs at the moment, but it has been reported in the past that a gravity sewer is insufficiently deep below the road surface.

newton said...
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