The first trestle over the American River floodplain in Sacramento, CA is now OPEN. First revenue trains began rolling sometime after midnight on March 27th, 2007. This is an incredible job by the UP’s B&B gangs and J. Dobbas Const. Co. Eleven Days 6 Hours from fire to replacement.
…That has to be awesome performance by all involved to replace that trestle that quickly…!!
That is very fast !!! Good job construction crews ! [8D]
Any pics of the new digs?
Yes, on Trainorders where the Californians hang out.
Wow, I was rooting for them to come out ahead of schedule, but dang! this was almost a week ahead of schedule. I must say, I am impressed with the alacrity and drive that UP put into this. It definitely shows that, in a pinch, at least one railroad is willing to do what needs to be done.
You all seem somewhat surprised that a railroad could get a job like this done so quickly.
For a bussiness to repair its facility this quickly is not real suprising but definetly this was quick. Now if this was a government bridge they wouldnt even have the bids finalized lol
Not really, after all the B&O Railroad managed to defeat General Stonewall Jackson. Three times his forces destroyed the bridge at Harpers Ferry and three times the B&O rebuilt it, each time a little faster. He lamented to his Aide-de-Camp that they were getting so good at it that the B&O’s people would soon have it rebuilt before his troops finished tearing it down.
Great progress by UP! Really admirable, in my book.
Of course, in the Sacramento BEE today in the Letters to the Editor column, an “Environmentalist” wrote and complained about the fact that UP and the State of California seemed to blatantly ‘ignore’ all of the proper ‘environmental’ channels that should have been addressed before construction could commence. Ah yes, all those Snail Darters and Spotted Owls—sheesh!
Tom
…My thoughts on treating the emergency: Do what is necessary to regain traffic flow and deal with the peripherals as needed after the emergency is overcome…Snail Darter’s and all…They can wait that long.
If this was a government bridge they’ll be lucky to get it done in one year considering the extremely prolonged process of doing the Environmental Impact Statement report to start with. [zzz]
Not surprised at all. I remember fondly how quickly UP was able to roll up its sleeves and remove the damaged cars, rebuild two lengthy truss bridges over a creek and replace several hundred feet of two mains when it had the derailment at Galt, Ill. on the Overland Route in May, 2005.