The $75 million bridge replaces the former Erie Railroad Portageville Bridge, an often-photographed iron-and-steel landmark built in 1875. It stands more than 230 feet above the Genesee River in New York’s Letchworth State Park.
“This is a very exciting day for Norfolk Southern and for the future of freight rail service in New York’s Southern Tier region,” NS CEO James A. Squires says in a statement.
The new span, built 75 feet south of the old truss bridge, allows NS to run industry-standard 286,000-lb. cars over the Southern Tier line, up from the current 273,000-pound limit. Trains can move across the bridge at 30 mph, up from 10 mph on the old span.
The line carries about a dozen trains per day and is a key link in Norfolk Southern’s route to New England from the west. It also handles some freight bound for Canada and northern New Jersey.
The first train to use the arch bridge was 36T, a Buffalo to Allentown, Pa., manifest train. The last train across the old bridge was I2K, an intermodal train bound for the NS terminal at Mechanicville, N.Y., NS spokesman Jon Glass says.
NS officially broke ground for the new bridge, and 1,200 feet of new track on either side of the river, on Oct. 28, 2015. The project was funded by a combination of NS, federal, and state money. NS paid the lion’s share of the cost by kicking in $59.5 million.
“The successful completion of this bridge is an excellent demonstration of how the public and private sectors can work together on freight transportation projects that generate significant public benefits and are vital to U.S. commerce,” Squires says. “It’s also a testament to Norfolk Southern’s robust bridge program and the ingenuity of engineers and railroaders.”
The 1875 bridge, the second built on the site, will be dismantled.
The Erie’s first bridge over the Genesee opened in August 1852. The timber span burned down in May 1875 and an iron replacement was quickly built.
Construction on the iron bridge began on June 13, 1875 and was completed in just weeks. It opened on July 31, 1875.
The old bridge was strengthened in 1903, when steel deck girder and steel deck truss girder spans were added, according to an engineering presentation by NS and Modjeski and Masters, a Pennsylvania firm that designed the new bridge.
The 1875 span, 53 miles southeast of Buffalo, was deemed beyond its useful life more than a decade ago.
