Railway Track & Structures - September 2007 - (Page 44) Rebuilding history: Boone High Bridge October 2008. Shelley: Railroad heroine When the original Kate Shelley bridge was built, it was believed to be the world’s tallest and longest double-track bridge, but it’s the fact that it is named after a 15-year-old girl that marks its chapter in railroading history. The spring and summer of 1881 were particularly wet and had pushed area creeks and rivers, including Honey Creek where the Shelleys lived, to near capacity. On the night of July 6, during a fierce storm, Kate is credited with saving hundreds of lives after she crawled over an unstable bridge and ran to Moingona Station to stop a Chicago and North Western passenger train from passing over a bridge that had been washed out in the storm. Years after her heroic act, Shelley was offered the station manager position at Moingona Station and, in 1900, a steel bridge over the Des Moines River was named after her. Boone High Bridge This is the latest whole bridge picture from finished rail elevation vantage point. According to Barnes, the new double-track, ballast deck bridge will be 2,550 feet long, slightly shorter than the original’s 2,685 feet, and 198 feet high. The new bridge will consist of 110-foot and 70-foot steel deck plate girder spans, which will be supported on reinforced concrete bents with nine-foot-diameter columns. “One of the big challenges was satisfying AREMA requirements for resisting longitudinal forces from traction and braking that were established in 1997,” said McCune. “With a bridge of this length carrying two tracks, these design loads are significant. The forces will be resisted by five braced towers and two abutments. The towers are 70-foot center to center columns in the longitudinal direction. The bracing consists of reinforced concrete horizontal struts (up to eight feet x 10 feet in size) and diagonal braces of structural steel.” McCune continued, “There has been a spirit of teamwork among the different entities involved in the project. All are focused on the goal of constructing a quality bridge in full accordance with design plans and specifications. These entities are as follows: Owner-Union Pacific Railroad. Structural, track, hydraulic and environmental design-HDR Engineering, Inc. General contractor-OCCI, Inc. Drilled shaft contractor-Hayes Drilling, Inc. Grading contractor-Peterson Contractor, Inc. Geotechnical engineering-Terracon, Inc. Cross hole sonic log testing of drilled shafts-Geotechnology, Inc.” The new bridge will accommodate trains on both tracks simultaneously traveling at 70 mph, an improvement over the current 25-mph restriction. The existing bridge is restricted to 286,000-pound gross weight cars. The new bridge is designed for Cooper E80 loading, which will accommodate 315,000pound gross weight cars. The original bridge will have its track removed but the structure will remain. Shelley’s legend will live on, too. As MacKinlay Kantor wrote in The Ballad of Kate Shelley: But if you go to Honey Creek in some dark summer storm, Be sure you take a lantern flame to keep your spirit warm, For there will be a phantom train, and foggy whistle cries– And in the lightning flare you’ll see Kate Shelley on the ties. www.rtands.com 44 Railway Track & Structures September 2007 http://www.rtands.com
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