A new NS bridge at Shelbyville, KY on the Louisville District

[E.M. Bell]

NS has recently completed a major bridge project at Shelbyville Ky, after almost Two years of work.

Located at MP 308w, the long, low bridge spans a shallow valley "behind" downtown Shelbyville. I never really understood why they didn't bother to just put a fill across there, as there is no water crossing at all, and only one road goes underneath. The old bridge was typical of most of the other bridges on the Louisville district, being of steel construction, with piles driven into the ground, concrete caps and steel stringers. The old bridge has had a permanent slow order on it for years now, and was getting in pretty rough shape with a lot of visible dips and low spots.

The new bridge has steel bents, with the entire upper structure made of concrete, including a ballast deck (meaning regular track crews can replace ties and rail, instead of a B&B crew). It also sports a wide walkway on either side, with handrails. NS almost literally   "jacked the old one up, and ran a new one underneath it". Work first started with a pile driver placing new supports in between the old ones for the entire length of the bridge, then they came in and removed the old bridge, section by section, and placed the new deck. All of this was done with 4 to 6 hour work windows during the week, which had a minimal impact on rail traffic. Given the 25 or so  trains a day on the line, that was no small feat.

The old bridge was always a popular photo location, and its spindly appearance was a added bonus. I had figured the new bridge, with the walkways and handrails, would put a stop to any decent photography there, but its not near as bad I thought it would be...its all about the angle!

It had been a few weeks since I had the time to get up that way to see the finished product, but yesterday afternoon, Carmon and myself rode that way and spent a couple of hours shooting the bridge. I just added a few shots of the bridge, plus a few more around Waddy. If you look further down on the gallery page, you can see what the bridge used to look like earlier in the year.

Feel free to check them out at the link. http://www.pbase.com/kd4jsl/nsls11eb


A couple of views of what this bridge used to look like..





And a few of the completed project..a big difference!







and a couple more from Yesterday...NS 22A, and 61A, both at Waddy KY