CSX Mohawk river bridge at Hoffmans, NY

Here's a heads up to a critical event. CSX is planning on replacing the critical Mohwk River bridge at Hoffmans, NY, on the Selkirk Sub.. The bridge has been under a 25mph speed restriction for more than 2 years. Normally this is a 40 mph area. I have been told the replacement is planned for Memorial day weekend and is expected to take 2 days. Obviously, the mains will be shut down during the period, wityh High priority trains rerouted during the process. Supposedly, the replacement is being constructed on barges and will be moved into place prior to the wekend. The exsisting structure is to be dropped on the first day, and placement of the new structure on the 2nd. Trains are suppose to be running on the 3rd day. The exact dates have not been made available yet. As soon as I hear more, I will post. The scope of this project should make this project quite a event to see. Particularly to have it all down in just 2 days.

This certainally is interesting stuff. I never thought that bridge was in need of replacement but lots of things can happen in the 13 plus years since my last run over that bridge. Too bad they don't still have the West Shore for a detour but that is long gone, well before Conrail much less CSX.
It will be interesting to see what they come up with for detours given that the passenger line has a low bridge not far east of CP-169 where the Selkirk Branch (Conrail term) crosses. Of course on a holiday weekend maybe they can just plain shut down for a couple of days.
Noel Weaver

I understand it's gunna be a complete shutdown. I could see some high priority stuff getting detoured/rerouted for a couple days. I understand a couple years ago NYS DOT inspected the bridge and found some severe structural problems, and considered condemning the bridge. Temporary repairs allowed CSX to keep the bridge open with the temp. speed restriction of 25 mph, until the replacement was ready. Well, as I get more info. I'll post it.

roadster wrote:Well, as I get more info. I'll post it.

That will be appreciated, as I'm planning my annual Amtrak trip to/from Albany.

Could someone please post a picture of the bridge in question? I'm curious at what is to be replaced.

Thanks

Would it happen to be this one?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 794&nseq=4

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r4dpyx ... ORM=LMLTCC
If you rotate to look towards the south or east the view is better, but I couldn't get the link it provided to show that. JS

Looks to be the same bridge in the 1979 picture. Those stone piers must be in good shape if they're going to reuse them. When was that constructed?

I wonder if the replacement will be of a similar design? They sadly don't typically build interesting looking bridges like that anymore (Some form of a truss bridge, not sure what the proper name for it would be).

That's the bridge, it's part of the Castleton- Cutoff, some might call it the Selkirk by-pass.

This bridge, the Castleton Bridge(aka Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge), and Selkirk Yard were all built in the 1920's by the NYC to bypass West Albany Hill. I don't know the exact date that bridge was built, but the the Castleton Bridge was open by 1925 and I think the whole cutoff was open by 1927.

What alternate routes are available? Seems like Boston traffic with no work could use the Amtrak route like the Lake Shore uses. Any way to get back to the River Line from there? Maybe with a "helper" to pull them back rather than make long reverse moves?

Otherwise they'd have to go via NYS&W, or all NS Tier, to avoid it. Of course they can run some stuff down and over the B&O, also.

Ironman wrote:That's the bridge, it's part of the Castleton- Cutoff, some might call it the Selkirk by-pass.

This bridge, the Castleton Bridge(aka Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge), and Selkirk Yard were all built in the 1920's by the NYC to bypass West Albany Hill. I don't know the exact date that bridge was built, but the the Castleton Bridge was open by 1925 and I think the whole cutoff was open by 1927.

What do this have to do with bridge at Hoffmans, ny? I'm little confused..

It has a LOT to do with the Castleton Cutoff project. The biggest point of that project was to keep traffic out of Albany (required pushers on hill) and Schenectady. It ran that traffic through Selkirk and over West Shore to Rotterdam Junction where it rejoined the "traditional" main line.

See more on the Castleton Cutoff: http://sh1.webring.com/people/bk/king50 ... eton1.html

...Ken

The Bridge I am refering to is at MP 40.5 - 40.7 On the Selkirk Div., over the Mohawk River. Under NYC this was part of the Castleton Cutoff. But it is not the Alfred H. Smith Mem. Bridge over the Hudson. pic.s by pumpers and 161pw165 are photos of this bridge. About 5 miles east of Amsterdam, NY.
Matt, this is East of CP 169 and will not effect Amtrak at all. In fact during the shutdown, Amtrak wouldn't have to deal with hardly any CSX traffic so they should be running fairly on time. Nice thought, eh?

I don't think Ironman thought this was that bridge. He was just mentioning some of the other projects that were related to the construction of this cutoff to establish a rough timeframe for when the bridge in question was constructed.

Wouldn't stone bridge piers be a bit rare for 1920's railway construction? I would've thought concrete was the norm by that date for something such as this.

Leo_Ames wrote: Wouldn't stone bridge piers be a bit rare for 1920's railway construction? I would've thought concrete was the norm by that date for something such as this.

Good questions, JS