Portageville Bridge Replacement, Future Tier Traffic

Could this latest rumor be coming from the purchase of the D&H? Would it be possible that someone is thinking that the Tier out if Buffalo might not be as important as the south end of the D&H is going to be as a route into New England? Maybe someone is thinking that NS is going wait on the new bridge until the D&H sale is complete. Just the stuff going through my head regarding this bridge delay rumor. Of course, environmental regulations wouldn't surprise me at all. We'll have to wait and see if there is any official statement from NS.

What's the latest on the bridge? will it be replaced??

^Yes, read back a few pages.

Stopped by the bridge today to see if any work had started.
There has been nothing done yet. No tree removal.
Status Quo.

Mike

Of course not. NYS is involved.

Remember it took 90 days to design and build a new bridge when the original wood bridge was destroyed in a fire in 1885. This has been dragging on for years.

The old bridge also still exists... Not saying it would happen in 90 days but if the current bridge were to collapse tomorrow they would probably move faster...

There's also a lot more regulation not just from NYS but also from the Feds, EPA, etc. And costs for construction are astronomically higher than 1885, with more safety requirements, and unions, and........

Oh, and lets not forget that it's only right that the state should have a say in how things go since they are footing a chunk of the bill, are they not? I bet the Erie RR didn't have to apply for countless grants and government assistance to rebuild the bridge either.

While this may have been discussed before, please re=inform me why NS can't send their traffic to Olean, then east. It's not like NS moves a lot of trains outta here. Are there any customers on the Tier between here and Bing?

SST wrote:While this may have been discussed before, please re=inform me why NS can't send their traffic to Olean, then east. It's not like NS moves a lot of trains outta here. Are there any customers on the Tier between here and Bing?

NS still serves a spur in Attica and has substantial interchange traffic with the R&S at Silver Springs (which also includes traffic to/from the LA&L). Cutting the Tier between Silver Springs and Hornell would greatly slow any traffic coming to the R&S form the east or any traffic that needs to travel east after leaving the R&S. It would also add time to NS's intermodal schedule on a route which is already less direct than CSX. It would also slow interchange traffic to/from the west with the shortlines in the Twin Tiers region of NY/PA- including B&H, FGLK, O&H, Suzie Q and WCOR. The Buffalo Line-WNYP route is longer than the the Tier, so the extra labor hours would drive up NS's costs dramatically. Finally, the connecting tracks from the former PRR to the former Erie/EL mainline are on the west side of the diamond at Olean. Every single train passing through there would require the locomotives to run around the train, causing quite the bottleneck. As a shareholder, I feel NS made the right choice by de-emphasizing the Buffalo Line in favor of the Tier.


***My answer is based on the presumption that you live in the greater Buffalo area.***

The only customer I could see in Attica would be Hillcrest, and I'd imagine that's as sporadic as the Buffalo Bills playing well. I doubt it would have any effect on keeping the ST active in all honesty.

The RSR interchange would be more important than Attica, I'd think. Other than that, I'm guessing most of the traffic is thru-traffic between Buffalo and Binghamton, in the way of intermodal. I'm assuming there's still a fair amount of thru-traffic from CP which would be heavily inconvenienced if the Southern Tier was closed long term.

Based on the temporary reroute during the recent blizzard it also seems as the WNYP line (and by extension the Buffalo Line, which is only used by B&P now) isn't capable of handling super heavy amounts of traffic, though I presume this is their detour plan when they are making the final connections at Portageville?

Funny and quite true about Hillcrest!

Here is a list of symbols that operate regularly between Silver Springs and Gang Mills on NS (not including extras or coal trains):

12T/13T- mixed freight
22K/23K- intermodal
38T/39T- mixed freight (CP traffic)
205/206- intermodal/auto racks
309/310- mixed freight

Intermodal accounts for about 40% of the current business on the Tier between Silver Springs and Gang Mills (crossing the bridge at Portageville). The D&H purchase could potentially add a train or two in each direction to the Tier, and the Panama Canal upgrade might do the same thing. It seems pretty reasonable that NS would want to keep their east-west intermodal lane between New England and the Great Lakes as uncongested as possible. Keeping the Tier in its current configuration and replacing the Portageville bridge accomplishes that goal.

It would appear, by this document, that the project has been given the go-ahead by the state.

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT /
FINAL SECTION 4(f) EVALUATION
and
RECORD OF DECISION
December 2014

"1 DECISION
This Joint National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) / State Environmental Quality Review Act
(SEQRA) Record of Decision and SEQRA Findings Statement (Joint ROD and Findings Statement)
documents the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) and the New York State Department of
Transportation’s (NYSDOT) findings and decision to proceed with the proposed action as described
in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) (FHWA-NY-EIS-14-03F) for the Portageville
Bridge Project (the Project)."

https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/operat ... -16-14.pdf

OT: I love the decades old stock WordArt... Stay classy and current, NY.

ctclark1 wrote:OT: I love the decades old stock WordArt... Stay classy and current, NY.

heh, good catch!
I doubt anyone with artistic talent works for NY state..
I lived in Albany for a year once..that town has no soul.

Scot

Stock wordart, espececially the original old-school stuff, makes me cringe as much as Comic Sans at this point.

Note on page 16 of the ROD (p 19 of the overall document) that tree cutting must be complete by Mar 31 before the bats roost. I expect a year delay if all the trees can't be cut in 3 months.