More "Rebuild Kinzua Bridge" rumors?

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/info/kinzua ... inzua.html

The investigation of the collapse revealed that the bridge was destroyed at least partly because it was missing key structural anchors. It seems bridges have to be anchored down in very high winds.

Hello, Actually within the next month they are going to start working on the kinzua bridge. My grandfather owns a company that is going to be re-cementing the bottom supports of the bridge. Its actually a really huge project. Its almost 850ft. down hill. The company who is going to be doing this is Stone concrete pumping (Warren, PA) My father will be pumping this actually. I will be recording the whole thing, so if anyone is interested I will be posting a video once its done.

bperkins88 wrote:Hello, Actually within the next month they are going to start working on the kinzua bridge. My grandfather owns a company that is going to be re-cementing the bottom supports of the bridge. Its actually a really huge project. Its almost 850ft. down hill. The company who is going to be doing this is Stone concrete pumping (Warren, PA) My father will be pumping this actually. I will be recording the whole thing, so if anyone is interested I will be posting a video once its done.

What does this mean?
what are they doing to the concrete supports? and why?

Scot

scottychaos wrote:

bperkins88 wrote:Hello, Actually within the next month they are going to start working on the kinzua bridge. My grandfather owns a company that is going to be re-cementing the bottom supports of the bridge. Its actually a really huge project. Its almost 850ft. down hill. The company who is going to be doing this is Stone concrete pumping (Warren, PA) My father will be pumping this actually. I will be recording the whole thing, so if anyone is interested I will be posting a video once its done.

What does this mean?
what are they doing to the concrete supports? and why?

Scot

Probably "preservation." Too bad they're a few years too late. Where were all of these Obamabucks then?

EMTRailfan wrote:

scottychaos wrote:

bperkins88 wrote:Hello, Actually within the next month they are going to start working on the kinzua bridge. My grandfather owns a company that is going to be re-cementing the bottom supports of the bridge. Its actually a really huge project. Its almost 850ft. down hill. The company who is going to be doing this is Stone concrete pumping (Warren, PA) My father will be pumping this actually. I will be recording the whole thing, so if anyone is interested I will be posting a video once its done.

What does this mean?
what are they doing to the concrete supports? and why?

Scot

Probably "preservation." Too bad they're a few years too late. Where were all of these Obamabucks then?

preservation of what?? the concrete?
this makes no sense..very odd..

Scot

There was talk of not recreating the bridge, but instead to build some sort of deck for observation purposes.

David Becker

That's exactly what is happening. We were there in September on our way back to Buffalo from the annual steam-up in Saint Marys. The south end of the bridge, in the park, had been fenced off. We spoke at length with a park ranger who told us that work on the observation deck was about to begin. The park did not look well-maintained at all, certainly nothing like it looked before the bridge went down. The K&K track was covered with weeds but still in place at least between Lantz Corners and Mount Jewett. We drove down into Kushequa and then out through the valley to 219. At Saint Marys the B&W has added to its trackage. Otto was running and putting on a good show too as was their home-built Shay.

scottychaos wrote: preservation of what?? the concrete?
this makes no sense..very odd..

Scot

I meant why waste tax dollars on an unusable bridge just to keep it from falling more? I hadn't heard about the observation deck yet. Soaking money into the bridge should have been done before 2004, not now, whether it is for an observation deck, or keeping it from falling...period. At least then it could be generating income for the (could be) Knox and Kane and the Commonwealth. I'm not trying to take income from bperkins' grandfather's company, but there are other things that I'd rather see my taxes spent on.

According to a Railpace I picked up over the weekend, the K&K has filed to abandon the whole works - the entire line that they own.

Didn't the K&K already get sold off at auction, or was that just the equipment and buildings?

Dave Becker

pablo wrote:Didn't the K&K already get sold off at auction, or was that just the equipment and buildings?

Dave Becker

The K&K property-ROW, buildings, etc., was sold to the Kovalchick Corp. BEFORE the auction. Removable "objects" were sold at the auction. It was the Kovalchick K&K that filed for the abandonement, not the Cornell K&K.

Update: Okay. Well they are starting work on it tomorrow (thursday november 11, 2009). I went up with my father today and took some pictures for everyone to check out! Take a look...

http://www.kinzuacountry.com/Gallery/in ... ge+Project

Please comment back!

Brandon

Don't take my above posts the wrong way. I am just bitter at the too late reactive actions, instead of the proaction to keep the bridge useable that should have been made before 2003. I guess if it's not broke, why fix it until it IS broke, literally. I guess if all of my lug nuts come off except one, that is good enough to hold until the last one fails, and I go careening off of the road, right?

Thanks for the pics Brandon. Well appreciated.

Well they were fixing the bridge, but the tornado went through when they had a bunch of rivets out of it. They were ahead of schedule actually. if the tornado didn't go through then the bridge would have been successfully rebuilt. But I think that it still would have fell over. the bottom pillars for the bridge supports were stone with all-thread sticking up through and concrete surrounding them. The all-thread was rusted and rotted making the bridge vulnerable to falling over anyways. If they would have re-structured the whole bridge, then they would have had to do the same thing we are doing right now to make it last. They are just doing this so that it will be strong enough, and look better than old cracked concrete. DEP and gov. officials are all over this project too, so its holding it back in a lot of ways. Its a huge waste of tax payers money, but it still is a part of history being the tallest train bridge in the world at one time. With all of that in mind, I think its a good idea as far as preserving the bridge so I can show my kids, but at the same time.. its probably not the right time to be doing something like this when the economy is doing so bad.

Brandon

I see the last post on this topic was back in 2009. We drove out to the park today (April 20, 2011) to check progress of the rebuild. We were last here exactly a year ago, April 20, 2010. First, looking at the photos from both years, I can definitely tell you this has been a cold year. Last year the trees were nice and green. This year, on the same date, the trees are still just sticks and it was cold and wet.

There is a conceptual drawing showing how the platform will appear when the project is completed. It looks like they will be including a glass floor! That should be nice. There is also some actual track - or at least something that represents track.

Crews were busy placing new wood timbers (they look like long ties) on the deck and working at the end where the platform will be.

There is some new steel in the construction area, presumable materials for the platform.

It looks as if new guard rails have been installed along the first half of the structure.

I didn't see any reference to a planned completion date, but I suspect it will be open by summer.

I have a number of photos of this structure I took back in the 1980s, before the Knox and Kane began running their excursions over the bridge. If anyone is interested I can post them.

An active railroad crosses the road into the park. This is a Genesee & Wyoming line from Salamanca, NY. Both times we visited the park, we heard a train passing just as we walked into the park. We have yet to see a train on that line however, despite waiting for one.