Pan Am Worcester Main Line

Today's look at the AG branch overpass made me rethink my guess. There has been alot of tree and brush clearing at the upper west abutment on the AG line. And the area under the bridge that had been dug out is partially filled back in and compacted. Does this suggest a foundation being laid for a large crane or two? Back to the "raise the bridge" theory?

But would they have installed new CWR over the bridge before they raised it? Maybe it doesn't matter but seems like doing things backwards.

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:51 am But would they have installed new CWR over the bridge before they raised it? Maybe it doesn't matter but seems like doing things backwards.

Why leave out two 1300 foot pieces of CWR and have to bring back a whole rail crew to install it later? Just put down the CWR and cut out the section necessary, maybe 80 feet, and bring in a small crew to install replacement rail afterwards, make your field welds and your done.

I drove by Clinton Depit today and not much happening. The area between the center support and western part of the bridge is now covered by construction fencing with a pretty substantial pile.of gravel behind it.

I also drove over the Chace Hill Road bridge. Looking east, it looked like clearing was done along the south side of the the tracks as far as I could see, with some green barrier (runoff mitigation?) in place for the entire length as well. Is a siding being added, or is this something else?

Chace Hill Rd overpass is being undercut to improve clearance but wetlands are apparently involved.

johnhenry wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2024 10:12 am Today's look at the AG branch overpass made me rethink my guess. There has been alot of tree and brush clearing at the upper west abutment on the AG line. And the area under the bridge that had been dug out is partially filled back in and compacted. Does this suggest a foundation being laid for a large crane or two? Back to the "raise the bridge" theory?

It's a little difficult to see now with the construction fence installed. I don't know how much material was filled back in as I didn't see the totality of what was removed. I could tell that there is still a good amount removed from the center support post towards the tracks. It looks like the excavation is at least a foot lower than the cement footings. Again looking through the fence, the farthest pile of stone looked to be a lot smaller and some seemed to be spread out. From the town cemetery it was possible to determine that a haul road was put in to the south side of the bridge up to the AG branch This is where the tree clearing work was done a couple of weeks back. It was possible to tell the stone was spread out for a haul road through the trees. It looks like the bridge is going to be raised but it won't surprise me if they also lower the tracks. There are a lot of challenges here with the elevations. Perhaps they will split the difference to get the clearance needed.

Is the haul road on the grade of the old interchange tracks in the southeast quadrant?

Here's a video showing the present condition (2022) of the connection for anyone interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyH3YVNg6hY

F74265A wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2024 8:24 am Is the haul road on the grade of the old interchange tracks in the southeast quadrant?

No. It is the opposite side (southwest). There was some clearing done on the southeast quadrant very close to the bridge abutment. I would suspect that a haul road will be put in there. If that is the case it will not be the same routing as where the connecting tracks once were.

Pic of the access road up to the Ag branch (looking east). They put down roadbase material and then rolled/compacted it. Must be expecting to put a fair amount of machinery up there to go through all that effort-seems to support the hypothesis that the bridge will be raised.
Also note the large stockpile of crushed stone or ballast down on the Worcester main.

I made a trip to the bridge today and took some pictures. If you look at the first picture through the orange fence you can see where they exposed the footing and base plate on the center column. It looks like there is a pedestal maybe about a foot plus high that they installed under the column the last time they raised this bridge. In the second picture it looks like there are pedestal's on top of the west abutment that raised the beams at that end .
Are they going to jack up the bridge again? It looks like they will, we shall see.

This will be interesting.

Crews working to lower the tracks under the Rt 12 bridge in Sterling today.

What became of the clearing work by millbrook st in worcester? In light of what is going on in clinton and sterling, perhaps it os a staging area for clearance improvement under millbrook st bridge?? Just a guess