Sacramento Bridge East Approach Rebuilding Fast Facts
- Union Pacific’s nearly 1,400-ft. timber trestle east approach to its 2,400-ft.-long bridge over the American River was reported as fully engulfed in fire to the railroad’s police dispatch center about 6 p.m. PDT on Thursday, March 15. All 1,400 ft. of the approach was destroyed by the fire. The entire east approach was replaced with steel and pre-cast concrete caps and girders.
- Real-time air monitoring test results showed no adverse effect to air quality. Air monitoring by Union Pacific’s contractor, the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, continued while the fire burned.
- Fire was extinguished on Saturday, March 17. Air monitoring continued for another 24 hrs.
- All debris was removed from the site by Sunday morning, March 18 and taken to an approved facility.
- A total of 233 trucks and 16 rail cars were used to transport construction materials to Sacramento from Omaha, Dallas, Tucson, Albuquerque and Roseville.
- Materials used to reconstruct the bridge approach included:
- 14,887 ft. or 2.8 miles of steel piling weighing 1.32 million pounds.
- 94 pre-cast concrete caps.
- 188 pre-cast concrete girders – 180 are 30 ft. long weighing 50,000 lbs. each.
- 2.6 miles, 2,500 lbs., of welding wire or rods were used to connect steel pile sections, brace the steel piling, connect the caps to the steel piling and girders together and to the caps.
- 2,800 feet of track including:
- 5,600 linear feet rail;
- 1,700 composite ties;
- 17,000 track spikes; and
- 2,800 tons of rock ballast to insure a stable roadbed.
- Six cranes were used on the project to unload, move and place the steel and pre-cast concrete bridge components. Two cranes, one 175-ton and one 165-ton, were used exclusively for pile-driving.
- Pile-driving for the entire project was completed in less than nine days – began 2 p.m. Monday, March 19 and finished at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 27.
- Track one opened to train traffic in 10-1/2 days and track two opened in 15-1/2 days.
- A total of 250 employees and contractor employees worked on the project