Plant Bowen Coal Unloading Railroad Trestle Replacement

This project included the demolition of the existing trestle comprised of 18, 60-foot long steel spans, anchor bolt replacement, and the prefabrication and erection of new spans for coal unloading during an accelerated rail shutdown schedule. The 18 new spans were fabricated in sections and preassembled onsite, in the laydown yard. Heavy hauling equipment and two cranes (300- and 100-ton) were required to remove the existing spans and move the new spans into place.

Before the cranes could be moved onto the site, the site required extensive preparations. The yard coal had to be graded to achieve the level of compaction required to meet minimum load bearing needed for the 300-ton crane. Once the crane was in place and the new spans were preassembled in the laydown yard, the rail shutdown began. Old spans were removed, and new spans were put in place, one at a time. Heavy haul equipment was used to move the spans to and from the laydown yard and the crane was used to remove or put the spans in place.

There were 32 picks total, each being critical lifts, which required detailed scrutiny and engineering standards to meet certain criteria defined by OSHA as well as the client’s stringent requirements. The demolition, removal, and replacement of all spans took place in only 11 days. This accelerated schedule was required to minimize the length of the railroad outage. Once the replacement was complete, new rails and shaker were installed.

Brasfield & Gorrie self-performed the demolition, assembly, and steel span erection activities.