Bridges of Lyon, France: Perrache Viaduct across the Rhone River

September 2016 (45.7466, 4.8302) Perrache Viaduct

Continuing downstream past Pont Gallieni we arrive at Perrache Viaduct, a railroad bridge across the Rhone. The bridge was named after the nearby train station (and surrounding district), whose enormous yard can be seen in the Google earth photo in last week's blog. The bridge (and the station) were built in 1856. It is a five span cast iron arch bridge on pile foundations that have been repaired, widened, and strengthened several times. It was bombed twice (by the Allies and then by the Germans) during WWII but it was only partially damaged. After the liberation the U.S. Army used the bridge to carry convoys of heavy vehicles eastward after the retreating German Army.

When looking at the bridge, it isn't hard to identify the newer and older members. The exterior arch on the upstream face (above) appears to be riveted and it supports the deck with steel spandrel columns. The exterior arch on the downstream face (below) is reinforced concrete for two of the spans (as part of a later widening or repair) perhaps because steel was hard to obtain. All of the railroad bridges in this part of France have overhead lines to power the trains.

This is the second railroad bridge that we've studied (we looked at the Viaduc SNCF for the first posting on Lyon). We'll look at several more railroad bridges as we complete our circumnavigation of Lyon and head into the surrounding countryside. I noticed a blog on how to take a train from the Perrache Viaduct to the Millau Viaduct (6 hours and $84) in case anyone is interested. Other trains go to Paris and Rome.

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Bridges of Lyon, France: Viaduc SNCF across the Rhone River

September 2016 (45.7865 Degrees, 4.8598 Degrees) Viaduc SNCF

Readers tired of California bridges will be happy to learn that I just returned from a trip to Lyon, France where I took many bridge photos. Lyon is an interesting city that sits on two hills (Fourviere and Croix-Rousse) with two rivers (the Saone and the Rhone) flowing between them. It was one of the most important cities of ancient Rome (called Lugdunum) and still has Roman aqueducts, theaters, and other ancient artifacts around Fourviere, which is a UNICEF World Heritage Site.

We'll begin our survey with a railroad bridge at the northern border of Lyon. The Viaduc SNCF crosses the Rhone a few meters downstream from the Pont Raymond Poincare, which is barely visible behind it. SNCF stands for Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais, or the French National Railway which manages French railroads including freight trains, passenger trains, and the TGV, France's High Speed Rail Network.

The Viaduc SNCF is a long bridge that includes five reinforced concrete spans across the river. It was built as a cast iron bridge in 1856 and damaged by the Germans as they retreated from France in 1944 (see photo below). It was rebuilt as a reinforced concrete bridge in 1946. The piers look similar on the old and new bridges, which makes me wonder if they built the new bridge on the old piers? However the wide caissons are not visible in the photo below, which suggests the rebuilt bridge has new piers. I wonder if the wide caissons, squat piers, and haunched girders impede the river's flow at flood stage? I noticed uprooted trees lying on the caissons of several bridges across the Rhone. Apparently the Rhone can be a ferocious river when the snowmelt begins in the Alps.

I was unprepared while getting a ride to the airport to suddenly find myself approaching the same bridges south of the river (see photos below). I barely had time to grab my camera and shoot a few photos before we drove past. Despite the limitations of these photos, I'm including them because they give us a different perspective on these long bridges.

The Viaduc SNCF carries overhead lines, which power the trains and are present on all the railroad bridges I photographed in Lyon. The Viaduc SNCF even has architectural features on the edge girders to support the electroliers (top photo).

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Stanislaus County California Bridges: Modesto to Empire Traction Company Bridge across Dry Creek

September 2014 (37.63634 Degrees, -120.98436 Degrees) Dry Creek Railroad Bridge

Next to the Grand Street Bridge is the Modesto and Empire Traction (MET) Company Bridge across Dry Creek.  

At the beginning of the 20th century only the Southern Pacific (SP) Railroad provided service into Modesto. The MET Company built five miles of track between Modesto and Empire (serviced by the Santa Fe Railroad) in order to compete with the SPRR in Modesto. Initially they provided passenger service but they gradually changed into a freight company. Today they own eight 2000Hp Railpower Genset locomotives along with silos and warehouses that load agricultural products on and off railroad cars.

The Dry Creek Bridge has a plate girder center span with a pinned truss underneath for extra support. The MET Company is over 100 years old and so the bridge must be about the same age. In the Google earth photo below we can see the cities of Modesto and Empire. The bridge connects the industrial park on the east side of Dry Creek to a granary on the west side of the creek.

Stanislaus County California Bridges: Modesto to Empire Traction Company Bridge across Dry Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Contra Costa County, California Bridges: Woodward Island RR Bridge across the Old River

February 2014 (37.94127 Degrees, -121.55907 Degrees) Washington Island Railroad Bridge

We are continuing our study of movable bridges in Contra Costa County. Just downstream from yesterday's State Route 4 Bridge is the Woodward Island Railroad Bridge across the Old River. Like the previously studied Indian Slough Railroad Bridge, this bridge carries the BNSF Railroad and Amtrak between Stockton and Martinez.

The Woodward Island RR Bridge has concrete trestle approaches and plate girder/through truss bascule spans. According to the Bridgehunter, this is one of only 8 remaining bridges that use Hugo A.F. Abt's patented design. In this design the counterweight swings under the tall truss while lifting the plate girder span. This allows the approach to remain open under the counterweight. This odd design allows a replacement Abt bridge to be built on the same alignment in the open position facing the other bridge. Terry Koglin describes this solution for movable bridge replacement in his book, "Movable Bridge Engineering." I would imagine that the deck of the replacement bridge must wait until after the old bridge is removed.

Today's bridge was built by the American Bridge Company in 1929. It has a 177 ft long bascule section with a 90 ft long span over the channel with 11 ft of vertical clearance in the closed position.

Contra Costa County, California Bridges: Woodward Island RR Bridge across the Old River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Solano County, California Bridges: Benicia Martinez Bridges across Carquinez Strait

January 2014 (38.0424 Degrees, -122.1225 Degrees) Benicia Martinez Bridges

At the east end of the Carquinez Strait are the three Benicia Martinez Bridges (carrying I-680 between the cities of Benicia and Martinez). The photo above shows the new northbound Benicia Martinez Toll Bridge, a segmentally constructed prestressed concrete box girder bridge. I'm standing on the north side of the Strait photographing this bridge with a telephoto lens that considerably foreshortens the bridge. In the background is an oil refinery that includes a terminal in the Strait for tankers to offload their oil.

Besides the new northbound bridge, there is an old steel truss bridge that was retrofit with giant friction pendulum bearings in the 1990s (see photo below). These bearings reduced the inertia load to the piers and foundations, saving Caltrans the expense of retrofitting the foundation. Both the northbound bridge and the southbound retrofit are part of just a handful of bridges designed to remain in service after a large earthquake.

I had forgotten that we had once practiced our rope climbing techniques on a reinforced concrete leg of the retrofitted bridge (before the new bridge was built). The columns were so tall that we had to tie two static lines together and got to practice climbing above and below the knot as well as how to move from side to side around the column.

Between the northbound and southbound bridges is an old (1930) railroad bridge that still gets plenty of use from the BNSF, UP, and Amtrak trains that cross it every day. The bridge includes a lift span over the shipping channel. In fact, there were so many trains, that it was a hassle while they were trying to work on the retrofit because they had to clear the tracks every time a train came by. The photo below shows the railroad bridge before the northbound Benicia Martinez Bridge was constructed. A better view of the railroad bridge was in the June 5, 2001 blog.

Solano County, California Bridges: Benicia Martinez Bridges across Carquinez Strait by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan Bridges: Japan Railroad Viaduct into Tsukuba

November 2013 (36.08203, 140.08385) Tsukuba Railway Viaduct

Greetings from Japan. I'm in Tsukuba, a research center that the Japanese government plopped in the middle of an agricultural area northeast of Tokyo. They recently built an elevated railway line between the two cities.

This viaduct changes from two column bents to wide hammerhead bents as it crosses the road to become Kenkyu-gakuen Station. Also, the superstructure switches from T beams to box girders as it transitions into the train station.

Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan Bridges: Japan Railroad Viaduct into Tsukuba by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Yuba County, California Bridges: Union Pacific Bridge across the Feather River

October 2013 (39.16364 Degrees, -121.61284) UP Trestle Bridge

Continuing upstream along the Feather River Bridge is an old Union Pacific Trestle Bridge with concrete piers supporting truss spans over the river. A really big caisson supports the river pier to protect it from debris coming downstream.

I wonder if the bridge was raised at some point and the rings around the piers is where the top used to be? The Union Pacific comes north out of Marysville on a big curve, crossing the river in a westerly direction and then goes north through Sutter County (see Google earth photo below).

On the east side of the river are precast box girder spans supported on steel H piles with reinforced concrete bent caps.

Yuba County, California Bridges: Union Pacific Bridge across the Feather River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan's Bridges: Railroad Bridge across the Kotsuki River

September 2013 (31.5922 Degrees, 130.5437 Degrees) Railroad Bridge

The next bridge carries railroad tracks across the Kotsuki River. The bridge has two deep steel girder spans across the river as well as through girder approach spans. The piers along the levees have backwalls to handle the transition from through girder to deck girder spans. The river pier is supported on a very large caisson projecting ten feet above the river bottom. The bridge carries electric lines to power the trains.

This bridge doesn't look like it was built to carry high speed trains (even though bullet trains would be traveling slowly close to the station). It's just north of Kagoshimachuo Station but I noticed on the map that there is another set of tracks perpendicular to these tracks going into the station. Since Kagoshimachuo Station is the final stop for the Shinkansen it makes sense that the tracks would end at the station (see map below).

Note that both railroad lines go into tunnels (red dots) soon after leaving the station. On our trip from Tokyo to Kagoshima we spend a lot of time underground after leaving Honshu for Kyushu.

Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan's Bridges: Railroad Bridge across the Kotsuki River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tokyo Prefecture, Japan's Bridge's: Utility and Railroad Bridges across the Edogawa

September 2013 (35.6970 Degrees, 139.9329 Degrees) Utility and Railroad Bridges

The next three bridges across the Edogawa are two utility bridges with a railway bridge between them. The first utility bridge carries a single pipeline across the river. However, the next utility bridge carries two pipelines and so it switches from a truss segments to steel arches to carry the bigger load across the river.

The railroad bridge is made up of Warren Truss segments sitting on two column bents. They probably build these trusses in a yard and bring them downstream on crane barges that lift them into place. A top chord piece is placed between the segments to make a continuous superstructure.

The Google Earth photo below shows the location of these three steel bridges. The Edogawa has become a salt water estuary as we get closer to Tokyo Bay.

Tokyo Prefecture, Japan's Bridge's: Utility and Railroad Bridges across the Edogawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Sacramento County, California Bridges: Southern Pacific Railroad across the Cosumnes River (1)

September 2013 (38.357684 Degrees, -121.343534 Degrees) Cosumnes River Railroad Bridge

We've repeatedly crossed the Cosumnes River as we've studied bridges in El Dorado, Amador, and Sacramento Counties. The Cosumnes is a major river system, but it comes to an abrupt end in Western Sacramento County. We are going to study the last few bridges across the Cosumnes before it joins the Mokelumne and then empties into the San Joaquin River, which flows into the California Delta and into San Francisco Bay.

Today's bridge carries the Southern Pacific and Amtrak Railroads on concrete box girder approach structures and on a steel girder river bridge on big concrete caissons across the dry (in September) Cosumnes River. We are rapidly approaching the western edge of North America, which becomes a complex network of rivers as we approach the Bay. We'll take another look at this bridge tomorrow.

Sacramento County, California Bridges: Southern Pacific Railroad across the Cosumnes River (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Sacramento County, California Bridges: Bicycle and Railroad Bridges across Willow Creek

September 2013 (38.6681 Degrees, -121.1421 Degrees) Willow Creek Bridges

Continuing on the Jebediah Smith Auxiliary Bike Trail I came upon many Glulam bike bridges and timber railroad bridges side by side as Willow Creek jogged back and forth over what used to be the railroad right of way. The Glulam beam easily spanned the creek (for pedestrian loads) but the timber railroad beam needed support at mid-span (to carry railway live loads).

Sacramento County, California Bridges: Bicycle and Railroad Bridges across Willow Creek by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Amador County, California Bridges: East Ione Underpass over SR 88

March 2013 (38.33366 Degrees, -120.89856 Degrees) East Ione Underpass

I couldn't find too many railroad bridges in Amador County. There were mostly at-grade crossings, usually without gates and I never saw a train.

The East Ione Underpass (26 0004) is a 95 ft long through steel girder railroad bridge on two column bents and with timber and steel trestle approaches. The bridge was built in 1958 and it's in good shape. It crosses State Route 88 a little southeast of Ione near mines and quarries that include railroad sidings.

Amador County, California Bridges: East Ione Underpass over SR 88 by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Placer County, California Bridges: Newcastle Underpass across I-80

December 2012 (38.8757 Degrees, -121.1307 Degrees) Newcastle Underpass

Not every railroad bridge crosses I-80 in one fell swoop. The Newcastle Underpass (19-0103) crosses on four spans supported at the expressway's shoulders and median with three column bents. The bridge was built in 1959, it has a state bridge number, and I read that Caltrans is proposing to improve the vertical clearance under it and eight other I-80 crossings near Newcastle.

It was so foggy at the lower elevations this morning that I could barely see the far side of this bridge. I tried to take a photo from the south approach but I couldn't find a way to get there in the fog. This railway constantly goes in and out of tunnels including one with a nice masonry portal just south of the bridge. However, I was unable to find it driving around Newcastle in the fog.

Like the other Union Pacific crossings, the Newcastle Underpass was originally a timber trestle (see photo below). They must have built I-80 where a natural valley already existed between hills.

Based on Chris Graves' comment (see below) I have added the photo above (courtesy of the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum), which (I hope) is of the correct Newcastle Railway Viaduct.

Placer County, California Bridges: Newcastle Underpass across I-80 by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.