Movable Bridges - Bay Saint Louis Railroad Bridge

I continued east from Chef Menteur Pass to where CSX Transportation was repairing their swing bridge at Saint Louis Bay in Mississippi. CSX was moving fast to  get train service between Florida and New Orleans running again. Their bridge was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina but they constructed a new bridge across the pass in only six months.

The Mississippi DOT was moving slower. They awarded a design-build contract for the Highway 90 Bridge north of the railroad but it didn't get built for another year.

I'm standing on Henderson Point looking west at the bridge repairs.

Movable Bridges - Bay Saint Louis Railroad Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Movable Bridges - Chef Menteur Railroad Bridge

While we're at the Chef Menteur Highway Bridge, we can look east to see the CSX Railroad Bridge 600 yards away. These two bridges are almost identical (three Warren truss spans) but the railroad bridge has a slightly longer swing span and was built three years earlier (in 1926).

The railroad bridge was also damaged by the hurricane, but it was kept in the closed position, perhaps to allow trains to cross while it was being repaired.

Movable Bridges - Chef Menteur Railroad Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Movable Bridges - Chef Menteur Bridge (2)

A close look at the swing span on the Chef Menteur Bridge. This photo was taken a couple weeks after Hurricane Katrina. It looks like the bridge has a rim bearing swing mechanism that was damaged by the storm. I recall that there was also scouring around some of the piers.

After the storm, the Louisiana DOT was able to salvage enough spans from the nearby Lake Ponchartrain Bridges to provide a detour while this bridge was repaired.

Chef Menteur Bridge is a 1175 ft long, two lane bridge that was built across Chef Mentueur Pass in 1929. The swing span is 270 ft long and provides about 100 ft clearance for ships when it's open.

Movable Bridges - Chef Menteur Bridge (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.