Rating:
6 votes

New Kate Shelley High Bridge

Boone County, Iowa

Photos 

From west approach

Photo taken by Nathan Morton in August 2009

Enlarge

BH Photo #145579

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Concrete Beam and Deck Plate Girder over Des Moines River on Union Pacific Railroad west of Boone
Location
Boone County, Iowa
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 2007-09 to replace parallel deck truss bridge
Railroad
- Union Pacific Railroad (UP)
Design
Deck plate girder
Dimensions
Total length: 2,813.0 ft. (0.5 mi.)
Approximate latitude, longitude
+42.05962, -93.97064   (decimal degrees)
42°03'35" N, 93°58'14" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/419688/4656851 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Boone West
Inventory number
BH 43266 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Ballasted Deck (150)
Beam (12,816)
Boone County, Iowa (106)
Built 2009 (49)
Built during 2000s (579)
Concrete girder (870)
Concrete stringer (651)
Deck girder (4,758)
Des Moines River (223)
Girder (8,458)
 Iowa (5,924)
Modern (1,869)
Open (37,487)
Owned by railroad (10,242)
Plate girder (6,463)
Railroad (13,556)
Tall Bridges (316)
Total length over 2500 feet (868)
Union Pacific Railroad (2,005)

Update Log 

  • March 16, 2018: New photos from Daniel Barnes
  • February 25, 2017: New photos from Daniel Barnes
  • July 28, 2015: New photo from Chris Meiners
  • June 2, 2015: New photo from Kevin Skow
  • June 8, 2013: Updated by John Marvig: Added category "Ballasted Deck"
  • March 28, 2013: New photos from John Marvig
  • August 3, 2012: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: Added category "Tall Bridges"
  • July 26, 2012: New photos from John Marvig
  • November 18, 2010: New photos from Jason Smith
  • February 17, 2010: Updated by J.R. Manning: Added GPS Coordinates per To-Do List
  • August 23, 2009: Added by Nathan Morton

Related Bridges 

Sources 

  • Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
  • Jacob P. Bernard
  • Jason Smith - flensburg [dot] bridgehunter [dot] av [at] googlemail [dot] com
  • John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
  • Kevin Skow - weatherbum [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Daniel Barnes
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Comments 

New Kate Shelley High Bridge
Posted February 25, 2017, by Ed Hollowell (erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com)

Wondering if this bridge was built with pre-cast pieces or was it cast in place? Also if it was pre-cast, can sections be replaced if the concrete begins to degrade prematurely?

New Kate Shelley High Bridge
Posted August 15, 2013, by DeserTBoB (desertbob426 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

American Bridge did a rather extensive rehab job on the old Kate back in 2000-2001, including flame shortening of various stretched chords and repair of damaged piers due to containers blown off of COFC cars account of high winds. After the rehab, it was obvious that old Kate would need even more work to fulfill UP's specs of having two loaded coal trains pass each other at track speed in mid span, something that old Kate hadn't been able to do for decades. So, UP opted for the concrete replacement. UP still owns Old Kate, and it was said that they were considering using it as an MOW road bridge.

New Kate Shelly High Bridge
Posted August 23, 2009, by J.R. Manning (thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net)

I would be willing to bet that no one is happier to have this bridge open than the UPRR engineers, who will no longer have to reduce speed to a crawl in order to cross the old Kate Shelly High Bridge.