CN - Posey Hollow Road Overpass

The arch was reinforced in 1926. The stone is the 1853 bridge though.

It looks like a concrete arch was added inside the stone arch at some point - reinforced concrete was not in use in the United States in 1853.

According to an IC track map, the bridge was built in 1853, with it being refurbished with a new floor in 1923

All the rail bridges were dated 1921-22=23. That line is much older than that. Grant was in Galena post civil war and that was 1860's. The rail line has to be about that time or soon after. The rail line appears on an 1893 county map with a creek where this bridge is but a road by the other arch. ??

Oops, wasn't logged in and didn't look at the page for the rail bridge. Somehow the 1922 date seems later than what I'd expect for the stone culverts.

Sure enough--there's a different setup there. I still hope the railfans can come up with a date for this line or perhaps there's a builders plate on the deck plate at west crossing. This certainly is an unusual situation.

I see the one you're talking about. Its a bridge that's over the river but under the rail bridge. Look at the other Kelly road listing not the arch. Its a weird configuration. See the CNRR galena river bridge 5 for better pictures of it. I decided to number the rail bridges as they would all 8 have the same name. Council Hill would have been #4 but since it wasn't my listing I didn't feel right renaming it. Carr rd is the one I had my eye on about 6 miles west. Its listed as an arch also.

I was just looking at the map and it looks like the road goes under the track three times. You documented the east and middle crossing but there's one more to the west that needs a field check. It's out of my geographic area but certainly a curiosity if they are repurposed culverts.

Perhaps some of the railroad experts can provide details on when this line was constructed and we can check older topo and county road maps to see when the road appeared.

The PVC and concrete look newer but I'm still thinking it replaced something that washed out previous. Is the Kelly rd arch the one you mentioned to west of here? There's anohter one east of Scales Mound that I simply ran out of time to check out. If it has a creek coming to and from it it will be to coincidental to ignore.

There's one more crossing to the west of these two that might deserve a look. They certainly look like culverts modified to pass a road. The road shows on the 1968 topo, so the PVC is probably a recent rebuild.

Interesting find.

I have a theory that this and the Kelly Road arch bridge were built for creek crossings. A small creek comes down the hill, goes into a culvert that have been buried under the cement down the center of each arch. Then continues in a creek bed beyond. The culverts are PVC so they're not that old.