Rating:
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KCS - Twin Culvert (S)

Pike County, Illinois

Photos 

North portal of the south culvert

Photo taken by Fmiser in June 2012

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

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BH Photo #234740

Map 

Description 

The railroad built two embankments through this valley that has a small, intermittent stream that joins Hill Creek. The earlier northern one was abandoned when the southern one was built. The stream and Old Pearl Road, or Township Road 461, share the stone arch culverts, or tunnels. At the culverts the two embankments are approximately 230 ft (70 m) apart. In between the embankments is a cave that is part of the Twin Culverts Cave Nature Preserve.

Facts 

Overview
Stone arch Bridge over Old Pearl Road on Kansas City Southern Railway
Location
Pike County, Illinois
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1889 during a grade reduction
Railroads
- Chicago & Alton Railroad (C&A)
- Gateway Western Railroad (GWWR)
- Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad (GMO)
- Illinois Central Railroad (IC; ICG (1972-1988))
- Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS)
Design
Stone arch identical to the northern bridge, which carried the rail line between 1870 and 1889
Dimensions
Span length: 30.0 ft.
Total length: 30.0 ft.
Also called
IC - Twin Tunnels
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.44617, -90.66362   (decimal degrees)
39°26'46" N, 90°39'49" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/701045/4368895 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Pearl West
Inventory numbers
IL 075-9909 (Illinois bridge number)
BH 15608 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (7,438)
Arch (11,970)
Built 1889 (231)
Built during 1880s (1,962)
Chicago & Alton Railroad (89)
Deck arch (11,211)
Gateway Western Railroad (35)
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad (109)
Illinois (4,600)
 Illinois Central Railroad (577)
Kansas City Southern Railway (223)
Open (39,654)
Owned by railroad (12,234)
Pike County, Illinois (104)
Railroad (15,290)
Span length 25-50 feet (15,469)
Stone arch (2,994)
Total length 25-50 feet (11,045)

Update Log 

  • October 17, 2018: New photos from Jeremy Ruble
  • September 27, 2017: New photo from Jeremy Ruble
  • June 28, 2016: New photos from John Marvig
  • June 23, 2016: Updated by John Marvig: Added information
  • July 16, 2012: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: Added category "Railroad"
  • July 13, 2012: Updated by Fmiser: Captioned photos
  • July 10, 2012: New photos from Fmiser
  • July 8, 2012: Updated by Fmiser: Updated design and description

Sources 

  • Fmiser - fmiser [at] gmail [dot] com
  • John Marvig - marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Jeremy Ruble - jaruble1982 [at] gmail [dot] com
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Comments 

KCS - Twin Tunnels
Posted February 19, 2015, by Joanne (Jdexheimer [at] frontier [dot] com)

What year were the twin culverts constructed?

Twin Culverts
Posted July 8, 2012, by Fmiser (fmiser [at] gmail [dot] com)

I'm not sure what to do with the dimensions for this one.

These are effectively tunnels, making the "bridge" actually for the railroad. So the span would be 10 ft. But from the perspective of the road, they are 50 ft long.

So what values should I put in the "deck width" and "span" fields?

Also, there are two structures on two different railroad embankments about 230ft apart. Should they be listed separately? Should the location be an average between the two?