Highline Bridge

I believe this bridge originally had a screw-jack lifting mechanism similar to Railroad Bridge 3 & 4. I vividly recall the installation of the hydraulic jacks in the early 60's.

Prior to the start of the 1993 flood, the hydraulics were in disrepair and evidently had not been tested for years. Rumor had it that it was cheaper for the railroad to pay the fine for not testing the mechanism than to disrupt traffic. There was a mad scramble to find parts and hydraulic fluid, and in the end, only 2 sections were lifted. For years, a large tree dangled from the span that didn't lift.

Somewhere, I have slides of the KCT crews closing the stop-log gap in the floodwall during the 1993 flood.

Mr. McClanahan is correct. The three river spans can be raised during high water. The lifting mechanisms were added sometime after the 1951 flood.

During the 1993 flood one or two spans were not able to be lifted. I'm not sure of why they were not able to be lifted.

For many years a portion of the upper deck was restricted to a single track. The entire structure was strengthened a couple of years ago. The concrete deck was replaced, additional steel added, and the second track restored across the entire length. Train speed, which was limited to 10-15 mph, was raised to 40 mph.

On 3/13/93 an oversized load derailed and caused the collaspe of two approach spans on the west side of the bridge. An east bound train on the Highline was able to stop a few hundred feet west of the collaspe.

This very well could be, although I have no first hand knowledge, I have heard that the bridges over the Kaw (Kansas River)can be raised due to flooding.

Can anyone tell me when the vertical steel structures at the ends of the spans that cross the river were added and what they are for? A photo from the mid-fifties shows no such structure, but on in the mid-sixties do show them. Are they additions made because of the 1950 flood?