Central Avenue will be closed at Santa Fe Street from 6 am to 8 pm on Sunday, May 18. Dondlinger & Sons Construction, Inc. will install 92-foot long steel girders for the new bridge that now carries train traffic over Central Avenue. The girders will allow the bridge to be widened on the east side to accommodate a third train track.
During the closure, traffic will be detoured to Murdock, which can now carry truck traffic up to 15’-6” beneath the elevated rail bridge. First and Second Streets are also detour options.
Dondlinger will assemble and move a large crane into place Sunday morning, and begin lifting girders into place. Each pair of girders weighs 44 tons.
The improvements mark the second and final phase of construction for this bridge, which has been carrying one line of train traffic since October 16, 2007. The remainder of the trains crossing Central Avenue were diverted onto the new bridge on March 16.
When complete, the bridge will have capacity for three overhead tracks, with five driving lanes and sidewalks below, plus an overhead clearance of 15’-6” for large trucks.
This work is part of the City’s downtown Central Railroad Corridor Project that includes new railroad bridges at First, Second, Central, Murdock, and Thirteenth Streets, plus improvements at Douglas Avenue Bridge. Work on the $105 million Central Corridor began on April 18, 2005 and will be completed in four phases to elevate railroad tracks onto new bridges, while maintaining vehicular traffic below. This will be a major accomplishment in improving downtown traffic flow. Work is to be completed in fall 2009.
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