Norfolk Southern to replace all rail bridges in downtown Elyria

The Norfolk Southern Railway company has expanded its plan for decaying rail bridges in Elyria to include the full replacement of all downtown bridges over the next decade, according to Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker. Last month, Brubaker announced that after years of city officials complaining about the condition of the Norfolk Southern-owned rail bridges that run through Elyria, the company finally committed to fully replacing the rusted and cracked bridge over East Bridge Street. Initially the company had announced plans only to completely replace that bridge and to do smaller maintenance work on other bridges downtown. But on Wednesday, Brubaker said that Norfolk Southern representatives met with him in his office at City Hall and informed him that they now plan to fully replace all seven bridges in downtown Elyria over roughly the next decade. "My understanding was they were coming into town to share with me about some changes and some rehab that they were going to do to those other six bridges in our downtown (not including East Bridge Street)," Brubaker said. "Come to find out, their plan is to completely reconstruct every one of them over the next 10 to 12 years. Once East Bridge is done, they are going to start looking at (the rail bridge over) Cedar Street, and they are going to move east to west." Additionally, Brubaker had initially reported to City Council that the company would not do any work on the rail bridge over Washington Avenue because it had undergone renovations most recently. Now, he said, that bridge would be fully redone as well. The rail bridge over Washington Avenue deals with semi-truck trailers occasionally becoming stuck under it. Brubaker said the only rail bridge in the area that won't be redone is the bridge over Gateway Boulevard and West River Road next to the Elyria Foundry. It was redone several years ago after a train derailment. "Their main engineer out of Atlanta flew in for the day, and she told me that these things were built around 1919, or somewhere in there, they are outside their 100-year service life, so we (Norfolk Southern) will build the next realm of bridges to last the next 100 years," Brubaker said. "That made me feel really good, that they aren't going to be putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound by just fixing it, you know, or putting a dress on a pig. They are actually going to tear them all out and rebuild them all." Under the plans shared with the city, Norfolk Southern will replace the entirety of every bridge with the exception of the pedestrian safety railing along the sidewalk underneath them. Brubaker said this was because the sidewalk will be owned by the city, and so he offered for the city to pay for new railings to be installed at the same time as the rest of the work, which the company agreed to. The Washington Avenue, East Bridge Street and West Avenue rail bridges will receive new pedestrian safety railings, he said. With East Bridge Street being done first, Brubaker said he expects Norfolk Southern to go out for bid on that project this summer with construction expected to start next spring. Traffic on East Bridge Street will be heavily impacted and even at times completely shut down throughout the construction, and this pattern is expected to be repeated on the other projects to come. Earlier this spring, Norfolk Southern announced plans to replace two rail bridges and seal up a third in downtown Amherst. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.