KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Coordination and detailed planning brought in a project to replace a portion of railroad bridge span at Fort Leonard Wood on time and within budget.
In a true success story for the Kansas City District, the replacement of the 25-foot wooden span with a new concrete section was completed in two weeks for the original budgeted cost of just over $790,000 with no disruptions in shipments to the installation.
"The replacement of that section at Bundy Junction required an outage of service and we had to be sure this would not interfere with any shipments to Fort Leonard Wood," said Bill Rector, Kansas City District project manager. "We spent a lot of time planning up front. Working with the district's Resident Office, the installation logistics people and Department of Public Works, asking questions about how the work would be done so that we could be sure that when we ripped this bridge out and put the new one in place we would have a completed project that would not encounter any unusual circumstances."
Additionally, the engineer and the contractor who installed the span spent a lot of time making sure they got the design and installation sequence right and as a result when the work began April 18 they were able to complete it in two weeks with zero growth cost.
The bridge is part of an entirely Army-owned 21-mile long spur line maintained by Fort Leonard Wood that connects at Bundy Junction. Built in 1940 when Fort Leonard Wood served as a training post, the railroad transported Soldiers and civilians to work. Now the railroad line transports equipment to the installation.
"At Bundy Junction there are a number of railroad bridges and we have replaced seven of the nine bridges along the entire line that were wooden trestle bridges with concrete bridges," said Rector. "The wooden spans were a maintenance headache because they had to be repaired and maintained quite frequently."
However, when the wooden trestle bridge was replaced at this location, there was a small span that remained in place primarily to allow for the expansion and contraction and movement of the railroad bridge. Eventually, once funding was available, the installation decided to replace that section.
"The real success is the fact that we were able to do this with no growth cost which means we were able to save a lot of money. We were good conservators of our taxpayer dollars," said Rector. "Being prepped, having all the equipment available, having everything ready to go before the work begins results in us being able to do a lot of good things."
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