The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) has recognized the Merchants Bridge Main Span Trusses and East Approach replacement project with its 2023 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence.
The Hay award, AREMA’s highest honor, recognizes innovative railway engineering procedures, projects and products and the individual(s) who have created and successfully applied them to the railroad industry.
Merchants Bridge had exceeded its design life and was operating under a variety of speed, clearance, and load restrictions. The main span truss members were built in 1890 and the girders and floor beams ranged in age from 116 to 132 years old. Not only were operational limitations causing increased costs for the owner, Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) as well as for the six Class I freight railroads that relied on the crossing, but Merchants simply couldn’t keep up with the growth in freight traffic in the United States seen over the last 50 years, let alone the projected growth for the next 50 years. Reconstructing Merchants Bridge was an absolute priority for the St. Louis region and the nation’s infrastructure.
To bring the bridge back to an acceptable level of service, TranSystems led reconstruction of the Merchants Bridge, providing the design and engineering components of the main span trusses and approaches and the east approach encasement. In addition, TranSystems provided the required environmental clearances (NEPA approvals) by serving as a liaison with the federal agencies – primarily the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and Federal Emergency Management (FEMA), and facilitating bi-state coordination with Missouri and Illinois state agencies and municipalities necessitated by this historic river crossing. In addition, TranSystems obtained the associated permitting for project implementation and provided compliance support throughout construction. The project components included replacing the three river-span trusses, seismically retrofitting the four existing river piers, and improving the east approach.
Merchants Bridge can now handle two modern freight trains at once with an average of 70 trains crossing the bridge each day. The bridge’s increased capacity will also provide more dependable and higher velocity rail car movement to the Gulf, Canada, and Mexico, thus re-establishing itself as a vital link in a supply chain reaching both sides of the Mississippi River, across the United States and internationally.
The Hay Award is just the latest of industry honors for the project, which include:
- American Council of Engineering Companies of Missouri (ACEC-MO) Grand Conceptor
- American Council of Engineering Companies National Honor Award
- ENR Midwest Regional Best Project
- Railway Track & Structures Top Project
- Supply & Demand Chain Executive Top Supply Chain Project
