THREE KEY FACTS:
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- An unsafe railroad bridge in the northwestern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula is being replaced with over half the funding, $20.4 million, coming from the Biden-Harris infrastructure law.
- The bridge was built in 1888 and is an essential part of the regional supply chain; but it was not designed for modern rail cars and is considered to be well past its useful life. Replacing it will allow today’s heavier rail cars to cross at higher speeds.
- The project will help keep costs for consumers down because rail transportation is less expensive and more fuel-efficient than other means.
Federal grant funds the new bridge for an essential part of the region’s supply chain
A deteriorating 1888 railroad bridge in northern Michigan, long deemed unsafe, is being replaced thanks to funding from the Biden-Harris infrastructure law. Spanning the Manistee River near Manton, the rail bridge is used by Great Lakes Central Railroad (GLC) to connect a crucial regional supply chain. The project will boost the bridge’s weight capacity, so trains traveling at faster speeds with heavier loads can safely cross it.
Peter Anastor, the director of the Office of Rail in the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) said that the bridge is “the connection to make sure that businesses in northern Michigan have access to rail and can move products by rail instead of trucks.”
James D’Lamater, railroad infrastructure engineer-manager in MDOT’s Office of Rail, told the Cadillac News that the bridge was not built to handle the modern, heavier train cars of today and has deteriorated so much that it affects the movement of loaded cars across it.
The project is estimated to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2027. Once it’s complete, the new bridge will let trains travel at higher speeds and increase the load rating of the structure to allow for use by 286,000-pound rail cars, ensuring that there will be no disruptions to northern Michigan supply chains.
The bridge approaches and main span will be removed and replaced as part of the project. The new bridge will be a three-span steel deck girder structure, consisting of two shorter, 70-foot approach spans and one larger 139-foot center span. Coordinated track outages with the railroad will allow for rail traffic to be maintained to the rail customers.
“Replacing the Manistee River railroad bridge will lower the cost of shipping goods and materials in Michigan by rail, which is critical because rail freight is one of the most fuel-efficient ways to move goods and materials over land,” said Michigan Chief Infrastructure Officer Zachary Kolodin.
The bridge crossing is part of a state-owned railroad that is leased to GLC. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), is contributing $20.4 million, more than half of the $34 million total cost of the project. MDOT will be contributing $13 million and GLC is contributing $750,000 of the remaining cost. The federal funds come from a new program created by the Biden-Harris infrastructure law to address crumbling railroads across the country.
According to Kolodin, Michigan has received three awards for rail infrastructure, totaling nearly $45 million in investment.
