Merchants Bridge Main Span Trusses & East Approach Replacement Engineers Honored at AREMA 2023 General Session

One of 2023’s Top Projects was the rebuild of Merchant’s Bridge in St. Louis.

File Photo

INDIANAPOLIS – The engineers who worked on the Merchants Bridge Main Span Trusses & East Approach Replacement in St. Louis, Missouri received the Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence.

Featured on the cover of the RT&S June 2023 issue, the reconstruction of the Merchants Bridge Main Span Trusses & East Approach Replacement was honored as an RT&S Top Project. This week, the engineers who worked on the Merchants Bridge Main Span Trusses & East Approach Replacement in St. Louis, Missouri received the Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence at the AREMA opening session at the Railway Interchange Conference in Indianapolis. 

These engineers were honored for their overall work on the historic bridge as well as for overcoming challenges, staying on budget, and on-time completion. 

Owned by the Terminal Railroad of St. Louis, or TRRA, the bridge work included a replacement of three 523’ main river truss spans, along with a gantry system with strand jacks to lift and slide the old and new truss spans. Crews had to remove the existing truss, which weighed 3.9 million pounds, and install new truss, weighing in at 9 million pounds. 

The success of this RT&S Top Project was in its coordination and collaboration between all parties, and more details on the work involved can be found in our Top Projects article of our June 2023 issue. 

Please note that the choice of this project as one of RT&S’ Top Projects earlier this year and the project earning the Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence from AREMA were separate and unrelated events. Jennifer McLawhorn