Crews to work on verticals of railroad bridges in Mich.

Amtrak

A pair of railroad bridges in Jackson, Mich., will increase their vertical. Work on the Jackson Street and Mechanic Street bridges is set to begin on June 1.

The Jackson Street bridge, which was built in 1902, currently stands at 11 ft 9 in., while the Mechanic Street bridge, built in 1901, is just 10 ft high. The Jackson Street span will have 14 ft 9 in. of clearance when work is complete. The Mechanic Street bridge will measure in at 10 ft 8 in. The grade of the railroad tracks and surrounding infrastructure hinder the maximum height of the Mechanic Street structure.

The project will cost $17.4 million, with the Federal Railroad Administration providing $7.2 million and Amtrak chipping in with $2 million. The rest will come from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The first order of business will be installing an underground conduit system for electric cables. Utility work will continue this summer, and the bridge construction is set to be complete in 2021.

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