BNSF Railway Bridge 482.1 West Memphis Approach

Overview

BNSF chose Kraemer to rebuild the west approach spans on their Mississippi River crossing between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee. The structure is 2712-ft. long and has 27 spans requiring AISC-certified construction erection and temporary works design and BNSF review. Construction began with building the substructure including caissons, columns, and caps under the existing bridge while the track above remained operational, so direct coordination was critical. The truss demolition occurred in a 24-hour period as part of a 55-hour track outage. An hour-by-hour schedule was developed for the closure period allowing the team to monitor and track progress during the track outage.