A new kind of bridge for Johnson County

IOWA CITY - About midway between Iowa City and West Branch on Lower West Branch Road SE, just south of Interstate 80, a crew of bridge contractors carefully lowered three large sections of steel and wood into place.

Spanning Wapsinonoc Creek, the bridge is not a traditional structure of timber, steel or concrete, but rather three retired railcars placed side-by-side.

Recycling beds of railcars into a bridge is not new to Iowa, but Ed Bartels, assistant Johnson County engineer, said it's a brand-new venture for the county.

'For us, this is definitely a unique project. We've never done a railcar bridge like this here in Johnson County,” he said.

The idea

The effort started the same way many bridge projects do in Iowa, with a structurally deficient bridge. In this case, the county's former Lower West Branch Road SE bridge, a concrete deck and steel girder structure, was roughly 100 years old and in need of replacement.

Johnson County Supervisor Janelle Rettig said the project site proved perfect for a railcar bridge, something she has been pushing for since she became a supervisor in late 2009.

Rettig said she got the idea more than eight years ago from Buchanan County Engineer Brian Keierleber, who first brought railcar bridges to Iowa in 2000.

'I would credit Buchanan County and Brian, we stole the idea from them. He's the genius behind it all,” Rettig said.

Keierleber said his first railcar bridge was a research project with Iowa State University. The idea of using old railcars to span a river came out of similar examples in Oklahoma and California, he said.

In Iowa, Keierleber's innovation was borne out of a need to address the county's aging bridges. The county has nearly 260 bridges, with several considered structurally deficient back in 2000.

'It was essential. There was just no way around it, we were desperately searching for an economical option,” Keierleber said. 'In this world, dollar signs dictate.”

Using recycled railcars proved to be one option to address the county's aging bridge woes.

In addition, Keierleber said he regularly saves at least 50 percent over standard bridge construction costs by using railcars.

Keierleber has installed 27 railcar bridges since that first one 17 years ago. Later this year, the county will add its 28th such bridge, he said.

A new tool

The three railcars used in Johnson County's bridge, which otherwise would have been scrapped for steel, were purchased for about $18,000 a piece and delivered to Iowa from Kansas City.

All told, the bridge project - being carried out by Grundy Center's Boulder Contracting LLC. - will cost about $276,000, which Bartels said is comparable to what the county would have spent on a more traditional bridge.

At 33,000 pounds each, spanning 66 feet in length and built to transport industrial and military equipment, the railcars are more than strong enough to carry the weight of a car, truck or piece of farm equipment for anywhere from 50 to 100 years, Bartels said.

None of Buchanan County's railcar bridges have posted weight limit restrictions, Keierleber said.

'They're stout enough to carry a couple of tanks on them, they're not going to have any trouble at all carrying ordinary traffic on a gravel road in rural Iowa,” Bartels said. 'We're getting a tremendously good bridge out of this.”

But the project, which also includes some realigning and grading on the road, also comes with added benefits - the use of railcars eliminates the need for bridge piers, so the waterway opens up as a result. In addition, reusing railcars fits into the county's larger goal of pursuing sustainable building practices.

'There's a lot of energy that's put into these things to make them into a railcar that you just completely lose even if you do recycle it into scrap steel. It serves a much better purpose being repurposed like this,” Bartels said. 'We're reusing resources, which is very important to Johnson County.”

Boulder Contracting began work on the project in early May, with the county hoping to reopen the road to traffic in late July.

Bartels said the county hasn't identified any specific plans for a second railcar bridge, but added the method now represents another tool in the county toolbox for bridge projects.

The county has about 225 bridges total and each project is approached as a blank slate, he said.

'There's just a whole bunch of different ways we can get traffic across the street. They're all like individual snowflakes,” he said.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com