OK River Pedestrian Bridge

[baralheia]

Tom Elmore is still around and up to his old ways. From the Oklahoman.com comments on the story:

"This was the Frisco line's direct connection from OKC Union Station - train yard obliterated by rocket-scientists at ODOT - to, yeah, WILL ROGERS WORLD AIRPORT. So - yeah, sure - let's "turn it into some pimped-up pedestrian bridge." Back to cave-man days. Who needs modern transportation? (Ask former congressman Ernest J. Istook, who funded the destruction of the Union Station facility and its connections to make way for ODOT's ugly, poorly-built "New Crosstown," which, as I predicted - is now up around ONE BILLION DOLLARS, far, far above ODOT's estimates. Oh - and guess what? ODOT's BROKE - along with the rest of state government. While the big shots in OKC keep right on running long-standing, taxpaying businesses out-uh-there, in favor of more maintenance-intensive foofaraw down on the muddy ditch.)"

I like Tom's passion for all things rail, especially passenger and commuter rail, but he's really got to let the loss of the yard at Union Station go. He's not wrong that Union Station and it's yard would have been much easier and more grand to use for an intermodal transit hub, but that ship has *LONG* since sailed. And besides, a commuter rail train could still make the connection to WRWA from Stanta Fe Station by taking what's known as the "Packingtown Lead", which runs east-west roughly where SW 20th St would be, connecting the north-south BNSF "Red Rock Subdivision" mainline east of Shields to the former Frisco mainline he speaks of, just west of Agnew. The connection is actually easier to traverse, as there's a direct wye - which did not exist to get trains from the Red Rock Sub into the Union Station yard.

That sure is a lot of wood . Didn't the Skydance bridge suffer from warping wood?

For what it's worth, the bridge's current decking material is wood as well, although we're talking wooden railroad ties treated with creosote.