Girder Bridge Question

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Wed Jul 24 13:20:13 EDT 2013













I checked with a former staff member of the N&W/NS bridge department, and as I understand the practice, black was the standard color for all N&W/NS bridges, but some highway departments specified aluminum for bridges over highways where the highway department was paying for the bridge, e.g., where the bridge was required by a highway widening project, etc.

As pointed out by someone else, "Norfolk and Western" was stenciled in black paint on the aluminum-painted bridge carrying the Winston-Salem line over Franklin Road in Roanoke.


Probably the deciding factor -- he who pays for the bridge get to pick the paint.

En route from eastern Virginia yesterday, I made an audit of some of the overhead
bridges. The one I should have made a detour to see is Bridge 14A west of
Suffolk which carries NS over U.S. 58. It's probably just as it was in the 1950s.

Bridge #51-B at Rice on the Old Main Line (now abandoned). This is a three
span aluminum colored bridge installed when U.S. 460 was expanded to four
lanes in the 70s. This is a ballasted deck bridge (meaning conventional ties
can be used). No markings, but hanger for railroad symbol still evident.


Bridge #88 over Reedy Creek Road west of Spout Springs -- steel stringers (black)
supported by concrete abutments. Two-lane county road.


Bridge at Dewey west of Montvale. Originally U.S. 460 passed beneath the
N&W in two reinforced concrete "boxes". When overhead clearance became
a problem, it was rebuilt as one span over the four lanes. Bridge is aluminum in
color, but has no company name.

In addition to the bridge over Franklin Road, the center pier carrying
N&W's former Shenandoah Div. over Orange Avenue has the Pevler era
symbol cast in concrete. Harry Bundy









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