Repairs To 14 Mile Bridge On Mobile River Bring Intermittent Waterway Closures
Scott Bridge Company is in the midst of 15 days of daytime repairs at 14 Mile Bridge on the Mobile River, which connects the Tennessee-Tombigbee and Black Warrior-Tombigbee waterways to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Port of Mobile, Ala. The CSX movable rail bridge, which spans the Mobile River at Mile 14, incurred a mechanical issue May 6 that left the bridge in an inoperable position, rendering both rail and vessel traffic impassable.
According to a Marine Safety Information Bulletin (MSIB) from Coast Guard Sector Mobile, Scott Bridge Company began making repairs October 4, with daytime closures bunched together for much of the month. Repairs already forced the closure of the waterway from 8 a.m. to roughly 3 p.m. October 4–6 and October 10–13. Future closures are planned for October 17–20 and October 24–27 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
“The repairs are part of an in-depth repair process to replace 15 wire ropes, which will render the bridge inoperable for a seven-hour period per day as outlined above,” the MSIB stated. “Vessels will be unable to transit the area during the scheduled closure period.”
Questions regarding the closures may be directed to Lt. Lawrence Schad at 251-382-8653.
The rail bridge at Mile 14 on the Mobile River is one of 45 movable bridges CSX maintains across navigable waterways, the most of any Class I railroad. The original bridge at that site was a swing span that dated to 1925. That span offered a 146-foot horizontal clearance for vessels, according to CSX, which often required tows to trip through the bridge.
In 2009, CSX announced funding and the award of a contract to Scott Bridge Company of Opelika, Ala., to replace that span with a vertical lift span that would boost horizontal channel clearance to 300 feet and offer a vertical clearance of 60 feet.
That $72 million project was funded primarily through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The new span opened to navigation in November 2011.
