Open Houses ahead of Crum Creek viaduct Summer '16 shutdown

http://www.septa.org/notice/pdf/2016-Ma ... -House.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SEPTA is planning an 11 week total shutdown during this upcoming Summer season of service on the Media/Elwyn regional rail for replacement installation of the Crum Creek Viaduct bridge. During the 11 week outage – Saturday, June 18 through Monday, September 5 – SEPTA will shuttle bus customers between Elwyn and Swarthmore Stations. In advance of this scheduled outage at the affected stations, there will be public information open houses during the week of May 16th.

It took 4 years to replace the Greenwood Ave bridge over the tracks at Jenkintown.

They want to replace a 900 ft long trestle in a summer?

Who is taking bets on this project meeting the completion deadline? I want action on the OVER.

Planned well, it's certainly possible, and I would assume there are significant incentives in the contracts to finish earlier (and penalties for avoidable delays). There are plenty of other highway, bridge, airport runway, etc. infrastructure repair and replacements that can be done surprisingly quickly if it can be shut down fully.

[quote="khecht"]Planned well, it's certainly possible,

yeah, and it's inepta doing the planning.

NorthPennLimited wrote:It took 4 years to replace the Greenwood Ave bridge over the tracks at Jenkintown.

They want to replace a 900 ft long trestle in a summer?

Who is taking bets on this project meeting the completion deadline? I want action on the OVER.

From the project description, it appears that new footings, piers and abutments will have been completed prior to the shutdown which would accelerate the project. The new bridge will be similar to the Cresheim Creek bridge which used prefab concrete decking.

septa.org/rebuilding/pdf/2014-crum-cree ... ations.pdf

My vote is on under. Look how far they've gotten so far on it.

NPL:

SEPTA is capable of finishing construction projects on time and within budget.
Railworks 1992-93 is a good example...

Do you recall how SEPTA responded to a wash out that took out an old stone bridge over the Sandy Run south of
Fort Washington resulting from a severe storm in June 2000? They operated a bus "bridge" between Glenside and
Ambler for a FIVE WEEK period during the construction of a new bridge along with overhead wire replacement as
a result of one catenary tower knocked down taking out the power system and PECO overbuild there.

Glenn: The Cresheim Valley Bridge on the CHW Line was a PennDot project - I recall that the Greenwood Avenue
Bridge at Jenkintown was also funded by PennDot - Was there any complications that added time to this project?
This bridge was replaced while trains continued running and there was a minimum of total shutdowns there.

I believe that SEPTA wants to replace the Crum Creek Viaduct in a timely manner - on time and in budget.
Media-Elwyn Line commuters can hold SEPTA accountable here...

MACTRAXX

It's really laughable at how people are ready to jump on SEPTA when they have no real idea what they're talking about.

This happened once before back in winter/spring of 1983. inspection of the bridge found significant deterioration so the line was cut back to Swarthmore while emergency repairs were made. Unfortunately I can't recall anymore how long it lasted but it seemed to go on for a while. I was living in Swarthmore at the time.

I recall there was an interlocking set up at a crossover East of the station with a little shack for the switch tender who had to throw the switches to cross trains over there. The tracks West of the station became an impromptu yard for the R3, to the annoyance of residents in the area.

I guess those repairs were good enough to keep things going for a few decades, but nothing lasts forever.

Jon