The rusting Katy Bridge was officially handed over to the city of Boonville by its former owner, Union Pacific, last month. The city has created a “Save the Katy Bridge coalition” in hopes to convert it for use by hikers, cyclists and visitors to Katy Trail State Park.  The bridge, which was built in 1932 and hasn’t carried a train since 1986, is considered a landmark in central Missouri and was in danger of being torn down.

Hardesty & Hanover principal associate Charles Birnstiel and others from the company have been volunteering their expertise to find a way to make the bridge fully functional again. 

Katy Bridge has a 124m-long vertical lift span flanked by three 91m fixed-truss spans to the north and a 75m truss span to the south. It has a novel design of electrical lifting and automatic levelling machinery.

Birnstiel and Tom Duffy, also of Hardesty & Hanover, were both fairly confident going into the project that the costs would not be as high as most people would think. “It was an operational decision by Union Pacific not to run trains over the bridge,” says Duffy.  “So, we are confident that it hasn’t got to do with machinery.”  He was correct.

After the first day of inspections they were pleasantly surprised by the state of the equipment in the machinery room. After two more days of inspections they will compile a report on the state of the structure. The three day inspection is due to include a preliminary inspection of all structural, electrical and mechanical components.

The city council is scheduled to vote shortly on whether or not to restore the bridge.