(The North Platte Telegraph posted the following article by George Lauby on its website on April 21.)
SUTHERLAND, Neb. — One of Nebraska’s few pedestrian overpasses across the world’s busiest train corridor was installed Monday in this village of 1,129.
The $916,000 structure will allow pedestrians, bicyclists and wheelchairs to cross the tracks on the village’s main street. Pedestrians will walk nearly 25 feet above the rails.
It’s unclear when it will open, but officials said most of the work is expected to be finished within 30 days.
The overpass will be used primarily by students walking from the south side of town to school, situated four blocks north of the tracks.
A motor-vehicle overpass already has been built on the west side of Sutherland. When all the grade work is complete in July, Union Pacific Railroad will close the main at-grade crossing.
Some residents speculate that youths will use the walkways for recreational skating, that residents will line up on it to watch the annual Fourth of July rodeo four blocks southeast and that it won’t be long until someone rides a horse across.
Resident Char Rotert said there is talk among her friends of putting it on a regular exercise route, similar to “people walking at the mall in North Platte.”
Although there are a few pedestrian overpasses in Lincoln and Omaha, the Sutherland pedestrian overpass is one-of-a-kind in western Nebraska. And, it is the only one in the state to have nearly 300 feet of gradual, handicapped-accessible, switchback ramps on either end, said Norman Myers, project superintendent.
Pedestrians will walk up ramps that rise at the rate of 1 foot per 12 feet of length. Nine such ramps are stitched together to zigzag to the top, each 30 feet long and 6 feet wide.
Chain-link fence will guard the sides. The overpass itself is completely enclosed with a combination of steel frame and chain link fencing.
It took workers from Capital Contractors of Lincoln about 30 minutes to lift the 120-foot-long span off a specially rigged semitrailer truck onto the top of the walkway ramps. They used two cranes to lift the 70,000-pound structure and set it in place.
The crew then spent about 45 minutes setting it into place, and another 45 minutes welding and adjusting. Concrete still must be poured on the floor of the overpass. It should be poured within the week, Smith said.
Trains were blocked from the crossing for 90 minutes, which delayed about eight freight trains, U.P. flagman Darrell Wineinger said. U.S. Highway 26 was closed for the morning, and electrical power was shut off on the south side of the village for nearly two hours.