(The Associated Press circulated the following on May 22, 2009.)
OGDEN, Iowa — An accident has damaged Union Pacific’s new railroad bridge under construction over the Des Moines River near Ogden in central Iowa.
Spokesman Mark Davis says it will be the longest and highest double track bridge in the nation, at 2,813 feet long and 190 feet high.
Davis says the bridge was damaged last Sunday when a construction company was moving its crane system off the bridge. He says a 100-foot section of rail fell and dropped onto the bridge, damaging 12 sections of decking, which will have to be replaced.
No one was hurt.
Davis says the accident has delayed the opening of the bridge until mid-June. The bridge is replacing another bridge, known as the Kate Shelley Bridge, which opened in 1901.