There will be a public presentation held by the MBTA on Oct 1 to discuss the plans for

replacing the Railroad Bridge.

See: http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/public_meetings/?id=6442454950
My personal hangup is that I think the whole line should be built back up to condition
where freight cars can once again use it.
Susanne Altenburger has also given it considerable attention and I am copying the first
paragraph of her thoughts below. If I get time I will put the whole thing from her on
SCRIBD
Damon
===============================================
From Susanne:

A. FOCUS
1. - The railroad-bridge over the Annisquam is under design for a complete replacement.
2. - In recent years we've had the near seawater-level Blynman Canal Cut-Bridge out of
commission frozen in the part-way or all-the-way UP-position after electrical or mechanical
failures of this 100-years+ old structure, thus blocking this access-route for hours on end, and
sometimes longer yet. It is inherently exposed to storm-surges from South-Westerly Gales,
Hurricanes and overall seawater-level rises. In fact, in recent memory storm-surges have
flooded that section of Western Avenue, including the bridge, with seawater up to knee-depth.
3. - In recent years we've also found the A.Piatt Andrews (Rte 128) Bridge blocked at least in
one direction from accidents and even both direction when two years ago during the bridgerepair it suffered a serious fire emanating out of the south-east tower. And for many miles
from Grant Circle to well out of town West of the City-limits, there is no cross-over of traffic
possible to allow one bridge-side to serve traffic in both directions.
4. - To prevent this community from being cut off completely by mechanical problems at the
canal bridge and accidents or traffic-jams on the 128 bridge, the new railroad-bridge under
design now can have certain fairly simple attributes added to to allow emergency-vehicles to
access or leave the island as a 'Third Emergency Access Route'.
5. - At this point in time, neither the MBTA nor the Engineering Contractor, or the City
have contemplated integrating into this once-in-three-generations project any
provisions to allow this new structure to also serve as such an 'EMERGENCY
VEHICLES-ONLY" route to enter or leave the Island communities of Gloucester and
Rockport.
B. A BRIDGE doing DOUBLE-DUTY
1. - A massive structure designed and built for heavy rail-road duty: - Every day it carries
3-4000HP diesel-electric locomotives weighing in at around 120-tons each, plus the weight of
the 5-to-7 single- and double-decker coaches. The old and the future bridges thus match
these significant weights. With the very rare exceptions of super-heavy-lift equipment, no

regular road-going vehicles weigh in at 120-tons distributed across just 4 axles for a load of
30-tons per axle as the typical commuter-train locomotive does many times every day.
The old and new bridge-structures will thus suffer no undue loadings from PoliceVehicles, Fire-Apparatus', Ambulances or even National Guard equipment such as the 60tons recovery-tanks used in the Blizzard of 1978 to plow-out the deepest of snow-drifts, with
the current tanks weighing in at 70-tons - versus the 120-tons locomotives.
2. - Using its structure to serve as an Emergency-Vehicles-Only access-point to the
Island:
This massive bridge-structure can be equipped without busting any budget to do doubleduty as a road-vehicle roadway in the rare emergencies
when
- both bridges are compromised
- or just clogged due to heavy traffic
- if not a massive Evacuation off the island
in the case of an Atlantic Tsunami Warning
or
a Nuclear Disaster at Seabrook Nuclear Power plant at Seabrook, NH.
3. - As practiced since the earliest days of railroads running through cities and sometimes still
on public roadways today - rare but a fact ! - the railroad substrate, rail-ties and steeltracks would be equipped with removable steel or concrete covers to produce a flush
roadway such as we all know from street-car service on roads, leaving just the slots
along the tracks the locomotive and coach-wheels need to run normally. There would be no
technical reason to assume that such a limited stretch of flush 'road-way' would in any way
inhibit routine MBTA-service as a commuter railroad.
4. - On the island-side the single track visible at Washington Street soon divides into two
parallel tracks, then running West over the bridge and towards West-Gloucester and
beyond, making the railroad double-track wide. Since each locomotive and train
measure some 10.5 feet in width, using one or both tracks as the emergency-roadway for
the (at most) 8'6"-wide road-going police/fire/ambulance equipment constitutes no
technical challenge. Since the distance in question between the island and the Western end
of this emergency roadway is limited (see item C. below) using the width between the outer
rail of each of the double-track as the flush roadway allows the assembly of respective 'flushroadway-modules' on the track structure only, thus requiring no additional structural work
on either the bridge no the trackage on either end beyond the width of each inboundand outbound tracks' outer rail.
C. On- and Off-Ramps (see attached GOOGLE-EARTH images for routes plus photos)
1. - The intersection of Washington Street with the railroad would serve as the Eastern Portal
to that Emergency Roadway.
2. - The 'Heights at Cape Ann' Housing Complex has a modest roadway/ramp from the tracks
up to its road-system as a nearest 'Off-Ramp' at some .95 miles away from the Washington
Street access.
3. - The level-crossing alongside Rte 133 at 'Tony Tally's Car-Lot' would be the faster and
indeed level access Western Portal, but longer at some 1.54miles from Washington Street.
Once on the regular road-system on the Western end, it is only a moderate distance to the

On-Ramp to Rte 128 and thus the Interstate-System.

4. - Between signage and warning-lights on either end, regular traffic would be barred from
using this 'Emergency-Only' roadway while regular MBTA-commuter-Rail traffic runs per
schedule.
D. Emergency-Only Coordination between MBTA and Emergency-Agencies
1. - Modern train-operations are under constant communication and other forms of
transponder-based location-tracking controls.
2. - Knowing where each commuter train is and on which track it is, allows concurrent usage
of the emergency road-way within safety-parameters, assuming parallel usage of rail and
road-vehicles on this right-of-way is deemed unavoidable in the given case.
3. - Typically though, for the 1-1.5 mile distance involved either the train can be stopped
temporarily or the emergency-traffic halted until the train has left that limited stretch of
trackage.
4. - With double-tracks beginning just West of Washington Street, and thus separating trafficdirections, no 'head-on-collision' scenaria should be an overriding concern.
5. - Additional signals and lights would warn of track-status and use.
E. CONTACTS
1. - That design-process has been under the control of Project-Manager BASHIR
MADAMIDOLO of the MBTA (617-222-4558, and MBTA, 500 Arborway, 1st.floor, Jamaica
Plain, MA 02130).
2. - Project Engineering is under Brian Brenner of Fay, Spofford and Thorndike of Woburn,
MA. He will redirect inquiries to Mr. Madamidolo.
3. - Both advise that the design-process has moved well past the 60% stage.
4. - Both have confirmed that no provisions have as yet been made to integrate this
'Emergency 3rd-Bridge' option.
5. - On the City's end it appears to be you, Mr. Duggan, who is the contact point.
...................................................
As Boat Designers, this little outfit has nothing remotely to gain commercial from offering this
thinking to you and the community.
But aware of certain railroad parameters and as 'Tech-Heads' it's been on our minds many
times when one, or the other, or both bridges were shut down.
What do you think of this opportunity ?
Yours
Susanne Altenburger